When creating interactive trade show kiosk displays, company lobby television reels, event background stages, or automated product demonstrations, presentations often require video footage to play continuously without stopping. By default, when a video finishes playing on a PowerPoint slide, playback freezes on the final frame until the presenter manually restarts it or advances the slide.
In Microsoft PowerPoint, you can configure embedded video files to loop seamlessly, automatically rewinding to the first frame and replaying indefinitely until you decide to move forward.
Enabling Continuous Video Looping in PowerPoint
Follow these steps to configure an embedded video to loop:
- Open your presentation in PowerPoint and click the video on your slide to select it.
- On the top command ribbon, click the Playback tab that appears under the Video Tools heading.
- Locate the Video Options section.
- Tick the checkbox labelled Loop until Stopped.
- Tick the checkbox labelled Rewind after Playing to prevent visual glitches between repetitions.
Configuring the Video to Play Automatically on Slide Transition
To ensure the video begins playing immediately when the slide appears without requiring a mouse click:
- On the same Playback ribbon tab, locate the Start: drop-down menu.
- Change the selection from In Click Sequence to Automatically.
- If you want the video to expand across the full display during presentation mode, tick the Play Full Screen checkbox.
When you start your slide show (F5), the video will immediately launch, play smoothly, rewind, and loop indefinitely without manual intervention.
Setting Up a Self-Running Kiosk Loop
If your looped video forms part of an unattended self-running trade show kiosk:
- Click the Slide Show tab on the ribbon.
- Click Set Up Slide Show.
- Under the Show type options, select Browsed at a kiosk (full screen).
- Click OK.
This mode locks navigation so passersby cannot disrupt your looping presentation without pressing the Escape key.