So - what kind of video can I put on my blog?

You are limited by file size. To use the methods described below, the limit is (I believe) 100 MB. You should be able to post any of those little compressed video clips that your digital still camera takes with no problem. If you have regular video footage from a digital camcorder or a bunch of photos made into a slideshow, you may have to compress.

The only method I am familiar with to compress video is Apple's imovie program. That is what I use to make photo slideshows and to edit videos (there is a PC program called Moviemaker that, I expect, does the same thing). The end result is a very large file but it can be compressed. Here is what you do:

Create your movie

Select 'Share', 'Quicktime

















Then select 'Web Streaming'

















Click 'Save'. Your video should be compressed to a usable size that can be uploaded to your blog.

Uploading video to Blogger - 2 choices

The first choice is by far the easiest but I have had error problems with it occasionally. I will share that method first and then a slightly more complex but more stable method. Extremely large videos will not upload. I believe that Google Video uploads must be less than 100 MB. If you want to know how to created smaller video files - I will handle that in the next post.

Blogger

I used this to post the Grace Christmas song video below.

If you have not blogged before, review my earlier postings on blogging. To upload video just click on the little film icon at the top of your new post window (second from right - next to the eraser). It will take you through the stops of browsing your hard drive to find the video and then uploading. You can add text you post and - you are done! Very easy.

Google Video

I used this to post the Tessa Christmas song video below.
Go to the Google video website by clicking here

You will see a page that looks like this:














Click on 'upload videos' on the upper right under 'my videos'. This will open up a screen that walks you through the steps to find and label your video. Youe video will appear on the web for all to see. If you don't want this, select 'unlisted'.

When the upload is completed (may take a while) go to 'See all your uploaded videos' and view your video on Google Video. You will see a screen like this:














Now you need to get the html code to add to your blog. I know - this sounds complicated - but, trust me, it's not. Click on the blue 'Email-Embed' button at the top right of the screen. Then click on 'Embed Html'. This brings up the Html code into the small window below. This will tell Blogger where to find your video. You need to copy this code (highlight it and then control C) and then go to the new post in blogger where you want to put your video. Click the tab at the top that says 'Edit Html'. You will see any text you have entered thus far. Just put the cursor in the spot where you want the video to go and paste the code (control V). Go back to compose view by clicking on the 'compose' tab and you will see your video and can continue adding text and images.

One note - this pasting of Html code showed me a trick that overcomes one of my biggest problems with Blogger. It has been so hard for me to get pictures where I want them. I resize and drag but the window is so small and the pictures seem to jump all over the place. What I discovered is that you can switch to Html view, find the code for your picture (based on location in relation to text - it is the long string of unintelligible text), cut (highlight and control X) it, and then paste it where you want it - so nice!

Using Bloggers upload tool

I successfully added the previous Tessa video using Google Video and pasting the HTML into my post. This was not at all hard but involves a number of steps. I will now try using Blogger's built in video uploader. I have tried it in the past with no success.

Grace's Christmas song:



It worked! So there are two ways to add video. You can decide.

Adding video to your blog

Jenny is working on her family Christmas video. She is quite good at editing, creating, and burning her creations but she says getting it on to the web for me to see (I live 1000s of miles away) is tricky. So - I thought I would share some ideas here. I have only posted video a few times so this may not be the most streamlined method. Please add comments or email me about better ideas.

Here is a test - just to see if what I tried works.

Tessa's Christmas song: