Oh yes, before I forget. My kid brother is a budding video director. He wanted me to ask you if you can handle video.

Your brother asked a good question. I sure can. I have a library of video clips to choose from. You can also grab video clips from the Internet or create your own clips using a video camera and video capture board. It's a great way to enhance a presentation.

Incredible. A mini-film festival! Move over, Hollywood.

Adding a video clip If you want to add a video clip to your presentation, you can search for one in PowerPoint's Microsoft Clip Gallery. You can choose from many clip art video files. To add one of these video clips to your presentation, follow these steps: 1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Movie from Clip Organizer. 2. In the Clip Art task pane, type a search term for the type of video you want to add, and click Go to get the search results. 3. Decide which video clip you want. If you click within the video clip icon, it will be automatically added to the current slide showing. To see what the clip is like before adding it, move the mouse over the icon. An arrow appears on the right of the icon. Click on the arrow and a drop-down menu appears. Select Preview/Properties. The Preview/Properties dialog box will appear. The video clip will play and you can see the details about it. Click on Close when you are done. You can also add video clips from other sources such as CDs or the Internet. Let's say you've found a cool video clip on the Internet that you want to add to your presentation. Here's what you do: 1. Click the Insert menu, point to Movies and Sounds, and then click Movie from File. The Insert Movie dialog box will appear. 2. In the Look in box, locate the drive and folder where you have saved the video clip. 3. Select the video clip file from the file list, then click OK. A video screen icon is added to the slide. You are also asked how you want the video clip to play, automatically or when clicked on. 4. A video clip icon is added to the slide. You can resize the icon or move it to other areas of the slide.

That's fantastic! But wait, what if I made a mistake? I can change when the video clip will play, like we did with the audio clip, right?

Jim, I think you're catching on.

I can't take all the credit. You're very user-friendly.

My mom taught me to have good manners. While we're doing that, we might as well add an animation effect, so it can make a grand entrance...

Changing when a video clip plays The following steps show you how to change when a video clip plays, and add an animation effect to the video clip icon. 1. In Slide View, click the video screen icon to select it. 2. Click the Slide Show menu, then click Custom Animation. The Custom Animation task pane will appear. The video clip icon is automatically listed along with any other effects on the same slide. 3. You can change how the video clip starts by using the Start function listed in the Modify section of the Custom Animation task pane. Click on the arrow and choose On Click from the drop-down list. Now the video clip will play when the mouse is clicked. Or you can select the video clip, click on the arrow, and choose Start On Click. If you originally picked When Clicked, choose the With Previous option from the drop-down list to make the video clip play automatically. 4. To add an animation effect, select the video clip, then click on the Change button. Pick an animation effect from the drop-down list that appears. Click OK to apply the effect. You can change the speed and direction of the effect. 5. In the Custom Animation task pane, click Play to see how the animation effect and video clip will look. Or, you can click Slide Show to run it.