Player controls
The bar along the bottom of the explainer player controls the narration: start and stop it, jump around in it, and change how it sounds. The same bar holds the settings menu and the button that switches between the windowed and fullscreen views.
Playing and pausing
The play icon at the left of the bar is Play narration: click it to start, and again to pause. You can also press the space bar.
If your browser blocks autoplay, the explainer opens paused at the start with a large play button in the middle of the slide. Click it to begin.
While narration is still being generated, the button shows a spinner and the player says Generating narration. Please wait…
Moving through the lesson
Next to the controls, the time display shows how far into the narration you are and how long it runs in total.
The thin bar across the top of the controls is the timeline. Click or drag anywhere on it to jump to that point in the narration. The left and right arrow keys jump back or forward 5 seconds.
Playlists
When the explainer is part of a playlist, a Next explainer button sits to the right of the play button and a Previous explainer button to its left.
Each one names the lesson it opens, and skips to the nearest lesson in the playlist that has finished building. If you're in Fullscreen view, the next lesson opens in Fullscreen view too.
Volume
The speaker icon mutes and unmutes the narration. Hover over it to reveal a volume slider. Moving the slider also unmutes.
Playback speed
The button on the right of the bar shows the current speed, for example 1.0x. Click it to pick another: 0.8x, 1x, 1.2x, 1.5x, 1.7x, 2x or 2.5x. The button changes colour while you're at any speed other than 1x.
Your volume, mute and speed settings are remembered in this browser.
The settings menu
Click the cog icon on the right of the bar to open Settings. It holds two settings:
- Show Captions turns the captions at the bottom of the player on or off. Captions are on by default. As the narrator speaks, the current word is highlighted. Toggling this leaves the menu open.
- Vertical view switches the explainer to a tall, portrait layout. Your choice is remembered for that explainer in this browser, so other explainers keep their own layout.
Below those, the menu lists the actions that apply to you and this explainer. Anything that doesn't apply is left out:
- Go deeper opens Go deeper on the slide you're watching.
- Save to Watch later or Remove from Watch later. See Watch later.
- Follow follows the explainer's creator. See Following creators.
- Report issue sends feedback about the explainer. See Rating and reporting.
- Copy link, Copy fullscreen link and Copy embed code. See Copying links and Embedding explainers.
- Redo slide and Regenerate narration, on explainers you own. See Redoing a slide and Regenerating narration.
If you own the explainer, the menu also has its visibility setting. See Privacy, claiming and sharing.
In an embedded player, the menu only offers Show Captions and Vertical view.
Fullscreen view and Windowed view
On an explainer's page, the player starts in Windowed view: it sits in the page, with the title, description and transcript below it.
The expand icon at the far right of the bar is Fullscreen view. It makes the player cover the page, so you see the lesson on its own. To go back, click the same button (now Windowed view), click the X button, or press Esc.
Fullscreen view stays inside your browser window: it doesn't switch your browser to full screen mode. To send someone a link that opens straight in Fullscreen view, use Copy fullscreen link. See Copying links.
Full screen in an embedded player
An embedded player already fills its frame, so it has Full screen in place of Fullscreen view. It takes the player out of the frame to full screen, and Exit full screen brings it back. Pressing Esc also exits.
The button only shows when the site embedding the player allows full screen. The code from Copy embed code does.
Keyboard shortcuts
| Key | What it does |
|---|---|
| Space | Play or pause the narration |
| Left arrow | Jump back 5 seconds |
| Right arrow | Jump forward 5 seconds |
| Esc | Leave Fullscreen view |