{"id":544,"date":"2026-01-12T14:51:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T14:51:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/?p=544"},"modified":"2026-01-12T20:43:41","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T20:43:41","slug":"youtube-adding-video-chapters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/2026\/01\/12\/youtube-adding-video-chapters\/","title":{"rendered":"YouTube &#8211; Adding Video Chapters"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Chapters allow viewers to jump to specific parts of a YouTube video. This is especially helpful for longer videos, tutorials, lectures, and presentations. Chapters improve viewer experience, accessibility, and make your video easier to navigate and reference.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This tutorial walks you through adding chapters to a YouTube video using timestamps in the video description.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. Upload and Publish Your Video<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Sign in to <strong>YouTube Studio<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Upload and publish your video<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Wait until processing is complete<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Chapters can be added after the video is published.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. Open the Video Details Page<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In YouTube Studio, click <strong>Content<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select the video you want to edit<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scroll to the <strong>Description<\/strong> box<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"980\" height=\"474\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Description.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-545\" style=\"width:722px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Description.png 980w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Description-300x145.png 300w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Description-768x371.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 980px) 100vw, 980px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>This is where chapters are created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Create Chapter Timestamps<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In the description, add timestamps in this format: <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"340\" height=\"190\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Timestamps.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-546\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Timestamps.png 340w, https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/files\/2026\/01\/Timestamps-300x168.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 340px) 100vw, 340px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Each timestamp must be on its own line<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each timestamp must include a title<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>YouTube automatically converts these into clickable chapters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">4. Follow Chapter Rules<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>To work correctly, chapters must meet these requirements:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The <strong>first timestamp must start at 00:00<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There must be <strong>at least three chapters<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Each chapter must be <strong>10 seconds or longer<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Titles should be clear and descriptive<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If these rules aren\u2019t met, chapters will not appear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">5. Save Your Changes<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Click <strong>Save<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Refresh the video page to confirm chapters appear<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Chapters will appear as sections on the playback bar as well as in the description as clickable links.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">6. Edit or Update Chapters<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Return to the video description at any time<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Adjust timestamps or titles as needed<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Save changes again<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Chapters update immediately.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Helpful Tips<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Keep chapter titles short and meaningful<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Use chapters for major content shifts, not every sentence<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Match titles to what viewers see or hear at that moment<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chapters work well alongside captions for accessibility<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Chapters help viewers rewatch specific sections later<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>For more information, visit <a href=\"https:\/\/support.google.com\/youtube\/answer\/9884579?hl=en\">YouTube&#8217;s Help Center<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chapters allow viewers to jump to specific parts of a YouTube video. This is especially helpful for longer videos, tutorials, lectures, and presentations. Chapters improve viewer experience, accessibility, and make your video easier to navigate and reference. This tutorial walks you through adding chapters to a YouTube video using timestamps in the video description. 1. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5656,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-software","category-tutorials"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5656"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":547,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/544\/revisions\/547"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/mediacenter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}