If you have been on the web for any length of time or if you have used any amount of software you have no doubt run across tutorial videos. Tutorial videos in general show the screen of the program being taught. There are several ways they can do this, from using specialized video cameras and software which are expensive. To, using screen recording software, which is basically a program that you load in to your computers memory and it records what you do on your computer and then turns it in to a video file. There are several programs available that do this. My favorite and arguably the best is TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio 4.0.

The recording of the screen is something that is really easy to do. Besides showing the interface of the program or programs you are using while the screen recording software is recording it shows mouse movements, animations, video, text, graphics, everything. For example say you were recording the editing of a digital camera image in Adobe Photoshop. Camtasia once installed and running would record whatever you do inside of Adobe Photoshop, from things like running the levels command, to adding text, running filters, etc. Once you were done and you told Camtasia you were done recording it would ask you what video format you wanted to save your screen recording to.

But, it gets better. If you have a microphone connected to your computer, you can even record audio (speech) while you worked so besides someone seeing what you are doing in for our example Adobe Photoshop you could explain to them what you are doing and why. If you want to record this audio with your screen recording I highly recommend that you forget the sound card on your motherboard or an add in sound card like a SoundBlaster and instead get yourself a good USB microphone with noise cancellation. Logitech makes one and I just love it. Not only is it easy to use it gives you the best voice recording possible. I have found most sound cards and on motherboard sound cards to be rather noisy and of poor quality, when it comes to microphone recording. So by-passing them completely is the best way to go and Windows XP has drivers already to support the USB Microphones, I also feel that the noise cancellation type microphones are well worth the money as they eliminate ambient sounds in the background and give your voice a clean strong sound.

Now once you have your screen recording finished with or without the audio, you will of course want to spruce it up. Maybe add some background music, some call outs for the various tools you selected, copyright text, title screens, transitions, etc. Well TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio 4.0 has you covered. This package comes with everything you need to go from screen recording to final output complete with all of the video goodies like adding the music, callouts, title screens, etc. And, don’t think for an instant you are limited to using your videos on the web only. Besides offering support for many web based formats like Flash Video, Camtasia also allows for .AVI, QuickTime and more so that you can create training CD’s and DVD’s, and these non-web video formats can even be played on the Apple Macintosh, with Apple QuickTime and the free video codec available from TechSmith. All of this is done with a clean and easy to use interface that even a novice will be able to use.

If professional looking training videos or presentations are what you want, but don’t want that professional price TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio 4.0 is what you are looking for. Just take a look at the features section to see how powerful it really is. For those that have used Camtasia prior to version 4.0 you will also find a list of new features for version 4.0 below.

• Record all or any portion of the screen.
• Record webcam video.
• Record voice narration and system audio.
• Record all elements of a PowerPoint presentation, including slide timing, animations and voice narration.
• Record mouse clicks and keystrokes.
• Record layered windows and application interaction.
• Capture single frames for still image AVI slideshow.
• Step through the recording process with the aid of a Recording Wizard.
• Use TechSmith TSCC Codec to get high-performance video compression for fast and smooth recording.

Add Emphasis

• Highlight and alter cursor with onscreen visual effects.
• Add multiple-choice quizzes.
• Draw on the screen with pens, highlights using ScreenPad.
• Cycle through ScreenPad tools and layouts with Hotkeys.
• Use Hotkeys to zoom in and out.
• Zoom in on a smaller portion of the window and have the video window follow the cursor.

Pre-Production

• Preview audio levels prior to recording narration.
• Record audio input from microphone.
• Use time-lapse recording.
• Add time stamps and text captions to videos.
• Record annotation drawings with ScreenDraw.
• Add text notes while recording.
• Add and change text in ScreenPad shapes.
• Add a watermark.

Add, Cut, Splice and Join Clips

• Add video from digital video files, for personal video introductions, in WMV, MPEG and AVI formats.
• Add audio clips (WAV, MP3).
• Add still images (BMP, JPG, GIF).
• Select and cut portions of a video clip or multiple video clips.
• Select a single frame of a video to separate one video file into two.
• Zoom in and out on the timeline to edit with frame-by-frame precision.
• Select a single frame to export as a BMP file.
• Extend the duration of the exported bitmap file or video file to accommodate more lengthy explanation.
• Edit, review, cut and join AVI clips.
• Preview your edits and transitions in real-time.
• Resize and detach the video preview window.
• Chose from 18 new video transitions between clips.

Add, Edit Audio

• Narrate an entire timeline.
• Use microphone to record new narration while viewing video clips.
• Record audio from applications (sound card driver dependent).
• Add a second audio track, including background music or second language tracks for international audiences.
• Record and/or edit audio for a single image (BMP, JPG, GIF).
• Narrate a series of still images to create a slideshow playable in standard media players.
• Trim and attach WAV audio files from video clips.

Add Emphasis

• Add Flash Hot Spots to simulate applications and add onscreen navigation.
• Provide users with clickable areas to either continue video, jump to another frame or go to a URL.
• Zoom-n-Pan in over time or cut immediately to a focused area of the screen to make full-screen recording playable on the smallest PC and handheld screens.
• Add callouts, annotations and text notes to AVI videos after recording.
• Customize the callout text, font face and size.
• Customize the callout color, shape and location.
• Customize the callout duration and speed of the fade in and out.
• Use timeline bar to choose where and when annotations appear in videos.

Versatile Publishing Options

• Publish in industry standard formats - Macromedia Flash, AVI, Microsoft Windows Media, RealNetworks RealMedia and QuickTime.
• Production Wizard with Help Me Choose feature.
• Output as animated GIF.
• Export as EXE file with Pack and Show.
• Publish multiple videos at the same time with batch production.
• Save a user-defined publishing profile.
• Select from a list of codecs to match your content.
• Select color depth and frame rate.
• Select audio quality.
• Resize video dimensions with smooth scaling.

Web & CD Menus

• Launch MenuMaker and Theater from within Producer.
• Create a Table of Contents for navigation within a video for the Web.
• Create a Theater Web pane for navigation between multiple videos.
• Create a CD-ROM menu (MenuMaker) of your videos and other files, including:
• Video files
• PowerPoint files
• Word documents
• PDF files
• EXE files
• Web pages
• Submenus
• Customize your CD interface with over 350 custom background graphics from 30 categories.
• Customize the menu's text, alignment and font.
• Create headings for media groupings with static text.
• Use the Wizard to organize and deliver videos.
• Exercise font and color control.
• Save production info in project files.
• Create customized Web menus (Theater) for Flash movies.
• Select a single Flash file or complete directories.
• Order a group of Flash movies for sequential playback.
• Output as HTML.
• Use XML output for custom configuration.
• Apply an auto-sequencing option.
• Make use of the scrolling menu.
• Sort and rename movies.
• Send/post a link to a single video within the Web menu.

Plays Well with Others

• SCORM 1.2 compliance.
• Macromedia Flash MX 2004 Professional users can produce their screen recordings as true streaming Flash files (.FLV).
• Introduce these files into MX 2004 Pro via TechSmith's Components for Flash MX to enhance them with additional interactivity.
• Enables Flash MX users to customize presentation of Flash screen movies.
• Drag the Movie Loader component onto the Flash MX stage to easily reference the Flash movie.
• Create a menu for multiple Flash movies.
• Customize preloading animation.
• Use the Flash playback controls.
• Add a seekbar (aka "scrubber") to your movies for easy navigation.
• Customize the color and placement of playback controls.
• Customize presentation of movie duration and elapsed time.
• Files can be combined as part of a larger Flash MX 2004, Macromedia Breeze and/or Flash Communication Server presentation.
• Videos can also be edited and enhanced in Apple Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere Pro and After Effects.

What's New in Camtasia Studio 4.0

Share with Anyone, Anywhere

 

We live in a mobile world, and Camtasia Studio 4 helps you keep pace by making it easy to publish videos and MP3 files for portable media players. Now your message, lecture, or just-in-time training video can reach your audience practically anywhere – on the bus, in a coffee shop, or while they’re jogging. Camtasia Studio videos are designed to share.

 

Give Your Audience Playback Choices

 

Sometimes it’s hard to predict what your viewers will need. Will they watch your videos on a laptop? Or would they prefer an MP3 or iPod video file to take along? Now you can stop guessing and give your audience a variety of options. Choose the primary file format you want, then add iPod and/or MP3 to the production list, and even attach a PowerPoint presentation. Then, produce them all at once.

 

Seamless Publishing through Integration with Screencast.com

 

Camtasia Studio 4 provides a fully functional screening space for your videos. Directly from within the production wizard, you can publish videos to Screencast.com, where others can easily view your content. Screencast.com has built-in RSS and iTunes functionality, so you can deliver videos directly to your viewer’s desktop or portable media player. With this seamless integration between Camtasia Studio and Screencast.com, sharing your videos, screencasts, and more, is just a click away.

 

No More Background Noise

 

Even in "reasonably quiet" conference rooms, offices and classrooms, unwanted room noise can seep into your recordings, making them sound less than perfect. Camtasia Studio 4 can edit out background noise to drastically improve the quality of your video. Either choose one of the many presets to automatically remove the noise, or manually select the noisy portion of the timeline. Then, Camtasia Studio will identify this sound pattern in your recording and remove it across the entire audio track.

 

Equalize Volume Levels

 

It’s easy to speak too softly or sit too far from your microphone during recording. It’s also common to experience volume variations when two or more voices are being recorded. Camtasia Studio 4 can remove volume variations across the timeline to ensure consistently good sound throughout your video. Advanced users can manually control volume ratio, threshold and gain.

 

Compare Results before Producing

 

Have you seen Camtasia Studio’s perfect-quality Flash SWF or new Flash Video (FLV) files? How about the incredible results of QuickTime's H.264 compression? With so many choices, it can be difficult to decide which is best for your situation. Camtasia Studio’s new production preview feature lets you explore options beforehand and quickly compare the results of different formats and compression settings.

 

It’s Your Video – Customize It!

 

Choose from a variety of playback bars and Flash pre-loaders to create a presentation that’s just right for you. And, Adobe Flash users can access our source files to easily customize our pre-loaders.

 

Survey your viewers

 

Camtasia Studio 4 lets you add open-ended survey questions to your videos to engage viewers and gather feedback. Quizzes and surveys are now also easier to create and more professional in appearance.

 

View and adjust audio volume

 

An audio volume indicator and an Audio Setup Wizard make it easier to choose the best audio settings for your needs.

 

Produce in three clicks or less

 

Eight production presets, based on the settings and file formats people use most often, let you publish videos quickly for the Web, iPod and portable media players. Edit the presets or create new ones to use repeatedly or share with others.

 

Move on from PowerPoint

 

PowerPoint recordings created with Camtasia Studio 4 are processed almost instantaneously, so you can finish your presentation and move on to something else.

 

Narrate as long as you need to

 

Extend any frame of a previously recorded video, and take your time adding narration or concluding remarks.

 

Callouts automatically resize to fit

 

Have a lot to say in your callouts? Now Camtasia Studio will automatically resize your callouts to fit your text.