YouTube: A timely video
Q. Is there a way to send someone a YouTube link that starts playing at a specific point in the video, say 50 seconds into the video?
A. Yes. Adding the phrase &t=50 to the end of a YouTube video link will cause the video to pop up and start playing 50 seconds into the video. For example, presented below are before-and-after links that will play a YouTube video (including a commercial) about creativity by Sir Ken Robinson, both from the beginning, and also starting 3 minutes and 44 seconds into the video, at which point Robinson tells a cute short story about a little girl:
An alternative way to create the same type of link is to pause any YouTube video at the point where you want the link to start playing, and then right-click on the video and, from the pop-up menu, select Get video URL at current time, as pictured below. Copy the resulting link, and paste it into your Word document, Excel workbook, email, webpage, or other destination.
About the author
J. Carlton Collins (carlton@asaresearch.com) is a technology consultant, a CPE instructor, and a JofA contributing editor.
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