Articulate 101: Use Engage to Add FLV Video to Your Slide

Feb92008
Written by dmozealous — Posted in Articulate 101, Articulate Engage

This is the 9th post in the Articulate 101 series. It was written by Articulate QA Project Lead Dave Mozealous.


A question I often hear is “what is the best way to add Flash Video (FLV) to a slide in Articulate Presenter?” Sure, Articulate Presenter supports inserting SWF video at the slide level, but what if you want to include longer video on a slide in Articulate Presenter?

The answer is use Engage!

Engage Video in Presenter

View the demo

Articulate Engage supports adding FLV to all interactions, and since Articulate Presenter allows you to insert Engage interactions to slides, you can have FLV video in a slide in Articulate Presenter.

Why is Engage so great for adding FLV video?

  • Engage is super easy
  • Engage allows your FLV to be controlled by the Articulate Presenter playbar
  • Engage allows your FLV to be controlled by its own independent playbar
  • Engage supports the latest FLV encoders (On2 and Sorenson)
  • Engage allows the volume of your FLV to be controlled by the Articulate Presenter volume controller
  • Engage doesn’t require using Flash

Questions you might ask:

If Articulate Presenter supports SWF video, why should you use FLV video in Articulate Presenter?

Well, SWF video is great for short video with little or no audio, but due to limitations of Flash, it has problems with audio synchronization with video over 90 seconds in length. If you need to include anything longer than a couple of short seconds of video, you really should use FLV instead of SWF video.

I see on your blog you have posted several other ways to add FLV to a slide that don’t require Engage. Why wouldn’t I just use one of those methods?

The alternatives to Engage that I have pointed out on my blog are complicated, hacky, and aren’t as elegant as using Engage, and some of them require knowing or using Flash.

Save yourself some time and headaches by using Engage to simply and easily add FLV video to a slide.


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30 responses to “Articulate 101: Use Engage to Add FLV Video to Your Slide”

1

Great stuff, Dave. I’m also a big fan of your blog. Quick question: What app do you recommend to download You Tube videos so that you can insert them as FLV’s via the Media Player?

Sheldon Swimmer // Posted at 11:32 am on February 9th, 2008
2

Hi Sheldon,

To be honest, I have never grabbed any videos off of Youtube, but I know there are a wealth of tools out there that enable you to do it.

Thanks for the kind words.

Dave Mozealous // Posted at 2:50 pm on February 9th, 2008
3

Sheldon – I would suggest using vixy.net or zamzar.com.

Dave – Is there a way to add player controls (like pause, play, etc) inside the Flash Video in Engage ?

Amit Agarwal // Posted at 12:51 pm on February 10th, 2008
4

Hello Amit,

Yes there is. In Engage there is an option to “Include Playbar” for Media Tour Interactions. Make sure that is selected.

dave mozealous // Posted at 10:39 am on February 12th, 2008
5

[…] earlier post by Dave Mozealous showed how easy it is to add FLVs to your slides using Engage. He also noted later on that you can embed FLVs directly into your slides using a SWF shell, but […]

6

[…] Use Engage to Add FLV Video to Your Slide […]

7

Thanks much for this great tute, Dave!

1) If using a slide-level Engage Media Tour interaction to display the FLV, what are the ideal FLV pixel height and width dimensions I should use in order to achieve optimal video quality?

2) Should I specify certain dimensions for the overall Articulate Player to prevent the User from resizing it to a larger size that might compromise video quality? If so, what dimensions should I specify for the Articulate Player?

3) When using the Media Tour interaction, how can I completely prevent the Backwards and Forwards arrows from appearing next the interaction’s volume control, as seen in this example?

http://www.articulate.com/community/showcase/Ignite/player.html

Thanks much!

Regards,
Marc Zoerb

Marc Zoerb // Posted at 1:24 pm on March 3rd, 2008
8

I have found that using Engage with FLV that are more then 5 min in length, is not a very good option. It seems slow and bulky, when there is only one slide in the powerpoint. I can’t imagine what it would do when you have 5 slides showing video that is 5min or longer in length, plus additional content slides. Anyone have other suggestions?

Mindy // Posted at 5:05 pm on March 11th, 2008
9

Anyone looking to download FLV files from youtube.. I highly recommend Tooble.

Simply favorite the video in youtube, then download in one click. Nice and painless.

Speakeasy // Posted at 12:37 pm on March 17th, 2008
10

This blog gave me the idea for a solution to the times when you’d like to be able to show more than one photograph in an Engage interaction (e.g. a Process step, or a Tab, etc).

Simply create a new Media Tour and load your photos, one into each item. In the Interaction Properties section set the playback to have the interaction to advance by itself.

Open a program like SnagIt and play your Medi Tour. Capture just the photos portion of the Media Tour as it plays through as a screen movie. Save it or convert it to a swf movie file. Video2SWF is a good cheap program for this.

Your new video will, in effect, be a slideshow to use in any interaction where you once were only able to show one photo.

Steve Lyne
Tamworth
Australia

Steve Lyne // Posted at 6:31 am on April 14th, 2008
11

This info is great, but I’ve yet to see an explanation on how to bring in a .flv and sync with the slides. That is, advance to the next slide at “x” point in the video. (cue points, etc).

thanks.jim

jay // Posted at 12:44 pm on September 19th, 2008
12

I am using engage to play a 1 minute flv file. When the video is finished the user must click on the advance button to continue. I would like the presentation to continue to next slide after interaction automatically. Is this posible?

Martin

Martin // Posted at 6:51 pm on September 24th, 2009
13

I am using flv videos in Engage, and have selected ‘include playbar’ on the slide, but no playbar is included. Is this referring to a unique playbar specific to the flv, or the Articualte master controls playbar? Any reason why nothing shows up?

sdavies // Posted at 6:51 pm on October 28th, 2009
14

Hi Dave,

Have you in anything in the works for how to buffer an FLV?

Articulate works super but the 3-5 second pause with a blank screen before each video is a killer 🙁

http://www.knowledgescreen.com/rapidvideo

Cheers
Mark

Mark Dorosz // Posted at 6:40 pm on November 3rd, 2009
15

Is there anyway to force the user to view the whole FLV video the first time and then allow FF/RW in subsequent viewings?

Doug Swenson // Posted at 7:45 pm on November 25th, 2009
16

Hi Mark Dorosz,

One thing that you can consider doing is inserting a “faux” loading animation in PowerPoint. When the FLV starts, it will be “on top” of the loading animation and will be hidden. This will give your users the impression that the video is loading and will make the presentation appear seamless.

Brian Batt // Posted at 10:17 am on November 30th, 2009
17

Hi Doug Swenson,

If you want to force a user to view an FLV video and then allow FF/RW in subsequent viewings, then you can do the following:

1. Create 2 slides that each contain your FLV file
2. Go into slide properties
3. For the first slide, select the LOCK option and then right click and select Hide in navigation
4. Adjust the branching so that the first slide will jump the second slide (so that the user doesn’t see the video again)
5. Adjust the branching for the second slide so that it doesn’t “go back” to the locked slide
6. Publish your presentation

By using the method above, here’s what your user will experience:

1. The user will hit the first FLV slide that will be locked (no rewind or FF)
2. When the user is done, they will advance to the next slide (skipping the FLV that can be FF and RW)
3. With the branching set up properly, the user will never be able to get back to the slide that contains the locked FLV…rather, they will only be able to get back to the slide that has FF and RW enabled.

I hope this helps!

Brian Batt // Posted at 10:39 am on November 30th, 2009
18

Brian,

I have tried what you suggested but with just straight FLV files inserted into a slide. Is there a way to allow the user to use the seek bar at the bottom of the player on one slide and not be able to use it on others?

Or am I stuck using Engage to do the trick?

Doug

Doug Swenson // Posted at 1:31 am on December 3rd, 2009
19

Hi Doug,

“I have tried what you suggested but with just straight FLV files inserted into a slide. Is there a way to allow the user to use the seek bar at the bottom of the player on one slide and not be able to use it on others?”

If you insert the FLV file by using the “Insert Flash Movie” and then choose to sync the video with the slide, the play and pause control will work for the user.

However, in order to prevent the play and pause control from being used, go to Slide Properties and lock the slide. Locking the slide will prevent the user from advancing the slide, pausing the video, rewinding the video or anything else.

I hope that helps. For your reference, I created a video screencast regarding your original request the other day. Here’s the link:

http://screenr.com/9J2

Have a good one!

Brian Batt // Posted at 1:35 am on December 3rd, 2009
20

Brian,

I feel like an idiot. That was so obvious in retrospect. “Forest for the trees” syndrome.

Thanks for all the help and patience. It works like a charm!

Doug

Doug Swenson // Posted at 3:27 pm on December 3rd, 2009
21

Brian,

Is there any way to just reference the FLV file once? I ask because with the FLV file included twice, it doubles the size of the presentation. Any way around that?

Thanks,

Doug

Doug Swenson // Posted at 4:40 pm on January 7th, 2010
22

Hi Doug,

Can you tell me why you’re using the same FLV file twice in the same presentation? If you could give me a breakdown as far as what slides they’re used on, I’ll see what I can come up with.

Brian Batt // Posted at 4:52 pm on January 7th, 2010
23

Further up this thread you mentioned to create two slides and lock one in order to force the user to view the entire video the first time through.

http://www.articulate.com/blog/articulate-101-use-engage-to-add-flv-video-to-your-slide/#comment-3716

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Doug Swenson // Posted at 5:08 pm on January 7th, 2010
24

Hi Doug,

If you insert the same exactly FLV file twice and it has the same name, then it will only show up once in your published output (look in the data / swf folder). So, it shouldn’t be a problem as far as bloating the size of your published files.

Please let me know if you continue to have problems.

Brian Batt // Posted at 5:31 pm on January 7th, 2010
25

I’m just now finding this thread on using Engage for FLV. I love it b/c it keeps the FLV in time with the Articulate scrub bar, and let’s Articulate controls control the video.

I have the Engage background set to transparent, but that only shows the PPT slide background graphic, not any text I add to the slide. Is there a way to have PPT slide text appear with Engage interaction, so I can title the video?

Oh, I’m using this awesome widget http://elearningenhanced.com/products/Widgets that lets me (finally) turn off the black Engage title bar. But now I have no way to add any other title via PPT. Thanks!

Chris // Posted at 10:58 am on April 29th, 2010
26

Does anyone know how to add videos to an Articulate presentation, similar to this page:?

http://www.asbmb.org/video/2010/Russell/player.html

Carlos Lijeron // Posted at 9:39 am on June 16th, 2010
27

When adding a movie, you would need to select to display in the presenter panel:
http://www.articulate.com/support/presenter09/?p=24

Justin Wilcox // Posted at 1:42 pm on June 16th, 2010
28

What are the exact dimensions of the video featured above with the title ” Jose+10 “. The caption indicates that it was a clip from an Adidas commercial. I was just wondering about the exact dimensions. Also very clean cool stuff! Keep up the excellent work!

Ronnie // Posted at 2:31 am on February 9th, 2011
29

Hi Ronnie,

It looks like the video is 515 by 290.

Brian Batt // Posted at 2:09 pm on February 9th, 2011
30

Dave: Forgive me if this is a silly questions, but is there a way to – using Engage to the FLV embed – to change the background image on the interaction?

Randy Borum // Posted at 8:27 pm on September 9th, 2011

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