Embedding Videos

We support embedding videos from YouTube, Vimeo and Panopto. We don't allow users to upload videos to the department web servers, as they can get quite big and storage space is limited.

For advice on producing and uploading videos for the website, please talk to the External Relations Manager.

There are two ways to insert videos:

Using Insert Media

This works for YouTube and Vimeo:

1. Click "Insert Media"
2. Paste the video URL into the address field at the top (you may need to scroll up a little)
3. Click "Add"
4. Click "Save and Insert"

This will insert the video at the default size (800×450 - 16:9 aspect ratio), or scaled down according to the page/device width. You will see a preview of the video in the content editor.

For example:

Using a Shortcode

Alternatively, Shortcodes can be typed directly into the Body (content) field. This works for YouTube, Vimeo and Panopto, and allows you to customise the embed size / aspect ratio:

[youtube:ID|WIDTH|HEIGHT|TITLE]
[vimeo:ID|WIDTH|HEIGHT|TITLE]
[panopto:ID|WIDTH|HEIGHT|TITLE]

For example:

[youtube:tlANqfYn214|640|480|Laying of the Penrose Paving]

Outputs this:

You will not see a preview in the content editor in this case.

Tip: To determine the optimal aspect ratio, go to the video page on YouTube.com, then right-click the video and click "Stats for nerds". The optimal resolution is the second value next to "Current / Optimal Res" (displayed as WIDTHxHEIGHT@FPS). You can tweak it as necessary though - the video will automatically be scaled/cropped/padded as appropriate. Also be aware that the preview ("thumbnail") image isn't always the same ratio as the video itself.