BCT 400 (CAT 250)

Click on the LINK to go directly to HOW TO INSERT MOVIES AND SOUNDS INTO .html

What is a .avi file?

The place to begin to get a definition of .avi file is to go to http://www.emTech.net and use the TECH ENCYCLOPEDIA. Here's another site that might be helpful in understanding .avi files.

Example .avi files

Now that you know what an .avi file is, here are some examples:

Here's one of Kobe Bryant doing a dunk (click here to see it). I got it at this site.

Here's one featuring the Mandolect (when you get the photo, click to make it play). Here's where I got the .avi file.

How to Find .avi files

You can do searches for .avi files but my favorite, and I think the most productive, is a http://www.altavista.com where you can actually ask it to search for an answer to your question, just as I have done below:

You can see that I have asked, "Where are some .avi files?" Here's how the answer looked:

I got lots of choices AND the format in which they are presented is much, much more useful than what I got using the other search engines. AltaVista seems to have a better handle on helping us find .avi files. Here are some of the other screens from that search:

You can click on "About this video" and learn about its contents, etc. You can see the size of the file, too, and a little about the content, though sometimes they are not about what they appear to be about! Be forewarned!

Here's another page from this same search.

I clicked on this .avi file as my choice. and here's what I got for the .avi file (oh... you may have to click it to get it to run!). I selected it from this page. Well...okay.. so it may not be high on your TO COPY list.!!!!

Which brings me to the next step...how to get a copy of the .avi files you DO like. Typically you just click on the .avi file, let it run, and then do SAVE AS just as you would any other file. Sometimes you can "right click" and get SAVE AS for the option, or "right click" on the link and get SAVE LINK AS or SAVE TARGET AS option. Either way, SAVE AS is the key. Do SAVE AS and save the file; you can change the name or leave it the same.

A TIP: BE SURE THAT YOU PUT YOUR .AVI FILE IN THE SAME DIRECTORY WITH YOUR POWER POINT OR HOMEPAGE OR PRODUCT YOU ARE PLANNING TO USE IT FOR. MOST OF THE TIME, WHEN I FIND A FILE I LIKE, I SAVE IT TO A DIRECTORY OF FILES ON MY HARDRIVE CALLED AVI FILES. That way, when I find something, I just save it into that general directory. THEN... when I am making a Power Point or a tutorial or something for which I want an .avi, I go to that directory and COPY the one I want into the directory with the product I am making. If you have questions about this, send me an email.

SO... now you know what an .avi file is, where to find some, and how to save them. To find out how to insert them into your products, like Power Point, click here.