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!

I have a question for you about the Camtasia PowerPoint add-in, and I really want to hear your answer!

What if we were to change the default to starting your PowerPoint recording in Pause Mode? Currently, when you use the add-in, Camtasia Studio starts recording your PowerPoint presentation immediately.

Troy Stein (Camtasia Studio Project Manager) made a 90 second video showing both sides. Click the screenshot below to start the video.

Thoughts about changing the default? What would make the Camtasia Studio PowerPoint add-in better?

Want to be the first on the block to try the new features in upcoming releases before they're released to the public?

Of course you do! You're in luck...there are 25 beta tester spots open for upcoming releases of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio.

What's required of you? We need your feedback. We need you to report on issues you encounter during the various beta releases, and give us product criticism that helps us make YOU happy.

If you're interested, please send me an e-mail and tell me which product you want to test.

Depending on which you choose, you'll be working with Jack Brown, SnagIt Project Manager or Kari Bulkley, Camtasia Studio Product Manager, pictured below.

It's been an exciting week for Camtasia Studio and screencasting!

Jeremy Wagstaff, a Wall Street Journal columnist, has a great directory of screencasting resources on his site, the LOOSE wire blog.

Jeremy also wrote a column for the Wall Street Journal about screencasting which you can read here. Read it quick, this reprint will be posted for only a month!

I recently found some Google SketchUp screencasts. They're a perfect example of what Jeremy writes about in his Wall Street Journal column and blog post. Click the screenshot below to watch a Google SketchUp screencast.

Try explaining that Google SketchUp video with only text. Not only would it take a long time to write...but it wouldn't paint the clearest picture.

And, if you know who made this video, let me know. I'm trying to contact the creator!

In the software world, 'bug' is a four letter word. Well, I got some news for the Camtasia Studio users who use the SCORM feature. So, I'm going to apologize to you right away, because we just found out that our SCORM feature isn't working as planned. In other words, I'm sorry to say, there is a bug.

Here's what's going on - in Camtasia Studio v3.1.1, there is a bug that caused SCORM productions using quizzes to never report to the Learning Management System (LMS).

I do have a workaround for you which require you to edit a single file in the Camtasia install folder. After that, all subsequent productions will work. You could also apply the same fix to any projects that you already produced.

The reason for this is that we had a JavaScript function in the HTML file that was called "UserSubmitToLMS", but in the SWF file, we referred to it as "userSubmitToLMS". The difference is that one 'u' is capitalized and one 'u' is not.

Fortunately, the fix is as follows:

1. Open up the file "C:\Program Files\TechSmith\Camtasia Studio 3\Media\Studio\HTML\QuizScorm.js". Note: Windows does not know how to open up a .js file by default, so open Notepad and drag the QuizScorm.js file into the Notepad window to make the modifications there.
2. Search for the line "function UserSubmitToLMS( nScore )"
3. Replace the "U" in "UserSubmitToLMS" with a lower case "u"
4. Save the file and now all productions will work with SCORM.

In order to fix any previous productions, you can open up the HTML file, search for the same line, and make the same modification.

In addition, scores from quizzes in Camtasia Studio are not being included in the e-mail, even if the "include scores in email" checkbox is checked.

To fix this, after each production, edit the config.xml file (in Notepad), and add the following line after each "" line:

Feel free to visit tech support for more info here.

Sorry for any inconvenience this might have caused - a maintenance release is in the works.

Anyone out there using the SCORM feature? Have you run into this problem?

On Friday in shipping we receieved a box that was returned by a shipping carrier.

When we opened it up, we saw the box was pretty destroyed. After investigating further, we found out that the box was sent seven or eight months ago...to Louisiana. It was diverted by Hurricane Katrina.

Sure, the box is damaged, but the CD inside still works fine. That's what we're hoping for the entire region as the clean-up continues - even though the outside is damaged, we know the heart and soul are still intact!

Microsoft's TechEd conference has started out with a bang for me...and not in a good way. After finally making my way to the hotel (I only got lost about a dozen times - crazy roads), what's the first thing that happened to me when I got to the hotel? My laptop came spilling out the car, landing on the pavement with a loud...BANG! I'm fairly certain you could hear my heart break at that moment.

After running to my room, I checked the damage. I snapped a few things back into alignment and hit the power button. To my amazement, my old friend booted back up! Exhale...

Today I headed out to Waltham, Massachusetts to Microsoft's Regional Office. Again, only getting lost maybe a dozen times (why did I pay extra for GPS?). There was an INETA User Group Summit, and I ran into Thom Robbins from Microsoft. Remember him? He's the one making the great Camtasia Studio videos about Visual Studio which he sends out in the Fast Tips newsletter. See our pic below.

That reminds me...I'm happy to support 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 here.

It's been a fun day and I can't wait for TechEd to start tomorrow! Although, I just got word our booth has not arrived. Hmmm, anyone have any tips on how to demo Camtasia Studio, SnagIt and Morae without a computer? I guess I'll be waving my arms around a lot. I was hoping to have some screencasts from the show floor, but those might not happen until later in the week when we have tables and the rest of the booth...

I'll be posting pics all week here on Flickr. There are some pics in there that definitely need some captioning. Feel free to add your own captions and comments to the pictures!

In addition to TechEd, TechSmith is also exhibiting at the UPA show in Colorado this week!

While I'm not attending, I hear they'll be giving sneak peeks of The Astoria Project as well as what's new with Morae. There's still time to sign up for beta if you're interested.

They're even giving away a video iPod in the booth. So if you're in the area...and you're one of the last few people who doesn't have one...

And, if you haven't seen it, there's a newer white paper on our Morae Web site about the future of usability which you can read here. The white paper suggests a new paradigm for user experience (UX) research in a Web 2.0 world...UX 2.0

What topics would you like to see future white papers on?

Thankfully our booth made it to TechEd in Boston yesterday. We scrambled this morning to get it set up - and did it in an hour!

Right away I ran into Tablet PC MVP Craig Pringle. He makes some great Camtasia Studio screencasts which you can see here. It was too busy to make a screencast with him, but maybe later this week we'll have a chance. Anything you want me to ask him about Tablet PCs?

Craig took me over to Motion Computing's booth to check out their Ultra Mobile Tablet PC Computer. Craig's pictured below with his Motion Computing UMPC. I was thinking this would be the perfect computer for doing screencasting on the go because I could easily walk around with it. Anyone use this Tablet PC with Camtasia for screencasting? I want your feedback. Mostly I'm wondering - is it going to be powerful enough for me to make great videos?

Microsoft had a store where you could buy just about anything branded with Microsoft's logo. I bought a t-shirt and mug that says, 'Geek'. I'm fairly certain that makes me a geek for buying it.

We're hearing lots of great feature requests in the booth. But, you don't have to meet us in a booth to send us product feedback. We'll take it anywhere! Feel free to leave comments here on the blog, e-mail me or use our online form.

If you're not at TechEd, anything you want me to scout out for you? If you are here, stop by our booth and chat. A couple of Camtasia Studio users and I will be heading out to lunch tomorrow and you're invited - call me on my cell (517.410.0030)!

Lots of good pictures, like the one below, from the booth and our visitors can be found here on Flickr.

The fun at TechEd never stops. I was walking to lunch with .NET rock star, Julia Lerman, and Chris Haaker, from the Blog Cast Repository. And, who do we run into? None other than Carl Franklin! Pictured below is Carl, Betsy, Julia and Chris (left to right).

We had a fun lunch and got some great feedback about Camtasia Studio from Julia, Chris and Carl. If you haven't checked out their screencasts, check out one of Julia's Camtasia Studio videos here. Maybe if you bug her, she'll send you a Camtasia Studio video of her beautiful Newfoundland dogs. Chris has a great blog which you can see here and participates at the Blogcast Repository. He'll be posting some blogcasts there soon. The Blogcast repository has some great videos like this one - I like them because some of the videos made with Camtasia Studio show off Vista. What better way to see Vista in action?

I've been a big fan of Carl Franklin's .NET Rocks audio talk show for awhile now. I was excited to see Carl was going to be recording live at TechEd this year! Carl also recently launched dnrTV. And, what does he use to record the screen activity? You guessed it, Camtasia Studio! Carl's screencasts are high quality. Check out dnrTV here.

Carl provided some tips for screencasters. So, I thought you'd all be interested too!

Here they are:

• Edit the audio before publishing.
• I use Adobe Audition to extract the .wav audio from the .avi. Then I raise the volume with either normalization or hard limiting, and perform a noise reduction algorithm to get rid of distracting background noise.
• Then I edit out coughs and sniffs. This is especially important when two people are talking, one in the left channel and one in the right.
• Make sure that there are no distractions by one person while the other is talking.
• Next, use VirtualDub a free video reprocessing application, to save a new AVI from the original video and the new wave audio, making sure to select "Direct Stream Copy" for both the video and audio. You'll be much happier with the sound of the new video, and good sound is very important to me.

We're enjoying our stay in Boston. Tonight, the TechSmith crew headed out to the oldest tavern in the country, the Bell in Hand Tavern. We got lots of good pics...plus lots of good food, drink, and techie conversation!

Last week in the office, quite a few of us had been checking the Internet during the day to see the scores coming out of the World Cup matches. On Saturday, the first thing the guy next to me on the plane did after we landed was call his friend to get the scores of the games. Well, here at TechEd, they take it a step futher! They have nice big TVs setup all over the conference center!

Watching some of the games reminded me of Camtasia Studio Product Manager Troy Stein's video he made for his son's soccer team. I like it because it brings screencasting out of techie topics into a real-life, everyday application. You can read the background on this video in a blog post here. Click the screenshot below to view it. The screencast runs 7:28 minutes.

I also came across this amazing soccer...err, football site from Nike. I really like the chain video. You'll have to watch it to see what I mean!.

Anyone else have soccer fever? What other cool World Cup sites have you seen? Who are you cheering for?

When I was at the STC show a few weeks ago, I met Monika Duvinage. She knows all things screenshots. I just heard that she uploaded her presentation, so I thought you all might be interested in it too.

This is why you'll want to check out her presentation - she takes you through topics like taking effective screenshots, editing, optimizing your screenshots, and even picking an efficient screen capture tool. (You know what screen capture tool I'd recommend, but check out Monika's recommendations. She's not as biased as I am. :-)

You can view all these topics and more of her presentation here. Note - the link goes directly to a zip file to download the presentation.

Monika also has an online course about taking effective screen captures. You can check out the course here.

At STC, I also attended Seneca College's Beth Agnew Podcasting and Vidcasting presentation, which was one of the most entertaining and informative sessions I saw! You can download it here. Note - the link goes directly to a zip file to download the presentation. If you're thinking about getting started podcasting, vlogging and vidcasting (or screencasting!), you'll want to use this as a great resource.

Many of the presenters at STC have uploaded their materials from the sessions which you can see here.

Has anyone run across any good resources for screen captures, screencasting or usability lately? Share 'em with us.

On the last day during the last hour of the expo, I was able to get a quick screencast with Tablet PC MVP Craig Pringle.

You remember him, right? I blogged about him earlier in the week. I also have one correction to that post - I mentioned Craig showed me his Ultra Mobile PC, (UMPC, also known as Origami Project), and that was incorrect. He has a Tablet PC which happens to be pretty darn small.

So, Craig did an obviously much-needed screencast to teach me the difference between a Tablet PC and a UMPC.

I learned something and I think you will too! Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast. It runs 4 minutes.

And, here's a side by side comparison of Craig's Tablet (left) and the UMPC (right).

For more information on the UMPC, visit here.

To learn more about the ultra-cool Tablet PCs, visit here.

Plus, Craig has several recent posts on the subject which you can read here and here.

Did I get everything right this time? : - )

This doesn't have much to do with our software, except I used SnagIt to crop and resize this image for the blog.

Marcy, our accounting specialist, and Amy, our HR Manager, went to a NASCAR race in Jackson, Michigan last weekend... and look what they saw!

It was just too good to not post. It gives me an idea ... now someone needs to do that with the SnagIt logo!

Just kidding - don't start sending me pics of that.

I'm excited to go to Gnomedex 6 in Seattle next week. This is the second one I've attended. The first one proved to be excellent - I saw Wil Wheaton, Steve Wozniak and more...Chris Pirillo puts on a great event! This one looks interesting because it doesn't have the typical conference format. Instead of having lectures, they're have discussion leaders for the 'sessions'. It's an 'Unconference'. It should be more interactive and engaging.

I love this show because it's a great time to catch up with passionate techies. They were blogging and talking about RSS long before it made it mainstream. I hear Jeff Barr from Amazon will be there too! He's done some screencasting, so I looking forward to seeing him.

I thought I'd see if anyone wanted to meet up at the show or in Seattle. Anyone want to screencast? I see Robert Scoble will be there. Maybe I can convince him, Chris or Jeff to do a screencast with me. Anyone have any questions you want me to ask them?

If you haven't checked out Chris' Lockergnome newsletter and blog, check them out. They're a great balance of techie and not-so-techie info, plus Chris has a great sense of humor.

And, let's see if the "Pirillo Effect" works. Rumor has it that if mention Chris Pirillo's name in your blog post, he'll pop by and maybe even post a comment! So, let's do a little experiment. Chris Pirillo, Chris Pirillo, Chris Pirillo!

In Sports Illustrated every week they ask professional players - you know, the ones that are the closest to the action and most affected by decisions - this question: What would you do if you were commissioner for a day? They always have insightful and often surprising answers.

So...what would you do if you were product manager for a day at TechSmith?

See what happens when techies meet over dinner? You end up screencasting!

Brooks Andrus, our senior Flash developer, and I went out to dinner last night. We were talking about all the new screencasts popping up and how it's exciting to see videos become more prevalent online. With the news from the VloggerCon about Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft and going to PodTech.net, it's only increasing the visibility of podcasting, video blogs (vlogging) and screencasts. Great news, in my opinion.

So, part of the way into our conversation, we decided we should be screencasting about it. I ran out to my car and grabbed my laptop, webcam, and microphone. Even though it was pretty noisy and dark at PF Chang's, we gave it a shot.

Granted, dark restaurants don't make for the best 'studio' in terms of sound and lighting, but it will do. It was a spur of the moment thing. That's one of the positives of screencasting - you can do it anywhere!

So, click the screenshot below to start our screencast. We ramble on for 9:26 minutes and discuss Robert Scoble, RocketBoom, equipment to get you started screencasting, LabRats.tv and GottaBeMobile and more... plus at the end, you can hear our fortunes from our fortune cookies.

A math teacher, science teacher and a social studies teacher walk into TechSmith... sounds like the start of a bad joke.

But it happened! Recently a group of math, science and social studies teachers stopped by our office to learn more about SnagIt and Camtasia Studio. Which reminds me - if you're in the area, you too are welcome to stop by TechSmith... just e-mail me.

The teachers wanted to see examples of how other teachers are using Camtasia Studio in the classroom. For the math teacher, I showed off Tim Fahlberg's CoolSchoolTools and MathCasts.org Web sites chockfull of math videos. I also showed her Colleen King's SAT Math Pro.

For the science teacher, I showed some science videos like these:

• Frog, pig and sheep dissection videos
• Jean-Claude Bradley's Chemistry Screencasts
• Gordon Snyder's Technology videos

And for the social studies teacher... I got nothing. I haven't heard from any social studies teachers using it. I had some ideas how they could use it, but I had no examples to show off. So, if you're a social studies teacher using Camtasia Studio in the classroom (or you know one), I'd love to show off your videos and share with other teachers. Are you out there? E-mail me here!

The Michigan UPA is having their meeting at TechSmith on Tuesday. And - you're invited!

The topic of discussion is SnagIt 8. Even though we just celebrated SnagIt's 15th anniversary, we still have a lot to learn about how you use it. So, for SnagIt 8, we stepped into your shoes to discover your experience and redesigned the product.

Full details of the meeting can be found here.

See you there!

I've been bad at posting the Screencast of the Week lately. My apologies. But hey, the fewer I post, the greater the honor, right?

Well ... I found a great screencast that might just be the screencast of the year!

Dan Bricklin, THE creator of spreadsheets (VisiCalc) has created a new program called WikiCalc and he used Camtasia Studio to create a screencast of it!

You can view the Camtasia Studio screencast here.

If you'd like to learn more about Dan, his story was picked up by Forbes. And of course, by us as well. Thanks, Dan!

At some point this summer (probably July), I'm taking a week off and unplugging...shutting down the laptop, turning off the iPod, throwing the Treo in the toilet...Okay, I wouldn't do that to my beloved Treo, but I might turn it off. Or at least not look at it. Directly.

So, that brings me to the Visual Lounge. I could write a bunch of posts before taking a break and have them posted for me. I could let the blog go dark for a week. Or, I could turn the blog over to you! That, of course, sounds more exciting to me.

I'm looking for between 5-10 people to write a blog post about SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, Morae, tips, tricks, hacks, screencasting, vlogging, audio, video, graphics, technology...you name it. Just one little blog post! If you want to do a video - even better, but not required!

So, drop me an email , send me your contact info, blog URL (if you have one - not required) and give me a short description of what you'd like to write. We'll see where this goes!