Doc-To-Help has this great button on its toolbar called “Flash Movie.” You use it to insert .swf files into your content. It even automatically applies conditions so that Doc-To-Help doesn’t attempt to insert the movies into non-compatible formats (it’s pretty hard to watch video on paper!).

Many of you have probably thought this: “How convenient, but I have .mp4 movies.”

True, that that great little button only helps with Flash movies, but there is good news: it is very easy to insert movies and conditions by hand. You put the HTML embed code in your document and then apply conditions so that Doc-To-Help knows it is HTML and that it should only use it for HTML-based outputs. Below are basic steps to do so in Word, but this also works if you are using the built-in editor.

STEP 1: Get the embed code. A Google search will turn up many results, but for you convenience, here is an example:

<OBJECT CODEBASE="http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab">
<PARAM name="SRC" VALUE="sample.mp4">
<PARAM name="AUTOPLAY" VALUE="true">
<PARAM name="CONTROLLER" VALUE="true">
<EMBED SRC="sample.mp4" AUTOPLAY="true" CONTROLLER="true" PLUGINSPAGE="http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/">
</EMBED>
</OBJECT>

Note that “sample.mp4” would be the path to your video file.

STEP 2: Insert that code into your document where you would like the movie to appear.

STEP 3: Apply the appropriate conditions.

  • Highlight the code and click the Conditional Text button on the Doc-To-Help toolbar.
  • Drop down the Platforms list and check HTML (any). This will tell Doc-To-Help to only include the movie in HTML-based outputs.
  • Check the HTML passthrough code box. This tells Doc-To-Help to insert the code as-is in the output.

Now, all you need to do is save the document and build the output.

Did it work? Leave a comment and let me know.

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