Software Review: Camtasia Studio 6 from TechSmith

Written by T. Michael Testi

So what is Camtasia Studio? It is the premiere screen recording system on the market today, and it has just gotten better with the release of Camtasia Studio 6. It is a complete software solution for creating high-quality training videos, presentations, and screencasts that can be shared on the Web, CD-ROM, as well as on portable media players such as the iPod.

Camtasia Studio 6 runs on Microsoft Windows XP or Vista, requires DirectX 9.0 or later, 1.0GHz Processor (2.5GHz is recommended and needed for PowerPoint and camera recordings), 500MB RAM (2GB recommended), 115MB of hard drive space. There are other specialized requirements for specific needs.

TechSmith started out in 1987 as a custom software company who developed for the Windows platform. Responding to a demand for screen capture utilities, they created SnagIt in 1991. Over time, SnagIt offered some video capture capabilities and these eventually became Camtasia in 1999. In 2002, it became Camtasia Studio, which was enhanced with a suite of tools. In November 2008, the latest version — Camtasia Studio 6 — was released.

What does Camtasia Studio actually do? It automatically records exactly what a user sees on the screen. It records what they say, and how they interact with any Windows-based application or Web site. It can be used to record training videos, marketing information, or support instruction.

Once you have your video recorded, Camtasia Studio 6 has the tools that will allow you to edit your video and share it in a variety of formats. These include Flash (SWF), fixed media such as CD and DVD, as well as on portable media such as the iPod. If you want, you can see a short overview of Camtasia and how it can be used.

There were two main goals that Camtasia Studio wanted to address for this version. First were larger projects. As people became more comfortable with creating videos, they started creating larger ones. The larger they got, the more sluggish the editing became. The second area was as new technology keeps being introduced, Camtasia needed to create higher quality videos with smaller file sizes.

So what is new with Camtasia Studio 6?

• Finer control over effects – will help you get your timing down. You can control the duration of transitions and callout fades right down to a tenth of a second.

• Tilt Video effect – will give you the ability to let your videos pop! By being able to change the angle and bring some things closer to the screen and putting others in the background, you can force some items to grab attention where the attention is needed.

• Overhauled presets – like Web, blog, and iPod have been upgraded to have High Definition video capabilities. Three others — YouTube, HD display, and Screencast.com, which are new presets — also take advantage of the new format which replaces FLV. They all default to a MPEG-4 AVC (H.264 ACC) file coupled with a Flash player. This means the HD quality with the smallest file size possible.

• Edit MOV files – from a digital camera or previous project. You can now bring it into Camtasia Studio and edit it on the timeline. As long as it is a self-contained MOV file, you can edit it.

• Screencast.com – is the fast and easy way to get videos from Camtasia to the Web. With the new Screencast.com preset, you can direct content into your sharing folder of choice. What's better, you get a free 2GB storage, 2GB bandwidth account absolutely free.

Camtasia Studio 6 is an all-in-one solution for creating audio-video screencasts. You can import media, record from your screen, or record video from your Web cam. It provides the ability to include quizzes as well as other information into your presentation. It is SCORM compliant. There is also a PowerPoint plug-in that allows you to take your presentations and turn them into video form.

Camtasia Studio 6 also has a lot of tutorial videos (go figure) that break down specific topics and focus on helping you get up to speed fast. They also have on many of the screens a button that says "Assist Me" that will display instruction, and a button "Show Me" which will take you to a video about the topic. The latter really saves you time from having to try to find the tutorial somewhere else.

If you are looking to get into professional video creation, then Camtasia Studio 6 is the right product. If you own Camtasia Studio 5 should you upgrade to 6? In my opinion, the separate audio and video clips are worth every penny of the upgrade. This alone will save hours of editing/re-recording time. Add to that the better performance for working with larger recordings, the HD video ability, and the finer control over the effects all make it an easy decision to upgrade. I highly recommend Camtasia Studio 6.

• Separate audio and video tracks – will now let you detach your audio from your video so that you can fix mistakes much easier than ever before. So say you mispronounce a word during your recording. In the past you would have to either leave it in or re-record your video. Now you simply detach your audio from your video track, cut out the bad section, and drop in the new.

• Added hotkeys – will save you a lot of time. Now with seven customizable hot keys, if you want to add a callout to the current spot on the timeline, just hit "C" on your keyboard. If you want to zoom, hit the "Z" key.

 

Technorati Tags: Camtasia,Screen Capture,YouTube

Software Review - SnagIt 9 from TechSmith

Written by T. Michael Testi

SnagIt 9 is the latest release of TechSmith's screen capture program. With this version there have been quite a number of changes since the previous iteration, and this time it is really as much of a makeover as it is an upgrade. In fact, they have rebuilt SnagIt from the ground up.

SnagIt 9 runs on Microsoft Windows 2000 or later, requires Internet Explorer 6.0 or later, 1 GHz Processor (2.4 GHz is recommended), 512 MB RAM (1 GB Recommended), and 60 MB of Hard Drive space.

TechSmith originally started out in 1987 as a custom software company who developed for the Windows platform. Responding to a demand for screen capture utilities, they created SnagIt in 1991. Over time, SnagIt offered some video capture capabilities and these, in turn, became Camtasia in 1999. The current version of SnagIt (9.0) was released in June 2008.

SnagIt enables Windows computer users to capture anything they see on the screen. You can then edit and combine those screenshots and share them by using your favorite applications including Microsoft Office and via e-mail.

With SnagIt, if you can see it, you can capture it. Depending on the mode that you use it in, you can capture a small section of a screen, a whole window, multiple windows, or a whole scrolling webpage. There are 11 preset buttons that let you target what you want to capture, whether it's just a region, some text, or the whole enchilada. You can even create your own custom presets.

SnagIt lets you edit your captures by adding things like text and arrows, highlighting sections of your image. You can output to a printer, clipboard, file, e-mail, PDF, and Flash as well.

So what is new with SnagIt 9?

• New more fluid workflow – replaced the old linear workflow and now gives much more freedom to use SnagIt the way you want to. If you want to capture screen after screen, you can without having to save each shot before you go on to the next. If you want to capture and edit, you can. This is one of my favorite updated features to this version.

• Combining multiple images – now much easier using the open captures tray. You can drag and drop screen captures on to the canvas and make your edits, enhancements, and off you go.

• Auto store – a complement to the fluid workflow in that you can just capture, capture, capture. Everything is now stored for you. No longer do you have to save and rename before the next capture. When you are done, you can handle it all then. So much easier than ever before!

• Visual Search pane – now keeps track of what you have captured so you don't have to. If you can remember a detail like when you captured it or from what Web site, SnagIt will help you find it.

• Tags & Flags – lets you mark your projects so that when you are ready to put them all tog

ether you can find them. No need storing them in separate folders; just tag and flag them.

• New editing interface – heck it is a total UI makeover and makes it look and work in the new Microsoft Office 2007 ribbon style menu interface. One of the more challenging aspects of this version is figuring where things are now compared to the prior version, but once you get use to it, it is a snap.

SnagIt 9 is one of the most comprehensive and powerful screen capture applications available for Windows. It offers a lot of tools for organizing, simplifying, and editing your captures. It is incredibly easy to use, is customizable, and offers multiple views.

I work online a lot and I find that it is much easier to grab a screenshot, mark it up, and send it to someone than it is to try to describe something. If you prefer to try it before you buy it then there is a 30-day trial available. To purchase it new, it is $49.95 for a single user license. If you own a prior version it is $24.95 to upgrade. But until August 12, 2008, it is only $19.95.

If you find yourself capturing screenshots on a regular basis, then owning SnagIt 9 is a must. This is highly recommended.

 

Technorati Tags: SnagIt,Screen Capture,Software,Images