How to embed Jing screencasts in a web page
Some folks on the EDTECH list don’t like that Jing saves screencasts as .swf files. If you choose not to upload your screencasts to screencast.com and share them that way, you can still share them by embedding them in a web page. Here’s how you’d do that.
- Go to your Jing settings and take note of where you are saving your files.
- In that same dialog, set up your video embed code. If you’ll be uploading your .swf files to the same directory on a server, go ahead and set up the path in the src setting, e.g. src=”http://yourserver.com/jing/[filename]”. The [filename] will be replaced with the actual filename when Jing generates the code. Also, set up the width and height. Since I’m not sure where my .swf files will live, I set up the path manually after I upload. The code I use is:
<embed src="[filename]" HEIGHT="[height]" WIDTH="[width]"> - After capturing your video, choose to embed it. The embed code is automatically copied to your clipboard.
- Paste the embed code to your web page.
- Share the URL.
If you want to add a Jing screencast to Blackboard, you could just paste the embed code into Blackboard (if the screencast is on screencast.com or your own, non-Blackboard server), or put your HTML page with the embed code and the .swf file in a folder, zip it up, and upload it to Blackboard.
February 13th, 2008 - 12:46 pm
Greetings from the folks at the Jing Project. I’m curious as to the concerns you mentioned specifically about the .swf format we’re using to encode our videos. In your opinion, which are formats seem more useful and why? How would you use Jing differently if it supported additional file formats?
I’d appreciate any feedback you might have and want to appreciate our excitement here at TechSmith that you are find Jing so useful.
Kind Regards,
Tony Dunckel
Product Manager, The Jing Project
TechSmith Corporation
February 13th, 2008 - 1:56 pm
Tony, my impression is that folks don’t exactly know what to do with the .swf files because they can’t be played in media players like iTunes, WMP, QuickTime, etc. I think they’d like to see some video format that could be uploaded to YouTube or other video sharing site, perhaps even a direct to FLV export. I think they also want to be able to edit their screencasts. Personally, I love Jing for putting together quick demos. I’d hate to see it become some monolithic application, but perhaps there is a happy medium that can be reached.
I hope others will add suggestions here. Thanks so much for listening and being receptive to input from users.
February 13th, 2008 - 4:12 pm
[…] For those that would like to use other servers, and to tweak the embed codes to fit better into your pages, check out this detailed Big IDEA post from Todd. […]
February 13th, 2008 - 4:19 pm
I’m with Todd. I want to be able to add Jingcaptures to YouTube.
February 13th, 2008 - 4:35 pm
Thanks Todd & Heather - So, go with me for a sec. Why “YouTube” in particular? Popularity? Specific features? Do you already have a slew of videos up there?
I only ask because uploading to YouTube isn’t necessarily quick sharing since it takes time (several minutes or longer) to upload, re-encode and publish a video on YouTube.
This gets at what is the real value of Jing - fast & easy content creation or fast & easy content creation & sharing?
Would love all your thoughts on this…
Thanks - Tony
February 14th, 2008 - 6:04 am
I tried Jing and liked the interface, but it was the upload time to screencast that took too long. Granted, I was at home with satellite vs the T1 at school, but the swf generated took forever. I have camtasia and will use that instead, then upload the swf to the school server. I was hoping for soemthing that would work well for the kids in my classes. I’ll have to try it again at school. Embed codes for edublogs or wordpress type platforms that really work will help. I haven’t gone back to try out the ones given above. I’ve put gom or vlc on many of the computers in my lab, just so the flv, swfs will play. These players seem more versatile than the windows media player that came with the computers.
February 14th, 2008 - 6:34 am
Todd and Heather are right on target about getting a video format that is accessible–like FLV, MP4. Jing is a great tool, but I feel locked into a format that I can’t convert using ANY no-cost tool available on the web.
As a school district administrator, I’d like to unleash a wave of creativity using Jing. I’d like to encourage educators and students to use Jing to create short video tutorials…but the tools available to convert SWF to FLV or something more accessible just aren’t available.
For example, I’d like to take Jing created items and publish them on TeacherTube.com and YouTube.com…or just save them as files I can embed in Keynote or Powerpoint presentation programs. Keynote, TeacherTube, YouTube accept FLV as their native format, while PowerPoint would require the file to be converted to either MP4 or WMV/AVI depending on your operating system, Mac or Windows respectively.
SWF is completely worthless and I feel like I’m forced to use SWF for some other, unknown reason. As such, I don’t use Jing or SWF and resentment.
Until Jing produces content in an easy to use format–like FLV–I won’t be using it or encouraging its use. As I see it, there are two choices if you want to address it:
1) Create an SWF to FLV converter that’s available for free on your site.
2) Change the default export format from SWF to FLV.
By far, option #2 is the preferred option.
Thanks, Tony, for listening. My appreciation goes to Todd for the tutorial (although I won’t use it since SWF is such a pain to work with when embedding in a presentation).
To encourage feedback, I’ve revisited this in a short blog entry on my site as well:
http://tinyurl.com/2kpr5c
Best wishes,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net
February 14th, 2008 - 8:30 am
Wow, what have I started
Let me clarify that I was attempting to show that swf isn’t that bad a format for sharing. In fact I prefer it to the FLV screencasts I’ve seen for the quality–no comparison in my eye. I’ve never met a presentation program I was so dedicated to that I couldn’t leave it for a few moments to switch to a web page for a demonstration. And I’ve never had a problem uploading to screencast.com, plus it’s pretty cool to have the ability to ftp from Jing (maybe just maybe we could get scp/sftp capability too, please?). That said, I understand that people have different workflows.
For those that prefer non-swf formats, wouldn’t Camtasia be a better fit? There’s even a free version available; I know the freebie is not the latest version, but it would probably let you get your movie out to an editable and YouTube-able format.
February 14th, 2008 - 9:16 am
Camtasia doesn’t work on Mac, and Jing is SO easy to use…why not augment it with multiple export formats rather than a format no one can convert to something else, like SWF?
Todd, you still get points for a great blog entry! Again, what makes this so frustrating is Jing’s ease of use coupled with an export format that isn’t that usable for other purposes except through Screencast.com.
I hope Tony will bring this up at Jing!
Miguel
February 14th, 2008 - 9:31 am
Most of the videos we create for work are “locked down” and only available to our registered students. If I create a tutorial, on my own time, I don’t want to limit access. I could load it on my own server, as you suggested, but why shouldn’t I be looking to share it with more people through YouTube or TeacherTube?
February 14th, 2008 - 9:36 am
@Miguel ah yeah, as a recent convert I forgot Camtasia isn’t available for Mac. I guess I just don’t get the “not usable” part; it’s viewable in a web browser, in a web page (which can be shared). You can upload it to any server you have access to (not just screencast.com). You can embed it in any web page you can edit (blog, wiki, whatever). Up next: embedding swf’s in ppt!
February 14th, 2008 - 9:58 am
@Heather I guess I don’t think about that because I don’t generally search or browse those sites. If I’m looking for something I google it and expect to find hits from any number of sources–one of those sites, a blog or wiki…do people really just browse those sites? For me, publishing on my blog _is_ sharing; I don’t need to use YouTube to share.
I suspect Jing could take advantage of those sites that offer API’s (like flickr), but the issue would be (again) the format; you’d probably be looking at *huge* file sizes that would need to be uploaded, or increased processing time on the local computer before uploading.
It certainly will be interesting to see how Jing evolves based on user input!
February 14th, 2008 - 11:05 am
I certainly agree with Miguel and others about the .swf format for Jing being problematic. Adding an option to save as .flv would be a step in the right direction for educators. While I know how to convert .flv files to something editable in Movie Maker, it would be great to have the additional option to save the format as .mpeg
February 14th, 2008 - 11:11 am
Update: Embed jing movies in PowerPoint
February 14th, 2008 - 11:11 am
Actually, if you have SnagIt, you can import SWF files into Powerpoint presentations with the SnagIt Powerpoint Plug-in
Would you like it if Jing had a similar plugin for Powerpoint?
February 14th, 2008 - 11:24 am
While SnagIt plug-in for PPT is a nice touch, built-in functionality for FLV/MP4/WMV support is more desirable. This is because SnagIt is WINDOWS only, while many use Mac as well. And, SnagIt has to be installed…yet another program teachers have to obtain permission for from higher-ups.
Simplify…enable export of FLVs or MPEGs from Jing.
Thanks,
miguel
February 14th, 2008 - 11:50 am
Yes, one could use SnagIt. I use SnagIt for all the instructional documents I create for training. However, SnagIt is not free and many teachers will not spend bucks on a program they might not use just to have a third-party app to get Jing files into Power Point. Also, never under-estimate the lack of administrative privileges teachers have to download software on their computers.
February 14th, 2008 - 11:53 am
@Alix see my comment above Casey’s on embedding Jing in Ppt.
February 14th, 2008 - 12:18 pm
Actually, Snagit is available for free. More about what’s available free here:
http://tinyurl.com/37nebb
Take care,
Miguel
February 14th, 2008 - 1:23 pm
Miguel,
Actually that is not correct. Camtasia Studio and SnagIt are both licensed software. Please check your links because the offer you refer to is no longer available.
My question was if people would find it useful to see Jing have an output method for powerpoint, like SnagIt. Thank you, Todd, for mentioning that you can import SWF files to Powerpoint without any extra plug-ins.
Would people still find Jings to be useful if it were uploaded to youtube and resized to 320×240? Screen text and much detail would be lost at such a small size, even when rescaled to fullscreen. Quality tends to be the biggest concern when it comes to screen captures.
youTube screencapture example:
before youtube re-rendering, also at 320×240, for comparison:
http://www.screencast.com/t/RItlAT2n
February 14th, 2008 - 1:24 pm
Sorry, the blog did not like my embed tag from youtube:
link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OohRIBseyU
February 14th, 2008 - 4:10 pm
Casey - you’ve hit on one of the core issues at hand with YouTube or any video site in which the rescale your video to fit a smaller dimension. Photographic or real world content scales much better than does screen based content, which is why YouTube is such a great solution for your video-cam based content.
On top of this is that to make these sites work, they have to rescale your video to make it both viewable for everyone as well as affordable since they rely on an ad-based revenue model. One of the main reasons Jing relies so heavily on Screencast is because its core focus is on delivering high-fidelity content at the quality levels your originally produced it at. Doing so puts more ownership on the video author to think about the audience and how they will consume the video, but ultimately the viewing experience is much improved for screen-based content because of this.
Just a few of the common debates we have internally about how to best support the contradiction between the desire to use these sites and the reality of doing so.
Great stuff everyone - thanks so much. The Jing team has been reading this stuff all day.
-Tony
February 14th, 2008 - 4:30 pm
Tony, I’d rather have accessible content rather than content locked up in SWF format.
So…what’s the decision? Will you include support for FLV/MPG or just continue with SWF?
8->
Thanks for a wonderful product like Jing!
Take care,
Miguel
P.S. Casey, thanks for the tip. Things change and I appreciate you pointing that out! It makes Jing’s work all the more important.
February 14th, 2008 - 4:50 pm
@Miguel you keep using the term “accessible” and “locked up” but these don’t make any sense to me. SWF is just a file format, it’s not any more accessible or locked than DOC, FLV, AVI, WMV, etc. I can access SWF’s on Windows, Mac, and Linux; I can’t say the same for WMV. If you wanted something “accessible” or the opposite of “locked up” I guess you’d want to use ogg theora? I guess I’m just too thick to understand your gripe–is it just some philosophical problem with SWF, or the fact that you can’t slap a Jing video on YouTube? SWF doesn’t preclude you from doing anything you said you wanted to do above. (I’m not an apologist for TechSmith by any means, I’m just trying to figure out what the big deal is.)
February 14th, 2008 - 4:53 pm
My gripe, Todd, is that I can’t take that SWF file and drop it into Keynote or Powerpoint for use in a presentation.
Tell me how to do that easily on a Mac, and I won’t be so insistent.
8->
Take care,
Miguel
February 14th, 2008 - 5:56 pm
Ok Maybe I’m mising the point- but there are many ways to insert swfs into ppt… check this http://www.indezine.com/products/powerpoint/ppflash2.html Being a Windows user, perhaps they don’t work on macs? I’ve used both the toolbox and the swf point player to insert swf into ppt. Altho now that I have camtasia and snagit I just use those tools instead. It would be great to have something more automatic- but the quality is beautiful, especially compared to youtube and similar sites. I guess my only concern is file size, since my trials all ended up being very very big- 17-28 MB for about 90 seconds.
February 14th, 2008 - 6:02 pm
[…] Big IDEA » Blog Archive » How to embed Jing screencasts in a web page (tags: jing Tools/Apps screencasting) […]
March 10th, 2008 - 7:48 pm
i dont get it i made an untitled folder and in the jing settings i put in the code u told me to….and wen i click embed in the history on one of the jing videos it does not even work
April 15th, 2008 - 9:04 am
I want to be able to embed my Jing screencast into edublogs and I cannot figure out how to do it. I can link to it, but I want it to play in the window. I can put it on my school server, but the size is too large then for my blog window.
April 15th, 2008 - 9:29 am
@Michelle, your WordPress theme has a very narrow area for the post content. One strategy I’ve used to make screencasts more manageable in terms of size is to reduce the resolution on the computer as low as 800×600 to do the captures. Then, when you view it back at your normal resolution, it is a better size.
May 12th, 2008 - 8:42 am
agree please allow export other than as swf and also please make it easier for us to choose the embed size. When i try to embed it doesn’t rescale to the width and height I like.
June 11th, 2008 - 4:06 pm
I’d like to be able to save as an .exe file and send in an email, or link to a website.
June 11th, 2008 - 7:01 pm
@Maggie you can share screencasts via link to a website when you register with screencast.com; Jing will automagically u/l the file and put the URL on your clipboard for you.
July 12th, 2008 - 10:33 am
I love the quality but because I’m on a laptop, the screen res is always too big for my blog viewers and I cannot resize it cos it “crops” the video…
As a work-around, I’ve been using the “link” to each of my videos so that blog-readers can click on it, but I’d much rather resize them to fit my blog.
I don’t really wish to reset my screen resolution before each “quick” capture, it wouldn’t really be a “quick capture” if I had to do that (unless you have a fast way for me to do that without causing havoc with the other progs I’d have open at the time).
If there was a program that actually worked for converting the Jing .swf to a format that is easily resizable for blogs, or into a format to upload to YouTube so that YouTube can resize it.. ? I’d be 100% happy with jing
I still think it’s damn cool though
July 28th, 2008 - 2:34 am
I agree with Michelle, I LOVE Jing but want to embed them in my students blogs and web pages. I have been experimenting with Google Earth tours this summer and even when I only use 1/4 of the screen and run them very quickly (1 min and 30 seconds) the Jing file is 150Mb. With a 1Mb/s connection that will take 20 minutes to play on my blog or website. Even at 5Mb speed its 4 minutes, not very realistic. I need a way to shrink the Jing file to make it work. I want to be able to trade-off quality for useability. Hope Jing or someone can help
July 28th, 2008 - 6:03 am
Stuart and Michelle, why don’t you try uTIPu? Find it online at http://tinyurl.com/6ajbxs
You can do screen capture recordings to FLV and upload straight to YouTube. It’s Windows XP and Vista. For Mac, iShowU is an option.
Take care,
Miguel Guhlin
Around the Corner-MGuhlin.net
http://mguhlin.net
July 28th, 2008 - 2:18 pm
Miguel,
I will check out uTIPu on my “other” computer as well as iShowU. Thans for the tip. FYI, I received the following from Jing, seems they know that it doesn’t work well for “video type” capture like Google Earth. Would be nice if they posted it somewhere so people don’t spin their wheels. Thanks again for the leads
“We are aware of this issue, and currently it is a limitation of the SWF file container. Currently, Jing will not work well with full motion or high motion video, such as video from life, video games, or Google Earth. .
We will continue to develop Jing and hopefully we may find a better way to resolve this in a future release.”
August 22nd, 2008 - 5:34 am
Great discussion. I love Jing. Just have problems uploading to screencast.com from where I am (currently in Thailand). I also, have Camtasia, but for quick stuff Jing is more convenient.
October 3rd, 2009 - 2:54 pm
I agree that the single option file format is too limiting. I want to upload screen casts onto my website. I do not want a link that takes my students away from my site page. Unfortunately, I am unable to embed the Jing format, and am now looking for a solution, either via code or another app. Limiting users, I’m afraid, looses audience. Wasn’t it increased audience use that Jing wanted? Time to keep searching for a solution.
October 5th, 2009 - 8:06 am
@bev why can’t you embed in a web page?
October 13th, 2009 - 9:44 am
I believe that many of the extras you note are available in the Jing Pro upgrade (not free) Jing is an absolutely wonderful free tool…let’s not forget that it is FREE. I think to expect so many extras in the free version is not very realistic. Enjoy what Jing can do and if you require more, purchase the Pro version. It’s only 14.95 per year. That’s a deal if you ask me.
October 13th, 2009 - 11:07 am
@Bev:
Did you try contacting Jing’s Tech support for help?
It is possible to embed videos on your own website from Screencast, just copy the embed link that you see below your video when you view it on screencast and paste this in to your website’s HTML.
November 5th, 2009 - 4:11 am
Woah, I had no idea you could embed these things. I’ve been an avid user of Jing for about a year now, and find that I like it better than both Camsudio and Camtasia (I have all 3).
I always just upload my Jing recording to Youtube though, I didn’t know there was a way around that
Thanks for this!
November 21st, 2009 - 5:34 pm
I just started using Jing again and for $14.95/year (chump change) you can save your jings as MP4’s instead of swf’s; seems reasonable to me.