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!

What's an Aardvark party, you may ask? Here at TechSmith we're celebrating the release of the DVD Aardvark'd, 12 Weeks with Geeks, by having a lunchtime screening of the movie!

Our good friends at Fog Creek Software partnered with Boondoggle Films to release a documentary about the software development process Fog Creek went through to release their newest product, Copilot. Fog Creek Copilot, which had the code name Project Aardvark, is a service that allows people to help other people solve their computer problems remotely over the Internet.

We donated copies of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio to the Aardvarks, which they used for documentation and marketing.

TechSmith was also the official sponsor of the usability testing of Fog Creek Copilot. Morae Assistant Product Manager Mike Kujansuu, Usability Specialist Magelone Bollen and I flew out to New York City to conduct usability tests on Copilot with 14 testers at Fog Creek's office. Part of our day conducting the usability tests with Morae is included in the movie! Fog Creek Software Founder, Joel Spolsky blogged about the usability testing on his blog, Joel on Software.

Since Morae records video of the screen as well as the user's video and audio, the Aardvarks could watch the tests in another room and could both see and hear exactly where the users had problems. You can view highlight videos from the tests here.

What's also exciting about this documentary is that I can finally give my family and friends a glimpse of what it's like to work at a software company. The documentary truly captures the software development process from start to finish.

To see what an Aardvark party looks like, here are some pics from our lunchtime screening.

Bravo Zulu Aardvarks, Fog Creek and Boondoggle Films! It was an honor to be a part this project!

Bonus Random Trivia - The man behind Boondoggle Films, Lerone Wilson,, spent most of his life in Michigan and spent some time as a student at my alma mater, Michigan State University, before transferring to New York University.

What else can we say other than, 'Thank you!'. Morae 1.3 has just been released and its features are the direct result of feedback and suggestions from our Morae customers and users. Thanks for all your requests and suggestions!

Of course, we also used Morae to test Morae's usability. From those findings we were able to make key improvements to Morae's workflow and productivity. As a result, it's now easier and faster to share your test findings.

Mike Kujansuu, the Assistant Morae Product Manager, sat down with me to make a quick screencast to show off the new features and explain the benefits of each one. You'll also have to watch the video to hear how you pronounce 'Kujansuu'! You'll be surprised...

Click the screenshot below to start the screencast.

Here's a quick list of what's new. To see more about the features, please watch the screencast and visit here:

• Zooming Timeline
• Streamlined Editing
• Global Clip Bin with List View
• Enhanced Workflow
• Customizable Title Clips
• User-Created Folders
• Color Coded Markers

So, what can we do to make the next release of Morae better? We're listening and waiting to hear from you. You can call us, e-mail us, request a feature via a Web site form or leave us a comment here on the blog.

Thank you for all your feedback. Keep it coming! And, congrats to the Morae Team - part of the team is pictured below.

We recently had a video club at TechSmith where we would meet during lunch to learn more about planning, creating, producing and everything else surrounding video production. Then, all the groups were armed with cameras and allowed to run wild on our video projects.

We had a film festival to show off the projects and Camtasia Studio Product Manager Troy Stein was the MC. He even donned a tuxedo for the event!

It was great to see all the different videos, so I thought I'd share one from a creative team that made an amusing SnagIt commercial. It took them about 10 hours to shoot and edit. The video was created by and stars:

Front row, left to right

• Carolyn Smalley
• Tesa Kelly - Administration
• Chris Broski - Web staff
• Ann Dack - Digital Media Designer

Back Row, left to right

• Nick Gorsline - Web Designer
• Brandon Catcho - Web Intern
• Mike Morgan - Network Administrator
• Jen Dyni - Webmaster

Click the screenshot below to watch the video...Grab some popcorn, sit back and relax. No formalwear necessary.

We had a snow storm in Mid-Michigan last night. So, I'm blogging from home today!

I must have weather on my mind...I found an interesting Camtasia Studio video that shows off features of a hurricane tracking software. You can view the video here.

Enjoy the video while I start shoveling my driveway...

Red ink - that's what I remember scribbled all over papers in my English classes. And, sure that feedback was useful in its cryptic way.

I found this Camtasia Studio video recently. A journalism instructor used Camtasia Studio to mark-up his student's papers and give his feedback on their assignments. Click here to see his video.

For me, this type of feedback would have been much more useful. Visual and audio communication is a very effective way to share feedback with others - with this type of feedback there is no guessing for the student about what the instructor is trying to convey to them. It can also be faster to make a video with your comments narrated rather than write them all out.

Is anyone else using Camtasia Studio this way? How's it working for you and what is the response from your students or employees? Have you thrown your red pen away?

I got a nice surprise in my e-mail inbox the other day.

Self proclaimed "SnagIt Addict" Brian Watters sent me a beautiful graphic - that he used SnagIt to help create - called 'Flutter-by'. He even incorporated the Camtasia Studio logo into it!

Brian mentioned that he used SnagIt to snag the Camtasia Studio logo and Adobe Photoshop to build the butterfly (from one photo of a branch full of leaves). All parts of the butterfly are from a total of two leaves, where the antennae are from the stem of one leaf, and the eyes are from another portion of a stem. The body beneath the wings is the edge of a leaf that he mirrored then squished horizontally, then textured in Photoshop. The darker stripes on the body were created using the burn tool. The background sun and blue sky are just from a blurry photo he took of the sun to give the butterfly something natural looking to fly in.

In addition to being a SnagIt addict, Brian is also an award-winning amateur photographer and an infantry soldier of 21 years in the Canadian Forces. You can learn more about Brian here. He even has a Photoshop tutorial on his Web site that he used SnagIt to create. He also used SnagIt to show off some of his digital manipulations work.

And, for those who like to edit your SnagIt screen captures in Adobe Photoshop, we have some SnagIt Profiles for you! The SnagIt Photoshop Capture Kit offers all the popular capture options and then automatically outputs the capture directly to Adobe Photoshop for editing, annotating and more. You can download the Profile here.

Thanks for the nice surprise, Brian! I'm using the Flutter-By for the wallpaper on my desktop! It reminds me of a warmer and less snowier time in Michigan!

Anyone else using SnagIt to create some other artwork they'd like to share? Pass it along, and we'll feature it in our blog.

If you haven't noticed already, we like to do things a little differently around TechSmith, and today's Secret Santa luncheon was no exception. Instead of the normal Secret Santa gift exchanges, we added a little twist - you have to get your gifts off of eBay! It makes for some fun and interesting gifts, ranging from vintage cookbooks to Napoleon Dynamite lunchboxes. And of course, the stories of the searching, bidding, and winning are the best part.

Well, despite the magic of eBay, not all the gifts made it through the mail on time. The gift I was gave didn't come on time either, so I just wrapped up a printout of the auction I won and presented that at the lunch.

However, Brian Lesperance from Sales had a much more creative way to give me my gift that didn't come on time. He made a Camtasia Studio screencast!

Thank you, Brian - you made my day! He is one technologically-advanced Secret Santa. This video is almost as good as the gift. Watch for yourself! Click the screenshot below to watch.

I posted a few pics from our luncheon here.

I thought I'd do a weekly showing of interesting or fun Camtasia Studio screencasts. Feel free to e-mail yours or nominate one you see.

So, here's the screencast of the week! Ever wanted to get started in podcasting, but just didn't know where to start? Alex Bellinger made this great 'how to' screencast about podcasting. I like the use of Camtasia Studio's Picture-in-Picture, so he can show off the hardware you need to podcast.

Click here the screenshot below to view it.

Please enter your nominations in the comments below...what will be the next screencast of the week?

A couple of us from TechSmith are heading over to the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas January 5 - 8. If you'd like to meet-up with us, make a screencast with me or just hang out, we'd love to get together! Just drop me an e-mail.

We need suggestions on where to meet up, so if you have any, please e-mail me or leave them in the comments.

Hope to see you there!

It's that time again for the screencast of the week!

Thom Robbins is a developer evangelist with Microsoft. He recently started the Visual Studio 2005 Fast Tips newsletter. Every other week they make a screencast - made with Camtasia Studio - for the newsletter. A week after the newsletter goes out, Thom posts the screencast on Channel9.

This week's screencast looks at the ReportViewer Control in Microsoft Visual Studio 2005. You can view the screencast here.

I like this newsletter because every issue has a screencast and because not only do they show the new features, but they show exactly how to use them.

If you'd like to sign up for the Visual Studio 2005 Fast Tips newsletter, visit here.

Any nominations for next week's screencast of the week?

Happy holidays from TechSmith!

I gathered up as many people at TechSmith as I could to do a little holiday video card for you.

Click the screenshot below to watch the video.

We have so many things to be thankful for this season, especially you!

At TechSmith we all submitted reasons to be thankful and made a poster of the list.

Reasons ranged from the Scobelizer blog and RSS to Jack-o-Laterns. Click the pic below to see all the things we're thankful for (PDF).

If you'd like a copy of the poster, I'd be happy to mail you one. E-mail me your name and mailing address if you'd like me to send you a poster.

What are you most thankful for this year?  We hope TechSmith makes the list.

I want to put you in the spotlight!

I'm looking for some videos to show each of these twenty uses of Camtasia Studio.

If you already have one, great - if you create one specifically to show off a use, we'll welcome that submission, too!

If we use your video, I'll send you a TechSmith care package - just like the ones your mom sent you at camp.

E-mail if you have some Camtasia Studio videos you'd like to share.

Please help me make you a star!

After I posted the screencast about the new features in Morae, I had a few questions for viewers about what Morae does ... and even what it is.

So, I sat down with the Morae Product Manager, Shane Lovellette, for a quick Morae 101 screencast. In the screencast, Shane will demonstrate what Morae is, when you would use it in your organization, and how it will help you. Click the screenshot below to start the video.

Feel free to submit more questions by either e-mailing me or posting in our blog comments, and we'll try to answer them in a screencast. Let us know what you want the next screencast to cover!

This week I was lucky that Carla Wardin, our marketing writer, was in the office. Normally she telecommutes from Connecticut.

With her in the office, I took the opportunity to make a quick screencast. Yep, that's right - we made a screencast about screencasts!

We found some great Camtasia Studio screencasts - one screencast about using Google Maps, another made up of vacation pictures, and a cute video about a birthday. Click on the screenshot below to start the screencast.

So, we hope these inspire you to make your own Camtasia Studio videos to preserve the memories and fun along the way...and of course, to get going in the right direction in the first place.

Happy New Year!