Being that a couple people have wanted to post videos, I figured it’s about time to post a how to on posting videos.  I will put this into two parts, how to embed a random video that you find on the internet and how to post your own video to the site.  You’ve seen in the other how tos, the videos that are loaded into the posts, so I won’t make an example here, but it’s fairly simple process.

When you are running around YouTube and you find a funny video, fun video, touching video, or what ever all you need to remember is the address to that video.  That’s it.  So copy it from your address bar, and you’ll have it for safe keeping.  Next you’ll need to simply click the YouTube button: and you’ll have a little popup asking for some information:

So there’s the question.  It wants to know the location for the image you want to embed.  Luckily we copied that address earlier so simply paste in the address using right-click and Paste, or simply pressing Ctrl-V.  The hit the OK button and WHAM, you video is now embedded into the post…formatted and every thing.  The one item to note is that where ever your cursor is in the post is where the video will be embedded.  So if it’s in the middle of a sentence your sentence will be cut by the video.

Amazing, huh?

Now how to embed your own videos.  The first thing you need is a video on your computer.  That’s a guide for another post…but just use a video capture program from your video tapes or most digital cameras have a “movie” mode to take digital videos that you can use.

Next, I would reccomend getting a Vimeo account.  Why?  Vimeo has an excellent user interface, allows for many security features that you can’t get at YouTube and similar offering.  Why do I need security?  Well, I’m not sure I want personal videos available for the entire YouTube audience to see and comment on.  I still want to embed it on this site, but want to control the distribution.  That’s what I can do with Vimeo.

When you have your account, it’s as simple as clicking the Upload a Video button:

Click the Select File for Upload, and choose your video.  While it’s uploading (or even after), give it a Title and a quick Description.  On the left side of the page you’ll see a link called Privacy.  Click that and you’ll be given the information that you can use to limit the viewing.  Here are the things to keep in mind:

  • Uncheck the “Allow other people to download the source video.” — This will keep others from grabbing the main video.
  • Select This Video Is… “Private” — This will keep the video off the public listings.  That way you can control it’s distribution.
  • Leave “Nobody Else” selected — This is ok, you can still post it on a website.

This should be enough to control where the video is posted.  On the left be sure to select Save All Changes and your video is setup.  Sometimes Vimeo get’s really busy with videos so it take a few hours before it will convert, don’t post until the video is converted.

When you are ready select “Go to Video” and you’ll have a page similar to YouTubes’s that houses your video.  You’ll post in the exact same fashion as described above, except this time you’ll select the Vimeo button: and Paste in the address for the new uploaded video in the popup.

Simple as that!  Hope you enjoy!!

If you can’t see the YouTube and Vimeo buttons, try clearing your cache and reloading the Write Post page.   Or you can try holding the Shift button down while clicking Refresh.