Adding an animated background to your PowerPoint slides can make your presentations more visually interesting and engaging for your audience. With some simple steps, you can easily create animated backgrounds using videos or GIFs.

Selecting a Video or GIF for the Background

The first step is to find a suitable video or animated GIF to use.

For videos, make sure it is high quality and loops seamlessly so it plays smoothly as a background. Landscape orientation works best.

For GIFs, choose one with a short smooth loop rather than lots of jerky motion. Transparent background GIFs allow your slide content to show through clearly.

Sources:

Search video sites like Pexels and Pixabay

Convert your own video files
Search GIF databases like Giphy or GIFER

Inserting the Animated Background

Once you’ve chosen your video or GIF, inserting it as a background is simple:

Go to the Insert tab > Video > Video from File (or Online Video for a web-based video).
The video/GIF will appear on your slide. Resize and position it to fill the slide.
Right click the video > Send to Back so slide content appears over it.

Tip: Check Playback > Loop Until Stopped so it loops continuously.

Customizing the Background

There are various customizations you can make to your animated background:

Adjust size/position

Add color filters
Crop start/end points
Adjust transparency

Add animation effects like pans and zooms

Go to Video Tools > Format to access these options.

Enhancing Slide Content Readability

Your slide text and images need to stand out clearly against the busy background:

Use high contrast colors – dark text on light background works best.
Increase font size for text and scale up any images/logos.
Add outlines, shadows or solid color block backgrounds to key content.

Place text into a textbox shape and send to front to stand out.

Presentation File Size Considerations

Videos and GIFs can make your PowerPoint file size very large:

Compress videos as much as possible without losing too much quality.

Reuse one background video across multiple slides rather than a different one on every slide.
Check file size as you work and aim to keep presentations under 50MB if possible.

Troubleshooting Issues

There are a few common issues to watch out for:

Looping problems – Ensure “Loop until Stopped” is checked under Playback tab.
Large file sizes – Try a compressed video format like MP4 or reduce length/resolution.
Slides not advancing correctly – On Transitions tab, untick “On Mouse Click” option.

Tip: Test the presentation in Slide Show mode as you build it to catch any issues early.

Adding animated backgrounds can make for more memorable and visually appealing presentations. With the right video or GIF and a few simple PowerPoint steps, you can quickly create animated backgrounds to wow your audience.