I have a MacBook Pro, and I'm looking for some software which can enable me to create video presentations. This would be similar to a set of slides containing text, images and videos (e.g. made in PowerPoint), but where the video plays the entire presentation (including transitioning between slides, and playing each embedded video within the slides). I have tried a few different software solutions, but each of them has its own flaws:
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Microsoft PowerPoint. This is very nice to use and has lots of features, but with the following key flaw: if you are using PowerPoint on Mac OS, and you export the presentation as a video, then any embedded videos will not play and they will just be rendered as images. The videos will only play if you export using Windows. This seems to be a well-known problem that Microsoft are not willing to address.
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Apple Keynote. This solves the above problem by enabling you to export as a video, and the embedded videos will play automatically. However, you have less control than with PowerPoint, particularly when it comes to the videos. For example, you cannot loop a video X times; you can either play it once, or play it forever. Other examples are that you cannot crop videos, and you cannot have complex triggers for the timing of when videos start.
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Apple iMovie. This allows you to have detailed control over the length of individual videos, but it's very limited for making presentations. Most notably for me, you cannot have more than two embedded videos playing at once. And there is significantly less control over text and embedded images than with PowerPoint or Keynote.
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Google Slides. This is fine for very basic presentations, but it is significantly limited when it comes to embedding videos. Furthermore, I don't think there is even an option to export a presentation as a video.
There are also "professional" level video editing solutions, such as Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro. However, these are firstly very expensive, and secondly far too complex for what I need. All I really need to be able to do is create a simple presentation with embedded videos, and then export this as a single video. I don't need to do complex video editing of the individual videos.
Effectively, I am looking for functionality at the level of PowerPoint, but with the ability to export to a video whilst working in Mac OS.
Any suggestions?
Best Answer
One product that I’ve used with good results is OpenShot Video Editor. It’s open source and cross platform (Mac, Windows, Linux) and best of all free.
I don’t know about incorporating actual Power Point presentations because the software includes its own mechanisms for transitions, but I was able to include images created (exported) from Power Point into the video.