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!

You're not screencasting yet? Here's a $1,000 dollar reason to give it your best shot.

Step one - If you don't have Camtasia Studio, download our free 30 day eval copy. If you already own Camtasia Studio, thank you!

Step two - Head over to Notetalkers.com. They're holding a contest where the grand prize package is worth over $1,100. All you have to do is make a screencast demonstrating MindManager. Plus, there are other ways to win. All contest details can be found here.

I have the honor of being a judge. I'm in good company - also judging the contest is Tablet PC MVP Warner Crocker, Mindjet Marketing Coordinator Gaelen, Sid and AdminID - admins for www.NoteTalkers.com.

If you need some inspiration, I suggest you visit some Camtasia Studio screencasts of MindManager over at GottaBeMobile.com

Check out their 'Ink Shows' here.

I also just found this great screencast made with Camtasia Studio about MindManager over Jason Dorko's blog, Dorkotech. I'm going to start using it this way too!

Okay, quit reading and go make screencasts! Maybe you'll win a prize and jump for joy like Kameya Shows, our Trade Show Coordinator, pictured below!

Post links in our comments here in the Visual Lounge to show off your masterpiece!

I was digging around the blogosphere to find a screencast to show off, and I came across a different way to use Camtasia Studio.

Art historians Beth Harris, Steve Zucker, and Eric Feinblatt from the Fashion Institute of Technology made a great screencast about a Picasso painting.

Click on the screenshot below to view the screencast.

What I like about this screencast is that they are art history experts, and this screencast is like having my own personal art historian. I would never have known much about that Picasso painting if not for their screencast.

One of my favorite things to do when I visit New York is to go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art - I could spend days there. So, I was really happy to see their podcasts from the Met! I'm working my way through listening to all of these in preparation for my next trip: http://www3.fitnyc.edu/historyofart/smarthistory.htm

Visit their blog. I hear they've even produced some Camtasia videos small enough to play on a video iPod - think about the possibilities of that! You could download a screencast onto your video iPod and walk around a museum and hear an art historian talk about different pieces! What a great way to experience a museum.

Can't get to the Met? Start listening to and watching their screencasts and podcasts. It's the next best thing. Actually, it might be better since the little placards at the Met don't even give you as much of the history as you're getting here!

Any nominations for next week's screencast of the week? Post them here or e-mail me.

Where TechSmith is located in Michigan, we're only about an hour and a half away from Canada. We even get the Canadian Broadcast Channel (CBC), so many of us grew up watching Don Cherry on Hockey Night in Canada. We also have Canadian coins intermingling with our change - which people here have no problem taking. I didn't think anything of it until merchants looked at me funny when I tried to use them out of state.

On that note, I was really happy to hear we have two tradeshows coming up in Canada. I'll be at Flash in the Can in Toronto, Ontario April 21 - 23 and CHI in Montreal, Quebec April 22 - 30. If you'd like to meet up while we're at the show, leave me a comment or e-mail me. We'd love to get together with you!

Or, if you're not going to be able to meet up, do you have any sightseeing or restaurant tips? It's been a long time since I've been to Toronto, and this is my first time to Montreal. I heard from Carla Wardin, our newsletter writer that a big thing in Montreal is poutine - fries covered in cheese curds and gravy. What's the best place for that?

If you're not going to be at either of those shows or cities, check our calendar of events here. Are we coming to your city or the same show you're going to? Drop me a line and we'll meet up!

At the last few shows I've been at (O'Reilly, Etech and FlashForward), there were a lot of Macs. OK, I'll be honest with you - I had a little Mac envy. Everywhere I turned, there were cool-looking Macs with hip looking owners!

So, I was really happy to hear Apple announce their Intel Core Duo Macs. The other day, I found this blog post from Ed Dale.

He installed Windows XP on his mac, then installed Camtasia Studio. And, guess what - it worked! His screencast is here.

Granted, you can still only record the Windows desktop and applications, but you can run Camtasia Studio on a Mac hardware!

Ed also said he uses Camtasia extensively and it is literally the only reason he keeps a PC around.

Anyone else try this? I want to know how it worked for you and any other details.

And, as Ed says...BOOYAH!

In a week, we're off to Flash in the Can in Toronto. The conference thanked us by sending a bunch of Red Bull to the office which was great! But, I don't think I should be allowed to drink Red Bull and post to the blog. So, since I'm on my 2nd Red Bull of the afternoon, I'm just going to cut to the chase...

Here's your Camtasia Studio Screencast of the week. Click the screenshot below to watch it.

Watch it, you'll like it! That's all I'm going to say! Off to find more Red Bull...

I'm a huge fan of DIY projects so this is one of my favorite uses of SnagIt. Last year, Max Rottersman e-mailed us to tell us about how he uses SnagIt in a way we've never seen before. He uses SnagIt to create teleprompter scripts for video blogging!

Max lost a bid on eBay for a $1,600 teleprompter (they cost that much?!) and wondered if he could make one himself.

So, with just a clear CD-ROM case cover, 6 CD-ROM cases, scotch tape, plus SnagIt, he made a teleprompter! By setting up the CD cases to serve as a mirror for the screen, Max was able to look directly at the webcam and read the script through the mirror-like plastic.

For more how-to information, visit Max's article, Video blogger Plasti-Prompter.

This will help everyone move one step closer to professional video blogging results.

Bill Myers is my hero. I recently asked him to e-mail his top tips for screencasting for an article I'm working on. He decided to answer my questions not with an e-mail, but with a screencast!

You can read and watch Bill Myers' top tips for screencasting here.

What are your tips?

Where do all the cool kids hang out? At the new Google Group on the Block. I've just heard about it - Camtasia guru John Kirk started a Google Group for Camtasia Studio pros to swap tips, tricks, and best practices.

Already there are posts on customizing playback controls, creating a table of contents, making audio editing easier, creating iPod compatible videos, and more.

I've signed up, and you should too! You can sign up here. Let's see where it goes!

Last week was a week of firsts... some good, some bad. Last week I had the flu for the first time in a year. On the good side, we had the first Camtasia Studio User Group meeting!

A group of Camtasia Studio users at Michigan State, led by Geraud Plantegenest (pictured above) at the College of Human Medicine, decided to start a Camtasia Studio User Group. They're going to get together monthly to exchange best practices, tips and tricks, and show off their work. Many of the members are recording their college lectures with Camtasia Studio or creating videos for their students to use outside of class. Some even have their students use the software for projects. If you're curious about how professors are using Camtasia Studio in the classroom, you can read about Professor David Imig at Michigan State here.

You can view some pics from the event here.

If you're interested in starting your own local Camtasia Studio User Group, let me know! I'll try to support you in any way I can. E-mail me or call me on Skype (betsyweber) and we'll get the ball rolling!

Since MSU is in our backyard, we had the luxury of easily attending the meeting. If you'd like to start a group, on the times we can't attend, we can still present with the group via Live Meeting and my trusty webcam.

Flash in the Can is going great, and I've fallen in love with Toronto! I don't want to leave!

I haven't had a lot of time to do touristy things yet. That's the thing with business travel...you have to work!

The highlight of my trip so far has to be Friday night's dinner, where I met with Sean Carruthers and Andy Walker of Tech TV and Lab Rats TV fame!

If you've never visited their site, go there now and check out their popular videocast show. Not only are their videocasts informative, they're also really funny and entertaining. Sometimes you even get to see Andy's cats, Biff and Boo. You never know what they'll be subjected to - in the latest videocast about drivers, Biff has a sign duct taped to him!

Sean and Andy's Lab Rats videos are the gold standard in vidcasts, in my opinion. As you watch, you’ll notice that they sometimes use Camtasia Studio when they're showing activity on the computer.

Andy also has a great newsletter - Cyberwalker. Check out some newsletters where he used Camtasia Studio:

• Turn your old LPs into MP3s
• Turbo charge your computer by cleaning out your system memory
• Back up Your DVDs

My only regret is that I didn't have time to make a screencast with them. I guess I either need to stay longer this trip or come back to Toronto, eh?

So, here's your job for today:

1. Visit Labrats.tv and watch all the episodes. There will be a quiz later.
2. Visit Cyberwalker and sign up for Andy's newsletter.
3. Think of one subject you want to make a screencast about, and post it in the comments.

Do these things and you'll be smarter and people will like you. Or, at least, I'll like you, and I'm sure Andy and Sean will too!

I'm off to see more of Toronto...

When I go to trade shows, I'm always asked to send a daily report back to work. (They want to make sure I'm on my best behavior.) So, instead of typing up a long report, I thought I'd do a screencast.

Brooks Andrus, our Flash guru, and I did a screencast from the show floor at Flash in the Can on Sunday.

Not much to say about this one...You'll just have to watch it. It's pretty funny. Click on the screenshot below to play - it's a little over 10 minutes so get comfortable.

My pics from the show are on Flickr here.

Wish you were here!

I thought some of you might be interested in what Brooks Andrus, our Senior Flash Developer, presented on at Flash in the Can. So, we made a screencast late last night about his presentation and accompanying screencasts.

So, with that, watch the screencast and you can see me pretend to understand what Brooks is talking about! Actually, his presentation had a little bit of something for everyone - whether you're a Camtasia Studio beginner or Flash Expert.

Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast. It runs just under 10 minutes - 9:58 minutes.

You can find more screencasts on his blog, Cogito Ergo Flammeus.

Ok, Brooks - you've been holding out on me. This is a really cool screencast. Why didn't you show me how do this before?!

Is this kind of stuff helpful for you? Do you want more screencasts like this? Let me know...

Recently, Presenters University asked me to write an article for them. I knew I wanted to write it about screencasting, but as I worked on it, I knew it would be even better if I asked screencasting experts for their top tips.

You can visit the article here: http://www.presentersuniversity.com/visuals_screencasting.php

I got input from a diverse group, including:

• Andy Walker of Lab Rats TV and Cyberwalker fame
• Rob Howard over at Telligent
• Thom Robbins from Microsoft
• Bill Myers from Bill Myers Online
• Anthony Garcia from Future Now
• Jean-Claude Bradley at Drexel University
• Yoz Grahame at Ning
• Will Richardson at Hunterdon Central Regional High School
• Troy Chollar from TLC Creative and PowerPoint MVP
• Hans Mestrum from Tulip Computers
• Mathcasting team of Tim Fahlberg, Graeme MacNeil and Linda Fahlberg-Stoljanovaska

The article is full of links, great ideas, and even a screencast!

If you've never visited Presenters University, check them out. It's a site dedicated to helping you make your next presentation the best it can be. It's sponsored by the good people at InFocus, the projector company.

Interested in collaborating with me on an article? E-mail me, and let me know the topic!

My teachers always said I worked well with others...

One of my favorite tech journalists over at PC World is Steve Bass. He writes great columns and has an interesting blog where he talks weekly about how to tackle tech problems. He also wrote a book, "PC Annoyances" which I have been known to give as a gift to people who want me to fix their computers many times over.

I was excited to see he had made a video for a recent blog post using SnagIt. Check it out here.

How many of you knew that SnagIt can make a video? In 1997, we added video capture to SnagIt, but many computers at the time could not actually capture video because of hardware limitations. A few years later in 1999, hardware limitations were not as much of an issue so TechSmith created Camtasia Studio spun off of SnagIt's video capture.

OK, back to Steve...Steve also uses SnagIt for graphics in his books and for all the screencaptures he uses in his columns.

So, if you don't know Steve yet, drop by his blog, start reading his columns. You'll learn a lot and your computer will be happy.