Movies and sound
To insert a movie clip or a sound into a presentation, select Insert > Movie and Sound. Select the media file to insert from the dialog box, to place the object on the slide.
To insert media clips directly from the Gallery:
- If not already open, open the Gallery by selecting Tools > Gallery.
- Browse to the Theme containing media files (for example the Sounds theme).
- Click on the movie or sound to be inserted and drag it into the slide area.
The Media Playback toolbar is automatically opened (by default, at the bottom of the screen, just above the Drawing toolbar; it can also be made floating). You can preview the media object as well as resize it. If the toolbar does not open, select View > Media Playback.
The media playback toolbar (movie clip)
The Media Playback toolbar contains the following tools:
- Add button: opens a dialog box where you can select the media file to be inserted.
- Play, Pause, Stop buttons: control the media playback.
- Repeat button: if pressed, the media will restart when finished.
- Playback slider: selects the position within the media clip.
- Timer: displays the current position of the media clip.
- Mute Button: when selected, the sound will be suppressed.
- Volume Slider: adjusts the volume of the media clip.
- Scaling drop-down menu: (only available for movies) allows scaling of the movie clip.
The movie will start playing as soon as the slide is shown during the presentation.
Note that Impress will only link the media clip, therefore when the presentation is moved to a different computer, the link will most likely be broken and as a consequence the media clip will not play. An easy workaround that prevents this from happening is the following:
- Place the media file to be included in the presentation in the same folder where the presentation is stored.
- Insert the media file in the presentation.
- When sending the presentation to a different computer, send also the media file and place both files in the same folder on the target computer.
Impress offers the possibility to preview the media clips that are to be inserted by means of the provided media player. To open it select Tools > Media Player. The media player is shown below. Its toolbar is the same as that of the Media Playback toolbar described above.
The embedded media player
