PPT2000: Animated GIF Appears to Drop Frames During Playback (238804)

SYMPTOMS

If you insert an animated GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) image into your presentation, Microsoft PowerPoint may appear to drop frames during playback of the GIF when you view your presentation in Slide Show.

CAUSE

PowerPoint uses Windows VGXDirectAnimation API technology to play the animated GIF images.

PowerPoint appears to drop frames or play some animated GIF images much faster than a Web browser because most browsers do not use VGX for playback. Browsers slow down the frame rate for animated GIF images which have frame rates that are higher (faster) than needed. Many animated GIF authors create images that use the smallest possible frame delay, about one one-hundredth of a second, to get smoothly animated movies; however, this is faster than the eye can perceive. When you play the animated GIF in a browser, the browser lowers the frame rate to make playback slower. Because PowerPoint does not do this with animated GIF images, it tries to animate as fast as possible, and frames appear to be dropped.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this problem, reduce the frame rate of the animated GIF image by setting the speed to one-fifteenth or one-tenth of a second. You must do this using animated GIF editing software. If you have animated GIF editing software, please see your documentation for how to set the frame rate of your animated GIF image.