How to Embed a YouTube Video in a Help Article

You can add a YouTube video to any article you're editing. It shows up as a playable embed, just as readers will see it on the published page. You'll need permission to edit the article. The article also needs to be fully editable: the video option isn't available while an article is still generating, has failed, or is still in its scaffold state before the body is written.

Open the Insert Video dialog

1. Open the article in the editor
   In the left navigation, find the "Knowledge" section and click your Help Center. In the article tree, click the article you want to edit. For a private article, open it from your private area's article tree instead.

   If you're previewing a translated version, you'll see a translation banner at the top and the formatting toolbar won't be available. Switch back to the source language first.

2. Place your cursor where the video should go
   Click in the article body at the spot where you want the video. It gets inserted at your cursor position.

3. Click "Insert Video"
   Click the "Insert Video" button in the vertical formatting toolbar along the left edge of the editor. You can also press Shift + Cmd + V (Mac) or Shift + Ctrl + V (Windows). The "Insert Video" dialog opens.

Add your YouTube link

4. Paste the YouTube URL
   Paste the video's link into the "Video URL" field. You can copy it from your browser's address bar or from YouTube's share link. The standard watch address, the short youtu.be link, and an existing YouTube embed address all work. This is the only field you need to fill in.

5. Check the preview
   Once the link is recognized, a "YouTube detected" banner appears with the note "Video will be embedded using YouTube's player." Below it, the "Preview" area shows the actual player, so you can make sure it's the right video.

   If you see "Unsupported platform," the link isn't from a supported platform. If no banner appears at all, the text isn't a usable address. In both cases "Insert Video" stays unavailable. Paste a valid YouTube link to fix it.

6. Click "Insert Video"
   Click "Insert Video" at the bottom right of the dialog. The dialog closes and the video appears in your article as an embedded player. To move it, hover over the video and drag it by its handle. To take it out again, hover and use the remove control at its top right. Click "Cancel" instead if you want to close the dialog without changing anything.

Save your change

7. Click "Save"
   Inserting the video counts as an edit, so an "Unsaved changes" or "1 unsaved change" bar appears at the bottom of the editor. Click "Save" or press Cmd + S (Mac) or Ctrl + S (Windows). When the save finishes, the bar disappears.

   If you see "Failed to update article. Please try again.", your edit is still in the document, so just save again. If you try to leave the article before saving, you'll be asked whether to save or discard your changes first.