- Look Ahead: Identifying Your Distribution Targets
- Working with the Camtasia Editor
- Enhancing Your Videos
- Producing and Sharing Your Videos
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Working with the Camtasia Editor
By default, your recorded clip is added to the Camtasia Editor immediately after you complete the capture. Pressing the F10 (Stop) key displays a prompt; you can edit or delete the captured clip, or simply continue capturing (see Figure 1).
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When you add a clip to the Editor in this way, Camtasia places the clip on a corresponding video and audio track on the Timeline and adds it to the Clip Bin. You'll also see a prompt asking whether you want to enable SmartFocus; you can do so at this time, or later add it to a selected clip (or portion of a clip) on the Timeline.
You can also add or reopen a saved Camtasia Recorder (*TREC) file, by adding it to the Clip Bin of any new or existing Camtasia Studio project (see Figure 2).
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At upper left in the window are the main controls for the Editor, as shown in Figure 3 (the numbered items in the figure match those in the list):
- Record the Screen opens/reopens the Recorder.
- Import Media adds files to the Clip Bin, including video, recorded (*.TREC), and image files.
- Produce and Share opens the Production Wizard to save video files in various output formats.
- Clip Bin opens/reopens the Clip Bin.
- Library presents Camtasia's collection of reusable themes and titles.
- Callouts consist of pointers and banners that enhance video.
- Zoom-n-Pan allows you to focus in on an area of the screen.
- Audio enhances and fixes the volume of selected audio.
- Transitions adds special effects between segments.
- More accesses additional features such as voice narration.
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Depending on the length of the clip and the degree of detail you want in your editing, you can use the Zoom magnifying glass to expand or contract the visible part of your clip on the Timeline (see Figure 4).
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Below the Preview window at upper right are playback controls you can use to play the clip and listen to the accompanying audio:
- You can "scrub" through the video by dragging the Playback Indicator under the Preview window.
- The large center Play arrow begins or pauses playback of the production from the position of the Playback Indicator to the end of the video.
- Double arrows advance and reverse the video by increments.
- The arrows at the far left and right advance/reverse playback by segment.
Just like when cropping an image (in Photoshop, for example), the key to editing is to select a portion of the track from the Playback head first, with an In point (green) and Out point (red), as shown in Figure 5. Then you can cut the selected segment (Ctrl-X) to bring the remaining segments together, or delete the selection (Del) to keep the remaining tracks apart.
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Double-click the Playhead to clear a selection, or drag the Playhead through the track to "scrub" through the production, watching the Preview window.
You can also separate the video and audio in a track by right-clicking the track and selecting Separate Video and Audio. (Figure 6 shows the separated tracks.)
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You can use this feature to substitute a different section of video (and audio) over the separated tracks, removing the original audio. Watch the Preview window carefully to check how the audio is synchronized with what's shown on screen.
By importing another recorded audio file, you can add it to a new track, removing the existing audio, and overlay the new audio onto a "split" and vacated portion of the existing video (see Figure 7).
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