There are a few reasons why an animated template might not play correctly in PowerPoint. 

 

1. Some animated templates use an embedded MP4 Video file. MP4 support was added in Windows 8 and will play automatically. In previous versions of Windows, Quicktime is required to play it. Quicktime is a free video player available from Apple available here. If you install Quicktime and reboot your computer, the animated template will play in PowerPoint. MP4 (H.264 codec) is the recommended format from Microsoft (details). It is the best option for offering very high quality video while retaining the smallest file size. 

 

2. Some animated templates only have the animated video applied to the Title Slide layout. Make sure that you have the title layout applied to a slide in your presentation.

 

3. Some animated templates built for PowerPoint 2007 & 2010 use the WMV format. This format will not play on a Mac without special software to load Windows Media Video Codecs. If you are on a Mac and suspect that this might be the case, please contact our support team and we will assist you further. 

 

4.  If it still isn't animating, follow these steps to check the animation on the Slide Master.

    1. Open your PowerPoint presentation that has the animated template applied.

    2. Go to the View tab, under Master Views group click on Slide Master.

    3. Select the Title slide from the thumbnail list. It will be the top indented slide. 

    4. Hover the mouse pointer over the video and single click it to select it (you should see a movie play bar show up across the bottom when you hover the mouse over it. The video might be layered under other objects, so you may need to move shapes and transparent images out of the way to select the video.)

    5. With the video selected. Go to the Video Tools, Playback tab and click Preview. Most video files will be embedded inside your presentation. If the preview does not play, right-click the video file and click Upgrade Media Object. When that is finished, click Preview again to see if it worked.

 

    If a box pops up that the video is missing, click Find to browse for the video. In some animated templates, additional supporting AVI movies are downloaded with the template. These files should be saved in the same folder as your PowerPoint presentation. If you downloaded the template as a ZIP file from www.presentationpro.com, the files will be in the ZIP.

    1. Open the ZIP file you downloaded and extract all of the files from the ZIP file you downloaded to your desktop. There should be 1-2 PowerPoint files and 1-2 AVI movie files.

    2. Go back to PowerPoint and the Find video window should still be open. Browse to your desktop and select the appropriate video file that matches your template. (If you are on a Title slide, the video will have the word 'Title' or '_TLE_' in the file name. Otherwise, if the slide you are working on is a text slide, the video will have '_TXT_' or say 'Text'.

    3. Once the video is found, right-click on it and click Upgrade Media Object and PowerPoint will optimize the video for you and embed it into the presentation to make things easier for you.