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!

OK, blog readers...you're in trouble! I forgot to post the Screencast of the Week last week and you let me get away with it! That's all right, I still love you...

So, for my mistake you get two screencasts this week! Lucky you!

This first screencast was sent to me from Len Charnoff. He told me that he made this screencast in response to a friend from New York’s question about how he was coping with all the rain they’re getting in the Pacific Northwest.

So, Len made a Camtasia Studio 3.1 screencast and posted it to his blog to get the message out. Watch his screencast here. He also tried to use all the features of the new product. And, I really like how he included a MPG file for playback on the video iPod!

Here's a picture of Len when the weather was better.

Our second screencast of the week comes from Rob Howard over at Telligent. Telligent makes Community Server which is a platform to enable online communities with tools like forums, blogs, newsgroups and more.

You can watch Rob's screencast here. I like his video because he gives tips and tricks for blogging by e-mail. Rob is very straightforward and goes step-by-step on how to blog by e-mail - no questions here after watching the screencast. He has a whole video blog, complete with Camtasia Studio videos. His goal is to have 2 - 3 new videos a week!

Now, here's the amazing part to me...Rob just started using Camtasia Studio last week and already he has a blog with several screencasts. Bravo Rob!

And, it gets better...Rob's Instant Message Away Message says, "WHOA Camtasia videoblogging"! That makes me so happy!

So, Len Charnoff and Rob Howard - thanks for screencasting…And for those about to screencast, I salute you!

Any nominations for next week's screencast of the week? E-mail me!

What were you doing 15 years ago? Thankfully while I was in high school getting into trouble, TechSmith was working on SnagIt.

Can you believe it - SnagIt turns 15 this year!

To celebrate, I asked one of the original programmers on SnagIt, Dewey Hou (now Director of Product Development), and the SnagIt Product Manager, Tony Dunckel, to make a screencast about the history of SnagIt. Click the screenshot below to watch it. The screencast is a little over 12 minutes long.

We created a commemorative t-shirt so you can celebrate the 15th anniversary all year long! I took some pics of people around the office wearing it - some particularly funny.

Here's Bill Hamilton, our president and Dewey Hou, Director of Product Development:

Here's a marketing pyramid made up of Assistant SnagIt Product Manager Jessica Boyle (left), Director of Marketing Jody Burgess, and perched on top is Marketing Assistant Jessie Ho:

Here's a pic of the SnagIt Product Manager Tony Dunckel and the Lead SnagIt Developer Paul Middlin:

And, finally, Jen Middlin, Public Relations Manager, Paul Middlin, Lead SnagIt Developer (Jen's husband) and the next SnagIt user, Baby Middlin, who is a week overdue at this point. You're seeing it right - that is definitely NOT a stethoscope!

See more pics in our Flickr Gallery here.

The first 10 people to post in the comments about why they love SnagIt will get a SnagIt 15th anniversary t-shirt free! Then, make sure you e-mail me with your name, mailing address and t-shirt size. (I can't get your e-mail from the comments.) Extra points for a video!

Also, if you win or purchase a SnagIt t-shirt, please e-mail a picture of yourself wearing it - we'll include it in this Flickr photo gallery of customers in their shirts. Bonus points for exotic locations and celebrity impersonators in the background!

What are you going to do to celebrate?

For those who have been with us over the years - or are just joining us - I thought you might be interested in the new SnagIt timeline.

We've marked points from SnagIt's humble beginnings to today. Click here to view the timeline.

For instance, did you know SnagIt got its start as an internal application? That it was created for use in documentation for consulting projects TechSmith was working on at the time. That's just one of many fun facts!

SnagIt's been around a long time...how about you? If you'd like to add a button to your website or blog to show how long you've been a SnagIt user, visit here.

Do we have any readers who've been using SnagIt since 1991?

The Technical Writing Team is looking for 15-20 people to give feedback on our user assistance, documentation, and tutorials.

It's painless, I promise - no poking or prodding!

This is your chance to have an impact! If you're interested, e-mail me for more details. One of the people you would work with from the Technical Writing Team would be Kelly Mullins, pictured below.

At TechSmith, of course!

We had a visitor last week at TechSmith! SnagIt and Camtasia Studio user, Phil Parr, spent part of his vacation visiting us.

We had a great time. Phil - who came all the way from Florida - got to spend time with the SnagIt and Camtasia Studio teams and directly give us his feedback on our software.

When Phil's not on vacation, he's an instructional designer with a ten-year history in the corporate education field.

The same offer goes for you! If you're in the area, please e-mail me. I'd love to give you a tour, introduce you to the product teams and other TechSmithies, and hear your thoughts on our software.

When it comes to a way to spend your vacation, there's really no comparison. You can get a tan at the beach... but here you can get better software.

Screencasting! The great folks at Future Now used Camtasia Studio to record screencasts critiquing the Super Bowl commercials for their blog.

Everyone comments on the ads, but I like how Future Now critiques the ads from a business and marketing sense. It's interesting to hear about how these ads fit with other channels (like the Web) and their marketing messages. The screencasts also show how these marketers are leaving so much money on the table. They got me really thinking about how we do marketing and advertising here at TechSmith.

You can view their critiques of the GoDaddy.com and Blockbuster.com Superbowl ads here on their blog.

In case you're wondering, Anthony Garcia, Senior Persuasion Architect with Future Now, made the screencasts. What's a Senior Persuasion Architect? He's a marketing consultant who walks clients through persuasion architecture. To learn more about persuasion architecture, visit here. It's all about persuading visitors to take action and meeting business objectives.

Anthony has a history in the world of radio, which you may have guessed by his great voice! I could listen to him all day. You can learn more about him here.

I had the pleasure of meeting up with Future Now's Chief Persuasion Officer, Bryan Eisenberg, at a recent conference. He's pictured below. I'm looking forward to more of their screencasts.

Are you tired of hinting around at what you want? Want to give your clueless valentine a break?

I'm using SnagIt to show the gift that I want for Valentine's Day, complete with the links intact.

This is SnagIt 8's coolest new feature. It seems almost magical, how it can capture the image along with everything that image links to, as well!

That way, I can snag a picture of what I want, e-mail it to my husband, and everyone wins in the end.

Sure, there's something to be said for surprises on Valentine's Day... and that's why I'm surprising him with the gift of SnagIt. It's calorie-free, useful, and really demonstrates that lovin' feeling.

Camtasia Studio videos made with a Tablet PC are wonderful! They just go together like peanut butter and jelly!

The Microsoft Tablet PC MVPs have been making some great screencasts lately. There were so many great videos, I couldn't settle on just one for the Screencast of the Week. So, this week you get three screencasts - it's a Camtasia Studio Tablet PC Screencast triple threat!

So, Screencast of the Week #1

Rob Bushway's screencast - Rob made a video on his Tablet PC with Camtasia Studio about one of my new favorite programs, ActiveWords. Note - you don't have to have a Tablet PC to use ActiveWords. I use it on my laptop now and am completely addicted to it!

Screencast of the Week #2

jkOnTheRun's screencast - This is a great screencast! JK demos all the things he does regularly on his Tablet PC. Since he's an expert on a Tablet PC, it was helpful to see how he uses the Tablet PC with his favorite software. I have a lot to learn from him.

Isn't this a better way to learn - instead of reading a big long post about it?

Screencast of the Week #3

Craig Pringle's screencast - here Craig shows off a feature in Infopath in a nice example of a quick demo video. This type of video would be useful to many companies in marketing their products.

Bonus Screencast of the Week:

Warner Crocker's screencast - Warner submitted this screencast for the contest, and even though he didn't win with this submission, he's still a winner in my book. Warner - I hope I never end up in your 'Grey' folder!

Now, I just need to find a Tablet PC and jump on the bandwagon... but I think I need to work on my penmanship first!

Ever wish you could help develop a new product? Well, here's your chance! No coding experience necessary!

TechSmith is developing a new product, code name Astoria Project. We're opening up beta testing to the public! Click here to sign up.

So, what is Project Astoria? It's a Web-based service that allows you to view and record a user's experience with your software or Web site. You can connect to that user's computer via the Internet. It makes it possible for remote users to participate in a usability test, and for others to facilitate or observe, regardless of their location.

If you use Morae, Astoria Project recordings can be seamlessly imported into Morae Manager for later analysis. The Astoria Project captures additional rich, behind-the-scenes data such as the user's keyboard entry, mouse clicks, and movement from one Web page to another.

So, if you'd like to have input on this new product before it's released, please join our Beta Program! You will be working with Allen Dalton (pictured below), the Morae Project Manager, in the Beta Group.

The Space Needle...coffee...the birthplace of grunge! That's right - we're going to Seattle this month for the FlashForward show.

How about a little meet-up? Here's your chance to tell the Camtasia Studio Product Manager, Troy Stein, exactly what's on your mind and what you'd like to see added or changed in the product. Or, we can just geek out over technology, blogs, screencasting or whatever.

Flash Developer Brooks Andrus, Training Manager Dan Kazup, and I will be there too. Pictured below, left to right, is Brooks Andrus, Troy Stein and Betsy Weber.

Even Camtasia Studio user and whiteboard movie maker Tim Fahlberg is coming - I'm sure he'll demonstrate how he makes his great whiteboard movies to anyone who needs some help!

So, we'll be hanging out the Fox Sports Grill in downtown Seattle. I'm told it's a cool place complete with couches and plasma TVs. We'll be there on Tuesday, February 28 around 8:30pm until ???.

Interested? Send me an e-mail, since I need to give Fox Sports Grill an idea of how many people are coming. Hope to see you there - you won't be able to miss us. We'll be the angst-ridden, flannel-wearing, coffee-swilling table in the back. You know, just to fit into the Seattle scene. We might even throw a fish or two...

Last call for submissions for the Morae Outrageous Lab Contest!

We'll take submissions up until midnight EST on February 17, 2006.

Come on, you know you want a video iPod and a copy of the great book, "Call to Action" by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg. Best of all - it's SO easy to enter!

More information about how to submit can be found on our Web site at: http://www.techsmith.com/community/articles/labcontest.asp

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a local Autodesk CAD User Group, down in the Detroit area.

It was great to meet many Camtasia Studio and SnagIt users. They used Camtasia Studio and SnagIt in a variety of ways ranging from training and demo videos to materials for the help desk.

Pictured below are some SnagIt and Camtasia Studio users I met at the User Group from INCAT - Steve Slack, Rob Stein, and Josh Hunt. They've just launched a great CAD LMS complete with lots of Camtasia Studio videos. You can see more about it here.

I took down some materials for their meeting as giveaways for the attendees. The same offer goes for you - if you're conducting a meeting, workshop or other event, I'm happy to send you materials. We have many resources available to you - please visit: to order materials for your event, download sample presentations and other resources.

On a side note, below is a pic from my office window yesterday morning. Isn't it beautiful?

On the drive home from the CAD User Group meeting yesterday, I encountered thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Plus all snow was gone with the rain. Life in Michigan is never dull!

I don't follow rules well - ask anyone at TechSmith.

So, it's no big surprise that I missed National Delurking Week this year. What's National Delurking Week you ask? That's where you come out from under your shell and tell me a little bit about yourself.

So, I'm not going to let missing a little date hold us back from participating! I want to know who you are so I can write and make videos about stuff you care about.

What do you have to do? We'll donate $1 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for every comment from a unique visitor in today's post that tells me:

• Which product(s) you use - SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae
• Where you call home

And, I'll throw in an extra $1 if you link to some work you've done with our products - or any comment that just makes me laugh.

I have up to $1,000 to donate to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if we can get enough unique comments. If you're reading... please don't embarrass me by making me end up with a $3 donation.

Comments must be posted between now and Friday, February 24, 2006 at midnight EST. Comments must be on this blog post.

So, comment away, and thanks for reading the blog!

I love my iPod and I'm addicted to it...I admit I have a problem! I also love Camtasia Studio, so what better than putting the two together?

So, I was pleased to hear that I can make Camtasia Studio videos for mobile devices - videos to watch on the go!

Kelly Mullins from our technical writing team has written a guide called Creating Portable Media on how to convert your Camtasia Studio recordings to many different devices, including the Apple iPod, Sony PSP, Palm and Creative Zen Vision. Now I think I need to get each gadget to test each out myself...

You can download the Creating Portable Media guide here.

We also have a great tutorial video about how to create content for the video iPod by Dan Kazup, our training manager. The video will take you from start to finish through a project.

Click the screenshot below to view the video:

It's a 15-minute video, so depending on your internet connection, it might take some time to load, but it's worth the wait.

Now I just need to stop watching videos while I'm driving! Just kidding.

Is anyone else doing this? Any tips to share with others? Show them off - post a link to your videos in the comments.

Thanks to everyone who left a comment on the recent post. I really appreciate it!

I know there are more of you out there. Just add a simple, quick comment and make us pay. In the end, the more I know about you, the better I can tailor the blog posts to what you want instead of me guessing.

I'd like to donate more than $50 to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children. So please just leave a quick comment on this post and I'll extend the deadline for comments until Sunday at midnight EST.

Cut and paste this URL http://www.techsmith.com/community/blogcomments.asp?thread=91 and forward on to your friends!

I need a nap and some Tums! We just had our 3rd Annual TechSmith Chili Cookoff! At least I'm not in as bad shape as the Morae Assistant Product Manager, Mike Kujansuu!

Every year between 10-15 people at TechSmith compete in our Chili Cookoff. One year we even had a batch of chili with chocolate in it. This year, Carolyn Smalley, our Advertising Specialist, made a batch with a secret ingredient...pineapple!

Some do it for the fame, others for the glory! But, always a good time is had by all!

To see more pictures, visit the photo gallery here on Flickr.

Fog Creek Software makes a project management system called FogBugz, which we use here in a variety of departments.

For instance, if I want create a new page on the site, I simply e-mail our webstaff the specs and it’s automatically entered into FogBugz. In turn, I get an e-mail back with a URL to track the project status. That’s just one of the many ways we use it - FogBugz has helped us with our project management in ways never before possible!

So, when I saw Andy over at Structured Solutions had created a SnagIt and FogBugz mashup that takes SnagIt's screen captures and posts them directly to FogBugz, I was so excited! Screenshots are an essential part of many of our projects, so it makes sense to add them in FogBugz. Andy's SnagIt and FogBugz mashup makes it even easier than before.

You can read more about what Andy did here. And, he even made a great Camtasia Studio screencast. You can view it here.

So, what's this SnagIt COM-Server thingy? Well, SnagIt's COM Server allows any programming language that supports COM access to SnagIt's image and text capture features. Basically, you can now embed and control SnagIt directly in your applications.

You can read more about SnagIt's COM Server option here.

Andy - since you combined two of my favorite apps together, SnagIt and FogBugz, you're our screencast of the week!

I love a good story. Who doesn't? So, I was excited to see this video that Barry Downes at Music Research Consultants e-mailed me.

This is a Camtasia Studio video made with a photomontage - that's where SnagIt comes in. Barry used Camtasia to add in a single voice narration that segues into the performance piece by Itzhak Perlman. How cool...and educational!

I asked Barry how he made the video, and he said, "It started with the original television audio track done at PBS and then my running a Google picture search to gather a variety of pictures of Itzhak together, with a few other things. I then wrote out the incident just before the taping with this amazing Itzhak teasing me (convincingly) that he was planning to toss his violin as he took the hand mike to sing."

He continued, "I laid down the recorded narration track first, and then segued into the television audio. Using Camtasia allowed me to then easily set up the pictures to cut to the rhythm of the piece. Really quite easy production using TechSmith's fine program."

See an action shot of Barry recording the video pictured below:

Plus, Barry also sent a Camtasia Studio Valentine’s Day card! As you may remember, I also got a 'Secret Santa' greeting card too - I love getting video greeting cards!

What's nice about these video stories is that they live on and reach a broader audience. Pictures and text are great for a story, but the audio narration and music really make the story much more valuable and interesting. You can actually see and hear the emotion attached with a video. Also, remember the old game of 'telephone'? With video storytelling, you don't have to rely on people remembering all the details - the story won't ever change.

Thanks to Barry for making my day!

PowerPoint MVP Troy Chollar, of TLC Creative Services, recently blogged about his office, and I was excited to see that he used SnagIt's new interactive screenshot option to take a picture of his office setup. Plus, he added hotspots to his screen capture to further explain the different stations.

Check out Troy's interactive screenshot of his office here: http://www.tlccreative.com/techtable.htm

I love this type of visual communication - if a picture is worth a thousand words, but what's a picture with hotspots worth? I'm guessing a lot more! If Troy had not added the hotspots, the picture would not have been as valuable to me. I understood better after he added the text. Besides, it saved him from me asking him a million questions because he illustrated it so nicely.

To learn how to add interactive Flash hotspots to your captures, visit this tutorial here.

Is anyone else using this new feature? What do you like about it? What would you like changed?