Microsoft Office Reference Guide

Mar 26, 2004

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In the past I’ve featured Camtasia quite a bit, and I use it for my video updates on Informit. Besides serving as a fine video editor, its main forte is the ability to capture a series of screens with narration (and video) for training — I first covered it in an update on how to turn PowerPoint into a movie.

In a major upgrade to version 5, Camtasia added quite a few bells and whistles, including pan and zoom key frames, audio effects and noise reduction, and an expanded set of output options. So what’s new in the latest upgrade?

Right off the bat there is an expanded list of project settings which are available when you finish recording or (reopen) a project. Notice that one of the HD output setting. This uses the new H.264 codec which is about the best compression for excellent quality with compact file sizes. Five pre-sets use this codec (which you can change in the production output if you like): blog and web pre-sets were available before; now there is a YouTube, HD and Screencast.com pre-set as well.

FLV output was removed in this upgrade but due to protests a note on the web site says that it will be put back in, presumably in an imminent update.

Once you know that the pre-sets do what you need you can use them over and over; you can also create your own project settings for output and save them to reuse them.

Figure 1

The Camtasia Recorder interface has also been updated, with a new full-screen selection button and the ability remember the previous dimensions.

Figure 2

In the editor you now can have up to three separate audio tracks, in addition to the PIP (picture in picture (narration)) audio track.

Figure 3

When you unlink any audio track (here the PIP track is unlinked) you can maneuver the audio, split it and add new audio separate from the video sequence.

Figure 4

Like many of the top video editors, Camtasia 6 now also has seven customizable hot keys, so that you can add a transition (T) or callout (C) simply by tapping the key on the keyboard.

There is now also the capability of editing (some but not all) QuickTime (MOV) or MP4 videos from digital cameras or which were created previously by adding the clips to the Clip Bin and then the Timeline.

For those of you looking for cool effects, in addition to the previous Pan and Zoom capability, there is now a slider under Advanced options to tilt the zoomed portion of the video along the Y axis.

Figure 5

There is also a more precise ability to control transition duration, down to a tenth of a second.

Figure 6

Another new option is to include the original PowerPoint presentation which was recorded with Camtasia in the production folder to upload to a web site for users to download.

Camtasia has also launched its own video hosting site, Screencast.com, is like YouTube, AuthorStream and others, but with the added advantage that you can use a Camtasia pre-set to encode the video, and then upload it directly to your Screencast account from the Production output options window.

Currently a free account is available with 2 gigabytes of storage and an equal amount of monthly bandwidth.

What you get with SnagIt 9.0 and 9.1

Screen captures are a very useful way to document processes and show users important aspects of training.

SnagIt by TechSmith has probably been one of the most popular programs for doing a series of screen captures. Many of us know about the PrtScr key which can put a single capture of our monitor screen or Alt + PrtScr (the active window only).

But SnagIt is a workhorse in this area.

To give you an idea of the versatility of this version in particular, take a look at the main screen of the capture module. All of the little icons in the main panel are different Profiles that can be modified by the user to set capture options according to the drop down menu.

Figure 7

Notice also the big red Capture button. This is cool if you don’t want to make the interface disappear and remember a set of hotkeys; whichever profile you are currently using will be activated when you click the red button. And besides images, it can be set to capture text, video or web pages.

You can also add SnagIt icons to other programs, like you MS Office apps or Internet Explorer, here the icons are in a small toolbar in the upper left, ready to capture web pages.

Figure 8

Maybe the best part of the program, however, is the editor, where you have a wide range of editing and annotation tools and a panel at the bottom of the interface that holds the last 25 captures whether you saved them or not.

This means that you can work on individual files and annotate and save them normally, or you can just click away until you have the captures you want, and then go back, access them from this library, and edit and save them.

You can also click to View > Library, which opens a huge window with all of your recent captures, tabs at the top to sort through them, and a panel on the right to locate other files.

Figure 9

If you’re looking to turn PowerPoint into video and more, or document IT processes or write a manual or article (hey, that’s an idea...), check out the TechSmith products and the latest versions.

InformIT Articles and Sample Chapters

Using SnagIt for IT Training

Camtasia 5: An Upgrade Worth the Effort

Books and eBooks

Special Edition Using Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007 (Also available in Safari Books Online)

Solving the PowerPoint Predicament: Using Digital Media for Effective Communication (Also available in Safari Books Online)

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