How to Link to External Media in Microsoft PowerPoint

See Microsoft PowerPoint: Tips and Tricks for similar articles.

Instead of embedding an audio or video clip in your presentation, you may instead want to link to it. Linking to the file will allow you to edit it independent of PowerPoint, and it can also help keep your presentation's file size down. Follow these simple steps to link to a media clip.

This feature works the same in all modern versions of Microsoft PowerPoint: 2010, 2013, and 2016.

  1. Select the Insert tab and in the Media group, select Audio or Video. Select Audio or Video
  2. Select Audio on my PC or Video on my PC.
  3. Navigate to the clip.
  4. Select Insert, and from the drop-down list, select Link to File. Link to File