How to Watch a Lecture on a Wide.li Board

Paste a YouTube URL onto a Wide.li board, or drag and drop it from a browser tab. The video embeds directly on your canvas. No separate player window needed.

Take notes alongside the video

Create a text item next to the video. Text items support rich formatting: headings, bold, bullets. For more on this approach, see how to take visual notes from YouTube videos.

Play the video. If you pan the board so the video goes off screen, playback stops. When it comes back into view, it shows a thumbnail.

Freely move everything

Drag any item, or pan the board itself. When a YouTube video is in playback mode, drag it by the top edge. Same with interactive rich text boxes.

Screenshot key moments

On a Mac, there's a shortcut to screenshot an area and copy it to your clipboard without saving a file:

cmd+ctrl+shift+4

When you have an image in your clipboard, paste it on the board. Resize and position it freely.

Set a handle for quick access

To find this video quickly later, set a handle for it. Pick something memorable. The handle becomes a URL.

Use "Copy Link to This Item" to get the direct URL, which centers the board on that item.

Use bookmarks if you just need to remember a position on the board and jump back to the same view.

Break long videos into parts

If you're watching a long video, duplicate it and drag the copy to a new position. You can duplicate any item by selecting "Duplicate" from the menu, or by holding alt and dragging.

Use "Set Start Time" so each copy always starts at the time you set. Each section becomes its own working area, video and notes together.

This also works well for saving your favorite quotes in a video. For a more detailed version of this approach (a structured two-pass method), see how to break down a long lecture into spatial notes.