Video

Adding video to your site

You can add video to your website in different ways using different formats. Video can be downloaded by a visitor or it can be streamed so that it plays while it is downloading. The most common streaming formats available on the Web are RealMedia, QuickTime, and Windows Media. You must download a helper application in order to view these formats.

Linking to video

The easiest way to add video to your site is to create a link to it. Just wrap the <a href="my_video_file.mov"> and </a> around the text you want your visitors to click. The browser will then download the file.

Embedding video

Embedding video directly into your webpage gives you more options. You can choose to load the video before, during or after the page loads. You can also control how long the video plays by determining how many loops it should have.

To embed video in a web page you need to use a HTML tag, just as with images. Instead of the <img> tag, you use the <embed> or <object> tag.

<embed src="filename" 
       width="200" 
       height="55" 
       autostart="true" 
       loop="true">
<noembed>
<bgsound src="my_video_file.mov" 
         loop=infinite>
</noembed>

Remember that the <embed> tag needs users to have the movie plug-in installed. If they don't have the right plug-in, they won't see the video.

Finally, try and make sure video on your site is accessible to persons who are hard of hearing or deaf.