WordPress Tip: Using Embedded Video

When I went to make my first post here on the SMCC blog last week with the embedded video, I ran into an issue that often crops up with using WordPress, in my experience: namely, WordPress’s rich text editor has a habit of mangling your code when you attempt to put in an embedded video.

It may not do it every time, but it happened to me enough times when posting to Stephen’s OptiMINDzation blog that I had to go find a solution for it, and I remembered the issue again when using my new profile here at the SMCC blog.

First things first, though - if you don’t know how to put a YouTube or iFilm video into your WordPress blog post to begin with, my great tip is going to be useless. So quick run-down, using YouTube as an example:

1.) Go to the page on which the video you want is located. We’ll use one of Stephen’s videos, of course: A Clean Bill of Wealth: LIVE Seminar Footage. You can click that, if you want to follow along, as it will open in a new window.

2.) Look at the box on the upper-righthand side that contains the video’s information. If the uploader allows you to embed the video (and some don’t, the tricky people that they are), you’ll see a smaller box labelled “Embed” with some code in it. Highlight that code and copy it.

3.) Come over to your WordPress blog area where you write your posts, and simply paste that code in there where you want it to go. If you want to center it, you can do that by adding < center > at the beginning of the code and < / center > at the end (but without spaces).

4.) Post it.

5.) Bask in the glow of having added an embedded video to your post, for you are awesome and will one day win at the Internet when you get enough of the necessary skills under your belt.

Now, the issue of WordPress’s rich text editor mangling your code will pop up during Step 3 or Step 4, if you are going to end up experiencing it. Since the rich text editor is designed with the extreme newbie in mind, it tends to not take kindly to you adding code that it doesn’t think belongs. For example, you can use the editor to add an image easily with a couple of mouse clicks. You can also add a hyperlink easily in the same manner. But, say, if you try to add a hyperlink manually, by typing out the whole code for it yourself, and especially if you are trying to add a target=”_blank” so your url opens in a new window, the rich text editor might take offense and mess it up. If you don’t catch that it has messed it up and you go ahead and post it, you will end up with a post that contains things that look like hyperlinks surrounded by a bunch of symbols and gobbledy-gook.

But don’t worry - there’s a way around it. If you find you are having difficulty making WordPress display your embedded video, follow these easy steps:

1.) Log into your WordPress dashboard and locate your profile. There will be a link to it at the very tippy-top of the righthand corner of the browser window next to the “Howdy” message (it will say either “My Account” or “My Profile,” depending), or you can navigate to it by clicking the “Users” tab and then the “Your Profile” tab.

2.) Look at your profile page. Locate the checkbox labelled with “Use the visual rich editor when writing.” It will be either at the top of your profile (as it is in my SMCC blog account) or the bottom of the profile (as it is in the OptiMINDzation blog). On a side note, I think the differences in how the dashboards are set up come down to the SMCC blog having multiple users and profiles, while the other has only one user and profile. Or it could be a version issue. Either way, I will outline where things are located in both dashboard versions I have access to.

3.) Uncheck that box and save your changes. While you’re in there, you may also want to take the opportunity to fill in the blank spots in your profile, if you are so inclined.

4.) Try adding your embed code and posting again.

After disabling the rich text editor, you should have no problems with posting an embedded video code, like so:

You can enable the editor again if you wish to use it for posts that don’t contain video, but if you have issues with making them display properly, disabling it should correct it.

So, to wrap things up, if you haven’t used video like this in your blog yet, go ahead and give it a try. If you have tried it before and it didn’t work out properly, give my work-around a go. You can use the video of Stephen that I linked to, or you can use one of your own. Video really enriches your blog, just like still images do, and it allows your readers to become more engaged and involved with your content. Everybody likes pictures, and everybody likes pictures that move. It is also a great opportunity for some viral and social networking action, which we will explore more in upcoming posts.

Stay tuned, happy blogging, and as Tim Lee would say…Viva la SMCC!

Cheers,
Annie