One of the best things about Google Docs is that it gives you a lot of options. Google Docs is mainly used for creating text-based documents, but you can also include photos, videos and other objects in your documents.
You can also include YouTube videos in your documents. Not only can you add a hyperlink, but you can also play the videos within the document itself. This is called ‘embedding’. The benefit of embedding YouTube videos is that it makes your document more interactive and interesting.
Moreover, it saves your reader the need to open the document in a different tab. Instead, they can just click on the video in the document and it will start playing. This saves them time and effort.
But how exactly do you embed a YouTube video in your Google Docs document?
In this article, we will be talking about 2 methods we can use to do this:
- Embedding a YouTube video through Google Slides
- Opening a preview of a YouTube video in Google Docs
Note that this article is intended for complete beginners. So, even if you have very little to no experience with Google Docs, you can still follow along.
With that introduction, let’s get started!
Method 1: Embedding a YouTube video through Google Slides
There isn’t a way of directly embedding YouTube videos in your Google Docs document. Hence, we have to find alternative ways of doing this. One method is to embed videos via Google Slides. This is the only method of embedding YouTube videos within your document.
The following are the steps for this method.
Step 1: Open Google Slides.
The first step is to open Google Slides to create a new presentation. To do this, type slides.google.com in your browser’s search bar then press the ‘Enter’ key (or the ‘Return’ key, if you’re a Mac user) on your keyboard. Make sure that you are signed in to your Google account. Once you are signed in, you will be taken to the Google Slides homepage.
The homepage will look something like this:
At the top of the page, you will find different options for creating a new presentation. You can create a blank document or choose one of the existing templates (more about this in the next step). Below this section, you will find all the previous presentations you have created or presentations that have been shared with you. If you have never used Google Slides before, this section should be empty.
Step 2: Create a new presentation.
Next, you have to create a new presentation. You can do this in one of two ways. First, you can click on the plus sign at the top of the screen to create a blank presentation. You can also create a blank presentation by typing slides.new in your browser’s search bar and pressing Enter/Return.
Second, you can choose from one of the existing templates in the template gallery. We will only be needing one slide for our task (of embedding a YouTube video in Google Docs), so you can choose any template you want.
Step 3: Click on the ‘Insert’ tab.
Click on the ‘Insert’ tab at the top left corner of the screen. This will open the ‘Insert’ drop down menu.
From this drop down menu, select ‘Video’. This will open a new window that gives you the option to add a link to a YouTube video. Copy the link to your YouTube video and paste it in this space. Then, click on the search icon next to the link. This will look for the video in YouTube and will show matching results below the search bar. Once you found the YouTube video you are looking for, click on it. Then, click on ‘Select’ at the bottom left corner of the screen (the blue button).
Your video will now be inserted in the slide.
Step 4: Open your Google Docs document.
The next step is to open the Google Docs document in which you would like to embed the YouTube video. To do this, type docs.google.com in your browser’s search bar, then press Enter/Return. This will take you to the Google Docs homepage. Again, make sure that you are signed into your account.
Once you are on the Google Docs homepage, you can open a new file. You can either create a new document or select an existing one.
To create a new blank document, click on the plus sign at the top of the screen. You can also type docs.new in the search bar of your browser and press Enter or Return.
You can also create a new document by selecting one of the templates from the template gallery.
If you want to open an existing document, just select a file under ‘Recent documents’.
Step 5: Click on the ‘Insert’ tab.
You can find the ‘Insert’ tab at the top right corner of the screen. Click on it to open the ‘Insert’ menu.
Step 6: Open ‘Drawing’.
In the ‘Insert’ drop down menu, click on ‘Drawings’. This will open a smaller tab from which you should select ‘New’. Doing this will open a new window.
Step 7: Copy your video and paste it in the Drawing window.
Next, go back to the tab in which you have Google Slides open. Click on your video and copy it (Control or Command + C). Then, go back to the tab with Google Docs and paste this video in the Drawing window.
You should notice that the image has a playback button in the middle. When you click on this button, the video should start playing. If you are able to play the video, all you have to do next is click on the ‘Save and Close’ button at the top of the window. This will insert the image in your document.
However, if you are not able to play the video (so only the image of the video is copied), you will have to manually add the link. To do this, click on ‘Save and Close’. Then, select the image and press Control + K (or Command + K if you’re using a Mac). This will open a box where you can enter the link to the video. Copy and paste the link of the YouTube video in this box and click on ‘Apply’.
Now, double-click the video. This will open the Drawing window again. You should now be able to play the video in this window.
Keep in mind that the only way you can play the video is by double-clicking it and playing it in the Drawing window. You cannot play the video without going to this window, within the document itself.
Method 2: Opening a preview of a YouTube video in Google Docs
The next method involves adding a link to your video and previewing it within the document. The benefit of this method is that you can play the YouTube video without opening another window. Hence, you can reference the Google Docs document while playing the video.
Below are the steps for this method.
Step 1: Copy the link to the YouTube video and paste it in your document.
First, copy the link to the YouTube video. Then, go to the Google Docs document where you would like to embed your YouTube video and paste it.
Step 2: Click on the link and select ‘Open preview’.
Next, click on the link. This will open a small window right below that will show the thumbnail of the video. At the bottom right corner, you should find the ‘Open preview’ option. Clicking on this will open the video in the bottom right corner of the screen. You can just click on the playback button to start playing the video. You will be able to scroll up and down in your document while playing the video. This is the main advantage of using this method over the previous one!
To make your document cleaner, you can replace the URL with its title. To do this, just click on the title. A small box will appear below the link – click on this box to replace the URL with the title.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of the article! Since we covered a lot, here’s a brief recap of everything we learned.
There are two methods you can use to embed YouTube videos in your Google Docs document. The first method is to insert the video in Google Slides, then copy it to the Drawing window in Google Docs. This will insert the video’s thumbnail in your document. Just double-click this thumbnail to play the video in the Drawing window.
The second method is to add the link to the video in your Google Docs document. Click on this link then select ‘Open preview’ to start playing the video within your document. The benefit of this method is that you can see your document as well as the video at the same time.
Thank you for reading this article, we hope you found it useful!