Working Programmatically with Media Player in PowerPoint

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Getting Started with Media in PowerPoint: Learn how to work with various video operations by using Media Player in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010.

Applies to: Office 2010 | PowerPoint 2010 | VBA

In this article
Add a Sample Video File to a Presentation
Add a Standard Module to a PowerPoint Presentation
Add the Code to the Visual Basic Editor
Run the Code
Next Steps

Published:   April 2011

Provided by:    Frank Rice, Microsoft Corporation

Windows Media Player provides an intuitive, easy-to-use interface to play and organize digital media files. You can also create CDs of your favorite music, transfer music from CDs, and perform many other tasks. In this topic, you work programmatically with some of the different options that are available for Media Player in Microsoft PowerPoint 2010. To complete this task, you must do the following:

  • Add a Sample Video File to a Presentation

  • Add a Standard Module to a PowerPoint Presentation

  • Add the Code to the Visual Basic Editor

  • Run the Code

Add a Sample Video File to a Presentation

In this task, you insert a sample video file into a PowerPoint 2010 presentation.

To insert a video file

  1. Download the Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2003 sample video.

  2. Start PowerPoint.

  3. On the Insert menu, click Video, and then click Video from File.

  4. Navigate to the sample video file, and then click Insert.

After you add the video, play it to make sure that there are no problems.

Add a Standard Module to a PowerPoint Presentation

In this task, you open a PowerPoint 2010 presentation, open the Visual Basic Editor, and then insert a standard module.

To add a standard module to a PowerPoint presentation

  1. Start PowerPoint.

  2. On the Developer tab, click Visual Basic to open the Visual Basic Editor.

    Note

    If you do not see the Developer tab in PowerPoint, click the File tab, and then click Options. In the categories pane, click Popular, select Show Developer tab in the Ribbon, and then click OK.

  3. On the Insert menu, click Module. This adds Module1 to the Projects pane on the left side of the Visual Basic Editor.

Add the Code to the Visual Basic Editor

In this task, you add code that sets up different bookmarks in the video and contains modules that use different methods of the Player class.

To add code to the Visual Basic Editor

  1. In the Projects pane, click Module1.

  2. Paste or type the following Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) code into the module window.

    Private shapeID As Integer
Private plyr As Player

Sub TestPlayer()
    Dim shp As Shape
    For Each shp In ActivePresentation.Slides(1).Shapes
        ' Find the first media shape on the slide:
        If shp.Type = msoMedia Then
            shapeID = shp.id
            Exit For
        End If
    Next shp

    ' Add some bookmarks to the media. Delete all existing bookmarks
    ' first, so you can execute this code multiple times.
    Dim i As Integer
    With shp.MediaFormat
        For i = .MediaBookmarks.Count To 1 Step -1
            .MediaBookmarks(i).Delete
        Next i
    End With

    With shp.MediaFormat.MediaBookmarks
        .Add 1000, "Bookmark 1"
        .Add 5000, "Bookmark 2"
        .Add 8000, "Bookmark 3"
    End With

    ' Store away a reference to the Player instance.
    Set plyr = Application.Windows(1).View.Player(shapeID)
End Sub

Sub Play()
    plyr.Play
End Sub

Sub Pause()
    plyr.Pause
End Sub

Sub GotoNextBookmark()
    plyr.GotoNextBookmark
End Sub

Sub GotoPreviousBookmark()
    plyr.GotoPreviousBookmark
End Sub

Sub GotoPosition()
    plyr.CurrentPosition = 4000
End Sub

Run the Code

In this task, you run the VBA code that sets up the video. You then run the different methods of the Player class and watch the results in Media Player.

To run the setup code

  • In the Visual Basic Editor, place the cursor in TestPlayer, and then press F5 to run the procedure. This adds bookmarks to the video.

In the following steps, you run each module to see its effects on Media Player. The best way to see the code in action is to place the Visual Basic Editor window next to the PowerPoint window.

To step through the code

  1. Drag the Visual Basic Editor window to the right side of your monitor.

  2. Drag the PowerPoint window to the left side of the monitor and adjust both windows until you can see them both.

  3. Click the Visual Basic Editor window, place the cursor in a module, and then press the F5 key to run the code. Watch how the code affects the video. Repeat this step for each module.

Next Steps