Forum Discussion
How to add video and text side by side in Rise
Came looking for this solution too. I suspect it might be more flexible to have X auto-width, tabular, centred Blocks, which can be different block content; video, image, text. This would cover all uses suggested above.
However, if that proves too difficult for the dev team, then Video and Text side-by-side definitely.
When you have video, you may wish to include instructions for it, introduction, provisos, warnings, policy exclusions etc.
Seems like a useful pairing, as others have already said above.
Just wanted to add the use cases to make it clear how this would be useful - with a max/min enabling full screen and then back again, naturally.
EDIT: Or is the answer to this - and lots of other things people want - to use the Custom Block or Code Block?
Hello SteveBlackwell,
That’s a great callout, and I appreciate you adding those use cases. They really highlight how valuable this kind of layout flexibility would be.
At the moment, Rise doesn’t natively support placing video and text side-by-side within the same block. As others have mentioned, there are a few workarounds like using Storyline or custom code after export, but those aren’t always ideal for maintainability or accessibility.
To your question, Custom Blocks can help create a side-by-side layout by placing video and text on a shared canvas. However, this approach has some limitations. Custom blocks aren’t responsive and may not adapt well across different screen sizes, and they don’t fully meet accessibility guidelines at this time. Because of that, while they can work for certain designs, they’re not always a scalable or accessible solution for this type of layout.
I can see how having more flexible layout options, like combining different content types in a multi-column format, would make it much easier to design courses that are both clear and engaging.
I’ve added your feedback to the existing request, including the scenarios you shared around instructions, context, and usability. We’re continuing to gather input as we explore ways to expand layout capabilities in Rise.
Thanks Eric.
Yes, I'm glad you have pointed out these deficiencies. Better in my mind to be native to the product than trying to find/vibe-code a solution which isn't as elegant.
I tried vibe-coding a solution and no matter what I tried, it just didn't want to position the blocks correctly and I am no coder.Cheers. Let's hope something comes of this in the next 4 years, as I can't see very much of anything on the current roadmap tbh, other than AI.
