Video Embeds in Notes
Overview
When a YouTube or Vimeo link sits on its own line in a note, TheBrain shows it as an embedded video: a preview with a play button, playable right in the note. The preview is the video's poster image until you press play. In the note's Markdown the line stays a plain link, so nothing changes about how your note is stored or how it reads elsewhere — the embed is how TheBrain renders it.
How to Embed a Video
- Copy a YouTube or Vimeo video link.
- Paste it into a note on its own line.
That's it — the line becomes a playable embed. A link that shares a line with other text stays an ordinary link. A link with its own text (link text pointing at the video URL) also embeds when it's alone on its line.
You can also type the address on a line of its own and press Enter at the end of it. Pressing Undo right after that turns the video back into the address you typed.
Which Links Become Videos
If a link isn't turning into a video, check these three things:
- The address has a recognized form. It must start with
https://and be one of:youtube.com/watch?v=…(withv=as the first parameter),youtube.com/shorts/…,youtu.be/…, orvimeo.com/followed by just the video's number. A leadingwww.(orm.for YouTube) is fine, and so are further parameters after the video's ID — a start time such ast=90is carried into the player. The addresses of playlist and channel pages,/embed/and/live/addresses,music.youtube.comandplayer.vimeo.comlinks, and Vimeo addresses with anything besides the number in their path all stay ordinary links. - The link is alone on a plain paragraph line. A link that is part of a list item, a quote, a callout, a heading, a code block, or a table cell is shown as a link.
- Embeds are on for the brain — see Turning Embeds Off below.
Editing or Removing a Video
In a note you can edit, click the video anywhere outside its play button to select it, or move onto it with the arrow keys. Then:
- Change it — press
Enter, or click the selected video again. A small dialog opens with the video's link and a Title (optional) field; edit them and choose Save. Save stays unavailable until the link is a recognized YouTube or Vimeo address. - Remove it — press
BackspaceorDelete. Only the video is removed. - Leave it as it is — press
Escor an arrow key to move the cursor back into the text.
Turning Embeds Off
Embedding is controlled per brain by Show YouTube and Vimeo links as embedded videos on the Notes tab of Settings > Brain > Content Settings (on by default). With it off, the links render as ordinary links. Changing the setting reloads the open note, so the change shows right away.
Some web clippers and older notes write a video link as a thumbnail image that links to the video, alone on its line. When embeds are on, TheBrain converts that line into a plain link with the image's caption as its text as the note loads, so it shows as a playable video instead of a static picture; the converted line is kept when the note is next saved. With embeds off, the image link is left exactly as written.