How to embed a Syntehesia video as help

In this community post I will show you how to embed a video from Synthesia (or similar video generating software) into Softools. This is great for an introduction/explanation video for how to use Softools, so you can create a video explaining how to use the apps and navigate the site in general.

In the details below, the instructions relate to the use of YouTube as the source of the video. You may choose to use other video sources such as vimeo, or other video upload sites - The details we give below will be slightly different if you are using a source other than YouTube

At Softools, we use Synthesia to create videos on how to use sites and apps. Synthesia is a media generation platform used to create AI generated video content.

To be able to embed a video on Softools, you need an iFrame URL from a video. Synthesia videos cannot generate iFrame URLs and therefore you need to download the video and upload it to a site in which you can share the video’s iFrame URL, such as YouTube and vimeo.

After creating a Synthesia video, download this and then upload it to one of the sites in which you can share it - in this case we have used YouTube. 

After uploading it to YouTube, go to Softools and create a dashboard.

Make the layout 1x1 and ensure that you select for it to be global.

Scroll down to the tile and select the last option of an iFrame. This is where you will paste the URL for your video.

Next, you need to scroll down to dashboard layout and click the end button of </> as shown:

This allows you to use iFrames where you can embed URLs to access different websites through a Softools dashboard.

Go to the website that you want to embed, in this example, a YouTube video.

Then go to the YouTube video, right-click and select copy embedding link and paste it into the dashboard URL - delete all of the information after the set of quotation marks 

Then go to the YouTube video, right-click and select copy embedding link and paste it into the dashboard URL - delete all of the information before and after the set of quotation marks like so:

Select the required width and height (we suggest 1200 width and 800 height) and then set the alignment to centre with a transparent background. 

Click save

Go to the homepage section of app studio

Create a new homepage and label it as you see fit

At the bottom click the second button to use a dashboard

Select the dashboard you just created and save

Go to workspace, sign out and sign back in (for homepages this is required as you cannot simply resync it)

This should look like so:

Alternatively, you could create an image action button and add in the URL of the YouTube/Vimeo so that users can click the button to then be taken to the Synthesia video. For more information on image action buttons, click here.