How to loop a video in PowerPoint

Loop until Stopped controls what happens at the end of the clip; the Start list controls what happens at the beginning. Microsoft describes the three options like this:

• In Click Sequence is the default. The video plays when you click anywhere on the slide to advance to the next step, alongside your other animations.
• Automatically starts the video as soon as you reach the slide, provided no other animation steps come before it. This is the usual choice for a looping background.
• When Clicked On plays the video only when you click the video itself, which suits a clip you may or may not need.

Using a looping video as a slide background

PowerPoint cannot set a video as the slide background through Format Background, but you can get the same effect. Insert the video, set Start to Automatically, tick Loop until Stopped, then on the Home tab choose Arrange → Send to Back so text and shapes sit on top. Clearing Show Media Controls on the Slide Show tab stops the play bar appearing when the mouse moves over it. A soft, low-contrast clip keeps text readable; see background video loops for what works.

For a deck that runs unattended, such as a stand at a fair or a screen in a waiting room, loop the presentation itself:

1. On the Slide Show tab, select Set Up Slide Show.
2. Tick Loop continuously until ‘Esc’ and select OK. Choosing Browsed at a kiosk (full screen) under Show type also turns this on.
3. Give every slide a timing: on the Transitions tab, tick After and enter the seconds, or use Rehearse Timings on the Slide Show tab.

Each slide’s video stops when its slide ends and starts from the beginning the next time round. If a video should keep repeating while its slide is up, tick Loop until Stopped as well and make the slide’s timing as long as you want the video to play.

PowerPoint for Mac

The Mac version has the same Playback tab, with Loop until Stopped, Start and Trim Video, and the same Set Up Slide Show dialog for looping the whole deck. Two differences matter: the trim dialog uses Nudge Forward and Nudge Backward buttons for fine positioning, and Compress Media is not available on a Mac, so shrink a large video before you insert it.

PowerPoint for the web

• You can insert video files up to 256 MB with Insert → Video → This Device. Microsoft recommends MP4.
• Microsoft states that playing a slide show continuously is not currently possible on the web.
• The web version has fewer playback settings than the desktop apps. If you cannot find the loop option you need, select Editing → Open in Desktop App at the top of the ribbon.
• A video that already contains its repeats plays the same way in every version of PowerPoint, which makes it the safest choice for a deck that will be opened in a browser.

Loop until Stopped jumps straight from the last frame back to the first. With a clip that was not filmed as a loop, that cut is obvious: the camera snaps back, a person reappears in a different place, the sound clicks. PowerPoint has no setting to soften it.

• To hide the jump: choose a start and end that match, or dissolve the end into the start, before inserting the clip. Then Loop until Stopped repeats a join nobody notices. See seamless loops for how to find a good loop point.
• To loop only part of a clip: Playback → Trim Video sets a new start and end, and Loop until Stopped then repeats just that section. If you want the section to play, say, three times and then let the rest of the clip continue, make that sequence in an editor first.
• To get a precise number of repeats: Loop until Stopped carries on until the slide changes. A file that plays exactly five times then stops needs the repeats built in; see loop part of a video.

• Embedding a video adds its full size to the .pptx. A linked video keeps the deck small, but the link breaks if the file moves or the deck is opened on another computer.
• A short loop plus Loop until Stopped is far smaller than a pre-looped file that lasts as long as the slide. Only build the repeats into the file when the join or the count needs it, and keep that file to a few cycles.
• In PowerPoint for Windows, File → Info → Compress Media re-saves embedded media as Full HD (1080p), HD (720p) or Standard (480p). Embedded subtitles and alternate audio tracks are lost.
• Trimming in PowerPoint does not make a separate shorter file; to save a trimmed clip for use elsewhere, Microsoft says you must compress the media first.
• For a background behind text, 720p is usually plenty, and a muted clip saves the space taken by sound.

loop.video makes the clip before it goes into PowerPoint. It runs in the browser and processes the file on your computer, so nothing is uploaded, and it is free with no watermark.

• Find the best loop picks the start and end frames that join most closely and rates the match, so Loop until Stopped repeats a clean join.
• Crossfade dissolves the end into the start when the footage never returns to where it began.
• Number of times builds a fixed count of repeats into one MP4, for the cases where PowerPoint’s endless loop is not what you want.
• Set Sound to Off for a silent background, and choose Size 720p and Quality Smaller file to keep the deck light. The line under Export settings shows the estimated size before you export.
• Select Export video, then Download video, and insert the MP4 with Insert → Video.

The export is re-encoded, it cannot speed a clip up or slow it down, and files are limited to three hours. The output is MP4 with H.264 and AAC, the format Microsoft recommends for PowerPoint.