The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

Users frequently contact me for materials to hand out at theirevents, workshops and meetings. I wanted to let everyone knowthat I'm happy to send materials for your event.

We have everything you need to present SnagIt, Camtasia Studio andMorae to a group. We even have presentations and graphics you canuse so you don't have to create your presentation from scratch.

You can order evaluation CDs, datasheets, posters or any other presentation material from our Web site. It's all here at: http://www.techsmith.com/presenters

And, if we don't have everything you need, please e-mail me or add your suggestions in the comments below about what additional materials and resources you'd like to receive.

Also - We'd love to see your presentation! Record it with Camtasia Studio, send it to us, and we'll share some of them with everyone.

I can't believe it's been 15 years since I took the SAT! Just like everyone else, I wished I had prepped better for the test.

SAT Math Pro is a recently launched online program that helps today's students better prepare for the big day.

The Practice Sets contain 5 interactive math problems, complete with step-by-step Camtasia Studio video solutions to reinforce the concepts.

Colleen King said: 'Like my other projects, SAT Math Pro would not have been possible without the amazing Camtasia Studio.'

Congrats to Colleen King! To learn more about Colleen and this free resource, please visit: http://www.satmathpro.com/About.html

This might be the little extra edge that gets students the scorethey want. And hey - anything's better than lugging those SAT studyguides around. My back hurts just thinking about it.

I wish this had been around when I was studying. Of course, wherewould better scores have taken me? There's no better job thanTechSmith Chief Evangelist!

Have you seen other cool uses of Camtasia Studio in education? Please share them with us in the comments!

I bugged the Camtasia Studio Product manger, Troy Stein, to make a screencast about making screencasts. Say that several times in a row.

In this video, Troy gives us his tips for creating a screencast that will play inside of your blog or Web site page. Click the screenshot to view the screencast:

Why screencast? Several reasons really.

1. Show AND tell! It's more interesting for your blog readers, and sometimes … words just aren’t enough.
2. It saves you time - how long would it have taken me to type out instructions on how to screencast? Much longer than it takes to make a narrated screencast. And with zero typos.
3. Show your personality.
4. It's a great way to promote yourself and your expertise.
5. Be different - need a way to stand out in the blogosphere? Start making screencasts!

Here are some great resources to get you started:

Jon Udell, lead analyst for the InfoWorld Test Center, is the father of screencasting as far as I'm concerned. He even coined the term 'screencast'. He has many great screencasts on his blog as well as some great advice.

Bill Myers has a great article on screencasting

And some of my favorite screencasts include:

Cliff Atkinson made an impressive screencast with Camtasia Studio and PowerPoint.

Alex Barnett has a great screencast about RSS 101.

As I mentioned earlier, David Pogue has some of the most entertaining ones I know. I'm starting a David Pogue Fan Club. Who wants to join?

Are you screencasting? If so, let me know. I'd love to see your masterpieces and what you're screencasting about!

At TechSmith we have a high commitment to listening to our customers. Our best features are built on the feedback from our users like you!

So, if we could add a feature or make a change to SnagIt, Camtasia Studio or Morae for you, what would it be? Share with us and others in the comments sections of this post.

Are you ready to rock?!

Microsoft is having a screencast contest with us to promote their Launch Tour 2005 for their East Coast events in New York City, Boston, Washington D.C., Atlanta and Orlando. Winners will get treated like rock stars!

Show off your code for Visual Studio 2005, Visual Studio 2005 Team System, SQL Server 2005 and BizTalk Server 2006 with a Camtasia Studioscreencast. All entries will be shown off over at Channel9. No PowerPoint or pyrotechnics in the screencasts, please.

We're excited to be a part of the Launch Tour and can't wait to see the videos people submit.

I can't guarantee groupies, but the winners will get a copy of Camtasia Studio. Isn't that better anyway?

And some inspiration for your screencast...here's a picture of the Camtasia Studio Assistant Product Manager, Travis Stoliker, doing his best to look like rock star Rick James for Halloween last year.

Ever wish your PowerPoint presentations kept people on the edge of their seats like the latest Hollywood thrillers? With Cliff Atkinson's help, they now can.

Since I know many of you use SnagIt and Camtasia Studio for adding visuals in PowerPoint and recording your presentations, I thought you might be interested in Cliff's upcoming webinar on November 3 called 'Unlock the Visual Power of Your Persuasive Story'. Make sure you register early!

I met Cliff a few years ago at PowerPoint Live. I was blown away by his keynote, "The Science of PowerPoint Overload."

Later, I discovered his book Beyond Bullets. Blown away again! He never ceases to amaze me. He's changed my PowerPoint presentations for the better, and he'll help you use it in a whole new way that really engages your audience. No naps for my audience members!

Cliff told me he plans to use SnagIt in the webinar as well, so watch for that, too.

I'm attending, so I hope to see you there...while Cliff saves us all from boring PowerPoints one bullet at a time.

...deep in the heart of Texas! I would love to meet up with anyone in Dallas area. I'll be in town Saturday, October 22 through Wednesday, October 26 for the League for Innovation's annual Conference on Information Technology (CIT).

So, if you'd like to get together to with me and the rest of the TechSmith crew to give us feedback about using our products, learn tips and tricks, or to teach me how to do the Texas Two Step, send me an e-mail! I promise I won't step on your toes.

I'm often asked by people what my typical day is like at TechSmith. My first response usually is, 'There is no typical day'. One of things that I love about my job is that every day is different.

Every Monday we have a required staff meeting where some of my fellow co-workers share what they did over the weekend. It's a great way to get to know people from other departments you might not often see. When I started at TechSmith in 2000, we were small enough that each of us would take turns telling how we spent our weekend. Now that we're much larger, we just pick a few people randomly ... otherwise we'd be there all day!

What day would be complete without lots and lots of e-mail, research, several meetings and working with great users and customers? I also spend time writing blog posts or contributed articles and pleading with people to be in screencasts for the blog (we have a lot of camera shy people here). I also chat via instant message with users as needed. By the way, if you'd like to IM me, my MSN IM is: b(dot)weber(at)techsmith(dot)com (replace the text in parentheses)

We're very well-caffeinated people. One of the great perks - no pun intended - of working at TechSmith is that we get free pop (yes, I'm from the Midwest), coffee and espresso. We go through a lot of espresso at TechSmith! One of the big questions when we outgrew our building and had to acquire a second building was, 'Will there be another espresso machine for the new building or will we have to walk across the parking lot for espresso?!?'

Sometimes during lunch we'll have a book club meeting or get together and watch a DVD. We've watched shows ranging from Band of Brothers to the BBC'sThe Office and Napoleon Dynamite.

They even let me out of the office - evenings often involve visiting local user groups and professional associations for monthly meetings. I also attend recruiting events for TechSmith.

Fun is definitely a core value at TechSmith. As I mentioned earlier, every Friday we have lunch brought in for the entire staff. This is a great time - not only are you seeing people from every department, but you're also talking over fantastic food.

We do activities after work, too - we've held events ranging from game night and LAN parties, to tie-dye and candle making, to taking a trip together out to the shooting range for target practice.

Frequently we meet for what we call 'Two-Beer Friday' to start the weekend right ... before we go off to gather more stories for the Monday morning meeting!

Only people passionate enough about a cause get an entire day designated to celebrate it. Who fits that description? Usability experts.

As a result, the UPA (Usability Professionals' Association) is celebrating the first annual World Usability Day on November 3, 2005, and they’re inviting one and all to the party.

The goal of World Usability Day is to promote the fields of usability engineering and user-centered design. At TechSmith, we're excited to be a part of the event.

We partnered with Human Factors International (HFI) and my alma mater, Michigan State University, to conduct a usability study using Morae on booking online travel. Michigan State donated the use of their state-of-the-art lab. In addition to donating copies of Morae to the study, TechSmith and HFI both donated their usability staff to conduct each test and analyze the results of the study. Results will be published in the Morae Newsletter. To subscribe to the newsletter and see the results, along with other World Usability Day information, sign up here.

What does World Usability Day mean to you? If you're a webmaster or software developer, you want your Web site and software to be easy to use and accessible to everyone. Plus, you want anyone who visits your site or uses your software to be successful. We share those goals at TechSmith, and that's why we’re so heavily involved in the day of recognition.

If you're ever interested in hearing more about how TechSmith conducts usability testing, or you’re in the area and would like to participate, comment to let me know.

Planning to attend Michigan's UPA event at Michigan State University on November 3, 2005? Please comment here or e-mail us - we'd love to meet up at the event.

This is a year of firsts for me - it's my first time in Dallas and my first year attending the League of Innovation Conference on Information Technology (CIT). I'm really enjoying the show, the great people, the interesting sessions and the Southern hospitality.

I attended a session conducted by Tim Tewalt from Chippewa Valley Technical College entitled,What Did We Do in Class Today? Easy Ways to Record Lectures on Other Class Activities. Not only did he keep me laughing through the whole session, but I learned a lot, too.

I asked Tim to share part of his presentation and tips with us, and luckily, he was able to join me in our booth to make a quick Camtasia Studio screencast about how he helps his distance learners and records his lectures with Camtasia Studio.

That marks another first...making a screencast in our booth at a tradeshow. I hope you enjoy it!

Click the screenshot below to launch the screencast.

You can access Tim's resources and PowerPoint from his session at his site SimplyOnlineLearning.

So, what do you want the next screencast to cover?

I met so many Camtasia Studio, SnagIt and Morae users at The League of InnovationConference on Information Technology (CIT) this week! It was great to see what they created and how they're changing the classroom and teaching methods at their schools.

I thought I'd share with you just a few of the people I met and how they're using our software.

Clarence Maise from Clark State Community College joined me in our booth to make a quick screencast about how he's using our products.

Watch the screencast I made with Clarence in our booth. Click the screenshot below to start the video.

Clarence has created over 100 videos for his class. He's also helping other faculty members make videos. He mentioned that the students are demanding videos - if he's late uploading lectures or other videos recorded with Camtasia Studio, the students let him know! He also offers text materials supplemented with SnagIt screenshots. Since Clarence is from Louisiana, he says he makes ‘Cajun Camtasia’ videos with his accent! Whatever they're called, I think they’re wonderful! You can see more of them here.

I also met Ron Goodwin who is the Technology Development and Support Specialist from Polaris Career Center. He’s using Camtasia Studio videos on several of his sites to help his students and act as a teaching aid for other teachers. You can visit the site for his students here and another of his sites for teachers here.

Terri Johnson from Worldwide Instructional Design System (WIDS) has a lot of Camtasia Studio videos posted on the website. She said the students are much happier with the videos, and it's much easier to direct people to the videos rather than walk them through a process on the phone. You can see her videos here

Terri had a booth at CIT . As I was walking by, something on her computer monitor caught my eye … sure enough, she was running Camtasia Studio videos in her booth!

I also met Donna Rebadow from Maricopa Community College. She's using Camtasia Studio screen recordings for orientation and web site tours.

Anyone willing to share their videos or other educational resources made with SnagIt or Camtasia Studio with the rest of us? Come on … don't be shy!

I'm always amazed at all the ways I end up using SnagIt. We had a pumpkin carving competition at TechSmith last night, and I even used SnagIt to help with my design.

First, I used SnagIt to capture the Visual Lounge logo. Then I used SnagIt's Editor and custom scale feature to blow up the screenshot of the Visual Lounge logo. Then, I printed the screenshot, taped it on my pumpkin and used it like a stencil.

You can see more pictures from our fun evening in my Flickr gallery here.

I bet you can guess which pumpkin is mine!

And, no, I didn't win the competition. Oh well, there's always next year. I better start planning my design now. Any advice?

We have a Smart Board at TechSmith, and for a long time it sat unused because most people didn't know how to set it up. It reminded me of the exercise machines many people often buy - only to use them as very expensive clotheslines.

Then, Camtasia Studio Assistant Product Manager Travis Stoliker recorded a video showing how to set up the Smart Board, complete with Picture in Picture (PiP) video.

Click here to watch the video.

After he made the video and shared it with the rest of us, the Smart Board is finally being used as more than your basic whiteboard.

Often PiP gets used for 'talking head' type videos - but many people don't think of using it to show more than the presenter.  This aspect of it has proved very useful for us around the office, as we use it to make quick training videos on things like installing hardware.

I'm even going to make some knitting videos soon with a PiP video of my hands to show people in my knitting club how I do some stitches they've been asking about.

What are you using Camtasia Studio's PiP feature to show?