Insta-Polish for How-To Videos (You Can Thank Us Later)
Posted on May 7th, 2008 in Video Contributors | No Comments »
We’ve been slaving away building new ways for video contributors (like you) to enhance, promote, and track the fun, imaginative how-to videos you share with the Howcast Community. Today, we’re excited to introduce you to some easy ways to enhance your video with printable step-by-step instructions and easy-to-apply polished on-screen graphics and thumbnail images.
Just In: The Wall Street Journal beat us to the punch in introducing our new video enhancement tools in this morning’s The Mossberg Solution:
In order to make it easier for average users to upload better-looking videos, Howcast provides an Upload and Enhance tool that simply and quickly adds professional-looking graphics and printable steps to go along with how-to videos. This formula makes videos more enjoyable to watch.
- Katherine Boehret, “How to Teach Yourself How to Do Almost Anything” May 7, 2008
Be A Better Teacher - Go Step-by-Step
Create step-by-step instructions, tips, warnings, and facts for your video that users can follow along and print out for future reference. Don’t worry, control freaks: it’s easy to “click and drop” instructions, tips, warnings and facts to the perfect spot in your video:

Polish Your Video With a Single Click
With a single click (and without a lick of editing software), you can now add professional, polished on-screen graphics to your video (just like the graphics on videos from Howcast Studios). You can add:
- A Title Card
showing off the title you’ve already crafted. - Sleek Step Animations
subtly indicating the arrival of the your next step. - Handy Tip, Warning & Fact Animations
displayed along with Howcast’s signature Tip Ding! sound. (Think Pop-up Video but remixed for your how-to viewing pleasure.)
Don’t Just Take Our Word For It.
Howcast members are already polishing up their videos with these graphics. We particularly love how The Natural Princess has already started spicing up her great recipe videos with our steps and notes. (My favorite’s definitely How To Make Chipotle Homefries. Yum.)
Get Judged by Your Cover
Thumbnails really are the book cover of the modern age. Catch a viewer’s eye with the thumbnail image that best expresses what your video is all about.
Pick the best image from the three thumbnails Howcast auto-magically pulls from your video on upload.
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Or, upload your own thumbnail image by visiting My Videos and clicking Edit Video after your upload is complete.
Give It a Whirl…
Upload a new video or spiff up your existing library, today. Some of these goodies are still in beta, so don’t be shy. Let us know what you think.







