How to link your videos to your book, passage by passage

To link your videos to your book passage by passage, you need three things: the text in a digital file, your recordings, and a way to mark where each part of a recording belongs in the text. This guide shows the steps, by hand and with RoamBook.

1. Get the text into a usable file

Start from the cleanest version you have. A Word file with real headings, an EPUB, or Markdown works best, because chapters and sections can be found automatically. A PDF is harder: the words are laid out for print, not for linking. In RoamBook today you can add Word, EPUB, Markdown, RTF or plain text.

2. Gather your recordings

Use the talks, lessons, readings or interviews you already have, as video or audio files. Long recordings are fine. You do not need to cut them first.

3. Make a transcript

You need to know what is said, and when. A transcript with timings lets you find the moment a speaker starts talking about a passage. RoamBook makes captions automatically when you upload, and editors can correct any line.

4. Find where each moment belongs

For each part of a recording, decide which words of the text it explains. There are three useful levels:

• A section, such as a chapter part or a passage.
• A range of lines, such as verses 7 to 26 or paragraphs 12 to 20.
• A phrase, the exact words the speaker is explaining.

Doing this by hand takes time: you listen, note the start and end, and write down the reference. In RoamBook the AI does a first draft. It suggests where each clip starts and ends, a title, and the section, lines and phrases it explains.

5. Check every link

A wrong link is worse than a missing one. Have one person review each clip before it goes live. In RoamBook Studio, editors accept, change or reject each suggestion. Nothing reaches readers until someone approves it.

6. Publish it where readers are

Readers should be able to tap the words and watch, on a phone, without installing anything. With RoamBook, each organisation gets its own reader, with its name and colours, on its own web address. Several people can speak on the same passage, and readers can move from one voice to the next.

Questions

Can I use video that is already on YouTube?

Today you upload the files. Adding video from a link is planned.

How long does it take?

It depends on how much video you have. The AI draft removes most of the listening and note-taking; the review is the part that needs a person.

Can one clip link to more than one book?

Yes. A clip about one book can also link to a passage in another book from the same organisation.