Install and Disable FlashBack

This post will show you how you can download, install, and disable FlashBack, a free PowerPoint add-in that automatically rewinds inserted Flash movies in PowerPoint slides.

1. First download FlashBack from Shyam Pillai's site...
   
   
2. Next unzip/extract the downloaded files to a location on your computer. Make sure this is not on your Desktop, or any location where you may move or delete files often. Make a note of the location where you extracted the files. Within the folder created, you'll find a file called FlashBack.ppa (see Figure 1).
   
   
   Figure 1: Extracted FlashBack files.
   
   
3. Now launch PowerPoint, and choose Tools | Macros | Security to bring up the Security dialog box that you can see in Figure 2.
   
   
   Figure 2: Change Security Level to Medium.
   
   
4. If your Security Level is set to High or Very High, change it to Medium. Don't worry about demoting the security level now because you can set the security level higher once you have installed FlashBack.
   
   And if your Security dialog box does not show the Very High option, don't worry -- all versions of PowerPoint don't provide that option.
   
   Click OK to get back to PowerPoint.
   
   
5. Choose Tools | Add-ins to bring up the Add-ins dialog box that you can see in Figure 3.
   
   
   Figure 3: Your Add-ins dialog box may not be as crowded as mine, but that's not an issue!
   
   
6. Click the Add New... button to bring up the Add New PowerPoint Add-in dialog box that you can see in Figure 4. Navigate to where the FlashBack.ppa file is saved on your computer, select it, and click OK.
   
   
   Figure 4: Find FlashBack.ppa, and select it.
   
   
7. You might now see a Security Warning dialog box, as shown in Figure 5.
   
   
   Figure 5: The Security Warning box looks a little scary!
   
   
8. Click Enable Macros to get back to the Add-ins dialog box (refer to Figure 3). Click the Close button on this dialog box to get back to PowerPoint.
   
   
9. You should now see the FlashBack option in the Tools menu within PowerPoint (see Figure 6).
   
   
   Figure 6: FlashBack shows in the Tools menu in PowerPoint.
   

Note: You may want to change your Macro Security Level back to High or Very High once you finish installing FlashBack.

To see how you can use FlashBack, look here...

Disable FlashBack

You might want to disable FlashBack for a while, especially if you want to rewind your Flash movies manually using VBA. To do that, choose Tools | Add-ins, and uncheck the FlashBack option in the resulting dialog box. Click Close to get back to PowerPoint.

Labels: add-in, flash, flashback, insert, powerpoint