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Insert an audio or video file into the active document

The Insert feature adds an audio or video file to the artboard wrapped in a MediaElement control, complete with a timeline. To use the Insert feature, the file must be one of the supported types listed in Essentials of media. (You can also use the Insert feature with an image file, but an image does not need a MediaElement, so it is added as an Image control.)

  1. On the Project menu, click Add Existing Item or Link to Existing Item.
  2. Browse to the location of the image, audio, or video file that you want to add to the current project, and then click Open. The audio or video file now appears in the current project and can be accessed in the Files list in the Projects panel.
  3. Under Files in the Projects panel, right-click the audio or video file you just added, and then click Insert. Or, if you want to add the media file as a child element in another element in the document, double-click that element under Objects and Timeline in the Interaction panel to make it the active element, and then insert the audio or video file. Alternatively, you can double-click the audio or video file instead of using the Insert menu item.
    • If a timeline is selected before insertion, the media will be inserted into that timeline, and the media will be scheduled to start at the current playhead location. For example, if the playhead is at time=5.0s on the OnLoaded tab when the media is inserted, the media will not start playing until 5 seconds after the document has been loaded at run time.
    • If no timeline is selected, a new media timeline will be created and the media will be added to the new timeline at time=0s.
  4. You can now configure media-specific properties, and you can manipulate the media element timeline in the same way as you would manipulate an animation timeline. For more information, see the topics listed in Animation.
Tip Media displays on the timeline as a blue bar representing the duration of playing time. You can view the blue bar by expanding the inserted audio or video in the objects view under Objects and Timeline in the Interaction panel.
Warning In order to work with media in Expression Blend, you must have Windows Media® Player 10 installed on your computer. You can download Windows Media Player 10 from the Windows Media Web site.