Think of a video-sharing website and the name that springs to mind is Youtube. While this service has proved incredibly popular, it is far from being the only one of its kind. Another such service is MSN Soapbox and, while it is similar to other video websites, there are a number of advantages.

As well as being a wonderfully designed website, it benefits from integration with other Microsoft tools such as Spaces and Messenger, and when it comes to uploading videos, a large number of file formats are supported. It is worth noting that Soapbox is still in beta (testing) mode, so the site is subject to change and not all features may function correctly at the moment.

STEP 1
WE'VE CREATED A LINK to MSN Soapbox at our own website, so launch your web browser, type www.computeractive.co.uk/2192230into the Address or Location bar and hit Enter or Return. When our site appears, click the link to be transferred to MSN Soapbox. You can immediately start watching any of the featured videos that appear on the front page by clicking one of the thumbnail previews. However, to get the most out of Soapbox, it is necessary to create an account and sign into it. Click the Sign In link in the upper left¬hand corner of the page and enter your Windows Live 10 account details - if you don't already have an account, you will be guided through the process of setting one up.

STEP 2
WHILE IT IS NOT necessary to enter any profile details to brows through the Soapbox site, if you are planning to upload videos, having a profile is a good way to let other people know a little bit about yourself.Click the 'my soapbox' link to the left of the page, followed by'edit profile', If you already have a Windows Live profi created, now is a good time to check that all the information is correct, but otherwise you can set about the task of entering a display name, adding a personal picture and supplying any additional information others may be interested in before clickir 'Save and return to Soapbox.

STEP 3
THERE ARE A HUGE number of ways to track down particular types of video on Soapbox, most of which can be accessed by clicking the 'browse videos' link to the left of the page. The five links beneath this can then be used to home in on video which have just been added, the most popular videos, videos with the most comments, those which have been added to other people's list of favourites most often, and those which have received the highest ratings. Again,just click a thumbnail to view a video.

STEP 4
ALTERNATIVELY, CLICK THE 'BROWSE tags' link and it is possible to work through videos based on the tags that have been assigned to them. Click on a tag label in the cloud view and videos will be filtered accordingly and they can be filtered further by clicking more tag links. Above the video thumbnails, click the menu labelled 'sort by' and the filtered videos results can be reorganised by their relevance to the tag selected, the rating they have received, the date they were uploaded or the number of times they have been viewed.

STEP 5
HOWEVER VIDEOS ARE BEING browsed, each thumbnail is labelled to give an idea of what the video content is. Additionally, hover the mouse pointer over a thumbnail and an extended description will be displayed. When a video link is clicked, the file will play in the previously empty section of the page to the right, and familiar media player controls can be used to play, pause and skip through footage. Click the link to the right of the volume control to view a video in full-screen mode.

STEP 6
BENEATH THE VIDEO WINDOW sit a number of tabs which enable a variety of tasks. On the Details tab, information about the video is displayed and by clicking on the star icons you can apply c rating to the currently loaded video. The Sharetab contains ways to share videos with others, including adding them to a blog, embedding them in a website, emailing or sending them as instant messages or adding them to a list of favourites¬just click the relevant link.

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STEP 7
SWITCH TO THE COMMENTS tab and any comments that have been left by other visitors for the current video will be displayed. Click the 'Comment on this video' link to add a comment of your own. The first time a comment is added,you will have to submit a display name this will appear alongside any comments you make. Finally, use the Tags tab to view the tags which have been assigned to the video or assign tags of your own.

STEP 8
HAVING VIEWED A VIDEO, you may well be interested in finding other videos which have been uploaded by the same user. To do so, click the username (labelled 'from') on the 'details'tab below the video window and the uploader's page will be displayed. From here it is possible to access the other videos that have been uploaded by the user, as well as viewing those which they have marked as favourites.

STEP 9
ANOTHER WAY TO TRACK down particular types of video is t use the search facility at the top of the page. Enter a keyword ir the search box, make sure that the 'video' option is selected anI click the Search button. When the search results are displayed, videos can be viewed in the usual way and it is also possible to further filter the results by clicking the tag cloud as described earlier.To return to browsing videos, click either the'browse videos' or'categories' links to the left of the page.

STEP 10
TO KEEP ABREAST OF the latest additions to certain cat or to be informed when videos matching your search tern been uploaded, you can subscribe to an RSS feed. Having conducted a search or browsed to a category, click the or; icon that appears above the video thumbnails, select the option and then click the 'Subscribe to this feed link'. Usir dmpdown menu, it is also possible to add feeds to persol myMSN and Live.com account pages.

STEP 11
WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE'S VIDEOS is all well and good, but Soapbox also enables you to upload videos of your own. Click
the 'upload videos' link followed by the Browse button before navigating to a video on your hard drive, ensuring that it is in one of the supported file formats note that video clips can be up to 1 DDMB in size. Add a title and description for the video before filling in the tags box to make it easier for others to locate the video.

STEP 12
NOW USE THE FIRST dropdown menu to choose a category to place the video in before choosing whether the file should be made public or hidden. Public videos can be viewed by anyone using Soapbox, while Hidden ones can only be viewed by you¬this latter option could provide a useful way to back up video files without sharing them. Tick the box to agree to the terms of use and then click the Upload button.There will then be a pause while the video is uploaded and processed.

STEP 13
TO ACCESS PERSONAL SETTINGS relating to Soapbox, click the 'my soapbox'iink to the left ofthe page.There are a number of options available here, including the orange'Upload a Video'button at the top ofthe page. Beneath this is a link to your profile which can be sent to friends and family to enable them to quickly access any videos you have uploaded. Uploaded videos are listed in the'my videos' section and any which are no longer required can be removed by hovering the mouse over the relevant thumbnail and clicking the Delete link.

STEP 14
ONE OF THE MOST useful features of the 'my soapbox' page appears at the bottom.The 'my favorites' section contains links to all the videos which have previously been marked as favourites for easy access click the'view all'link if you cannot see all your favourites. As with uploaded videos, favourites can be easily removed from your profile just hover the mouse pointer over a video thumbnail and click the Remove link.