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How to Record a Video Presentation With Google Slides

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Google Slides now lets you record a presentation with inset video from your webcam. Each recording may be a maximum of 30 minutes long. No longer do you need to turn to a third-party tool or web meeting app, such as Google Meet , to record a presentation. Instead, you can start and finish the task with nothing more than Google Slides on a laptop.

As of March 2024, slide recordings may be made by customers who use Google Workspace Business Standard or Plus; Enterprise Starter, Essentials, Essentials Plus, Standard or Plus; and Education Plus editions.

How to make a basic slide recording in Google Slides

To create a slide recording, you’ll need to use Google Chrome on a computer that has a camera and microphone.

• Go to Google Slides and open your presentation.
• Select the Rec button in the upper right area, then select the Record new video button ( Figure A ).

The system will switch to the screen recording interface, with recording controls displayed below your slides. By default, the system will display your inset (picture-in-picture) video in medium size in the lower right corner of a slide, since this portion of a slide is often empty.

• Optionally, before you start recording, you might adjust three settings:

• Modify the size of the inset video frame. Select the size icon, found to the right of the video inset location icon, then choose either a small, medium or large video frame size.
• Open speaker notes with the button found to the immediate left of the back slide (<) icon. This will display speaker notes for your reference while recording. (Ideally, you would not need to refer to speaker notes, so that you could instead look directly at the camera as you record.)
• When you are ready to record, select the large red button at the bottom of the screen.
• If prompted, you may need to allow access ( Figure C ) to the tab, along with the camera and microphone. For example, when recording on a Chromebook, you may be prompted to “Allow docs.google.com to see this tab?” and “Also allow tab audio.” Select Allow, if prompted.

In a few cases, you may need to visit the following links in Chrome to adjust permissions for:

• Camera: chrome://settings/content/camera.
• Microphone: chrome://settings/content/microphone.
• A brief countdown should display (i.e., 3, 2, 1), then your recording will begin. Record your video, advancing your slides as desired.
• To pause recording, press the large red button at the bottom of the screen.
• Once paused, you may select from two options ( Figure D ):

After you select Save to Drive, wait a bit until the system indicates the file has been saved. If you leave or close the tab too soon, you may lose your recording.

How to select inset video shapes and sizes

On any slide, you may use the Insert | Speaker spotlight option ( Figure E ), then select a shaped video frame. This inserts a frame where the speaker video will display on that slide. You may reposition or resize the frame: Select the shape, and then drag-and-drop it to move it to a different place on your slide, or select a corner and drag it to resize it.

When you insert a speaker spotlight shape, that supplants the position and size you might have selected on a basic recording. In other words, the speaker’s video will display in one of the corners or the center, and in the small, medium or large shape chosen with the settings — unless you’ve inserted a speaker spotlight shape on a page ( Figure F ). Use the speaker spotlight option to convey the most polished professional effect, since it allows precise control over the shape, size and location of a video frame.

How to play, share and manage slide recordings

You may access slide recordings within Google Slides on a computer. However, unlike recording, which requires you to use Google Chrome, you may access and play existing recordings within Google Slides on a variety of modern browsers. For example, the following steps all work when you use Google Slides within either Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari browser.

To access recordings associated with a Google Slides presentation, follow these steps.

• Select the Rec button in the upper right area. The recordings you’ve made of the presentations will display. Importantly, the system shows both the date and duration of each recording.
• To view, share or download a recording, click anywhere on the playback icon or title of the recording ( Figure G ). It should open in a new tab. Within this tab, you might:
• Select the Play icon in the center of the video image to play the recording.
• Select the Share button in the upper right corner of the screen to modify access settings and give other people access to the file.
• Select the Download icon in the down arrow above a tray icon in the upper right area of the screen to download the file.

• Select the three dot menu to the right of a listed recording to:
• Rename a file something other than the default recording title.
• Remove a previously made recording you no longer need.
• Copy link and obtain the Google Drive URL for the recorded file.

All Google Slides recordings are stored in a Slides recordings folder on Google Drive. The recordings are saved as .webm files, which is a widely supported web video format. You may easily open and play .webm files on both Apple and Android mobile phones. Any recordings you make using Google Slides should be easy to view on almost any device.

Does the ability to record a presentation within Google Slides streamline your workflow? What sorts of video presentations will you create with this new capability? Mention or message me on X ( @awolber ) to let me know how you use screen recording within Google Slides.

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How to make a show-stopping video presentation in 5 simple steps

Learn how to make a show-stopping video presentation to engage your audience, using Dropbox Capture to record your screen, voice, and camera simultaneously.

Whether you’re a teacher, student, business professional, or even a YouTube content creator—for many of us, delivering presentations quickly becomes a standard part of everyday life.

But what happens if you can’t be there to deliver your presentation in person, need a key point to land perfectly, or you need your audience to watch it asynchronously in their own time? Have no fear, video presentations can be a great solution to all these challenges.

In this guide, we’ll cover everything there is to know about creating your own high quality video presentations, so your audience can benefit from your content whenever they need it.

Jump to section

• What is a video presentation

What makes a good presentation video?

What tools do you need to make a video presentation, how to make a video presentation.

• Making a video presentation in PowerPoint
• Making a video presentation in Keynote

Starting from the top: What is a video presentation?

A video presentation is a method of communication through which information is delivered partially or entirely through video. In other words, it’s the process of using video to deliver a message or presentation.

Common formats for video presentations might include pre-recorded slide presentations, instructional videos, sales material, inspirational talks, entertainment, or anything you can think of.

While the reaction to a video presentation will be subjective, there are a few general qualities that can be beneficial to keep in mind:

• Make your video valuable —have a clear intended outcome for the viewer and be sure to reach it
• Make sure your audio and video are clear —you want your audience to focus on your message, not your video quality
• Bring your key points to life —use stories, questions, and examples to illustrate key concepts and engage viewers
• Establish expectations —use your introduction to set clear expectations, either with an agenda or teasing where the session is heading
• Don’t rely on slides —if the slides added all the value, you could just send your audience a PDF. Ask yourself: what are you adding to the content by presenting it?
• Keep an eye on time —don’t make your video presentation longer than it needs to be.
• Mix it up —break the monotony and change pace at appropriate intervals
• Don’t start over for the sake of perfection —if you make a mistake during recording, you can always edit it out later

Before you can start creating your own video presentations, you’ll first need a few basic tools.

Hardware for a video presentation

Let’s start with the basics, your tech. In most cases, you’ll have everything you need if you have a standard laptop or desktop computer.

Here’s what you’ll need to start making video presentations:

• A laptop or PC —you’ll need something to make the presentation recording on
• A microphone —to record your voice-over, either built-in or USB
• A camera —if you want to include video of yourself, either as a built-in webcam or a USB camera

Video recording software

With your tech set up, you’ll need software to record your presentation. Depending on your needs, this might be something to record your screen, record your voice, or record yourself with your camera.

With Dropbox Capture , you can do all three at the same time .

Dropbox Capture is video and screen recording technology, designed to make it easy to quickly capture whatever you need. All without needing advanced editing skills or specialist equipment.

With Capture, it’s easy to:

• Record your screen, webcam, and microphone simultaneously
• Create GIFs
• Draw on or annotate recordings
• Automatically generate closed captions
• Share in just a few clicks

While presentation applications like PowerPoint and Keynote have some built-in screen and presentation recording capabilities, they only allow you to record the presentation.

Whereas with Dropbox Capture, you’re free to jump between windows and applications throughout your presentation recording—giving you greater freedom on what you present. 

File storage and sharing tools

Ultimately, you’re going to want to make your video presentation available for viewers somewhere.

With Dropbox cloud storage , this is as easy as copying a link , with full control over access and permissions for your files.

We’ll now cover all the steps to create an impactful video presentation, starting from the very beginning—your plan.

1. Plan your topic, examples, and intended audience

You likely already have an idea of what you’ll want to cover in your video presentation, but it can help to formally get this down on paper:

• Presentation aim —what do you want your audience to understand by the end of the video?
• Approach —broadly, what will you cover to help them understand this concept?
• Resources —what examples will you be able to share to illustrate the key concepts?

To help with the planning process, Dropbox Paper has a number of pre-built templates to get your creative juices flowing, like the brainstorming template .

2. Create your presentation slides and your video presentation storyboard

If you haven’t already done so, it’s time to create your slides.

While doing this, you should also think about the overall storyboard of your video presentation—what are the key beats, how will you present them, and what slides do you need?

A storyboard is a visual tool, used by video producers to map out the narrative flow of a video and the visuals that will accompany it. In many cases, your presentation will almost act as a storyboard, but it might help to get this down on paper first.

You can learn more about the storyboarding process in our in-depth guide to storyboards .

3. Record your video presentation

With your storyboard and presentation ready, it’s time to go about creating your recording.

You can record your screen first, then later record a voice-over or video narration and edit the two together. Or with Dropbox Capture , you can record your screen, webcam, and microphone simultaneously. Using Dropbox Capture makes it easy to create your pre-recorded video lesson in one take. Perfect, if you don’t have access to advanced video editing software.

To record with Dropbox Capture , it’s a simple as the following steps:

• Open Dropbox Capture
• Click Screen recording & camera
• Choose which part of your screen you’d like to capture
• Click the Record icon to start recording, click it again to stop recording
• Click the Pause icon in the side panel while recording to pause or resume recording
• Click the Draw icon in the side panel while recording to draw on your recording

4. Edit your video presentation

If you’re already happy with your recording, there is no further editing required.

In any other cases, you can use video editing software to apply finishing touches to your video as you see fit. These edits might include:

• Editing your screen recording and voice-over together (if you have separate files)—with Dropbox Capture you can record your microphone and camera simultaneously, without the need to use editing software
• Cut and delete unwanted sections of video—like an awkward pause or a dog barking, with Dropbox Capture you can do this directly within the app, no editing software required!
• Remove awkward filler words—clean up those pesky “ums” and “ahs”, with Dropbox Capture you can do this automatically, directly in the app
• Adding text overlays to emphasize key points of video sections
• Additional flair and visual elements
• Adding background music to create an atmosphere

5. Share your video presentation

With your video presentation finished, you’ll need a way for your viewers to access it.

If you're using Dropbox Capture, sharing your presentation couldn’t be easier, simply click the Share button and the sharing link will automatically copy to your clipboard.

If you’re not using Capture, Dropbox cloud storage makes it easy to share your video files with anyone and see who’s viewed your video presentation. All you need to do is copy a link to the file.

If you want to send a copy of the full video, complete with its cumbersome file size, Dropbox Transfer makes it easy to send large files securely. 

How to record a video presentation in PowerPoint

It’s worth keeping in mind that, when recording directly within PowerPoint, you can only record your slides and your editing options will be limited. The best way to give yourself complete control over what you record—and how you edit it afterwards—is with a purpose-built screen recording app like Dropbox Capture .

If you’d still prefer to record directly in PowerPoint, you can do this by following these steps:

• Open PowerPoint and open your presentation file
• Navigate to the slide you’d like to start recording from
• Select Record in the top-right corner of the PowerPoint window
• Click the red Record button, wait for the countdown, then start your presentation

With your presentation recorded, you can then save it to your Dropbox cloud storage , making it easy to share your video files with anyone and see who’s viewed your video presentation.

How to record a video presentation in Keynote

If you’re a Mac user and would prefer to record directly in Keynote, here’s how to do it:

• Open Keynote and open your presentation file
• Select Record Slideshow from the Play menu at the top of the screen

With your Keynote presentation recorded, you can then save it to your Dropbox cloud storage and share it simply by copying the link.

Again, your control over what you record and how the final edit turns out will be limited when recording directly within the Keynote app. To give yourself complete control over how your video presentation turns out, a purpose-built screen recording app like Dropbox Capture will be more suitable.

Elevate your video presentations with Dropbox Capture

It’s never been so simple to create an engaging and memorable video presentation, with Dropbox.

With Dropbox Capture , it’s never been easier to get your message across with video recordings of your presentations. So you can clearly say what you mean and nail the delivery, every single time.

Capture your audience’s attention.

Try Dropbox Capture

How to Record a Presentation with Webcam, Narration, and More

Everyone has, at some point, put a load of time and effort into creating the perfect PowerPoint presentation, only to use it once or twice. But isn’t it a shame for all that hard work to be discarded so quickly? Is every slide deck destined for deletion after just a couple of uses? 

Isn’t there a better way to make the most out of your presentations? Well, yes. Yes, there is. 

Rather than simply creating and presenting your work once or twice, recording your presentations can give them a new lease of life. Whether it’s a data report or a self-recorded PowerPoint, you can record a presentation in real-time, or in advance to make it available on-demand.

In this guide, we’ll explore two distinct ways of recording your presentation. First, we’ll discuss how to record a presentation from PowerPoint with audio and webcam, and then we’ll look at how to turn your .ppt slides into a video.

Benefits of Recording a Presentation 

As well as there being many different ways to record a presentation, there are also many benefits of recording them. So, before we show you the ‘how,’ let’s talk about the ‘why.’ 

• Encouraging asynchronous communication : One key benefit is fostering asynchronous communication . By recording presentations, you’re letting your audience engage with the content in their own time, breaking the constraints of time zones and scheduling conflicts. This also ensures your viewers can absorb information at their own pace, and revisit it as needed.
• Boosting SEO : You can use your presentation to create a YouTube video and share it on your website to increase your online visibility and attract prospective customers. This can be a great way to expand your audience, increase web traffic, and establish yourself as an expert in your field.
• Perfecting your presentation : Whether it’s in-person or over Zoom, you don’t get second chances with live presentations. However, a pre-recorded keynote lets you perfect the content and the narration before anyone sees it. This is a great way to combat stage fright while honing your presentation skills and building confidence.

With this in mind, turning your slides into a video is a no-brainer. It’s an easy way to grow your audience and make the information you’re sharing more accessible and easier to digest.

Record your presentation today!

Download a free trial of Snagit to quickly and easily record your presentation.

How to record your presentation (with Snagit)

Depending on your audience and the type of presentation you need to deliver, TechSmith’s Snagit could just be the perfect tool for recording your PowerPoint. With its user-friendly interface and advanced features, Snagit is ideal for capturing top-notch presentation videos, in just a few clicks. 

Now, there’s no denying that presentations are better when you can see the presenter… Fortunately, Snagit lets you capture your screen and webcam at the same time to create a Picture-in-Picture video.

In this section, we’ll guide you through the steps to record your presentation and webcam with Snagit. 

Step 1: Open video capture 

First, open Snagit and navigate to the Capture window. Select the Video tab, and start by clicking the big red Capture button.

Step 2: Select a recording area

Next, you’ll be prompted to choose which parts of your screen you want to record. Use Snagit’s orange crosshairs to select a specific region, window, or your entire screen. 

Step 3: Configure recording settings

With the Video Recording toolbar, you can set options like Cursor Capture and Effects, System Audio, and Webcam. 

If your webcam isn’t showing, click on the webcam icon. If you have an external webcam, select the one you want to use by clicking the dropdown arrow next to the webcam icon. 

Step 4: Adjust your webcam

Next, adjust your webcam options to ensure your Picture-in-Picture recording looks how you want it. Here you can change the Picture-in-Picture placement as well as the shape and size of your webcam recording. You can even toggle between Picture-in-Picture and fullscreen webcam modes as you like.

The best part? You can make these adjustments even while recording.

Step 5: Manage recording

When you’re ready to roll, hit the Record button and click the Stop button when you’re finished. It’s that simple! 

And remember, if there’s an interruption (like an unexpected visit from the mailman), just hit Pause. It’s okay to take a break — your video won’t be ruined by a little interruption.

Step 6: Edit your video

Once you’ve finished recording, Snagit will automatically open your video in the Snagit Editor, which is super easy to use. From here, you can make light edits to the footage as needed. 

For example, if you need to cut or trim your footage , you can! Here’s how: 

• Set Start Point : Drag the Start handle (green) on the timeline to your desired starting point.
• Set End Point : Similarly, drag the End handle (red) to where you want to end the cut.
• Review the Segment : Before making any cuts, you can review the segment by dragging the Playhead (white) left and right across the timeline. This ensures you’re only cutting the footage you intend to.
• Make the Cut : Once you’re satisfied with the selection, click the Cut button, which will pop up once you’ve made a selection.

And that’s all there is to it! If you want to go the extra mile, you can also use Snagit to save individual frames of your video as images , which can be used to create a thumbnail for your video . 

How to record a presentation from PowerPoint with audio and webcam

Now, Snagit is great for recording less formal videos in a flash, but if your presentation is intended for a particularly large or important audience, you might be looking to create something more polished. This is where TechSmith’s Camtasia comes in. 

Camtasia is one of the smartest and most intuitive pieces of editing software out there, but it also makes for a pretty nifty screen recorder too. Camtasia is great for recording presentations when you need more control and editing powers over the final product. 

But best of all, Camtasia streamlines the process by letting you record your presentation and voice over directly within PowerPoint. 

Step 1: Set up your presentation video recording

If you’re a Windows user, you’ll have the option to include a PowerPoint Add-in Toolbar when you install Camtasia. While this feature isn’t currently available on MacOS, the Camtasia Add-in Toolbar allows you to start, stop, and control your recordings from within PowerPoint — so you don’t need to switch between applications.

Just open the presentation you want to record and locate the Add-in toolbar under the Add-ins tab. 

Don’t see the add-in toolbar? Go to File > Options > Add-ins, to enable it. Click on the Manage drop-down, select Disabled Items, then click Go. If the Camtasia Add-in is listed, select it, and click Enable.

If you’re an Apple user, don’t panic! You can still record your screen (with audio) on a Mac using Camtasia, and it’s just as easy. Alternatively, you can skip ahead to the next section and import your slides directly into Camtasia. 

Step 2: Customize your recording options

Now let’s walk through each of the options on the toolbar before we begin recording.

Record audio

The microphone button controls whether or not audio is recorded as part of your presentation. When you enable it, you’ll be able to record your narration using a microphone.

If you are planning to record audio, this is where you’ll select your microphone. If you want to record great audio , we suggest using an external microphone, rather than the one that’s built into your laptop. 

Some of the best microphones for recording video are likely to be less expensive than you think. But, if you’re on a shoestring budget, even the mic that’s built into your headphones could produce better audio than your laptop. 

Once you’re set up, be sure to test the mic and adjust the volume slider as needed. You’ll also need to decide whether or not to record your system audio, which is any sound that comes out of your speakers, such as email notifications. 

Record webcam

If you have a webcam, you can also record your camera during the presentation to create a Picture-in-Picture clip — just as you can with Snagit! 

To customize even more of the recording settings, click the Recording Options button. Here you’ll find settings that let you record with a watermark and adjust your video frame rate . There are a few more options too, but the default settings should work just fine.

When you’re ready, click OK to close this window and save any changes made.

Step 3: Record your presentation

The final step is as simple as clicking the Record button in the toolbar. This will launch your slides into the Presentation Mode and start recording.

When you exit Presentation Mode or reach the end of your slideshow, you can either continue recording your screen, or stop recording and save your file. Pretty easy right? 

Before you get started, let us show you another way to turn your presentation into a video, without recording your desktop . 

How to turn your PowerPoint presentation slides into a video

Another way to create a video from your presentation is to import your PowerPoint slides into Camtasia. This way you can adjust how long each slide appears on screen, as well as add Behaviors and Annotations to personalize your presentation and highlight important information. 

By importing your slides into Camtasia, and recording your voice over separately, you get a lot more flexibility with the editing process, which means you have more control over the finished article. 

If you do decide to record your audio separately, you might want to take a look at TechSmith’s Audiate . This advanced audio recorder will transcribe your voice over in real-time and let you edit the audio file as if it were a text-based document. We don’t want to brag, but it’s probably the best way to add a voice over to a PowerPoint . 

Regardless of how you decide to narrate your PowerPoint, here’s how to turn your presentation into a video: 

1. Import your PowerPoint slides

First, start by importing your PowerPoint slides directly into Camtasia. Once your media is imported, you can edit it by dragging your slides into the Editing Toolbar.

You can now add the images to the Timeline, and edit them like any other media in a Project. 

If you drag your slides to the Timeline, the slides will be placed in the order of the presentation, each with a default 5-second duration.

With your presentation on the timeline, use Ripple Move to create space in between slides to adjust the timing of each one. To do this, hold shift, then click and drag.

Once you’ve imported your slides and adjusted the duration of each one to correlate with your voice over, it’s time to start editing. 

How to edit a presentation video (in Camtasia) 

Add behaviors.

Firstly, add some visual interest with Camtasia Behaviors . A Behavior is an animation that brings movement to your slides, making them stand out on screen. This is a great way to bring parts of your presentation to life and take it from ordinary to extraordinary — because nobody likes a boring presentation . 

To add a Behavior, click and drag the Behavior you wish to use onto the slide you want to animate. Once added, you can adjust the Behavior using the Properties tab.

Add annotations

Another good way to grab and direct your audience’s attention is to add some Annotations, which are great for highlighting important information.  

To insert an Annotation, click the Annotation tab on the left side of the screen and drag it into the designated slide. You can then re-position and edit the Annotation in the Properties tab as needed.

Recording a PowerPoint Presentation, the FAQs

Absolutely! Both Snagit and Camtasia are excellent choices for recording a professional and polished presentation. Snagit is perfect for no-fuss recording and editing. If you require more sophisticated editing capabilities, Camtasia is the ideal choice, offering the added convenience of recording your slideshow and voice over directly within PowerPoint.

Click the Record button in the toolbar to launch your slides into the Presentation Mode and start recording. When you exit Presentation Mode or reach the end of your slideshow, you can either continue recording your screen or stop and save your file.

If you’re planning to record audio, select your microphone in the recording options. The microphone button controls whether or not audio is recorded as part of your presentation. If you have a webcam attached to your computer, you can also record your camera to create a Picture-in-Picture clip, perfect for showing the presenter during the presentation.

With Snagit, you can conveniently record your voice over as you go through your presentation, capturing both the audio and visuals in one go. If you’re looking for more advanced recording and editing options, you might also consider using Camtasia, which allows you to record your voice over while presenting. For even more control, use Audiate to record your audio separately and then import it into Camtasia for fine-tuning.

Justin Simon

Global Content Strategy Manager at TechSmith. I play a lot of golf and watch a lot of football.

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Turn your presentation into a video

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/export your presentation to a video file format (.mp4 or .wmv).

Save your presentation as a PowerPoint Show (.ppsx) file. (A PowerPoint Show appears full-screen in Slide Show, ready to view immediately.)

Save as a video file

After you've created your slides and recorded any timing and narrations and laser pointer gestures that you want to include, you're ready to create a video file.

On the File menu, select Save to ensure all your recent work has been saved in PowerPoint presentation format (.pptx).

Select  File > Export > Create a Video . (Or, on the Recording tab of the ribbon, select  Export to Video .)

In the first drop-down box under the Create a Video heading, select the video quality you want, which pertains to the resolution of the finished video. The higher the video quality, the larger the file size. (You may want to test them to determine which one meets your needs.)

* The Ultra HD (4K) option is only available if you're using Windows 10 or later.

The second drop-down box under the Create a Video heading tells whether your presentation includes narration and timings. (You may switch this setting if you like.)

If you haven't recorded timed narration, by default the value is Don't Use Recorded Timings and Narrations .

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, select the up arrow to increase the duration, or select the down arrow to decrease the duration.

If you have recorded a timed narration, by default the value is Use Recorded Timings and Narrations .

Select  Create Video .

In the File name box, enter a file name for the video, browse for the folder that will contain this file, and then select  Save .

In the Save as type box, choose either MPEG-4 Video or Windows Media Video .

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.

To play your newly-created video, go to the designated folder location, and then double-click the file.

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.

On the File menu, select Save As .

Choose the folder location where you want to store your PowerPoint Show file.

In the Save as type box, choose PowerPoint Show (*.ppsx) .

Select Save .

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:

You can record and time voice narration and laser pointer movements in your video.

You can control the size of the multimedia file and the quality of your video.

You can include animations and transitions in your movie.

Viewers do not need to have PowerPoint installed on their computers to watch it.

If your presentation contains an embedded video, the video will play correctly without your needing to control it.

Depending on the content of your presentation, creating a video may take some time. Lengthy presentations and presentations with animations, transitions, and media content will likely take longer to create. Fortunately, you can continue to use PowerPoint while the video is being created

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:

Media inserted in previous versions of PowerPoint. To include these, you can convert or upgrade the media object.

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 (select the File tab, and under Info , select  Convert ), or you can right-click the media object and then select it to upgrade; it will embed the file and export it correctly.

QuickTime media (unless you have a third-party QuickTime codec named ffdShow installed and you have optimized for compatibility)

OLE/ActiveX controls

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:

Email your presentation to others

Save to a file share or other location

Upload it to your organization's Microsoft Stream video-sharing site , as described in the next section, "Save to a video-sharing site."

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. Microsoft 365 business or education subscribers have access to this service from within PowerPoint for Microsoft 365. 

Select File > Export , and then select Publish to Microsoft Stream .

Type a title and a description for the video.

Set other options, including whether you want others in your organization to have permission to see the video:

Select the Publish button.

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:

Select the message to go directly to the video playback page on Microsoft Stream.

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

1 The Ultra HD (4K) option is only available if you're using Windows 10 or later. 2 In PowerPoint 2016, the Ultra HD (4K) option isn't available in the Volume License edition.

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.

Burn your presentation to a disc

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From ideas to screen: How to make presentation videos that shine

What type of content do you primarily create?

Visuals can mean the difference between a killer presentation and a lost opportunity.

For salespeople, it’s difficult to close a deal without business presentations to back up your pitches. For marketers and business owners, video presentations help communicate ideas and share results from projects to ensure future success. 

Customers also love high-quality visuals, like branded explainer videos and product tours. They’re the fuel that drives eight in 10 people to make online purchases. 

But what makes a good presentation? And how can you engage viewers throughout your video? This guide covers what you need to know about creating video presentations, no matter the purpose.

What is a video presentation ?

A video presentation refers to a sequence of visuals combined with audio to convey information, arguments, ideas, or narratives. It can be about a product, service, internal business reports, or even a topic of interest.

Video presentations can range from simple slideshow-style videos with voiceovers to more complex productions involving animations, live-action footage, music, sound effects , and more.

A good video presentation provides information clearly and concisely. But the best video presentations engage your target audience with professional video quality: a good camera and mic, skilled editing, and a confident presenter. 

There are a ton of different types of video presentation formats you can choose from, including:

• Animated explainer videos
• Employee onboarding videos
• Screen recordings
• Training videos
• Product demos
• Microsoft PowerPoint presentations with a talking head
• Sales presentations
• Awards presentations

Benefits of a video presentation 

These are great reasons to put in the effort to produce this type of video content.

Enhanced engagement

Video recordings—whether on social media or hosted on your website—are great for engagement and getting your audience’s attention. Wyzowl found that 95% of marketers have said video marketing has helped them increase brand awareness, 90% say it has helped generate leads, and 87% said it has helped them increase sales.

Visual clarity

There's a reason many people suggest something like "If you can learn it, you'll find it on YouTube." The presentation video format is unique in its ability to teach and demonstrate, similar to the in-person experience you'd get with a tutor or salesperson. 

The same Wyzowl report found that 96% of marketers say videos have helped increase user understanding of products and services. In short: video helps customers retain your information.

Global reach and accessibility

Video presentations are a great way to reach a global audience. More than half of people say they’re more likely to share a video with others than any other type of content. 

A video presentation is also better for accessibility than other content types. With video editing software , you can:

• Easily add subtitles and annotations to your video footage for those with hearing loss.
• Add an audio description voiceover for those with sight loss.
• Change the color filters for those with color blindness.

Personal connection

Building a personal connection with your audience is critical for overall brand engagement. A video presentation, especially one with a person in the video, helps you do that. Research shows that students have positive feelings for videos presented by an instructor, for example.

How to create a video presentation

Step 1. plan and prepare.

Proper planning and preparation can help the rest of your presentation creation process run smoothly. 

Think about what you’ll say, and use a storyboard to build out a visual plan of your presentation ideas. Storyboarding your presentation, instead of making it on the fly, will help you stay focused when you fire up your presentation software. (You don’t need to be an artist; just set out the scenes in a way that makes sense to you.)

At this point, start writing the video script for your presentation. You’ll know what to say and when to say it, and won’t fill your presentation up with filler words like “um” and pauses when trying to think about what to say next. 

Step 2. Gather resources

After you’ve completed your paper storyboard and script, it’s time to go digital. With Descript, you can build your slideshows into the video editor just like any slideshow tool . 

To create a presentation video in Descript:

• Hit New project .
• Import any media (images, infographics, short video clips, GIFs, or sounds) you want to include in your presentation.
• Drop your visuals into the script and edit them into a sequence, or work scene by scene by adding a / at the beginning of each slide.
• Add the background of your presentation, then your script in the left panel.
• Add captions to your presentation by hitting the T icon at the top and choosing Captions.

When you've set up all your slides, you can get fancier and add transitions, extra media, and special effects later.

But maybe you’d prefer to create the presentation using more familiar software, like Prezi, PowerPoint slides, or Google Slides. In that case, you can import the presentation into Descript later or use its screen recording functionality. (If you upgrade your Descript plan, you can create your own video presentation templates to use over and over again, if that’s your style.)

Step 3. Record your presentation video

With your slides all set up, it’s time to turn them into a video. This step is pretty straightforward if you’ve used Descript to make the presentation slides. All you’ll need to do is go to the beginning of the presentation and hit the Record button at the top of the screen:

 If, like in the image example above, you’ve written your script into the scenes, change the default setting Record into script to Record new layer . This preserves your script so you can read from it whil recording your presentation video. 

Decide if you want to record a voiceover only (leaving the record option as Audio only ), or add a floating head video with your webcam to show yourself as the speaker by clicking the Screen option. Either way, go through your script as the slides move along. 

If you created your presentation in another software like Google Slides, there may be no built-in option to record your presentation over the slides. In that case, use Descript’s screen recorder to film your screen with audio. The video file will be ready and waiting for you in the video editor when you finish recording.

Step 4. Edit and enhance

At this point, you’ve got the basic presentation down. It’s time to bring out your inner filmmaker and turn the slideshow into something special. 

With Descript’s free video editor, you can:

• Add title screens to introduce your presentation.
• Choose from a library of background music.
• Change the fonts of your captions and any other text layer.
• Add cool slide transitions.
• Improve audio quality with Studio Sound .

Descript’s video editing is different (and easy) since you can edit the video using the script instead of a traditional timeline editor. This makes the process super efficient since you can quickly identify what needs cutting. Simply delete the part of the script you don’t want, and the accompanying video will disappear.

Step 5. Review and fine-tune your video

What makes Descript extra special is the ability to edit your audio by taking out filler words you might have accidentally recorded. Remove “ums,” “uhs,” and awkward pauses in a single click with filler word removal . 

If, like me, you also have a habit of forgetting to say something important, you can use Descript's Overdub feature to add those few missed words without re-recording the whole scene. The software will create an AI clone of your voice to fix audio mistakes. 

With your video presentation fine-tuned, you’re ready to save and share it with the world. Click the Publish button in the top right corner and download the MP4 file, or export it directly to a platform like YouTube or Wistia.

6 key elements for crafting a great video presentation

Now you know the practical how-tos of making a presentation video, let’s look at some key elements that turn a good video presentation into a great one. 

Clear and engaging content

Visual appeal, narration and voice quality, engagement techniques, structure and flow.

• Audience-centric approach 

No one likes feeling confused. If your presentation isn’t clear, you’ll end up frustrating your audience. A nice trick for clarity is to imagine you’re explaining your presentation to a child; don’t use big words to sound smart. Presentations that are clear from the start are naturally more engaging.

Gone are the days of 360p Nokia footage. Even if you don’t have a professional camera setup, you can still record a video on a PC, phone, or webcam with high quality. But don’t forget about the images and text overlays. No one wants to try deciphering pixelated visuals—use the highest quality video resolution you can.

Even the best-quality video presentation can be ruined by bad audio. Poor-quality narration is hugely frustrating to viewers. Prioritize your audio quality, especially for information-rich videos like presentations, and use Studio Sound to remove distracting background noise from your presentation video.

When it comes to video presentations, you should think like a salesperson. You can't expect your audience to believe the information you give them if they don't trust you. Engage your audience by telling a personal story, describing relatable scenes, or emphasizing important points throughout your video.

Treat your presentation like a story with a beginning, middle, and end. Information should flow nicely from one point to the next. Do a test run through your slides before you start recording to ensure any questions don't crop up prematurely because the viewer thinks you haven't covered it (when you do a few slides later). 

Learn: Narrative structure: How to compose the best story for your footage

Audience-centric approach

It's pretty much always to the audience's benefit when you make a presentation video, so you shouldn't focus too much on yourself. Address your audience's needs and go above and beyond to answer any questions they may have. Otherwise, why would they listen to you?

5 tips to help you craft remarkable video presentations

Now we know what makes a great presentation video, here are five bonus presentation tips to create yours. 

1. Practice and rehearse

You won’t always get it right the first time, and that’s okay. But the more you practice before hitting record, the better your presentation video will be—and the less legwork you’ll need to do throughout the video editing process.

2. Invest in good equipment

Top-notch equipment makes your life easier throughout the video creation process. Replace your webcam with your iPhone to improve picture quality, and invest in editing tools that allow you to record and edit in the same dashboard.

3. Optimize lighting

Another area where you can improve the quality of your video is the lighting technique . If you have the budget, you can use a simple ring light, but if you don’t have the cash to invest in video equipment, use natural light (such as a window) behind your camera.

4. Engage with eye contact

If someone was talking to you and they weren’t looking at you, you’d probably be a little confused or uncomfortable, right? It’s the same with video. Look into the camera when making video presentations to simulate real eye contact with your audience. If you forget, use Descript’s Eye Contact AI effect to fix it.

5. Keep it concise

If you waffle on with unnecessary information or get sidetracked on a story, you’ll lose your audience’s attention, and they’ll click away or switch off. Stick to your video script and keep your presentation concise.

Elevate your video presentations with Descript

Creating an informative and engaging video presentation isn’t the easiest task in the world. You’ve got to know your audience and what they want, present the information confidently, and do it with visually appealing content.

With Descript, you can take your presentation video to the next level with an editing experience that allows you to:

• Record your screen on a Mac or Windows device
• Create and record slides (with voiceover) in one dashboard
• Remove filler words with a single click
• Use Studio Sound to remove background noise from your presentation
• Turn your presentation into a YouTube video, or download it as an MP4 file

Take a free tour of Descript and see why thousands of creators love its video editing platform.

How to make presentation videos FAQ

How do i make a presentation video for free.

• Choose a slideshow software like Descript
• Create your slides
• Add transitions 
• Record your voiceover
• Edit your presentation
• Share your video 

How do I video myself when presenting a PowerPoint?

Use PowerPoint’s built-in recording feature and choose the “Cameo” option to record yourself when presenting. Or, use Descript’s screen recording feature and have the presentation ready for editing when you finish recording. 

How do I make an audio-video presentation?

If you don’t want to record yourself on video, use a screen recorder to film your presentation slides. Video presentation makers like Descript allow you to record a voiceover.

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How to Create Pro-level PowerPoint Videos with Audio

Senior Marketing Manager at Loom

The power of a presentation lies in its ability to educate and inspire.

But why limit access to inspiring ideas because of the time slot in which they were presented? Microsoft PowerPoint, Google Slides, and Keynote slides have become the go-to formats for delivering supporting content to help audiences from classrooms to boardrooms engage with ideas. But once the content is complete, what happens to it? 

Getting used to the sound of your own voice can take some time, but the benefits of using Loom to record PowerPoint presentations are worth it.

Depending on the content and intended audience, a few will be published, stored, or made available on a marketplace. However, many will be lost, all your hard work never to be seen again. PowerPoint slides that aren't accompanied by a presentation are incomplete and don't do a sufficient job of expressing the author's ideas.

If you want to get ahead of the curve and preserve the integrity of your hard work, learn how to record a presentation by recording your screen .

Loom is one of the most popular choices for recording a video presentation—and for a good reason. The user interface is straightforward and easy to use. Mastering it requires little effort.

The benefits of presenting a PowerPoint in video

There are several reasons someone would want to learn how to record a PowerPoint presentation. Whether they’re explaining the quarterly statistics in a sales meeting , creating a webinar as a marketing tool , or recording training sessions for onboarding new hires, communicating ideas clearly and succinctly via video becomes more crucial every day. 

With Loom, you can engage directly with your audience, allowing you to interact with a large group of people in a small, intimate environment. Let's look at some advantages of knowing how to record slide show presentations and the procedure for doing so.

Scheduled attendance is not guaranteed

Unless your presentation is a mandatory work meeting or you're teaching a paid course, many individuals will drop out before or during the presentation. However, by providing a presentation recording for them, you can still interact with those people, and they’ll feel supported by your accessibility.

Provides on-demand access to your presentation

Using Loom's video recording capabilities, you provide access to your material long after you've presented it. Giving your audience access to resources is one of the best ways to build trust and support. 

Enhances your search engine optimization (SEO)

If you don't want to make your recorded presentations available on-demand but want to reap the benefits of SEO-driven traffic, you may post all or part of it on YouTube as a free resource in the future to attract new prospects. 

Practice makes perfect

Another reason to learn how to record a presentation is that you can review your work before showing it to a live audience. By recording yourself before a meeting or lecture, you can review the footage to ensure you cover every aspect of the topic, make improvements, and eliminate those pre-performance jitters. 

Tips for video recording yourself presenting a PowerPoint

While technology and practice are your two best allies in confidently presenting PowerPoint video presentations, a few extra tips can make yours even more effective and professional. Consider following these best practices:

Choose the right equipment

Video communications technology has flourished in the last few years. There are more options than ever to record presentations and deliver them digitally to a worldwide audience. A tool like Loom makes it easy to record webcam videos, screen captures, and recorded narration quickly and easily. This lets you present your PowerPoint or any other content to a digital audience without extensive and time-consuming video editing.

Include direct-to-camera (DTC) content

Personalization is the heart of every good video—nothing builds a personalized experience like a friendly face. Use a simultaneous webcam and screen capture to record yourself explaining the slides and information on the screen. Adding picture-in-picture DTC elements creates rapport and trust with your audience and ensures they stay engaged with your presentation.

Slide text: Less is more

Text is great for outlining the major themes of a presentation and adding context to discussions, but with a PowerPoint presentation, treat text as the seasoning in a recipe. Use what you need to enhance the experience, but don’t overwhelm. 

Build your slides as an outline for each discussion topic and a home for visual elements like charts, infographics, and embedded video clips. But you, as the presenter, should do most of the talking. Building your presentation this way keeps viewers focused and engaged instead of hurrying to keep up with the reading. 

Structure your presentation

Well-structured content is vital to the flow and digestibility of your presentation. When building your slides and video script, organize your information similarly to a blog post or an ebook. Start with an introduction to share your personal info and a general topical overview. Create segments that logically lay out each point or step in the process. Wrap things up with a conclusion and (if needed) a call to action that invites the viewer to take the next step—booking a call, downloading a resource, or signing up for a service.

Keep videos concise and skimmable

Digital fatigue is real. With so many videos and messages competing for our attention, creating a streamlined presentation results in longer view duration . The average view duration of a YouTube video may be as short as 40 seconds, with the median watch time averaging just over a minute and a half . 

Another trick to increase viewability is to make it easy for viewers to skim. A well-structured presentation offers natural segments to help viewers zero in on the information they need. YouTube offers a Chapters feature that lets you insert a linkable outline so viewers can easily skip to specific timestamps. 

Basic recording in PowerPoint

Microsoft offers basic tools to start recording your PowerPoint presentation. Here’s a quick step-by-step guide to recording a simple presentation:

Step 1: From PowerPoint, open the slide with which you want to start your presentation. 

Step 2: Select Record from the upper right hand corner of the PowerPoint window.

Step 3: Make sure your recording and voice settings are set properly, then click the round Record button. Begin your presentation.

Step 4: Click through your slide presentation and record your audio. Be sure to pause during slide transitions, as PowerPoint will not record audio during slide changes.

Step 5: Save your finished PowerPoint video to your local device and share it through email or upload it to sharing platforms like Vimeo, YouTube, etc. 

An important note: PowerPoint’s native recording features offer some editing and highlight features. You’ll need a screen recorder app like Loom to film direct-to-camera or make substantial edits. 

How to use Loom’s presentation recording software

It's simple to record yourself and your screen presentation side-by-side using only your laptop, a built-in camera, a mic, and Loom. Using Loom to record presentations on a computer is a fantastic way to save time and guarantee that your presentation goes precisely as planned. Loom's basic version is free to use and provides users with different options to meet their unique needs best. You may record the material on your screen and even take a video of yourself presenting alongside your screen capture.

Loom is available as a PC screen recorder , Mac screen recorder , iOS screen recorder , and Android screen recorder . The two primary methods are through the Desktop Client or the Chrome Screen Recorder . The desktop versions offer a higher recording resolution (4k compared to 1080p in the Chrome extension) and additional features like camera frames and backgrounds.

In either case, learning to record a presentation is simple with Loom’s easy-to-use presentation recorder. Here’s some information to help you get started. 

You can create a Loom account using a variety of methods. Users may log in with their Google account information, or connect their Slack account information, email address, password, and name. You must first complete the registration process to have access to the program.

What is the Loom desktop client, and how can I use it?

Search for Loom in the Windows search box or click the red pinwheel Loom logo to launch the Loom Desktop Client. After you've opened it, choose the type of video recording you wish to make. Cam Only, Screen Only, and Screen + Cam are the three possibilities for the basic Loom version. As their names suggest, Cam Only and Screen Only allow you to record the material on your screen or yourself through a camera. Screen + Cam will enable you to make a presentation recording with both yourself and the information in real time, allowing others to watch your reactions to the material and connect with you as the presenter.

If you wish to record your screen, the presentation recorder has three options for defining the parameters of your video: Full Screen, Window, and Custom Size. 

Full Screen captures everything on your monitor or display, allowing others to watch and follow along. 

You may use the Window option to record a single computer application if you want to construct a more restricted lesson without interruptions. 

Custom Size is exclusively available to Pro account holders, allowing users to build custom windows to capture particular areas of their screen.

To record your Loom videos, use the built-in webcam and microphone on your smartphone or computer or additional devices as needed. Loom recommends using high-quality microphones for better audio.

Using the Loom Google Chrome Extension to capture videos

First, download and install the Loom Google Chrome Extension from the Chrome Web Store. Then launch the extension's user interface by clicking on the red pinwheel Loom logo in the browser's top right corner. You can choose Cam Only, Screen Only, and Screen + Cam, the same as the desktop client. Unfortunately, users of the Google Chrome Extension can only record their entire screen or the contents of a single tab.

The Video Control menu differs from the desktop extension, appearing in the bottom left corner of the browser window. Users may only utilize three buttons: Start/End Recording, Pause Recording, and Delete Recording.

Using the Loom desktop client to record videos

Each option lets you use Loom's camera bubble , which allows you to see and record yourself as well as a video. There is no set limit on the duration of the video, but Loom will provide you alerts to ensure you don't keep recording by accident. Once you've decided on your selections, go to the four-button Video Control menu on the left side of your screen. To start your video, press the Recording button at the top of the menu. This button has two purposes: When the button is red, it indicates that you’re currently recording, and it stops the recording when clicked a second time.

The Pause button is located beneath the Recording button and is used to pause your video. However, depending on your computer, you may alternatively use Alt + Shift + P or Option + Shift + P . The Delete option is represented by a garbage can icon, which pauses the recording and completely deletes the video once you confirm your decision via a dialog box.

How to use the speaker notes feature

Loom makes presentations easier with speaker notes , an on-screen cue card feature visible only to you. Speaker notes are bullet points or full scripts written by you and activated during recording. These prompts allow you to deliver your message with confidence, without the need to remember your whole script or utilize physical note cards. 

From the desktop app, open Loom and click Speaker Notes. Use the pop-up window to type in your notes, then resize the notes window to suit your needs before recording. Speaker notes are always presented on top, so there’s no need to switch windows during your presentation.  

How AI-generated chapters work

Want your viewers to be able to skip to the most useful portion of a presentation? The AI-generated chapter feature allows viewers to select important topics within your presentation and navigate to them easily. These time-stamped chapters also allow users to link and respond to content. 

How to use the drawing tool

Finally, the drawing tool , symbolized by a pen icon and available with the Pro subscription, can assist you in focusing on certain facts and numbers. Using this button, which includes picking a preset color, lets you make graphics that will draw your viewer's attention to key information.

Preserve your ideas with Loom’s Presentation Recorder

If you’re just starting out, learning to record a presentation with Loom is an excellent tool for creating quality content. As the world continues to move towards remote work environments, the ability to give an online presentation (and record it for posterity) becomes more essential every day.

Loom is free, so don’t wait to see how you can enhance your video presentation with video capture software.

Jan 8, 2024

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Jeong Lee works in Marketing at Loom.

Video Presentation Maker

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Everything you need to make a presentation you’re proud of

Start creating a video presentation without having to set up any equipment. With a screen recorder and a microphone, you can record video presentations online yourself. Or, browse the stock footage library to craft the perfect presentation video. 

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How to Make a Video Presentation

Open a new project with a blank canvas. Choose the size you want your video presentation to be; apply preset aspect ratios 9:16, 4:5, 1:1, and vice versa.

Open the “Record” tab in the left-hand side and choose your recording settings to start recording. Or, browse the stock footage library to create a presentation without recording. 

(Optional): Use the AI video generator to create a video presentation for you with subtitles, background music, and an AI voiceover. 

Trim, crop, or add subtitles to your video presentation. Apply subtle background music to fill in silences, or remove silences automatically with Smart Cut.

Export your video presentation, download a video file, and share its unique video link. Have others leave comments at specific points in your video—all in real time.

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Kapwing's video presentation maker offers you a full creative suite of video editing tools with a user-friendly interface. Start creating video presentations without a learning curve.

Professionalize your video with AI-powered features

Use the AI voiceover generator to add an AI voice so you don't have to record narration yourself. (TIP): Apply text-to-speech for both subtitles and a voice over.

Store brand colors and logos in a shared Brand Kit

Easily access brand assets to have consistent branding across different social media platforms. Create video presentation templates and save them for your team to create the next video presentation in a breeze.

Make a video presentation in under 10 minutes

Jump directly into the editor and generate a video presentation using the slideshow generator. Edit the generated subtitles accordingly and make any additional changes to your video. Create and edit a video presentation all on one platform—no download or software installation required.

Collaborate with your team in real-time

Leave feedback at key points directly on the playback timeline. Share your video presentation with just a link. Never see a "file upload limit" notification on your screen again.

What's different about Kapwing?

Kapwing is free to use for teams of any size. We also offer paid plans with additional features, storage, and support.

PowerPoint Recorder

Record your PowerPoint presentations online

Powerful Online PowerPoint Recorder

Make your presentations look professional using VEED’s online PowerPoint recorder. It’s fast, easy to use, and gives you access to video editing tools to make your presentation stand out. You can upload your slides or record your screen while you are presenting. Add yourself to the scene by recording your webcam and audio as well.

No need to install software. Open your browser and start recording! Choose from different layouts and customize your video after you record. You can also edit your recording using our professional video editor.

How to Record Your PowerPoint Presentation:

1 upload slides and select a layout.

Select from our list of layouts (you may need to click to ‘Allow’ permission to access your screen, camera, or microphone). You can record just your screen, your webcam, or both at the same time! You can either upload your slides or record while you’re presenting.

2 Start recording

Click the red button to start recording! You'll see a countdown before the recording starts. Don't worry if you mess up. You have unlimited time and unlimited retakes. You can navigate to other pages, and don't worry, you are still recording.

3 Review, edit, and export

You can playback your recording to review it, click ‘Share’ to share with friends and colleagues, or ‘Edit’ to edit your video (perfect for adding text, subtitles, and professional touches to your screen recording)

‘PowerPoint Recorder’ Tutorial

Highly customizable PPT recording software

VEED lets you easily customize your Microsoft PowerPoint presentation recordings. Select from different layouts and backgrounds. You can record your screen, webcam, audio, and upload your PowerPoint slides to present while recording. If you choose to record your entire desktop, you can easily switch the view between your presentation slides and other windows. When you’re finished, edit your video using our free video editor, where you can also add royalty-free music from our Stock Library.

All the things you need in a screen recorder

Our video capture software is packed with features that will help you create professional-looking recordings. When you press record, the countdown timer will appear to prompt you when your recording starts. To make sure that your audio is being picked up, check the little microphone icon on the bottom of your screen. It should be animated to indicate that your audio is being recorded. It only takes a few clicks. It’s the best app to record your Microsoft PowerPoint presentations.

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• Highlights Video
• Ceremony Photos
• Undergraduate Ceremony Remarks by President Ron Liebowitz
• Undergraduate Commencement Address by Ken Burns
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Commencement 2024

Honorary degree recipient Ken Burns delivers the Undergraduate Commencement speech at Brandeis University's 73rd Commencement Exercises on May 19, 2024.

Brandeisian, love it.

President Liebowitz, Ron, Chair Lisa Kranc, and other members of the board of trustees, Provost Carol Fierke, fellow honorees, distinguished faculty and staff, proud and relieved parents, calm and serene grandparents, distracted but secretly pleased siblings, ladies and gentlemen, graduating students of the class of 2024, good morning.

I am deeply honored and privileged that you have asked me here to say a few words at such a momentous occasion that you might find what I have to say worthy of your attention on so important a day in all of your lives. Thank you for this honor.

Listen, I am in the business of history. It is not always a happy subject on college campuses these days, particularly when forces seem determined to eliminate or water down difficult parts of our past, particularly when the subject may seem to sum an anachronistic and irrelevant pursuit, and particularly with the ferocious urgency this moment seems to exert on us. It is my job, however, to remind people of the power our past also exerts, to help us better understand what's going on now with compelling story, memory, and anecdote. It is my job to try to discern patterns and themes from history to enable us to interpret our dizzying and sometimes dismaying present.

For nearly 50 years now, I have diligently practiced and rigorously tried to maintain a conscious neutrality in my work, avoiding advocacy if I could, trying to speak to all of my fellow citizens. Over those many decades I've come to understand a significant fact, that we are not condemned to repeat, as the saying goes, what we don't remember. That is a beautiful, even poetic phrase, but not true. Nor are there cycles of history as the academic community periodically promotes. The Old Testament, Ecclesiastes to be specific, got it right, I think. What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again. There is nothing new under the sun. What those lines suggest is that human nature never changes or almost never changes. We continually superimpose that complex and contradictory human nature over the seemingly random chaos of events, all of our inherent strengths and weaknesses, our greed and generosity, our puritanism and our prurience, our virtue, and our venality parade before our eyes, generation after generation after generation. This often gives us the impression that history repeats itself. It does not. "No event has ever happened twice, it just rhymes," Mark Twain is supposed to have said. I have spent all of my professional life on the lookout for those rhymes, drawn inexorably to that power of history. I am interested in listening to the many varied voices of a true, honest, complicated past that is unafraid of controversy and tragedy, but equally drawn to those stories and moments that suggest an abiding faith in the human spirit, and particularly the unique role this remarkable and sometimes also dysfunctional republic seems to play in the positive progress of mankind.

During the course of my work, I have become acquainted with hundreds if not thousands of those voices. They have inspired, haunted, and followed me over the years. Some of them may be helpful to you as you try to imagine and make sense of the trajectory of your lives today.

Listen, listen. In January of 1838, shortly before his 29th birthday, a tall, thin lawyer prone to bouts of debilitating depression addressed the young men's lyceum in Springfield, Illinois. "At what point shall we expect the approach of danger?" He asked his audience, "Shall we expect some trans-Atlantic military giant to step the earth and crush us at a blow?" Then he answered his own question. "Never. All the armies of Europe, Asia, and Africa could not by force take a drink from the Ohio River or make a track on the Blue Ridge in a trial of a thousand years. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free men, we must live through all time or die by suicide." It is a stunning, remarkable statement, one that has animated my own understanding of the American experience since I first read it more than 40 years ago. That young man was of course Abraham Lincoln, and he would go on to preside over the closest this country has ever come to near national suicide, our civil war, and yet embedded in his extraordinary, disturbing, and prescient words is also a fundamental optimism that implicitly acknowledges the geographical forcefield two mighty oceans east and west and two relatively benign neighbors north and south have provided for us since the British burned the White House in the War of 1812 and inspired Francis Scott Key.

Lincoln's words that day suggest what is so great and so good about the people who happen to inhabit this lucky and exquisite country of ours. That's the world you now inherit: our work ethic and our restlessness, our innovation and our improvisation, our communities and our institutions of higher learning, our suspicion of power. The fact that we seem resolutely dedicated to parsing the meaning between individual and collective freedom; What I want versus what we need. That we are all so dedicated to understanding what Thomas Jefferson really meant when he wrote that mysterious phrase, "The pursuit of happiness". Hint, it happens right here in the lifelong learning and perpetual improvement this university is committed to.

But the isolation of those two oceans has also helped to incubate habits and patterns less beneficial to us: our devotion to money and guns and conspiracies, our certainty about everything, our stubborn insistence on our own exceptionalism blinding us to that which needs repair, especially with regard to race and ethnicity. Our preoccupation with always making the other wrong at an individual as well as a global level. I am reminded of what the journalist I.F. Stone once said to a young acolyte who was profoundly disappointed in his mentor's admiration for Thomas Jefferson. "It's because history is tragedy," Stone admonished him, "Not melodrama." It's the perfect response. In melodrama all villains are perfectly villainous and all heroes are perfectly virtuous, but life is not like that. You know that in your guts and nor is our history like that. The novelist, Richard Powers recently wrote that, "The best arguments in the world," — and ladies and gentlemen, that's all we do is argue — "the best arguments in the world," he said, "Won't change a single person's point of view. The only thing that can do that is a good story." I've been struggling for most of my life to do that, to try to tell good, complex, sometimes contradictory stories, appreciating nuance and subtlety and undertow, sharing the confusion and consternation of unreconciled opposites.

But it's clear as individuals and as a nation we are dialectically preoccupied. Everything is either right or wrong, red state or blue state, young or old, gay or straight, rich or poor, Palestinian or Israeli, my way or the highway. Everywhere we are trapped by these old, tired, binary reactions, assumptions, and certainties. For filmmakers and faculty, students and citizens, that preoccupation is imprisoning. Still, we know and we hear and we express only arguments, and by so doing, we forget the inconvenient complexities of history and of human nature. That, for example, three great religions, their believers, all children of Abraham, each professing at the heart of their teaching, a respect for all human life, each with a central connection to and legitimate claim to the same holy ground, violate their own dictates of conduct and make this perpetually contested land a shameful graveyard. God does not distinguish between the dead. "Could you?"

[Audience applauding]

"Could you?" A very wise person I know with years of experience with the Middle East recently challenged me, "Could you hold the idea that there could be two wrongs and two rights?"

Listen, listen. In a filmed interview I conducted with the writer James Baldwin, more than 40 years ago, he said, "No one was ever born who agreed to be a slave, who accepted it. That is, slavery is a condition imposed from without. Of course, the moment I say that," Baldwin continued, "I realize that multitudes and multitudes of people for various reasons of their own enslave themselves every hour of every day to this or that doctrine, this or that delusion of safety, this or that lie. Anti-Semites, for example," he went on, "are slaves to a delusion. People who hate Negroes are slaves. People who love money are slaves. We are living in a universe really of willing slaves, which makes the concept of liberty and the concept of freedom so dangerous," he finished. Baldwin is making a profoundly psychological and even spiritual statement, not just a political or racial or social one. He knew, just as Lincoln knew, that the enemy is often us. We continue to shackle ourselves with chains we mistakenly think is freedom.

Another voice, Mercy Otis Warren, a philosopher and historian during our revolution put it this way, "The study of the human character at once opens a beautiful and a deformed picture of the soul. We there find a noble principle implanted in the nature of people, but when the checks of conscience are thrown aside, humanity is obscured." I have had the privilege for nearly half a century of making films about the US, but I have also made films about us. That is to say the two letter, lowercase, plural pronoun. All of the intimacy of "us" and also "we" and "our" and all of the majesty, complexity, contradiction, and even controversy of the US. And if I have learned anything over those years, it's that there's only us. There is no them. And whenever someone suggests to you, whomever it may be in your life that there's a them, run away. Othering is the simplistic binary way to make and identify enemies, but it is also the surest way to your own self imprisonment, which brings me to a moment I've dreaded and forces me to suspend my longstanding attempt at neutrality.

There is no real choice this November. There is only the perpetuation, however flawed and feeble you might perceive it, of our fragile 249-year-old experiment or the entropy that will engulf and destroy us if we take the other route. When, as Mercy Otis Warren would say, "The checks of conscience are thrown aside and a deformed picture of the soul is revealed." The presumptive Republican nominee is the opioid of all opioids, an easy cure for what some believe is the solution to our myriad pains and problems. When in fact with him, you end up re-enslaved with an even bigger problem, a worse affliction and addiction, "a bigger delusion", James Baldwin would say, the author and finisher of our national existence, our national suicide as Mr. Lincoln prophesies. Do not be seduced by easy equalization. There is nothing equal about this equation. We are at an existential crossroads in our political and civic lives. This is a choice that could not be clearer.

Listen, listen. 33 years ago, the world lost a towering literary figure. The novelist and storyteller, not arguer, Isaac Bashevis Singer. For decades he wrote about God and myth and punishment, fate and sexuality, family and history. He wrote in Yiddish a marvelously expressive language, sad and happy all at the same time. Sometimes maddeningly all knowing, yet resigned to God's seemingly capricious will. It is also a language without a country, a dying language in a world more interested in the extermination or isolation of its long suffering speakers. Singer, writing in the pages of the Jewish Daily Forward help to keep Yiddish alive. Now our own wonderfully mongrel American language is punctuated with dozens of Yiddish words and phrases, parables and wise sayings, and so many of those words are perfect onomatopoeias of disgust and despair, hubris and humor. If you've ever met a schmuck, you know what I'm talking about. [audience laughs] Toward the end of his long and prolific life, Singer expressed wonder at why so many of his books written in this obscure and some said useless language would be so widely translated, something like 56 countries all around the world. "Why," he would wonder with his characteristic playfulness, "Why would the Japanese care about his simple stories of life in the shtetls of Eastern Europe 1,000 years ago?" "Unless," Singer paused, twinkle in his eye, "Unless the story spoke of the kinship of the soul." I think what Singer was talking about was that indefinable something that connects all of us together, that which we all share as part of organic life on this planet, the kinship of the soul. I love that.

Okay, let me speak directly to the graduating class. Watch out, here comes the advice. Listen. Be curious, not cool. Insecurity makes liars of us all. Remember, none of us get out of here alive. The inevitable vicissitudes of life, no matter how well gated our communities, will visit us all. Grief is a part of life, and if you explore its painful precincts, it will make you stronger. Do good things, help others. Leadership is humility and generosity squared. Remember the opposite of faith is not doubt. Doubt is central to faith. The opposite of faith is certainty. The kinship of the soul begins with your own at times withering self-examination. Try to change that unchangeable human nature of Ecclesiastes, but start with you. "Nothing so needs reforming," Mark Twain once chided us, "As other people's habits." [audience laughs]

Don't confuse success with excellence. Do not descend too deeply into specialism. Educate all of your parts, you will be healthier. Do not get stuck in one place. "Travel is fatal to prejudice," Twain also said. Be in nature, which is always perfect and where nothing is binary. Its sheer majesty may remind you of your own atomic insignificance, as one observer put it, but in the inscrutable and paradoxical ways of wild places, you will feel larger, inspirited, just as the egotist in our midst is diminished by his or her self regard.

At some point, make babies, one of the greatest things that will happen to you, I mean it, one of the greatest things that will happen to you is that you will have to worry, I mean really worry, about someone other than yourself. It is liberating and exhilarating, I promise. Ask your parents.

[Audience laughs]

Choose honor over hypocrisy, virtue over vulgarity, discipline over dissipation, character over cleverness, sacrifice over self-indulgence. Do not lose your enthusiasm, in its Greek etymology the word enthusiasm means simply, "god in us". Serve your country. Insist that we fight the right wars. Denounce oppression everywhere.

Convince your government, as Lincoln understood that the real threat always and still comes from within this favored land. Insist that we support science and the arts, especially the arts.

[Audience cheering]

They have nothing to do with the actual defense of our country; They just make our country worth defending.

Remember what Louis Brandeis said, "The most important political office is that of the private citizen." Vote. You indelibly... [audience applauding] Please, vote. You indelibly underscore your citizenship, and most important, our kinship with each other when you do. Good luck and godspeed.

• Honorary Degree Recipients