Edit Tools Features
The media tools in Sakai offer a rich set of features that you can use to edit your media in different ways. The main areas are set in Tabs and are listed as follows:
- Details
- Options
- Collaboration
- Attachments
- Captions
- Thumbnails
- Downloads
- Timeline
- Trim Video*
- Create Clip button
- Delete button
*You cannot trim audio files, so make sure you do all your editing before you upload your audio. Also, you must delete the existing captions in order to trim video. Once you are done trimming video you can either wait for the automatic captions or edit the older captions.
Video Overview
This video will explain the Edit tools features and settings in Sakai Media Tools
Sakai Media Edit Tools Explained
Here is a list of the tools and what they can do:
The first tab is the Details tab. This is where you can change the name of the media, add a description, and also add tags to the media to help create more searchable files. Tags are good for creating related media, or grouping by academic unit for example.
Next is the Options tab. It has two sections. Clipping and Comments. Clipping can enable others to create clips from your media - great for collaborative work possibilities. The Comments area refers to the ability to have people create comments for your media. You have the option to disable them, or to close discussion which would allow you to block people from adding any new comments. This could be useful in a situation where you have an assignment to comment on a video by a certain date. When that date arrives you can close the discussion and then start grading.
The Collaboration tab is useful for changing the media owner of a specific video. Once you change the owner, the media leaves your library and appears in theirs.
Media Co-Editors and Co-Publishers allow you to share the media with others while keeping the media in your library. Co-Editors can access almost all edit tools with the exception of the delete button and collaboration feature.
If you want the most access to a file without transferring it, assign Co-Editor rights.
Co-Publishers have the ability to publish the media or add it to a playlist. No other options or features are permitted to Co-Publishers beyond publishing.
Attachments allow for files such as a word document or pdf or powerpoint to be uploaded and made available to viewers just below the video in a button called Attachments. Viewers can click that button and are able to view some basic information about the attachment and also click download - to download the file.
The Captions tab is the area where you can upload your captions file for your video. We highly encourage you to caption all your videos to make them accessible to as many students as possible. Captions also can help users when they search for video as the caption text is searchable in this system. The system accepts SRT and DFXP caption formats.
The Thumbnails tab allows you to assign or create a representational image that will appear before users click to play the video. You can auto generate one from the timeline, capture a specific frame of the video, or upload your own. You can also download the thumbnail back to your computer if you need to.
Sometimes but not always, you will want to make a video available for your students or colleagues to download. The Download tab gives you two options of mp4 video to make available for download - one in medium quality for smaller file sizes and one in HD at best quality which will take longer to download. MP4 files are the most standard video files available and are playable on most computers and devices. Check the box next to the one you want and your viewers can then download that video.
The timeline tab gives you the ability to create chapters for your video and also to assign slides or images to those chapter points. Clicking on the chapters automatically takes your viewers to that point in the video. You can add tags for greater search ability as well as chapter information. Very useful for long videos. --- This tutorial video has chapters and you can access them in the upper left-hand corner of the video - here to see what it looks like ----but don't click me away yet! There are two more features to tell you about.
The trim video section allows you to change the starting and end points of your video. When you click this tab you may notice that there is a dark gray area with a play button. If you click that play button you will see the trim controls which allow you to use your mouse to move the start and finish. If you know the specific times that you want to start and end, you can set them above that area - here - . When you are ready to trim click the Trim Video button at the bottom and give it some time to process. Note: you cannot trim audio files, so make sure you do all your editing before you upload your audio.
Create Clip allows you to make a new video from the original. You can set the start and end just like the trim feature, but with this tool you are making a new video so you have the options for the name, description, tags and privacy settings like you would when you upload new files. When you are ready to make the clip, select the Create Clip button and you will see that the new video is in your My Media library.
Note: you may encounter issues with your web browser asking for plugins that you might not have installed. Also please note: you cannot trim or create clips for audio files. This is a feature that we hope to have in the future, but make sure you do all your editing before you upload your audio.
The final button to the right of the tabs is Delete. Delete does exactly what you expect, it deletes the video for good from your library. Make sure you have a backup on your local computer or hard drive because we cannot retrieve the video once it is deleted.