How To Screen Record Windows For Free With Powerpoint?

That is right, you read well - if you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer, you can now screen record for free your Windows desktop, with a very good quality.


Did you know that PowerPoint can screen record for free

That is right, you read well - if you have Microsoft PowerPoint installed on your computer, you can now screen record for free your Windows desktop, with a very good quality.

If a PowerPoint presentation is on presentation mode, you can turn the PowerPoint presentation into a video, and otherwise, you can turn anything on your computer into a video, simply by having it being shown on the screen, and including registering your microphone.

That is actually one of the best way to create amazing online courses such as this course on SAP Operational Procurement for purchasing processes.

You can use it to create your own tutorials, instructional videos or other material that you can then turn into online courses by creating your own online school – or simply share these screen recording videos the way you want. For example, you can either see below in PowerPoint how to record screen to include in your presentations, or you can use  RecordCast   to record your PowerPoint screen and edit the video online, before including the video in your PowerPoint presentation.

Of course, there are other ways to screen record for free on your computer:

Using PowerPoint to make a video

To start using PowerPoint to make a video, open a PowerPoint presentation, and go to a slide in which the video will be inserted.

It doesn't have to be the final location of the video - but at the end of the video recording, the screen recording will be inserted as a file that can be played from the presentation, and the video can be saved on the computer from there.

To start creating and inserting a screen recording using PowerPoint, open the menu Insert > Media > Screen Recording > Insert screen recording.

Making a screen recording video with PowerPoint

Before starting the screen record, an overlay will appear on top of the screen on the previously opened window, as PowerPoint guesses that by default you want to record the last open window before starting the screen recording.

If a presentation has been started in presentation mode, and you have switched back to the PowerPoint window by using ALT+TAB keys, then the screen recording will be the PowerPoint presentation.

You can activate the microphone audio sound recording, or select an area to record, or make it the whole screen.

If you choose to select an area to record, simply point at the top left corner of the area to record, click, and click again at the bottom right corner of the area to record.

To screen record the whole screen using PowerPoint, do this in the screen corners to have the whole screen recorded.

Then use the record button the start recording the area selected with or without audio as selected in the menu, by clicking on the record button, or pressing the keyboard combination Windows+Shift+R.

Recording the screen using Microsoft PowerPoint

Once the record start option has been clicked, a countdown will appear, allowing yourself to get ready for the video recording using PowerPoint.

The countdown will remind you that the screen recording can be stopped using the key combination Windows+Shift+Q, in order to end it without using the mouse to go to the top screen menu and show up in the final video.

After the end of the countdown, just do what is necessary to do for your video, and use the pop-up menu on top of the screen by moving your mouse there to pause, stop, activate or deactivate audio, or the keyboard shortcuts.

PowerPoint video recorded inserted in slide

After the video recording using PowerPoint has been stopped, a frame of the video will be inserted in the slide - clicking on it will start playing the recorded video right into PowerPoint.

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To save the video in a local file on the computer, and use the screen recording for other purposes than inserting it in a PowerPoint presentation, right click on the the video frame that is displayed in the slide, and selected the save media as option.

A Windows save media as pop-up will appear, allowing to select the file location destination, the file name, and eventually the file type, by it should be only possible to select media file mp4.

Insert camera recording in Powerpoint

Another step in order to create a complete presentation recording that includes your web camera inside the presentation is to insert a camera recording in Powerpoint.

There are two ways to insert your webcam recording in Powerpoint, either by adding slide by slide a camera recording, or by creating at once a video webcam recording that will be added by Powerpoint slide by slide.

Both options can be accessed in the menu SlideShow: Record Slide Show, and are labelled as follow:

  • Record from current slide, will only insert a video recording in current slide,
  • Record from beginning, will create a video recording from the first slide, and insert then in each slide the corresponding part of the video.

Once in the slideshow video recording screen, simply start the recording when you are ready by clicking on the Record button, and stop it at the end of the presentation. Exit the video recording screen by either pushing the Escape button on your keyboard, or clicking on the cross in the upper right corner, and the video recordings will automatically be added in your presentation slides, ready for presentation video export including face recording and presentation.

Once you have recorded your video and inserted in the slides, you will be able to export the whole presentation as a video file, including your slides and the video recording, see below how.

PowperPoint: export presentation with video

Now that you have inserted video recordings of your webcam in your slides, or other elements, you can export the presentation as a video file. If you are only interested in one slide that contains your presentation and your explanatation as a video, simply create a presentation with only that slide and the video recording.

Then, go to the menu File, select Export, and Create a video option. You will be able to export the whole presentation as a video file on your computer, that can be shared instead of the standard PowerPoint file export formats. If some slides do not contain video elements, they will be displayed for as long as animations are lasting, or the default timing you select.

If some slides contain video elements, they will be displayed as long as the video is playing. This is how you can simply record a presentation including both your face and the presentation.

PowerPoint: export to video with music

Exporting a PowerPoint presentation to a video file like MP4 for upload to YouTube with music is pretty easy, and can provide great results.

First of all, start by making the file available on your computer - in our case, we used a royalty free song from Loyalty Freak Music and saved it on our computer.

Then, open your PowerPoint presentation, go to the Insert menu and find the audio option. Select audio from my PC and find the audio file on your computer to insert it in your PowerPoint presentation.

The audio file will be displayed in current slide as an icon, and should be put on the first slide. From the PlayBack menu that appeared once the audio icon has been selected, make sure to check the Play Accross Slides box to have the music audio file playing by itself while the PowerPoint slides are being visualized or saved in a video.

Loyalty Freak Music: CC0 music

Once the audio has been added in your presentation, all you have to do is to export the PowerPoint presentation from the menu file, export, create a video, and select the video quality you want along with the seconds spent on each slide - any hidden slide will not be included.

Click on create video and your PowerPoint presentation will be exported to a video file with music included!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the detailed steps to use PowerPoint's built-in feature for screen recording on Windows, allowing users to capture video content for presentations or tutorials without additional software?
To screen record with PowerPoint on Windows, open PowerPoint, go to the Insert tab, and select Screen Recording. Choose the area of your screen you want to record, and click the record button. Once done, you can stop the recording, and the video will be inserted into your PowerPoint slide. This feature is a handy tool for creating tutorials, presentations, or other educational content.

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Yoann Bierling
About the author - Yoann Bierling
Yoann Bierling is a Web Publishing & Digital Consulting professional, making a global impact through expertise and innovation in technologies. Passionate about empowering individuals and organizations to thrive in the digital age, he is driven to deliver exceptional results and drive growth through educational content creation.

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