If you have a YouTube video which you want to play it during the presentation, you can make use of the Shockwave Flash Object ActiveX Control.

To do so, open up PowerPoint.
Click View > Toolbars > Control Toolbox.
Click on the last icon, 'More Controls'.
Scroll down and look for Shockwave Flash Object.
Select the object, then insert it onto the slide.
Once you are done, right click on the object and select Properties.
Open Internet Explorer and look for the YouTube link. Copy the URL which should be something like: http://youtube.com/watch?v=0_jjLOqm2L4
Go into PowerPoint and double click on Custom in the Object's Properties.
Paste the URL under Movie URL.
Amend the url by replacing 'watch?v=' to 'v/' : http://youtube.com/v/0_jjLOqm2L4
Ok your way out and close the properties dialog box.
Now, you will be able to view the YouTube video in slide show!

You can insert an Organization Chart by clicking Insert > Diagram > Organization Chart. You will though realize that if the shapes are in incorrect order, you cannot reposition or reorder the shapes in the organization chart while AutoLayout is on. Here's one simple and neat trick to reorder the shapes.

Lets say you have 3 subordinates, 1, 2 and 3.
What you want to achieve is to reorder the subordinates in such a way so that it becomes 2, 3 and 1.
To achieve this, select subordinate 1 and drag it onto any of its co workers (either 2 or 3) so that subordinate 1 is under one of them.
Now, drag subordinate 1 onto the superior (the one at the highest).
The order will now become 2, 3 and 1.

First updates for Year 2008!

Added 3 new PowerPoint Showcases from the members of PowerPoint Expert Club:

• AutoShapes Art: Inspiration, by pso2850. AutoShapes Art: Inspiration is an inspiring piece of artwork done using PowerPoint AutoShapes and well synchronized with the beat of the music.
  
  
• Text Animations: Marry Me - KDC, by KDC. Featuring advanced text animations mirroring an excerpt of Ellegarden's (a Japanese rock band) motion video, Marry Me.
  
  
• Text Animations: Marry Me - Bugycraxone, by Bugycraxone. Another similar showcase featuring advanced text animations making use of the lyrics in Ellegarden's Marry Me.

Added new PowerPoint Artworks, Vita, by Zzangdol, which shows an anime character, Vita, fishing besides the pond.

PowerPoint Heaven wishes you a Happy New Year!

What is a flv video?
Flash Video, also known as flv, is a file format that is used to deliver video over the Internet. It uses the .flv file extension. Video sharing sites such as YouTube and MySpace make use of Flash Video format.

Inserting flv video into PowerPoint
There are several programs which allow you to view Flash Video. One example is VLC Media Player, which is free and can be downloaded at http://www.videolan.org.

To insert flv video into PowerPoint, one way is to make use of the VLC Media Player.
First, install the VLC Media Player.
Once done, create a folder.
Move the presentation and flv video to the folder.
Now, open the presentation.
Go to the slide which you want to have the Flash Video inserted.
You will need the control toolbox to be displayed.
Click View > Toolbars > Control Toolbox.
On the toolbar, click on the last icon which should be "More Controls". (For PowerPoint 2007, Click Developer tab. Under Controls, click on the icon "More Controls".)
Scroll right to the bottom and look for VideoLAN VLC ActiveX Plugin (both v1 and v2 is fine).
Click Ok.
Now, right click on the control that has been added, select Properties.
This will bring up the properties dialog box.
Under MRL, enter the filename (e.g. abc.flv).
Once done, close the dialog box.

Anthony's 2 upcoming titles, Eight Eclipse and Pixels Neon 3 are currently under development. For those who have been following Anthony's games, here are some preview:

Eight Eclipse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bny3rYyAneY
Pixels Neon 3: http://www.mediafire.com/?0zn0schze1b (A little bug here which requires you to rename it to .ppt, then open up the file and start from slide 2 manually).

Perspector 4.0 is out! Some of the key new features include:

• Perspector lists can now be created dynamically as people type list items
• Easy conversion of PowerPoint bullet lists to Perspector list images
• Added the ability to match and preserve color schemes in Perspector images
• Professional Edition users can add their own Perspector images to
  their Library

Perspector is a PowerPoint add-in that allows you to add amazing 3D capabilities to PowerPoint which enable the creation of exciting and compelling images way beyond those that can be made with PowerPoint on its own.

For full details on the updates and fixes, have a look at: http://www.perspector.com/perspector_400.cfm

During a presentation, you might want to have a music playing in the background, then have additional sound effects. The problem is, when the sound effect starts to play, your background music stops. What we want is to have multiple sounds playing at the same time in PowerPoint. Unfortunately, when one starts, the other stops. Here's why:

When you have multiple sounds embedded, PowerPoint will only allow one sound to be played at a time. On the other hand, if you have the sounds linked, it will be able to play simultaneously. Thus, if you have two sounds, the solution is to have one of them linked instead of embedded.

For instance, you can have either both the background music and sound effect linked, OR, have the background music embedded while the sound effect linked.

Microsoft has addressed the issue here, including detailed steps on how to go about doing it:
"Background sound stops playing in a presentation when the presentation reaches a slide that uses built-in custom animation with sound effects in PowerPoint"
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/894266

Completed the Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop at Nanyang Technological University few days ago (Wed, 17 Oct). Thanks to the Hindri, Stephanie, Adeline, Kee, Teddy, Darren and Johnny who have been helping me out! A total of 25 participants. It actually shot up to around 53 participants signing up in the first few hours of registration! But due to the limit of the computer lab, only 25 could be accepted.

Here's a few photographs taken by them. Just to share with you guys!


Figure 1: Poster created by the organizing committee


Figure 2: Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 1


Figure 3: Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 2


Figure 4 - Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 3


Figure 5 - Rediscovering PowerPoint Workshop @ NTU 4

Added 3 more new samples on PowerPoint Experimental Laboratory.

Check out the masking and glowing effect sample which demonstrates masking and glowing on images and text in PowerPoint, the Scrolling text sample which demonstrates scrolling long chunk of text using animations or Control Toolbox, and Scanlines sample on animating lines.

At the bottom left hand corner of PowerPoint (bottom right for PowerPoint 2007), you will see 3 mini buttons. They are: Normal View, Slide Sorter View, and Slide Show. Now here's a quick trick. When you hover over these 3 mini buttons, hold down the Shift key. The mini buttons will now become slide master view, handout master view, and Set Up Show respectively. Thanks to Lucy from PowerPoint newsgroup for providing the useful tip!

PowerPoint Game, Widgets, by Anthony Barfield is out. The goal of this game is to get to the end point without hitting the laser enclosing you in. Be careful though, colorful Widgets are blocking your way!

New PowerPoint Game, Ultimate Sniper has been released on PowerPoint Heaven. Ultimate Sniper is a PowerPoint shooting game. The objective of this game is to accept missions, assassinate your opponents and become the ultimate sniper.

The current version is intended for PowerPoint 2007 and above. (Not including PowerPoint Viewer 2007)

Download: http://pptheaven.mvps.org/ted.html#UltimateSniper 
Watch the video preview here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XBM2tZMKiU