Save YouTube Videos and Website Screenshots
At our school, as it probably is at many schools, YouTube is blocked. So what do you do if you want to show a video that you found on YouTube in class? Well, there are lots of options, but the most straighforward is to save that video to a file on your computer so you can watch it any time (or anywhere) you want. Even more generally, what if you want to show a webpage that you can’t access at school, or embed a picture of that webpage into a Powerpoint? Again, you can save a screenshot of that webpage to a file on your computer. But how?
This is where my handy dandy bookmarklets come into play. A bookmarklet is like a regular web bookmark, except that it has a little program written into it (in the web programming language called JavaScript) to do various tasks. You don’t need to install anything. Here are the two bookmarklets:
Don’t just click them! Remember, these are not ordinary bookmarks, they are little programs written in a language that your web browser understands. Here’s how to use them:
- Use your mouse to drag the above bookmarklet links to your web browser’s bookmarks.
- Go to the YouTube page that has the video you want.
- Click on the “Download YouTube Video” bookmarklet in your browser’s bookmarks.
- A box should pop up asking you to save the video!
The “Save Webpage Screenshot” is similar, except it takes you to another website (called Aviary) that captures a screenshot of the website you’re currently on and allows you to do some simple editing before you save it to your desktop computer.
By the way, the YouTube video that you save will be in a particular video format (called H.264 MP4). This is pretty much the standard computer video format these days. It’s compatible with iPods, PSPs, and more. If you’re on a Mac, Quicktime should be able to play these video files. If you’re on a PC, either install Quicktime or the awesome VLC video player in order to play them.
