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Government campaign user guide

How to use Video or Embed /You Tube or Vimeo Embed blocks

A Video block lets you add video media to your page. You can:

  • upload a video you have made yourself (using a Video block)
  • upload a video hosted elsewhere, for example, YouTube (using an Embed block) 

How to use a Video or Embed block

You will need to add captions to your own videos, but those uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo will already include captions. You may also want to add a transcript link for better accessibility. Find out more about how to make videos accessible.

Video 1: a video showing how to ‘Check your state pension’ on GOV.UK. Once you press play there is an option to show captions on the bottom menu.

How to add a Video block

To add an Video block to your page:

  1. Click the plus (‘+’) button to add a block to your page.
  2. Type ‘video’.
  3. Click the ‘Video’ option.
  4. Click ‘Upload’ to add your own video to the site.
  5. Click ‘Insert from URL’ to add a link to a video 
  6. Click ‘Add caption’ beneath the video .
  7. Type a description of what the video shows.
  8. Type ‘Link to a transcript of the video’.
  9. Select this text then click ‘Link’ from the contextual menu.
  10. Add the link to the transcript page on your site.

How to add an Embed block (YouTube or Vimeo embeds)

To add a YouTube or Vimeo Embed block to your page:

  1. Click the plus (‘+’) button to add a block to your page.
  2. Type ‘Embed’.
  3. Click the ‘Embed’ option.
  4. Click ‘Upload’ to add your own video to the site.
  5. Click ‘Insert from URL’ to add a link to a video (if you use a YouTube or Vimeo link this will change to an Embed block). 
  6. You can alternatively use the specific YouTube or Vimeo Embed blocks – there is no difference between Embed and YouTube embed.
  7. You can ‘Add caption’ beneath the video – type a description of what the video shows.
  8. Transcripts : (optional to add a transcript but highly recommended for Accessibility)
  9. Add link text and hyperlink to a separate page containing the transcript

Note on YouTube “Shorts” vertical video format

If you try to embed a “Shorts” format video it will not work and display at all unless you change part of the URL, described below.

Also note, in order to embed it will have to appear in landscape view (like the usual traditional YouTube), and not portrait. You will need to make a judgement how this appears on your page.

  1. To embed the “Shorts” format, take the URL – for example https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5-3QqNU0Mr0
  2. To embed, you need to edit and change the the “shorts/” part of the URL to “watch/?tv=”
  3. In this example, https://www.youtube.com/shorts/5-3QqNU0Mr0 becomes https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-3QqNU0Mr0
  4. Save and preview with the new URL link.

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