Making interactive "How To" videos

Hypertext functionality comes to videos.

Asterpix is an interesting Web site that enables technical communicators and trainers to create interactive videos.

This brings Captivate-type functionality to TV/YouTube videos.

You can add hotspots and hyperlinks to areas of the video, allowing viewers to get more information on objects of interest during video playback.

Viewers can also navigate directly to specific scenes that contain objects of interest without having to watch the entire video.

This may address some of the disadvantages with video based instruction: having to sit through the whole video; no interactivity; poor search and skip; and no drill down, "minimal manual" capabilities.

(Thanks to Laura Jaffrey).