How to Do Overlays With YouTube
If you have watched many YouTube videos, you've seen videos with text overlays that provide information, links to other videos or links to subscribe to a video channel. These overlays are called annotations and can be added to any video on your YouTube account. Annotations you can add to your videos include speech bubbles with text, pop-up boxes with text, titles and spotlights to highlight interactive areas with pop-up text. You can also insert a pause in the video to stop the video while a viewer reads the information or clicks a link in an annotation.
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Instructions
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Open a browser window and go to youtube.com. Click "Sign In" and enter your Youtube or Google username and password. Click the "Sign In" button.
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Click your username to open the "My Account" drop-down menu. Click "Videos."
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Click "Edit," then "Annotations."
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Move the marker in the annotations timeline to the time in the video where you want to add an annotation. Click "Add Annotation" and select an annotation type.
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Type the text for the annotation in the text field that overlays the video. Click and hold the sizing handles to resize the annotation. Click and hold the annotation and drag it to move it to another location on the video.
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Click the sizing handles at either end of the annotation in the timeline to adjust how long the annotation will appear on-screen. You can also set the start and stop time of the annotation in the "Timing" text fields.
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Move the annotation timeline marker to add additional annotations. Click "Publish" to publish the video on YouTube with the annotations.
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Tips & Warnings
YouTube saves a draft of your work every 30 seconds. You can click "Save" if you want to manually save it as well.
Annotations are not visible until you click the "Publish" button.
Call-To-Action overlays are available for YouTube Promoted Videos and add an overlay at the bottom of a video that provides information about the video or a link to an external website.
