A couple of weeks ago we learned how to save the audio from YouTube files to use later in our English clubs. But what if you want to save entire movies? This week’s Tech Tip will teach you a very similar method for saving YouTube movies.

To start off, open the video you want to download from YouTube. In the URL add “save” before youtube.com (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0 becomes http://www.saveyoutube.com/watch?v=fLexgOxsZu0). At SaveYouTube you may be asked to update Java. If you are asked, I recommend you install the updates because updates are good. If you update, you need to restart your browser. When you get to SaveYouTube again, press the “Download” button (the URL of the YouTube video should be in the text box). A box may pop up asking you to allow a program to run and to download, you need to allow this to run (I suspected a virus so I ran it then checked my computer with a virus scanner and no viruses were found). You will be directed to a new page and it will have a list of options for downloading the video. I recommend choosing one of the MP4 download options. Once you click the download link, all you have to do is wait for it to download and then you can watch the video anytime you want.

If you know of an easier way to download YouTube videos, I’d be happy to hear them.