Insert a Video in Your Research Narrative

Including a video in an MGRI profile requires that the video is available on the internet and has a public link (URL: Uniform Resource Locator). Part I describes the steps for making the video available using DropBox. Part II describes the steps for inserting the video in your MGRI profile using the DropBox link (URL).

Choose a video format that is well supported by browsers. For example, MP4 (H.264 and MP3/AAC) is a relatively safe option.

Video quality on the web is affected by the number of pixels the video has particularly on larger displays with very high resolution. Small videos of good quality that are expanded to more than 100% of their original size will appear blurred. For MGRI profiles, the video quality is excellent for videos with a width of about 1120 pixels or slightly larger when the videos is covering 100% of the width of the research narrative on large displays.

Part I: Upload to DropBox, and generate a public link (URL)

1. Log in to DropBox.
2. Open the Public folder. This is important for creating a public link (URL).

3. Upload the file. It will open a dialog for selecting the file.

4. Share the uploaded file.

5. Create the public link (URL) for the uploaded file.

6. Copy the link to the clipboard.

7. Open a text editor for modifying the link (URL) of the video.
8. Paste the link from DropBox into the document for editing.
9. Modify the link of the video on DropBox: 1) replace the domain name www.dropbox.com with dl.dropboxusercontent.com, and 2) remove ?dl=0 from the end of the link.
   EXAMPLE: applying these two modifications to the original link https://www.dropbox.com/s/xb0g1h6gsem2kou/review_mockup_figure_examples.png?dl=0 results in https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/xb0g1h6gsem2kou/review_mockup_figure_examples.png and this link (URL) is used in part II to insert the video in the research narrative of your profile. Tip: the Find-and-replace function of the text editor may be useful if you have several links/URLs.
10. Save the text document as a backup of the link.
11. Copy the modified link to the clipboard.
12. Open a browser, copy the link into the location bar of the browser, and press enter for testing the link. When it opens the video in the browser then the link is correct and you can proceed with Part II.

Part II: Insert the video in your profile

1. Follow the guide for editing your profile until you reach the page of the MGH Research Institute Hub for editing the profile.
2. Click on 'Research Narrative' Edit.
3. Click on Insert drop-down > Insert Video.

4. Enter the Source link (URL) of the video. Dimensions are auto-populated but can be changed for adjusting the size of the video on the profile.

5. For saving or discarding your edits, click Save & Update Profile or Discard Changes & Return.
6. Go to the top right of the profile edit page and click on View Profile.
7. Review your edits.