What if you are in a situation where you must give your presentation within a time constraint? Maybe you have been allowed precisely 15 or 10
minutes, and then you need to wrap up. How will you keep track of the time? One solution to this issue is to use the countdown timers in your
presentation.
This tutorial explains how you can add a countdown timer within your presentation in PowerPoint 2007 using a ready-to-use video file. To
follow this technique, first you have to
buy and download our collection of Countdown Timers 02 (Larger). Do note that this entire collection can be bought for a minimum price of
$9.99. Once you download this collection, unzip the downloaded folder, and thereafter follow these steps to learn more:
-
Once you download this collection, unzip the downloaded folder and open either the 'Standard' or the 'Widescreen' folder, depending upon
whether you need a standard or widescreen timer. Figure 1 shows you the content of Standard' folder. Notice the MP4 video
files? You will use one of these in the countdown sequence you create within this tutorial.
Figure 1: Content of the 'Standard' folder within the unzipped folder
-
Open your existing presentation (or create a new one) and navigate to the first slide of your presentation, as shown in
Figure 2, below.
Figure 2: First slide of the presentation
Tip: If you are creating a new presentation, then another alternative is to use any of the
existing countdown equipped presentations in the downloaded ZIP (look within the Samples folder), and then use
that presentation as a starting point to create your own slides, already equipped with a countdown! You then don't need to follow any
of the other steps mentioned on this page.
- Now, copy any of the countdown video files to the same folder as the presentation. This is important since PowerPoint 2007 always
links video files and does not embed them as part of the presentation.
-
Access the Insert tab (highlighted in red within Figure 3) of the
Ribbon. Then click the downward pointing arrow within the
Movie button, shown highlighted in blue within Figure 3. From the
drop-down menu that appears, select the Movie from File option, as shown highlighted in
green within Figure 3.
Figure 3: Movie from File option
- Within the resultant dialog box, browse to the location (same folder as your saved presentation, as mentioned in Step 3)
where you have the countdown timer video saved, select it, and click the OK button.
- This brings up a message window asking whether you would like the movie to start playing when clicked upon or automatically, as shown in
Figure 4. Make sure to click the Automatically button, shown highlighted in
red within Figure 4.
Figure 4: How would you like the movie to start playing?
- PowerPoint will link to the Timer video within your active slide (which is the first slide). Now, resize and place it at a corner of the
slide so that it won't hide any slide content, as shown in
Figure 5, below.
Figure 5: Timer video inserted on the slide
- Now, access the Movie Tools Options contextual tab (shown highlighted in red within
Figure 6) of the Ribbon. Then click the Play Movie selection box to bring up a
drop-down list, as shown highlighted in blue within Figure 6, below.
Figure 6: Play Movie drop-down list
- Within this drop-down list, choose the Play across slides option, as shown in Figure 7.
Figure 7: Play across slides option selected
- Save your presentation and preview it in Slide
Show view, beginning from the first slide. Your countdown timer will continue showing a reduced amount of time as shown in
Figure 8!
Figure 8: Countdown timer working in Slide Show view
See Also:
Slides with Countdown Timers in PowerPoint 2016 and 2013 for Windows
Slides with Countdown Timers in PowerPoint 2010 for Windows
