Embed Pictures and Video Tutorial

Google.com provides many services that can be used with your account. In this tutorial article, I will be using these services to explain how to embed photos and video using these services. You do not have to use Google's services. Everything I am going to show you can be done using other services.

In order to use Google's services you need to sign up for a free account. Signing up for an account is easy. You can sign up for Google by clicking here.

Once you are on Google's Create an Account page, Fill in your email address and choose a password. If you want your browser to remember your Username and Password check the box. Decide if you want to enable Web History by checking or unchecking the check box. Choose your location, enter the Word Verification, read the Terms of Service and click on "I accept" and the Create my account" button. Google will then send you a verification email. Go to your email account, open the email and click on the verification link.

Now that you are signed up for Google, go to the Google Home Page and sign in by clicking the "Sign In" link on the upper right area of your screen.

Embed Photos Using Picasa Web Albums

Google has a great picture hosting service called Picasa Web Albums. To enable this service, click on the "more" link in the upper left area of the Google "Home Page". Choose the "Photos" link in the drop down menu. The link will take you to the Picasa Web Albums page. Sign into Picasa by entering your password in the box on the right hand sign of your screen and it will take you to the Picasa Sign Up page. Fill in the text boxes it requires and click on the "Continue button".

It will take you to the "Get Started with Picasa Web Abums" page. You can download the Picasa Web Albums software or upload your photos with your browser. We are not going to download the software and just upload a photo directly in our web browser.

Click on the "Upload" button in the upper center portion of your screen. In order to upload photos you need to Create an Album. Enter the required information into the "Create Album" form that popped up. Make sure "Public" is chosen for "Visibility for this album" and click on the "Continue" button.

Click on the "Browse" button in the "Select photos to upload" box. Navigate to where you store photos on your computer and choose a photo. Click the "Open" button and the photo will be placed into the box. Click on the "Start Upload" button in the "Select photos to upload" box and Picasa will upload your photo to your album you just created. After a few second your photo will be finished uploading and you will be taken to the Album screen. You will then see a thumbnail (small picture) of the photo you uploaded.

Click on the photo and you will see a larger image of the photo. On the right hand side of yor screen click on the "Link to this photo" link. You will see two text boxes with text already entered, a "Select Size" drop down menu and a check box that says "Hide album link" Click on the drop down menu and choose a size. "Small 288px" and "Medium 400px" are the best choices for your post. Click the "Hide album link" check box and make sure there is a check mark in the box.

Now click on the text in the "Embed image" box and the text will be automatically highlighted blue. Right click or press Ctrl+V to copy the link. On your computer open up Note Pad by going to "Start" then "All Programs" then "Accessories" and choose Notepad. Paste the text you just copied into Notepad. It should look like this

a href= http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/vMPSOhNVtSsY0Z4WRcQYLw?feat=embedwebsite"  img src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_G419Nxvlr6k/SYeIxzz210I/AAAAAAAAABc/9geuw-6x6tg/s288/Cactus%20Spring%20Trail%20Feb%2001%2C%202009%20042.jpg" 

You will see img src= (shown in italics and bold above) highlight and copy the information in the (") double quotation marks (underlined above) starting in http and ending in .jpg. Click on the image icon on the text editor in the Body portion of your post (Second row far left). An "Image Properties" dialog will pop up. Paste the text you copied into the "URL" text box and enter a name for the picture in the "Alternative Text" text box. Click on the "OK" button and the picture will show up in your post. If you want to center your photo click on it and press the "Center Justify" icon on the text editor. You can also do align your photo inside the "Image Property" dialog by using the "Align" drop down menu but this is beyond the scope of this tutorial.

Embed Videos using YouTube.com

Embedding Video using YouTube is similar to embedding photos. Google owns YouTube and you can sign up to Youtube with your Google information. With YouTube you can either embed someone else video in your post or upload your own video.

To sign up go to the Google.com "Home Page". Click on the "more" link in the upper left area of the Google "Home Page". Choose the "YouTube" link in the drop down menu. This link will take you to the YouTube.com "Home Page". Click on Sign In in the upper right area of your screen. This link will take you to the "Sign in to YouTube" page. Click on the "Sign In with your Google Account!" link and it will take you to the "Sign in to YouTube with Your Google Account" page. Enter your Email and password and click the "Sign In" button. Fill in the required information to link your Google account with YouTube to sign up. You will then be signed in and on the YouTube Home Page.

Click on the yellow "Upload" button in the upper right area of your screen. You can either upload a Video File already on your computer or create one with your webcam. We are going to upload a video so click on the "Video File" link in the drop down menu. You will be taken to the "Video File Upload" page. Click on the "Browse" button in the "Select a video to upload." box on the left side of your screen. A "File Upload" dialog will pop up. Navigate to the video you want to upload and click on it. Click the "Open" button and the dialog will close and you will be back on the "Video File Upload" page. Click on the "Upload Video" button and enter the video information in the form that you are taken to. Click the "Save Changes" button. Click on "My Videos" button to go to your "Uploaded Videos" page. Click "Play" and you will be taken to the video's page.

On the right side of your screen you will see two text boxes "URL" and "Embed" with the text already entered. To the right of the "Embed" text box you will see an icon that looks like a gear. Click on the icon and you will see several options to customize the embedded video player. I am going to uncheck the "Include related videos" check box and check the "Show Border" check box. I am going to choose the green border and "455 x 364" which I think is the best size for a post. Write the size down. When you are done customizing the player click on the text in the "Embed" text box. It will now be highlighted blue. Copy the text and open up Wordpad. Paste the text into word pad and you will see something like this:

object width="445" height="364"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oNolkgkQq5o&hl=en&
fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"</param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oNolkgkQq5o&hl=en&fs=1&rel=0&color1=0x234900&color2=0x4e9e00&border=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="445" height="364"></embed</object

Find <embed src= (in italics and bold above) and highlight the text within the quotation marks. Copy the text. Click on the flash icon( the icon with a lowercase f on the icon. On the text editor, in the Body portion of your post (Second row, second icon from the far left) click on the flash icon. A "Flash Properties" dialog will pop up. Paste the text you copied into the "URL" text box. Enter the exact Width and Height you wrote down from the YouTube page. If you have done everything correctly you will see the video in the "Preview" box. Click on the "Advanced" tab. Uncheck "Auto Play" check box and click on the "OK" button and you will see an outline of a box with "FLASH" in the center on your post. Once your done creating your post press the "Save" button and your video will now show up in your post.

Embedding photos and videos might seem complicated at first but once you have embedded a few you find it is easy.