How to handle videos for PDF exports?

[Pat Thomas]

We are including more videos in our documentation because it's an easy way to demonstrate functionality. Occasionally we have customers who want a PDF of our documentation, but then the videos/multimedia aren't available in the PDF.

Any ideas?

[Nils Bier _K15t_]

Hi Pat,

I'm with K15t Software, the makers of Scroll PDF Exporter which allows you to export Confluence content to PDF using your own customized templates.

We're extending the default PDF export with some useful features, however videos are currently also not supported in our Scroll PDF Exporter.

As we already started internal discussions about video support, could you please share some further details how those videos are embedded in Confluence? Is it correct to assume that you're using the Widget Connector and are referring to a video uploaded on YouTube?

Cheers,

Nils

[Pat Thomas]

We rarely use Widget Connector. I can only think of one case where we had a YouTube video to include. We attach .mp4 files to the page and then use the Multimedia macro. Our primary use case is to provide short videos that demonstrate step-by-step instructions. To accommodate different learning styles, we also provide written instructions on the page. So, it's not really necessary for the video to be included in the PDF, however, the message in the PDF (about the browser not supporting the video format) often leaves users wanting to know what they are missing.

[Nils Bier _K15t_]

Hi Pat,

Thanks for the further details.

If you do not want this message to appear in your exported file, you might want to try our Scroll Ignore macro and wrap the multimedia macro into this macro. Content in this macro will be excluded from the export, and only be displayed in Confluence: So your video will be available on the Confluence page, where the video can be played, but there will not be any misleading messages in the exported file, referring to any unsupported media type..

You can give Scroll PDF Exporter a try by downloading a free trial license via the Atlassian Marketplace and let us know via support@k15t.com what you think.

Cheers,
Nils