Vidyard can do a lot. I mean, seriously A LOT.
But there are some cool things that even the most experienced users may not know about.
These hacks, tricks, and little-known features will take your Vidyard game to the next level and have you feeling like a video pro in no time at all.
Contents1.Vidyard Chrome Extension Hacks1.1 Set Up Keyboard Shortcuts for the Chrome Extension1.2 Hide Recording Controls1.3 Cut Out Background Noise Using Krisp1.4 Add Flair to Your Video with Snapchat Filters1.5 Make Your Speaker Bubble Bigger1.6 Move Your Speaker Bubble1.7 Doodle on Your Screen Recording1.8 Go Full-Screen on a Google Slides Presentation Without Losing Your Speaker Bubble1.9 Screen Record on Pages That Don’t Allow Screen Recording1.10 Use an External Mic and/or Camera1.11 Create an Animated Avatar Using Loomie1.12 Record From an Incognito Browser Window1.13 Record PowerPoint, Excel, and PDFs with Cam1.14 Screen Record Items That Aren’t in Your Chrome Browser2.Vidyard Video Viewing Hacks2.1 Multitask While Watching Videos Using Picture-in-Picture3.Vidyard Video Platform Hacks3.1 Switch Up Your Background Using Zoom3.2 Add Your Video’s Length to its Thumbnail3.3 Set a Custom Link for When Viewers Share Your Video3.4 Record a Zoom Call and Send it Directly to Vidyard
Vidyard Chrome Extension Hacks
1. Set Up Keyboard Shortcuts for the Chrome Extension
Nothing makes you feel like a pro quite like knowing keyboard shortcuts. With the Vidyard Chrome extension, you get to choose your own.
Keyboard shortcuts are available for four key controls: Activate the extension, cancel recording, pause/resume recording, and restart recording.
Click the puzzle piece icon in Chrome then choose Manage Extensions
Click the three line “hamburger” menu in the top left corner of the screen and choose Keyboard shortcuts
Scroll to the extension labeled “Screen and Webcam Recorder – Vidyard” and type your desired shortcuts into the boxes provided
You set whatever you like for each, so long as it includes one of the following keys:
Mac: Command, Ctrl or Alt
Windows: Ctrl or Alt
2. Hide Recording Controls
Every time you create a screen or webcam recording using the Vidyard Chrome extension, a set of controls shows up on the screen and appears in your final video.
But they don’t have to.
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
Click the gear icon to visit the settings tab
Untick the box marked Show recording controls
Note: This pairs well with using keyboard shortcuts to control the Chrome extension.
Create Free Video Messages
Easily record and share videos.
3. Cut Out Background Noise Using Krisp
Whether it’s chatter in an open office or your dog barking in the background while working from home, background noise can be a serious distraction in your videos.
Krisp is a Chrome extension that lessens background noise and it works with the Vidyard Chrome extension. That means you can record videos with crisper, cleaner audio (even if your workspace is anything but).
The free version allows up to 120 minutes of use per week. Just toggle it on, then start your Vidyard recording.
4. Add Flair to Your Video with Snapchat Filters
Ephemeral messaging app Snapchat is well-known for its fun, entertaining, and sometimes downright strange filters. Dog face filter anyone?
But did you know that you can actually get those same filters on your desktop and use them in your Vidyard webcam videos? It’s true!
Download Snap Camera and follow installation instructions
Open the Snap Camera application
Browse or search for a filter you like
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
Choose Snap Camera as the video input under Recording Input Options
Hit Start Recording
Record Your Webcam
Easily record and share webcam videos.
5. Make Your Speaker Bubble Bigger
Have you ever wanted your speaker bubble to take up more of your screen when you’re doing a hybrid screen record-webcam video? Now you can.
Resize your window until it’s only a fraction of your full screen (about one-quarter of the screen works well)
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension and choose Screen + Cam then Tab Only
Click the Start Recording button
Your speaker bubble will take up a significantly larger portion of the screen
You can resize your window to adjust the size of your bubble
Bonus: If the thing you want to record with the large speaker bubble is a Google Slides presentation, do these two things before opening up the Chrome extension.
In Google Slides, hit Present
Then, select the icon that looks like four tiny arrows pointing at one another or Command+Shift+F to Exit full screen
6. Move Your Speaker Bubble
This one isn’t, strictly speaking, a hack. It’s just a super cool little-known feature. Simply click on your speaker bubble and drag it where you want it to appear on your screen.
Note: You can combine this with the bubble resizing hack to really customize the look of your hybrid screen record-webcam videos.
7. Doodle on Your Screen Recording
Ever wanted to underscore a point you were making or draw viewer attention to something specific on a screen?
Good news! It’s totally easy with a little-know built-in feature.
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
Choose either the Screen + Cam or the Screen option
Hit Start Recording
In the Chrome extension control panel (in the bottom right of your screen), click the pen icon to Toggle Draw Controls
Choose from three pen size options by clicking the dot
Select your pen color by clicking the paint palette (your ink will be gray by default)
Use your cursor to draw on you screen
Whatever you draw will begin to fade in a few seconds, making it easy for you to highlight multiple things (for instance, if you’re recording a how-to video).
Free Screen Recording
Easily record and share your screen.
8. Go Full-Screen on a Google Slides Presentation Without Losing Your Speaker Bubble
While presenting from the Google Slides edit screen—which shows thumbnails of slides along the left-hand side of the screen along with edit options along the top—is a popular option, sometimes you want to minimize potential distractions.
This Vidyard hack makes the slide you’re presenting the focus of your screen.
Click the downward arrow next to Present in the upper right-hand corner
Choose Presenter view to make your slides full-screen within your browser window
Close or minimize the Presenter view popup (you don’t need it)
To avoid having black bars around your presentation, resize your browser window to fit your presentation
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension, choose the Screen + Cam option and select Tab Only
Hit Start Recording to begin capturing your screen
9. Screen Record on Pages That Don’t Allow Screen Recording
Some sites don’t allow you to begin a screen recording, but that doesn’t mean you can’t record those sites—just that you can’t start there.
Open up your desired unrecordable site in a tab
Open up a site that allows recording (such as Google) in another tab
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension, choose the Screen + Cam or Screen option and select Full Desktop
Begin your screen recording on the other tab, then flip to the site you’d like to record
Once you’ve finished your recording, you can use the Trim option on your video edit page to remove the beginning portion of your video
Note: An alternative option is to do a Tab Only recording where you begin on the recordable site, then immediately navigate to your desired site. As with the other option, use Trim as needed.
10. Use an External Mic and/or Camera
You don’t have to rely on your computer’s built-in webcam or your headphones. If you want to bump up the quality of your video messages, you can connect an external camera and mic.
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
Click the downward arrow next to Recording Input Options to view sources
Select your desired cam and mic from the appropriate dropdown menus
Create Free Video Messages
Easily record and share videos.
11. Create an Animated Avatar Using Loomie
Want an animated video without the hassle of… learning how to animate? There’s an app for that. LoomieLive allows you to create an animated version of yourself and then use it in asynchronous video recordings (or on video calls).
Download LoomieLive for desktop and follow installation instructions
Get the Loomies mobile app from the Apple App Store or Google Play
Use the mobile app to customize your animated avatar
Open the Loomie desktop application
Open the Vidyard Chrome extension
Choose LoomieLive Camera as the video input under Recording Input Options
Hit Start Recording
Use the LoomieLive control panel to give your avatar some extra flair by waving, giving a thumbs up, laughing, and more
Note: The Loomies mobile app is only available for users in the U.S. Users outside of the U.S. can still use the desktop app with a default avatar, but cannot customize it.
12. Record From an Incognito Browser Window
Need to record something on an incognito browser? You’ll have to allow the extension to work in that mode.
Right click on the Vidyard Chrome extension and select Manage Extensions
Scroll to Allow in incognito
Toggle to ON
Start an incognito browsing session and sign into Vidyard
Google will prompt you to allow Vidyard to use your camera and microphone—select Allow
Proceed as usual
13. Record PowerPoint, Excel, and PDFs with Cam
Because the Vidyard Chrome extension is a Chrome extension, it can only record from Chrome which means you must have a Chrome window open and begin your recording from there.
You have a couple of options for recording media that’s not in Chrome.
If you’d like to include a speaker bubble from your camera in your screen recording, then you need to get your desired media into your browser.
For PowerPoint, Excel, and PDFs, one of the easiest options is to simply import your file into Google Slides, Google Sheets, or Google Drive so you can view it in the browser.
If you don’t need the cam, then you can follow the instructions for the next Vidyard tip.
Free Screen Recording
Easily record and share your screen.
14. Screen Record Items That Aren’t in Your Chrome Browser
If you’d like to record something on your desktop, you have a couple of options.
Option 1: Use an external monitor and open the Chrome extension to begin the recording from there, but select the other monitor for the actual recording area.
Option 2: Shrink the size of your browser as much as possible and hide it behind whatever it is you’re trying to record. You can use the Trim function to remove the portion of your video that shows the resizing once you’ve finished recording.
Note: You will not be able to include a speaker bubble in these recordings. They will have to be screen recording only.
Vidyard Video Viewing Hacks
15. Multitask While Watching Videos Using Picture-in-Picture
This is a great productivity hack, especially for long videos. Using Google’s Picture-in-Picture extension, you can watch a Vidyard video in a small window while on another page.
Install the Picture-in-Picture extension
Open a Vidyard sharing page and click play on the video
Navigate to another website
Reposition the video in a desirable spot on your screen (optional)
Continue watching while you do something else
Vidyard Video Platform Hacks
16. Switch Up Your Background Using Zoom
With the rise of remote work and proliferation of video conferencing, virtual backgrounds have become more popular than ever.
But, you don’t have to restrict your virtual digs to your Zoom calls. You just have to set up a call where you’re the only participant.
Open up Zoom and click New Meeting
Once in, click the upward arrow next to Stop Video and select Choose Virtual Background…
Select your desired virtual background and close the popup window
Click Record and choose where to save your meeting recording
Once done, upload the recording to Vidyard
Bonus: With the Vidyard for Zoom integration, you can push your Zoom recording directly into Vidyard. Visit our Knowledge Base to learn about the requirements and set it up in your Vidyard account.
17. Add Your Video’s Length to its Thumbnail
Want viewers to know how long the video they’re about to watch is before clicking play? There’s a Vidyard tip for that.
For this one to work, you have to use the Vidyard Player API on your webpage to add additional metadata to the thumbnail.
Get the snippet of code and instructions in this Knowledge Base article.
18. Set a Custom Link for When Viewers Share Your Video
When people share your video, it’ll push to the video sharing page by default.
But, there may be times when you’d like the video to be viewed in the context of the web or landing page it lives on rather than the sharing page. Luckily, you can actually customize that sharing link so that shares of the video will direct to that page instead.
In your Vidyard library, navigate to the video you’d like to change
Under the Settings tab, go to Player Design
Click the Edit button
Open the Share Options menu
Toggle the Custom Sharing Link option to ON
Enter or paste the web address that you’d like video shares to be directed to under Link
Note: The URL must begin with http:// or https://
19. Record a Zoom Call and Send it Directly to Vidyard
Did you know that Zoom actually integrates with Vidyard? Good news—it does!
Even better news: That makes it easy as pie for you to record a Zoom meeting and send it directly to your Vidyard account.
Whether it’s a team lunch and learn you want to save for those who missed it, an interview with an influencer you plan to share on social, or a sales call you’d like to review later, you can quickly and easily save all of your Zoom calls in Vidyard.
The integration lets you automatically generate English-language captions for your Zoom recordings, secure your video, share it via a Vidyard hub, and more.
Find out more about what it does and how to set it up through this Knowledge Base article.
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