This guide will cover:

  1. Uploading a video to YouTube
  2. Embedding a video using the [youtube] shortcode
  3. Adding a video to a song
  4. Adding a video to a post (e.g. in the Bulletin Board)


If you already have a video on YouTube which you want to embed, you can skip ahead to the later sections.



1. Uploading a video to YouTube


If you want to include a video on your HarmonySite, we recommend uploading it to YouTube first, and "embedding" the video from YouTube.


This means it won't count towards your HarmonySite storage allowance. (Video files in particular take up a lot of storage space.) In addition, YouTube can play back the video smoothly.


Just because the video is uploaded to YouTube, it doesn't mean that it has to be publicly available. You can mark the video as "unlisted", which means other people on the internet won't be able to find it.


These are the steps you'll need to follow to upload a video to YouTube. (YouTube may show you one or two steps differently, depending on your account or the particular video you're uploading.)


  1. Go to YouTube.
  2. If you're not already logged in to YouTube, then click "Sign in" in the top-right corner, and log in with your Google Account.
    • To upload a video to YouTube, you need to have a Google Account. This is your login for all of Google's websites. For example, if you use Gmail, then you already have a Google Account, and you can log in with this.
    • If you don't have a Google Account, then you'll need to create one. When it asks for your email address, leave that box empty and click "Create account" instead.
  3. Once you've logged in, click the "Create" button in the top-right corner:
  4. Click "Upload video":
  5. This will take you to the "YouTube Studio", with a popup asking you to select a video (or videos).
    You can either click "Select files", then choose the video from your computer, or you can drag-and-drop the video file onto this area:
  6. Fill in a title for the video:
  7. You may need to select one of the options as to whether the video is "Made for Kids".
    For more information on what this option does, see this     Google support article.
  8. Click "Next".
  9. Click "Next" again.
  10. YouTube may warn you about copyrighted content, if it auto-detects a piece of music it recognises.
    However, you should be able to simply click "Next".
  11. Under "Visibility", select the option "Unlisted: Anyone with the video link can watch your video".
    This means that someone can watch the video if they go to the specific YouTube URL, like https://youtu.be/xxaEW77sJRs – you will need this to embed your video later.
    However, the video will not appear in any search results, so random people on the internet won't be able to find it by searching the internet or searching YouTube.
  12. Click Save.
  13. Copy the video link. This will look something like: https://youtu.be/xxaEW77sJRs
  14. YouTube is generally fast at uploading videos, but if it's a large video, you may still need to wait a bit for the video to upload.



2. Embedding a video using the [youtube] shortcode


"Shortcodes" are special codes, written between [square brackets], that include extra functionality in your HarmonySite pages. Here, we use the [youtube] shortcode to embed a video from YouTube.


  1. Firstly, you need to get the video's URL.
  2. Next, you need to take just the video ID from the URL.
  3. Go to the page in your HarmonySite where you want to embed the video.
  4. Click the yellow "edit" button in the bottom-right corner:
  5. Click the Content tab.
  6. Scroll down to the big box which says Body of Page.
  7. Find the place where you want to insert the video.
  8. In this place, add the code: [youtube vid="xxaEW77sJRs"]
    ...but replace xxaEW77sJRs with the actual video ID that you got in steps 1 and 2.
  9. Scroll down to the bottom and click Save.
  10. The video will appear on the page, like this:



If you want, you can also specify the width and height of the video. For example, this will make the video 250 pixels wide and 150 pixels tall: [youtube vid="xxaEW77sJRs" width="250" height="150"]



3. Adding a video to a song


You can include a YouTube video as a "resource" on a song. Then, it will appear on the song's page, and you can click to play the video.


  1. Go to the song's page.
  2. Under "Files/Resources", click "Add new file/resource":
  3. Under "Type", select the relevant option (e.g. "Learning tracks/videos" or "Public demos"):
  4. In "Name", enter a title for this video, e.g. "Run-through":
  5. Scroll down to the box which says "YouTube Video URL", and paste the URL of the video:
  6. Scroll down to the bottom, and click Save.
  7. The video will appear on the song's page, like this:



4. Adding a video to a post (e.g. in the Bulletin Board)


You can include a YouTube video on any "post". "Posts" are what you see on the Bulletin Board, Documents, Teaching Resources, and other similar pages you may have set up.


  1. Click the "Add" button in the upper-right corner – depending on the page, it may say "Add new post", "Add new document", etc.
  2. Fill in a "Title" for the post.
  3. If there isn't a "Type of post" already selected, then select one of the options in the dropdown.
  4. Scroll down to the option "Access Level required to see this post", and select the relevant access level (e.g. "Regular Member Access").
  5. In the box which says "YouTube video URL", paste the URL of the video:
  6. Scroll down to the bottom, and click Save.
  7. The video will appear on the post, like this: