7/9/2019
When you make a recording of a presentation, all its elements (narration, animation, pointer movements, timings, and so on) are saved in the presentation itself. In essence, the presentation becomes a video that your audience can watch in PowerPoint.
So you have two options for turning your presentation into a video that's ready to view:
Save as a video file
After you've created your slides and recorded any timing and narrations and laser pointer gesturesthat you want to include, you're ready to create a video file.
|
Option |
Resolution |
For displaying on |
|
Ultra HD (4K)* |
3840 x 2160, largest file size |
Large monitors |
|
Full HD (1080p) |
1920 x 1080, large file size |
Computer and HD screens |
|
HD (720p) |
1280 x 720, medium file size |
Internet and DVD |
|
Standard (480p) |
852 x 480, smallest file size |
Portable devices |
The default time spent on each slide is 5 seconds. You can change that timing in the Seconds to spend on each slide box. To the right of the box, click the up arrow to increase the duration, or click the down arrow to decrease the duration.
You can track the progress of the video creation by looking at the status bar at the bottom of your screen. The video creation process can take up to several hours depending on the length of the video and the complexity of the presentation.
Tip: For a long video, you can set it up to be created overnight. That way, it’ll be ready for you the following morning.
Save as a PowerPoint Show
When someone opens a PowerPoint Show file, it appears full-screen in Slide Show, rather than in edit mode. The viewer begins watching the presentation immediately.

Why turn your presentation into a video?
When you want to give a high-fidelity version of your presentation to colleagues or customers (either as an e-mail attachment, published to the web, on a CD or DVD), save it and let it play as a video.
You can save your presentation as either an MPEG-4 video file (.mp4) or a .wmv file. Both formats are widely supported and can be streamed over the internet.
Some tips to remember when recording your presentation as a video:
What parts of a presentation won't be included in a video?
The following items won't be included in a video that you create using PowerPoint:
For example, if you inserted the media using PowerPoint 2007, it will be linked and it will play in the presentation. However, when you export the file as a video, the linked media will be dropped. You can convert the file to the new file format (click the File tab, and under Info, click Convert), or you can right-click the media object and then click to upgrade; it will embed the file and export it correctly.
What to do with your video after creating it
After you create a video, you can share it with others by using the following methods:
Save to the Microsoft video-sharing site
After you've created the video file, you can upload it to a video-sharing site. Microsoft Stream is an enterprise video service where people in an organization can upload, view, and share videos. Office 365 business or education subscribers have access to this service from within PowerPoint for Office 365.


The upload process can take several minutes, depending on the length of the video. A status bar at the bottom of the PowerPoint window tracks the progress, and PowerPoint shows a message when the upload is finished:

For more information about this service, begin reading with What is Microsoft Stream? It includes information about Office 365 Video vs. Microsoft Stream.
12/11/2025