Thanks to a writer at eHow (go to that link if my instructions make no sense),  I was able to add an image into an email message and have it open a video when clicked. Apparently, this method will not work with some email programs, such as gmail.

Instructions were to take a screenshot of a Youtube video and paste it into the email subject area. Normally I would use my Snagit program for that, but I was in a hurry to see if it worked, so I copied a photo from my computer and pasted it instead.

Note: to access all the email tools, you may need to check your ‘tools’ menu and make sure that HTML is chosen, rather than plain text.

The next step was to find a graphic of a ‘play’ button, download it my computer, and then ‘Insert’ the button in the middle of my image on the email. I didn’t want to take the time to do that either, so I typed the text “Click this photo” beside the picture instead. Remember, my reason for doing this was to see if it actually works, so I didn’t want to take a lot of time.

The final step was to click the image so that the icons in the toolbar would be active, then click the hyperlink icon (it’s the one that looks like a chain – if you can’t see it, you might need to maximize your email view).

That would open a dialogue box with an area to put the website address of the video. To find that address, I needed to go to the Youtube video I wanted and click the ‘Share’ button. Then, I copied the link that showed up, went back to my email program, and pasted it in the URL address box as shown in this small diagram.

That’s it. When the email is sent, the recipient should be able to click the image you’ve included and the video you want to share will open. Try it and let me know if it works for you too.

Technorati Tags: email, sharing video