PowerPlugs for PowerPoint

A big thanks to reader danlwil for pointing :) me to PowerPlugs: Video Backgrounds for PowerPoint. PowerPlugs from Crystal Graphics is a line of plugins for PowerPoint, and this particular plugin lets you (finally!) use moving backgrounds in PowerPoint. With it, you can take those awesome worship backgrounds you've been wanting to use, put them into PowerPoint and then key or put up the worship lyrics over the motion backgrounds. If you're using PowerPoint for worship, you need to check it out. This would open up a whole new world to you and your congregation. Moving backgrounds are a powerful tool for worship.

Here's danlwil's comment left on a blog post I wrote recently about how, as far as I could tell, you couldn't key text over moving backgrounds in PowerPoint:

We use PPT for our productions. There is a video player plugin by chrystal graphics that allows moving video in PPT... It is a memory hog, and a little clutzy... just this year they updated it to work in presentation mode... That helped alot... transitions are a bit sketchy and it (along with Microsoft is a bit unstable)... however.. I've learned to switch between multiple computers which gives me better flexability and stability.

So... I haven't used the PowerPlugs plugin myself, and danlwil does list a few caveats about the functionality of it, but if it lets you use motion backgrounds, it's definitely worth looking into. It looks like it will run you $149. So, it's not free but it's not as expensive as some of the other solutions and it looks like they offer a satisfaction gauranteed or your money back type policy. Check it all out for yourself here. And if you do end up using it, leave us some comments with your thoughts so we can pass those along to others.