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I'm excited to announce that Camtasia Studio 3.1 has been released!

New features include...

• Flash 8 and FLV Output - With a click of a button, you can easily produce Flash files to share online. I like using the Flash output because I know most of you can view the screencasts we make on the blog.
• Captioning - This feature will allow more people to view your content, including people who are hearing impaired or people without PC speakers. I like this feature because I can easily convert my PowerPoint speaker notes to captions.
• H264 and QuickTime 7 Support - Who doesn't want smaller files that are easy to share with anyone - especially people who use Macs? Since Camtasia Studio 3.1 now utilizes the H264 Compression in QuickTime 7, you can drastically reduce your files sizes while maintaining the quality of the video. Works great if you have longer clips with real-world webcam video content. With Camtasia Studio 3.1, you can make better quality videos that can be delivered to anyone - especially people on Macs.
• Quizzing - Curious about what your audience thinks of your presentation? Well, now you can find out. Based on your feedback, we added more customization options to our quizzing feature. You can now have fill-in-the-blank or multiple choice questions, and have the results sent by e-mail. It's the perfect way to get feedback on your presentation, and quiz your viewers to see what they have learned.
• Free lunch! I was just checking to see if you were playing attention. OK, maybe not a free lunch, but we will give you 100 MB of space of free Web hosting for a month.
• Rich media presentation options - Remember my old screencasts where I had the picture-in-picture video that sometimes would cover up my screen video? Now we have side-by-side video so your webcam video can be the focal point of your presentation. You can choose where to position your screen recording - have it side-by-side or layer it on top. It's your choice. We also have new, adjustable color schemes for your skins. Since we all know the most important part of your presentation is you, Camtasia Studio 3.1 makes it easy to add real-life video.

Click the screenshot below to see an example of the new side-by-side video feature.

Troy Stein, Camtasia Studio Product Manager, and Dave O'Rourke, Camtasia Studio Lead Developer, were kind enough to make a screencast for the blog. The screencast will make you laugh...it will make you cry...it will bring out all of your emotions. Ok, maybe that's a stretch, but it's fun and informative. Bring some popcorn and get comfortable as the video lasts for almost 32 minutes!

Click the screenshot below to start Troy and Dave's screencast.

Please note: the size of the following screencast is approximately 52MB and as such it may take a moment before it starts playing. It is recommended that you only attempt to view the screencast if you have a broadband internet connection.

And, if you have Camtasia Studio 3.0, it's a FREE upgrade for you! For more information about the new release, please visit here.

And, as always, we need your feedback. Tell us the good, the bad and the ugly. What did you like about this release? What would you like in the next release? Isn't that better than us guessing what you want?