Linking to Streaming Media Content from an Office Application

---

Updated July 27, 1998

Imagine being able to give a PowerPoint® presentation that includes streaming multimedia, or using audio and/or video to explain a tricky part in a spreadsheet. You can use Microsoft Office's ability to insert ActiveX™ controls to do these things quite easily.

The first step is to buy Microsoft® Office 97. Then go into your favorite Office application and follow these steps:

• On the toolbar, select View, and then select Toolbars. Select the Control Toolbox.
• From the items listed on the toolbar, select the Tools button.
• From the list of items, select "Microsoft NetShow Control".
• Use your mouse to draw a box approximately the size of the ASF (you can change the proportions later).
• Right-click on the box you created, and a dialog box will come up. Select "Properties."
• There are many parameters that you can change here. Consult the Windows Media Player SDK for more details on the parameters. To get one created right now, just scroll down to the "Filename" parameter and type in the path to your ASF file (for example, mms://servername/path/asfname.asf or http://servername/path/asfname.asf).
• Close the Properties dialog box.
• For a program like PowerPoint, just put your presentation into Slide Show mode, and when you get to the page with the ASF content embedded in it, it will play!