PowerPoint has been a great tool in worship services for several years. Not only worship service but sermon presentations as well. Many Churches still use PowerPoint as the preferred presentation software. The thing about PowerPoint is lack of simplicity. It’s a great tool and perfect for those who are trained in PowerPoint application creation and presentation. But most have been educated by force only because there was no other solution out there 6-7 years ago and the newer solutions are expensive.

One draw back is text over moving backgrounds. There has been no support for this feature and no roadmap from Microsoft regarding text over moving backgrounds. This is the focus of my blog today. What can we do about this setback using PowerPoint. There is some good news. Third party companies have developed plugins for PowerPoint which allow for moving backgrounds (video backgrounds) to play in a PowerPoint presentation with text overlay. The last problem is the price. I’m convinced they have no idea who their customers are or who their customers can be. If they priced this right it would ’sell out’. Maybe one of the companies just might read this blog.

Where to get your moving background plugin

• Crystal Graphics PowerPlug
• 123PPT Video Background Player

The best price is from 123PPt but it is not very user friendly. The best all around plugin is from Crystal Graphics but it is a little more expensive.

The moving background file codec is WMV used in Windows Media Player. PowerPoint is very stable playing 4:3 640×480 size video.

To sum it up you can play moving backgrounds in PowerPoint but you need a plugin to get it done. If you have not started using worship software in your Church I highly recommend you check out software specifically designed for worship (EasyWorship, MediaShout etc.).