PPT98: PowerPoint 98 Doesn't Support Animated GIFs

When you insert a picture that is an animated GIF into your PowerPoint presentation, the picture will not animate. When you view your presentation in Slide Show view, your animated GIF will not animate. When you save your presentation in HTML format, your animated GIF will not animate.

PowerPoint does not support the animated GIF format. By default, the GIF graphics import filter used by PowerPoint to import an animated GIF into PowerPoint strips away all but the first frame of the graphic. Even if you save your presentation to HTML using the GIF option, there is no way for PowerPoint to play back that animated GIF, because the animated GIF has already been converted into a static single frame GIF image.

This behavior is by design.