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There's nothing like a video clip in a presentation to make the crowd sit up and notice. But editing digital video can be tricky. Myriad compression and file formats, coupled with hardware compatibility problems, make desktop movie production a chore. Here are four tips to simplify the process, cut through the hassles, and add top-drawer effects to your next small-screen blockbuster.

All in the Timing

Some programs let you change video speed for sophisticated special effects. Slow motion is a dramatic effect that's easy to do. In Adobe Premiere, drag the clip into your timeline and right-click on it. Choose Speed from the menu and reduce it to 25 percent. Delete the audio track for the slow-motion clip and substitute full-speed music. Fast video playback can be good too—try mixing a speed of about 110 percent with a black-and-white filter and some digital noise for an old-fashioned look.

Stream Your Video

When you let users access video from the Web, remember that downloads can take a long time. Convert your movie into a streaming-video file that anyone can view. We recommend RealProducer 7, but if your potential audience is small, you can do it for free with the no-cost Real Producer Basic. Use its wizard to publish your movie to the Web—RealProducer can even create the needed HTML.

Production Decisions

Codecs (compression/decompression playback schemes) determine movie size, quality, playback speed, and what computers the video will play on. If you're producing a movie from a digital video camcorder for output to videotape, render your production in DV format. But if you're putting it on CD-ROM, produce your video in Apple's QuickTime codec.

Eye on Compatibility

FireWire (also called IEEE 1394 or i.Link) is like a USB port for DV camcorders—just plug it in to copy video from your camera to your hard disk. Not all FireWire cards work with all video-editing software. If you're just getting started, choose your video software first and then determine which capture cards are compatible.