In my new role, I have been required to do some screen captures.  Late in 2007, this topic seemed to be the big issue – everyone seemed to be talking about screen captures, and enjoying a good ride, I jumped on that band-wagon.  In Nov ’07 I talked about Camtasia Studio (v3 from memory). 

I now find myself revisiting this topic with some fondness as the program that I am currently using inspires only rage and frustration.  I am constantly amazed at what business will pay for a product because it looks nice and shiny.   It must have been one hell of a salesman who could sell this laborious cumbersome piece of flotsam and/or jetsam.

*Breathe*

*softly chant: “I am focused, I am centered.  I am focused, I am centered”*

OK, back again and calm again.  I know intellectually I am probably being unfair to this programme; I’m sure that it works nicely if you know how to use it, I’m sure its mother loves it, but I am not in the least bit a fan.   The time taken to complete a simple 1 minute demonstration is exponentially greater than the time taken to do the same in a program like Camtasia (I created my first demonstration in Camtasia in about 30 minutes.  A similar project in Epiplex (the package I am using) took nearly 4 hours).

The problem is that I am looking for a simple process capture package that is easy to use with a quality output.  Epiplex would appear to be a high end program that is apparently designed to do a lot more than I need it to do.  It’s like comparing Irfan View to Photoshop.  (If you don’t know, Irfan View is a very simple to use, basic graphic editor – if you haven’t tried it, I strongly suggest you check it out.  To my mind, for basic editing, there is no better product out there).

Looking into what is available today; I have found that Camtasia is still a strong contender, along with Captivate.  I am making a request to the powers that be for a new process capture package and have put these two up as the options. 

Let’s hope that my request is approved – if it’s not, beware of computers falling from high windows.

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If so much is being said, why am I jumping in here?  Simple really – graphic work is something that I am reasonably comfortable with – not so much the video side of things, but I am not totally without experience.  Finally!! I am not the total novice.

The other reason that I am jumping in here is that the aim of this series of posts is to look at products that I hope to implement.  Screen casting is one that I have already used (albeit only in the last two or three days). 

So what am I using?  I started with Auto Screen Recorder, but jumped from there to CamStudio, which I really liked: it is simple to use and produces a quality product (and as an added bonus, it is free).  Last week Leonard Low posted on his mobile learning blog that tech smith were offering Camtasia Studio 3.1.3 for free, so of course I jumped in had a go of that as well.

Now I have to say that I love it!  It is a little more involved than CamStudio, but if you have a passing familiarity with MovieMaker, then the edit feature will present very little issue and a little experimentation will see you well on the way.  This is also where Camtasia has an edge over CamStudio: the ability to edit within the package. 

Using Camtasia for the first time, in under half an hour I had produced a 50 second video, with text annotations that will replace a seven page “how to” document. 

I may have become a little enamoured with this product: over the course of the day, on top of the day-to-day routine, I put together three other quick videos; another “how to” and two for a demonstration next week where I am not sure I will have internet connection.   The following are the demonstartion videos – apologies for the poor quality, but in the interests of download time, they have been saved in .wma format (smaller file size than .avi), but they will give the general idea.

 baccarat interaction example 1

baccarat interaction example 2

If truth be told, I have spent a fair amount of time looking for other videos that I can make.

Definitely having a little too much fun here.

_{edited 4th Dec 2007: video upload.}