Creating a new video

When you select Video from the Create New (communication) screen, the following screen is displayed:

Select Create New Video. Firstly, you are asked to provide the name of the project (you can if needed create a new project here) and the communication name. The following screen is then displayed:

The next step is to load the video clips that you want to use. To do this, drag and drop the video symbol to the area at the left. Under Add video, you can then navigate to the video file that you want. Communicate uploads the video and then displays it as a thumbnail. You can repeat for a number of videos, and all the thumbnails appear below.

For the first scene, choose the thumbnail of the video that you want and click it. The video will appear in the screen at the left, like this:

The video for Scene 1 is now in place. You can set the video clip volume as a percentage of the volume of the imported video.

Scene Duration

Use the dropdown Adjust Scene Duration to to specify the scene duration. The available options are:

Clip length: sets the scene duration to the duration of the video clip (the default setting).
Custom length: sets the scene duration to a specified number of seconds. The minimum is 5 seconds and the maximum is the clip length.
Voiceover length: this option is only displayed if the video has a voiceover, and sets the scene duration to the voiceover length.

Note: If the duration has been set to the voiceover length, and the voiceover is subsequently removed, the duration reverts to the default setting of the clip length. If another (or the same) voiceover is then added, the duration remains set to the clip length unless you change it using this dropdown.

Scene Transition

Scene Transition is a toggle switch that allows you to select or unselect Scene Transition for this scene. When Scene Transition is selected, a black fade out effect is added at the end of this scene and a corresponding fade in effect at the beginning of the next scene (if there is a next scene). Both fade out and fade in effects are 500ms long. By default, Scene Transition is selected.

Adding a new scene

To add another scene, click the + button at the bottom left.

To edit the video settings, or replace a video with another video, click the video icon .

Additional enhancements

Once you have added a video, click Done, and you can then make the following enhancements:

Add a title. By default, the text "Add a Title" and "Add a subtitle" is included. You should edit this, and if necessary change the font, text size and color. Alternatively, you can remove the text altogether. You can use personalization within this text, in the same way as for emails and documents. If you move a text box around, a vertical red line will appear when it is centered.
Add a voiceover. See Voiceovers.
Add a simple text box overlay. Drag the Text button to the left side and drop it where required. This is a non-interactive text box, similar to those that can be added to Email or Document communications.
Add a background or foreground image overlay. Drag the Image button to the left side and drop in either the inner area (for a foreground image) or the outer area (for a background image).
Add a dropdown overlay, with different options for the user to select.

Note: If you add a dropdown overlay (which is a form), a Submit button will automatically be added. See Submit button for form overlay for more details.
Add an interactive text box overlay. You can insert an interactive text box within the video display area by dragging the Text Box button (found under Interaction) to the left and dropping where required. For more information, see Interactive Text Boxes.

Note: If you add an interactive text box overlay (which is a form), a Submit button will automatically be added. See Submit button for form overlay for more details.
Add a button overlay. You can add a button within the video display area. The text, font and background are editable, and you can add a link to a URL or to a specified scene of this video. For more information, see Buttons.
Add a check box overlay. You can edit the text that goes with the box, and change its font and color.

Note: If you add a check box overlay (which is a form), a Submit button will automatically be added by Communicate. See Submit button for form overlay for more details.

Managing overlays

For information on how to manage overlays, see Managing overlays.

Landing Page

This tab allows you to specify the Landing Page for your video.

To use a custom landing page, you must first select the button Use Custom Landing Page. This opens up the rest of the tab so that you can create a custom landing page.

Specify the following to define the landing page:

Background color.
Logo - will be displayed in the top center of the landing page.
Alt text - text that will be displayed if the logo does not exist or cannot load properly.
Link - the link that is followed when the user clicks the logo.
Footer text. This can include personalization (based on a data source) and links. You can also set the color.

If you want this page to be the default landing page for this project, select the box called Save as default project landing page.

To see the custom landing page in a new communication, you must first save it (in Preview, only an example landing page will be visible).

Fallback page

In the following situation, a fallback page with a purple background is used:

You enable a custom landing page.
You generate PURLs.
You disable the landing page (by unselecting the button Use Custom Landing Page).
You regenerate the PURLs or just save the video communication.

When the user views the video with the link created in step 2, they will see the fallback page.

Note: If the video is viewed from a link created after disabling the landing page, it will not have any landing page.

Default setting

The default setting for new video PURLs is with the button Use Custom Landing Page set to off. However, all videos created before this button was introduced will have the button set to on by default.

Contacts tab

This allows you to add personalization to the video using data from a Data Source. See Data Sources for how to create a Data Source. After importing a Data Source, the fields in that source appear as Data Fields when you select Add personalization.

Note: Only Data Sources with a flat data structure can be used for video communications. See Using Data Sources for Video communications for further information.

Music tab

This tab allows you to specify music to accompany the video. You can either make a selection from the pre-populated dropdown list, or you can specify your own audio file.