Embed videos, maps and web pages in your notes, plus HTML blocks

A note is often about something that lives on the web: a talk on YouTube, a design in Figma, a shared spreadsheet, a place on a map. Barside lets you embed videos and web pages in your notes, so the real thing sits next to what you wrote about it. Type /embed, paste a link, and the video plays in the note. For everything else there is the HTML block: write or paste HTML, like an embed code from a website, and it runs in a safe box of its own. Barside is a free desktop app for Windows, Linux and Mac.

Why embed instead of pasting a link

A bare link is a promise to look later. An embed is there now:

• Watch without leaving. A lecture or a tutorial plays inside your study notes, and you write while it plays.
• Keep the context together. A design review note holds the Figma file, the decisions and the tasks, in one place.
• See the latest version. An embedded Google Sheet or Airtable view shows its current data each time you open the note.

Embed a video, a map or a web page

1. In a note, type / at the start of a line and choose Embed. Or press the globe button (Embed a video, map or web page) under More formatting in the note toolbar.
2. Paste a link and press Enter.
3. The embed appears with the site's name above it. Videos keep their shape: wide for most videos, tall for YouTube Shorts.

Barside turns the links you copy from these sites into their own players and viewers:

Any other web address shows the page itself. Some sites do not allow other apps to show their pages; then the embed stays empty and offers Open it in your browser.

Each embed has buttons in its header: Open in your browser, Change link and Delete embed, plus a grip on the left to select the embed or drag it to another place in the note. For pages, maps and documents, drag the bottom edge to make the embed taller or shorter; the note keeps the height.

Run your own HTML in a block

The HTML block is for what an embed cannot do: a small calculator, a chart made with a script, a table with custom styles, or an embed code that a website gives you, like a booking widget or a form.

1. Type /html and press Enter, or press Insert an HTML block under More formatting.
2. Write or paste the HTML. Tab indents, and the box grows as you type.
3. Press Run, or Ctrl+Enter (Cmd+Enter on a Mac). The result shows in the block, at the height of its content.

Press the pencil (Edit HTML) to change it and run it again, or Esc to leave the code as it was. The default text color follows Barside's light or dark look, and your own CSS can change anything.

How HTML blocks stay safe

An HTML block runs in a frame of its own, not in Barside's page:

• No way into your library. The code cannot read the note around it, your other notes, your files or Barside's settings, and it cannot reach Barside's own functions.
• No origin of its own. The frame is sandboxed, so it cannot keep cookies or storage that another page could read.
• No camera, microphone or screen. Barside never gives them to an embedded page or an HTML block.
• The web, like any page. The code can load pictures, fonts, styles and scripts from secure web addresses, and send requests to them. Links open in your browser.

That makes it safe for the app, but the code still does what it says, like any web page you open. Run HTML you wrote or trust.

Embed, save or attach?

Barside has three ways to bring something from outside into a note, each for a different job:

• Embed when you want the live thing: a video to play, a document that keeps changing, a map to explore. It needs the internet.
• Save the web page when you want to keep an article as it is today. The copy lives in your note and works offline. See save webpages for offline reading.
• Attach a file when you have the file itself, like a PDF or a spreadsheet. Drag it into the note, or use the paperclip in the note toolbar.

Examples

• A student embeds each lecture video at the top of its note and writes the summary below it, pausing as needed.
• A designer keeps the Figma file of a project in its note, next to the feedback and a kanban board of the open work.
• A small business owner embeds the shared Google Sheet with this month's orders in the weekly review note.
• A teacher pastes a quiz form's embed code into an HTML block, so the class note holds the form itself.
• A traveler embeds the map of each stop in the trip plan.

Details that matter

• Saved with the note. An embed saves its link and height, and an HTML block saves its code, so ZIP backups and cloud sync with Barside Plus carry them.
• Search. The search box in All notes and the search bar find an embed by its link and an HTML block by its words.
• Copy and paste. Select a block with its grip and copy it into another note; it comes along as a block.
• Limits. An HTML block holds up to 200,000 characters and grows up to 4,000 pixels tall.
• Internet. Embeds and the web parts of HTML blocks load each time you open the note. To keep a page forever, save the web page into the note instead; that copy works offline.
• Systems. Embeds and HTML blocks work the same on Windows 10 and 11, on Linux and on Mac.

Privacy

When a note with an embed opens, your computer loads the embed from its site, as your browser would, so that site sees the visit. YouTube videos use YouTube's privacy-enhanced player, which does not set cookies until you play. Barside sends nothing about your notes to these sites. A note shared to a Space sends an embed as its link and an HTML block as text, and nothing runs there. Read the privacy guide.

How it compares

Web note apps like Notion embed links in a similar way. Barside does it in a desktop app that keeps your notes on your computer, and adds HTML blocks that run in their own sandbox. If you are choosing an app, read the Notion alternative guide and the list of the best note-taking apps. For notes in general, see the local-first note-taking app guide.

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