Time stamped video: how to add chapters and timestamps

Three kinds of time stamped video

What "time stamped video" can mean, and how to make each kind

Kind	What it does	How to make it
Chapters (timestamps)	Splits the video into named sections that viewers can jump to	A timestamp list in a YouTube description, or the chapters setting in Vimeo or Mindstamp
Time-stamped link	Starts playback at one moment	YouTube's Start at option, a Vimeo chapter link, or ?t= on a Mindstamp share link
Date and time overlay	Shows when each frame was recorded	A camera setting, or a text overlay added later with a tool such as FFmpeg

How to add timestamps to a YouTube video

YouTube's help page on video chapters gives these steps (checked October 2026):

1. Sign in to YouTube Studio.
2. In the left menu, select Content, then select the video.
3. In the description, add a list of timestamps and titles, one per line.
4. Select Save.

The list becomes chapters only if it follows three rules. The first timestamp must be 00:00. The list needs at least three timestamps in ascending order. Each chapter must be at least 10 seconds long. A description for a short safety lesson could look like this:

00:00 Why lockout matters
00:42 Shut down the press
01:30 Isolate every energy source
03:05 Apply locks and tags
04:20 Verify zero energy

YouTube can also add chapters automatically. It turns automatic chapters on by default for new uploads, but not every video is eligible, and you can turn them off for one video or in your upload defaults. YouTube does not show chapters for channels with active strikes or for videos that may be inappropriate for some viewers.

Two free tools save the typing. The video chapter generator reads a transcript that has timestamps and suggests where each chapter starts and what to call it. The video chapter formatter rewrites a list you already have into YouTube format, plain text, CSV, or JSON. Both check the three YouTube rules.

How to add chapters in Vimeo and Mindstamp

Vimeo

Vimeo's guide to using chapters lists the feature for its Starter, Standard, Advanced, and Enterprise plans and for the older Pro, Business, and Premium plans (checked October 2026). Open the video from your library, select the Interactive tab, choose Chapters, and select Add a chapter for each section. A video can have up to 80 chapters, and each title can be up to 50 characters. Chapter markers on the progress bar show on desktop only. On phones and iPads, viewers get the chapters menu without the markers. Vimeo also shows your chapters on the viewer retention graph, so you can compare how many viewers each section keeps.

Mindstamp

Open the video, select Chapters in the video menu, move the playhead to the start of a section, type the chapter title, and add it. Repeat for each section. Viewers see the chapters on the progress bar and can jump to any of them from the player. Chapters sit on top of the video you already have, so you do not need to edit or re-upload the file.

Chapters help viewers find a section, but they do not record which sections a learner finished. When you need that record, build a menu with one button per section. Our help article on a chapter menu with review shows how to mark each finished section and show a Finish button only when all sections are done. It uses variables and conditional logic, which are on supported plans. The chapter selector example shows a menu of this kind in a software walkthrough.

How to link to a specific time in a video

• YouTube: select Share under the video, check Start at, enter the time, and copy the link, as YouTube's help on sharing videos describes. For an embedded YouTube player, the start parameter sets the start time in seconds.
• Vimeo: open the chapters menu in the player and select the link icon next to a chapter. Vimeo's article on sharing a chapter notes that chapter links do not work when the video's privacy is set to Embed only.
• Mindstamp: add ?t= and a number of seconds to the share link, for example ?t=90 to start at 1:30. You can also set a start time in the Playback options on the Share page. The sharing help article notes that those options are added to the link when you copy it.

Time-stamped links work well in printed material. A QR code for a training video at a workstation can open a long video at the exact step that station needs.

How to plan chapters for a training video or product walkthrough

Plan chapters around the viewer's tasks.

• Start a new chapter where the viewer's task changes, such as a new screen or a new decision.
• Name each chapter after the task in the viewer's words, such as "Reset a locked account." A title like "Part 3" tells them nothing.
• Keep the introduction short. People who come back for one step will skip it.
• Put a quick check at the end of a chapter that teaches a procedure, so the learner applies it before moving on.

Long videos need this most. Across 8.07 million views of 18,315 Mindstamp videos recorded from 2018 to October 2026, views of videos longer than 20 minutes played 41.7% of the video on average, and the median video in that group averaged 33% watched. A viewer who stops early never reaches the later sections, so a chapter list that shows them at the start helps the viewer find the part they came for. This is a pattern in Mindstamp data, which is mostly training, marketing, and sales video. It does not prove that chapters raise watch time.

A transcript is the fastest way to find the breaks. In Mindstamp, create the transcript on the video's Transcript page, download it as a VTT file, and paste it into the chapter generator. Viewers can also search the transcript beside the player and select a line to jump to that moment. Transcripts work for uploaded videos and MP4 links, but not for YouTube or HLS links.

Which screen recorder makes product walkthroughs with chapters?

A screen recorder captures the screen. The chapters come from the place where people watch the video, so record with any tool and add chapters where you publish. Two recorders are already on most computers:

• Mac: press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot tools, choose to record the whole screen, a window, or a part of it, pick a microphone in the Options menu if you narrate, and click Record. Apple's guide to screen recording on Mac has the details.
• Windows 11: open Snipping Tool, select Record, then New, or press Windows logo key + Shift + R. Microsoft's Snipping Tool guide covers the steps.

Where to publish a walkthrough with clickable chapters (checked October 2026)

Where viewers watch	How chapters work	Best when
YouTube	Timestamp list in the description; at least three chapters, first at 00:00, each at least 10 seconds	The walkthrough is public and you want search traffic
Vimeo	Chapters setting on the plans listed above; up to 80 chapters	You want a clean player on your own site and chapter links
Mindstamp	Chapters setting, plus buttons that can work as a clickable table of contents	You also want questions and a record of what each viewer did

Add questions at chapter breaks in training videos

In a training video, a timestamp is also a place to check understanding. A Mindstamp question pauses the video at the moment you choose and saves each answer to that learner's report. Put one at the end of a chapter. If the answer is wrong, a Change Time action can send the learner back to the start of that chapter to review it.

Chapters work against a locked seek bar. Mindstamp's guide to stopping learners from skipping ahead explains that chapters and navigation buttons can still move a learner to another time when seeking is off, by design. For a required first viewing, decide whether learners need to jump at all. If they do, a button menu like the one above also records which sections each learner opened.

How to add a date and time stamp to video footage

If you need the recording time on every frame, as on security camera or dash camera video, turn on the date and time overlay in the camera's settings before you record. To add a stamp to footage you already have, FFmpeg's drawtext filter can print each frame's timestamp as clock time. Use the pts function with the localtime format and give it the moment the recording started, as a Unix timestamp:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "drawtext=text='%{pts\:localtime\:1790856000}':x=20:y=20:fontsize=36:fontcolor=white:box=1:[email protected]" -c:a copy output.mp4

Replace 1790856000 with your own start time. Do not use %{localtime} on its own, because FFmpeg documents it as the time the filter runs, not the time of the recording. The stamp is only as accurate as the start time you give it, so keep the original file.

Common questions

Can we customize compliance training videos for our company culture?

Yes. Add a short opening from one of your own leaders, name chapters after your own procedures, and write questions around situations your people face on the job. Apply your logo, colors, and fonts with branding. If the video comes from a training vendor, check the license first. Mindstamp adds chapters and questions on top of the file without changing it, but some licenses limit where you may show the video.

How do I keep time-stamped records of safety training?

The record you need is usually who completed the training and when, more than a stamp on the video. In Mindstamp, each view records when the session started and ended, the learner's name or ID, the share of the video they watched, and their answers and score. Export the records from Reporting as a spreadsheet for an audit. Collect a name or employee ID at the start of the video, because Mindstamp cannot join anonymous views later.

Do timestamps help video SEO?

They can. Google's video SEO guide says Google Search can show key moments from a video. For YouTube videos, Google points creators to timestamps and labels in the description. For videos on your own site, it describes Clip and SeekToAction structured data. To embed a Mindstamp video with that data, turn on Include SEO metadata on the Share page before you copy the embed code. The code then lists each chapter as a Clip and adds a collapsed transcript (see embed options).

Can I add timestamps to videos I already have?

Yes. A YouTube description, Vimeo chapters, and Mindstamp chapters all work on videos that are already published. You do not need to record or export the video again.

To start, pick your longest training video, generate a chapter list from its transcript, and add the chapters. Then put one question at the end of the chapter people most often ask about, and check the answers in the video's report after the first week.

Sources and further reading

• Wyzowl's video marketing statistics, survey figures on how businesses and consumers use video.
• The Cherubini Company's video marketing onboarding page, an agency's page that gathers a new client's first tasks and a how-to video in one place.