Adding chapters to videos, especially long form videos, can have a dramatic effect on the stickiness of your video. This works well in many use cases, such as training or annual report videos, allowing a viewer to quickly jump to a specific area of interest. Brightcove uses WebVTT files for closed captions, but they’re also easily used for chaptering. Never heard of a WebVTT file? Don’t worry, it’s basically a text file. No coding skills are needed.
Creating your vtt file.
The first thing you need to do is create the WebVTT File. Here’s what the content of that file will look like:
- A WebVTT file describing the chapters of the video - for example:
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Copy and paste the content of this file into a new text editor on your computer. (TextEdit on Mac or Notepad on PC for example).
Note: Make sure the text file is plain-text not rich-text format
- Update the chapter names and the start and end timecode for each chapter.
- Save the updated file and change the extension to .vtt. (ex: filename.vtt)
Uploading your vtt file
Next you want to upload this file to the associated video in VideoCloud. You can find this option in the “Text Tracks” section of the video details panel. This is essentially the same process as adding captions to your video, but choosing “Chapters” from the drop down. More info on how to do this here:
Note that there may be a few minutes of processing time before your captions appear.
That’s it! You have just chapterized your video. You should now see a small speech bubble in the bottom left corner of your video (next to the volume control). Click on it and you’ll see your chapters. Now watch as users easily navigate through your long-form videos and your engagement scores soar.
Get more information on how to create your WebVTT file here.