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!

We want to personally show you how to get the most out of Camtasia Studio..and what better way than coming to you?

If you're in the San Francisco area, we'd like to invite you to participate in a training event on Monday, November 14.

TechSmith's Software Training Manager Daniel Kazup will walk you through the newest Camtasia Studio features, including Picture-in-Picture, quizzing, title clips, and interactive callouts.

He'll also focus on best practices, like how to get the smallest Flash files and easily share your videos on the Web, CD and DVD.

This is your chance - ask him anything!

Working on a project and need advice? Bring your laptop along with your questions.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to this exclusive event by November 4, 2005 by e-mailing me.

DETAILS:

THE ARGENT HOTEL SAN FRANCISCO

DATE: November 14, 2005

TIME:

Morning Session: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Afternoon Session: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

As I mentioned earlier, Cliff Atkinson is holding a free webinar on Thursday, November 3 on how to unlock visual stories with a PowerPoint storyboard. If you want some background on him, you can read his TechSmith interview here.

I asked Cliff to share the SnagIt Profiles he finds most useful. He was also kind enough to share the Beyond Bullets SnagIt Profiles he'll be using in his webinar. You can download them here.

In case you didn't know - not only can you make and save your own favorite SnagIt Profiles for captures you routinely do, but you can also share your SnagIt Profiles with others. This is particularly useful if you're working on a team and want to standardize your captures for projects. You can learn more about this by visiting here.

We also offer several free sets of SnagIt Profiles for download, from Grayscale Images to Multiple Output. I think you’ll be surprised at the variety of choices – I am!

There's still room in the seminar if you haven't already signed up already. Come see how Cliff uses SnagIt - live!

'Happy WUD!' That's how I'm greeting everyone today on World Usability Day!

As I mentioned earlier, Human Factors International, TechSmith, and Michigan State University partnered on a research project and usability test in honor of World Usability Day.

We studied the ease of use for three travel sites when making holiday travel plans and to see if there was a difference in assessment between expert and novice users. A secondary goal of the study was to determine the degree to which remote tests are consistent with and as robust as the in-person tests.

Now, we have the results from the study, and you are welcome to view the test findings in a report available here. There are some highlight videos you can view as well.

I'll be taking some pictures at our local World Usability Event at Michigan State University today. Please visit my Flickr photo gallery to see the pictures from today's event. They should be uploaded later tonight.

So, today I say, 'Happy WUD' to you!

Many of you might not know that we offer four different newsletters. We have a monthly newsletter for each product and one devoted to education.

They're a great resource - they're always jammed with tips and tricks, case studies and new release announcements.

One of the best parts of the newsletter is the 'Letter from the Editor', written by Carla Wardin. She always keeps me laughing. You never know what she'll write. You can read more about her here

Carla now resides in Connecticut and telecommutes. She was visiting the office last week, so I got her to sit down with me and do a quick Camtasia Studio screencast video. She'll show you where to sign up for the newsletters and how to manage your subscriptions. She even busted me about something...you'll have to watch the video to see the public humiliation she puts me through.

Click the screenshot below to start the screencast.

I met with Echo Swinford, PowerPoint MVP extraordinaire, at PowerPoint Live. We talked about doing a screencast, but we were just too busy having fun to sit still long enough to make a video.

Thankfully, after Echo returned home she recorded a Camtasia Studio screencast on a little-known PowerPoint feature: Select multiple. Ever heard of it? I bet you haven’t – that’s why it’s her top PowerPoint tip.

“Select multiple” is a really handy feature when you need to select objects on slides that are hidden by other objects, or objects that so near others that they’re difficult to select individually.

Click the screenshot below to start the screencast.

If you prefer a text version of her tip, visit PowerPoint MVP Steve Rindsberg's FAQ: Selecting shapes that are covered by other shapes

Thank you so much, Echo, for your PowerPoint tip and Camtasia Studio video … video … video … (You didn’t think I’d close out without one reference to Echo’s name, did you?)

Anyone else have some tips to share with us? Send me your video or share your link in our comments.

A technical writer and an evangelist walked in to the break room.

Doesn’t that sound like a beginning to a great joke? It’s not. It’s very serious … because it’s about you.

This morning technical writer Kelly Mullins and I got to talking about tutorials. Specifically, we began talking about tutorials users might wish for - like how to record a webinar, how to play a Camtasia Studio video on a Pocket PC, or how to record a screencast.

And, I got to thinking … rather than guessing what tutorials you want, wouldn't it be better if we just asked you?

So, here's your chance to be heard. What kinds of things are you trying to do, but could use some help with? What other tutorials or examples do you need?

Let us know … and maybe we’ll stop talking about you behind your back.

You can find a list of our current tutorials in our Learning Center.

A picture is worth a thousands words. I know, I know…we've all heard it a million times. But, I've never really thought much more about that statement until recently.

That’s when I read this great blog post at the Creating Passionate Users Blog that actually gives the background and scientific explanation about exactly how a picture is worth really a thousand words. That’s right – with references and percentages and everything!

As many of you know, at TechSmith our products help people visually communicate complex ideas.

Words are just not enough for most people. Since you can capture and edit anything you see on your screen, SnagIt makes it easier to make that lasting impression. When your logo is on a screenshot, people will notice. When you highlight a section of a Web page that you don’t like, your coworkers will understand what you mean. When you have the perfect graphs, images, and marked up screen captures in a presentation … you get the point.

What’s a SnagIt screen capture worth to you and your audience?

Calling all SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae users! Let's meet up at 28°32'1" North, 81°22'33" West . . . otherwise known as Orlando, Florida.

I'll be in Orlando this week for the Sloan-C conference, which is the International Conference on Asynchronous Learning Networks. Their site tells us that ALNs are helping to turn education and training into “anytime-anywhere online learning environments,” which is right in line with TechSmith's goals.

While I'm in Orlando, I'll also see Camtasia Studio user and professional speaker, Terry Brock, and see if I can convince him to do a screencast with me! If you have a question you'd like me ask him in our screencast, feel free to leave it in the comments.

If you're interested in meeting up to talk more about our products or had questions about your current projects, drop me an e-mail!

On a different note - I hear there are a few places to go indoor skydiving in Orlando. I really enjoyed real skydiving in the past, so indoor skydiving should be fun too. So, if anyone wants to take the plunge with me, send me an e-mail!

I was talking with Dan Kazup, our Software Training Manager, and he told me a video editing trick. It makes editing videos faster and easier for me, so I thought I'd share it with everyone.

The Microsoft IntelliMouse I use has five programmable buttons. The mouse's software interface allowed me to program the mouse for specific applications. So, I programmed my mouse buttons to correspond with Camtasia Studio's hotkeys.

Here’s a screenshot of the Camtasia Studio-specific settings:

Now when I fire up Camtasia Studio, I can use my mouse to insert a marker, split a frame, and switch to the storyboard view.

Also, when I leave Camtasia Studio, the mouse settings return to normal – no need to worry about it interfering with any other software.

If you have a programmable mouse…give it try and see if this works for you.

Now I need to figure out what I'm going to do with all the extra time I'm saving...Maybe talk to Dan more often.

I love to hear how people are using SnagIt and Camtasia Studio. It never ceases to amaze me to hear about all the different and creative ways people are using the software - often in ways I could never imagine!

In a recent article, Tony Dunckel, SnagIt Product Manager, mentioned some of the unconventional uses of SnagIt.

They included:

1. A company which specializes in class reunions digitizes old yearbooks and puts them on CD. From the CD, they use SnagIt to create personalized nametags for class reunion attendees.

2. An office worker uses a webcam to monitor the furnace control in his home. SnagIt is set to take timed captures every 30 minutes of the furnace control and report it to the person's computer at work. With a serial furnace connection, he can remotely program the temperature in his house.

3. A library integrated SnagIt into their software with SnagIt's COM Server. They use SnagIt's text capture feature to automatically capture and import the title and description of media sources as they process them to create electronic indexes.

4. Many law enforcement units around the country use SnagIt to capture digital and online criminal evidence. They then use the images in computer forensic investigations and courtroom reports.

5. A company uses SnagIt to capture images from a super electron microscope using microscopy applications, and then uses the images inside image analysis applications.

We even have a user - Max Rottersman - who uses SnagIt to create teleprompter scripts for video blogging! Read more about Max here.

Can anyone top those?! Let us know!

I'm also compiling a list of the strangest Camtasia Studio videos to share with you – I’ll post links to them soon. Does anyone have any unconventional Camtasia Studio videos they want to share?

In the past, I talked about math videos made with Camtasia Studio.

Now, I've had a few people ask me how to make their own math or whiteboard videos.

I'd recommend visiting Tim Fahlberg's great site, CoolSchoolTools. He has lots of great resources about whiteboard videos complete with tutorial videos. Visit here to see how to make your own videos.

Tim isn’t the only one making whiteboard videos...he’s been helping train teachers and students how to create & produce their own Whiteboard Movies all over the world. And recently he even collaborated with his three-year old daughter to make videos with Camtasia Studio - that's got to be the record for the youngest person in a whiteboard movie! You can view her video here.

Tim's got his sister, math and computer science professor Linda Fahlberg-Stojanovska making videos, too.

Tim has also worked with another math teacher, Julie Dansby, who not only creates whiteboard movies with Camtasia Studio but also has her students making them too!

See examples of Julie’s Whiteboard Movies here.

See examples of her students’ movies here.

I started talking with Tim over five years ago about whiteboard movies and finally had the chance to meet him earlier this year on a trip to Seattle. It was wonderful - I mean, how often do you get a chance to meet a whiteboard movie star?! I should have gotten his autograph…

We also have several free SnagIt and Camtasia Studio lesson plans available on our Web site, including one about making whiteboard movies with Camtasia Studio.

As we get ready to close down the offices for a long Thanksgiving weekend, a few of us at lunch started talking about all the reasons to be thankful.

Some of the comments ranged from:

• Working with great customers, users and coworkers
• Having a job that you look forward to coming to every day
• Family and friends
• Microsoft MVPs
• Joel on Software
• Channel9
• Tivo
• Sharpie markers and Post-it notes
• Greenbean casserole
• Xbox 360
• Lava lights
• Snow (yes, it is snowing in Michigan today)

And, here at TechSmith, we're especially thankful for the chance to listen, talk, interact, and learn from you.

Happy Thanksgiving!

People of earth - I need your help...

I'm looking for some great Camtasia Studio videos to show off on our Web site in our Featured Customer Videos theater.

If you're willing to allow us to showcase your videos, this is what I'll need you to e-mail me:

• A description of the video you created and the reason you created it
• A brief description of the process you took to create the video
• Your contact information, including mailing address
• The project file zipped containing all the clip bin files. Please read the instructions about submitting your video which can be foundhere.

Feel free to send us more than one video! Submit your videos and information to us here. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.

I can't promise you an Oscar or fame and fortune, but wouldn't the possibility of your video being shown off on our Web site be the next best thing?!

I was reading Robert Scoble's blog, Scobleizer, and was excited to see that someone had answered one of his posts by posting this link to a screencast made with Camtasia Studio in the 'comments' field. How cool is that?! You can see Robert's original post here.

The creator of the screencast is Raymond Kristiansen. This is what he did - he made a video of reproducing the error when he downloads the OPML-file into his Bloglines account. Then, he shows the solution. What a quick and cool way to show a fix, plus there's no pesky, full-of-too-much-detail reading!

Raymond told me it was faster for him to make a quick screencast than it was to type out the answer. He has a speedvlogging approach to screencasting. He thinks it should be quick to make, and quick to edit.

It's kind of like e-mail. You know how sometimes you're writing an important e-mail and you type it out verrryyy carefully, making sure it's perfect? And on the other hand, when you want to quickly communicate with a friend, you write like you talk? That's kind of like screencasting. Screencasts aren't polished, perfect videos with two-track audio and editing galore - and they're not meant to be. Why? Because they're created to communicate quickly, plainly, and simply.