Basic Working Procedures > Adding Video Files

Inserting a video is just as easy as inserting a graphic. Just click in the editor where you want to insert the video, select the Insert Video tool in Write > Insert Object and select the video file you want to use.

Please see About using video files for important information on using video files in your projects and support for video in the various publishing formats!

Productivity Tip

If you want to be sure that videos play reliably, use Flash video for CHM files, Flash or YouTube videos for WebHelp and M4V or YouTube for ePub (Apple iBooks only).

These instructions are for inserting a video file stored on your computer. See further below for inserting videos stored on YouTube and other video sharing sites.

1.Click in the editor at the point where you want to insert the video.

2.Select the Insert Video tool in Write > Insert Object or right-click and select Insert > Video.

DLG_Insert_Movie

3.Select Local Video, then click on the browse button in the File Name: field and select the movie file.

4.Set the video options.

5.Use Select Poster Image to select the placeholder graphic to be displayed in the topic when the movie is not running. If the video plays in a lightbox (see above) this image can be smaller than the actual video.

6.Click on OK to insert the movie in your topic.

In addition to videos from YouTube and other video sharing sites (see below), you can also insert videos stored online that are not "served" for streaming by such sites. For example, you can use this for video stored in a folder on your own website. You just need to use the Local Video option and enter the URL of the video file.

1.Follow the directions for inserting local video (see above).

2.Instead of using the browse button to select the video file, manually enter the URL of your video file in the Video File: field.

Important:
You must enter the complete URL and the complete file name. Include the http:// prefix and the extension of the file and make sure that upper and lower case are correct. Most web servers are case sensitive.

These instructions are for embedding a YouTube video. See above for inserting videos stored on your local computer.

Warning: If you embed YouTube videos in CHM files they will only be playable if the user's computer has an active Internet connection. In ePub eBooks embedded YouTube videos will automatically open in the YouTube app on Apple devices.

1.Click in the editor at the point where you want to insert the YouTube video.

2.Select the Insert Video tool in Write > Insert Object or right-click and select Insert > Video.

DLG_Insert_MovieYT

3.Select YouTube and paste the YouTube URL of the video you want to embed in the YouTube URL: field. You can use either the URL from the Address: field of your browser or the URL displayed when you use the Share button in YouTube.

Note: The URL you insert will be converted automatically!

4.Set the video options.

6.Click on OK to insert the movie in your topic.

The YouTube option is for videos stored on Google's YouTube site only. You can also embed videos from other video sharing sites but you must do this manually with an HTML code object, not with the Insert Video tool. This means that the video will display and play inline. You cannot use the Insert Video tool's lightbox option.

1.Visit the video site, select the video you want to embed and get the "embed code". This is usually available with a button labeled "embed". It will normally be enclosed in <iframe> or <div> tags.

2.Click in the editor where you want to insert the embedded video. Then select the Insert HTML Code Object tool in Write > Insert, paste the embed code into the editing box and click on OK.

That's it. This may not always work but you should find that it works fine for most common video sharing sites.

If you use screen video tools like Techsmith Camtasia or Adobe Captivate to create demos and tutorials there are some extra points you need to consider when inserting the movies they generate. Depending on the output format you choose, these tools sometimes output a whole "package" of files that also include a player and/or a Flash wrapper. If you want to use the entire package you need to embed the videos manually instead of using the Insert Video tool.

This is the simplest option. Just set your video demo tool to export the movie in the Flash SWF format. Then you can use the Insert Video tool directly.

1.Choose the SWF format for export in your video demo tool and make sure that you turn off any option for embedding the video in an HTML page.

2.Select the SWF file with the Insert Video tool in Help & Manual. This should be the only file you need to use, so you can embed it just like any other Flash SWF file.

This is necessary if you want to use an entire package of video files exported by your video demo tool. You cannot use the Insert Video tool in Help & Manual for this. You must use the Insert HTML Code Object tool instead.

1.Make sure that you export the video package to an empty folder so that it only contains the files you really need to use.

2.Add all the files except the HTML file exported by the video demo tool to the Baggage Files section in your Help & Manual project. (The HTML file contains the code you need to insert in your project topic.)

3.Open the HTML file in a text editor, locate the embed code and copy it to the Windows clipboard. This code is usually clearly identified with comments in the HTML file. For example, in Camtasia use the block of code labeled "Users looking for simple object embed tags can copy and paste the needed tags below".

4.Click in your Help & Manual topic where you want to insert the video, select the Insert HTML Code Object tool in Write > Insert Object. Then just paste the copied code into the editing box and click OK.

Videos in ePub eBooks will only play in the Apple iBooks® player on Apple iOS devices (iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch). They may play on some other devices but you shouldn't depend on it.

If you want to insert videos in your iBooks®/ePub eBooks you must use the M4V format and it must be encoded correctly with an Apple-compatible profile. If you don't use Apple QuickTime directly you can use the excellent free Handbrake tool, which delivers very high quality and comes with all the Apple profiles you need. It has a huge number of settings but you can ignore them. You just need to select the profile for the target device (iPad or iPhone/iPod Touch) and convert the video.

Handbrake website and download: http://handbrake.fr

Inserting videos

Inserting videos