Welcome to a short tutorial on how to use PowerPoint to make YouTube videos. This really is a 10step process, and I find it fairly easy to use, and I hope you will be using it as well as to make your YouTube video.

⏱TIMESTAMPS⏱
00:00 How to use PowerPoint to make a YouTube video
00:14 Research your YouTube topic
00:34 Add PowerPoint slide content
00:57 Prepare your PowerPoint animation
01:32 Write and edit your video script
02:05 Record audio for your YouTube video
02:33 Insert audio into PowerPoint
03:24 Recording PPT slide show
03:46 Export custom thumbnail
04:09 Export PowerPoint to video file
04:33 Upload PPT video to YouTube

Step #1 is to research your topic or story. I am the host of the Finance Storyteller channel, and I explain financial vocabulary as well as walk people through financial statements as examples. So what I do is to make sure I understand the topic first myself before I explain it to others, and share it with the world as a YouTube video.

Step #2 is to prepare your PowerPoint slide content. So let me show you an example of a topic I have recently researched called Deferred Tax Assets, which is an asset on the balance sheet. As you can see, my slides are highly visual, and the font size is fairly big in order to make sure that people can watch it even on a mobile device.

Step #3 is to prepare your PowerPoint animation. In order to do this, you switch on the "Animation Pane" over here on the menu. As you can see, for example on this slide, I build up my slides stepbystep. First, I do the header, and then I show the revenue line, cost line, earnings before tax, all the way down to the journal entry at the bottom. I build up the slide in such a way that I don't overwhelm the viewer with too much information at the same time. I really take it stepbystep, so it's easy to follow.

Step #4 is to write and edit your script. Before recording, I make sure that I write down everything I want to say in a Microsoft Word document, and I print out this document after editing. I want to make sure that it is not too long, so my rule of thumb is that a 5minute audio track is about one page of Microsoft Word. So make sure that it flows well, and that you don't get stuck on one element of your story for too long.

Step #5 is recording the script. What I do is: I go into my vocal recording studio, which is also a sauna. :) With the heating off, by the way. I close the door to make sure there is no background noise once I am recording. The sound quality for recording on my mobile phone is good enough for the videos. You want to make sure that you test the sound quality first, and that you don't have too much background noise or hiss on the audio track.

Step #6 is to insert your audio into PowerPoint. So for me that means synchronizing my phone first. And then I make sure that I insert the audio file by going to Insert Audio Audio on my PC, and I go to the DTA file (which is short for Deferred Tax Assets), I drag this to the far right so it's outside the visible screen, I check that the volume setting is high enough, and I make sure it doesn't end in the middle of the presentation. So I put this setting to 20 slides rather than the actual 10 slides of my presentation, and I want to animate this as part of the click sequence. Those are very important settings for this to work. So you click OK, and your audio track is inserted.

Then we go to step 7: recording the slide show. You go to the file, Slide Show Record Slide Show Start recording from the beginning. You click on slide and animation timings. Once you hit "Start Recording", you will hear the audio track once you click on it, and you can time your visuals to the audio track to make sure they are in sync.

Step #8 is to export a custom thumbnail, and this is a great feature in PowerPoint. You go to File Save As, and you click on the JPEG format over here, and you have a high resolution screenprint of your first slide, which you can use as a thumbnail on YouTube.

Then step #9 is to export to video file. Once again, to File Save As, and you go in this dropdown box (type) to WMV or MP4, whatever you prefer. This will convert your PowerPoint including audiotrack and animations to a video file, which can take quite a while depending on the speed of the processor of your computer.

Then step 10 is to upload to YouTube and to optimize. If you are a YouTube user, you have probably seen this screen before where you can upload. Once you uploaded, make sure that you add your end screen, your cards, and your subtitles, and that you have a good title, description and keywords, and that you add the video to playlists. And that's really it! I hope you will be watching the end result of what we have just done in the Deferred Tax Assets video:    • Deferred tax assets