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!

Want to be part of a summer reading program? No book report required?

I'm happy to announce that there's a great new resource available for Camtasia Studio! Daniel Park has written not just an article, but a whole book on Camtasia Studio 3!

Former TechSmith staffer Daniel Park was originally hired in 1999 to create Camtasia videos to launch the product. So, he's been working with the product from the beginning. Daniel has since gone on to start his own company, dappertext, which specializes in making Camtasia videos.

This book is geared for all types of users, from beginners to advanced-level users. There is a comprehensive set of exercises and the book is filled with tips and tricks, plus gotchas to avoid.

To learn more about the book, visit here.

Daniel reads this blog regularly. So, if you have any questions, feel free to post them here.

If you weren't paying attention, you probably didn't notice the just-released SnagIt profiles for Skype. If you're a Skype user, you'll find this particularly useful. Now, you can save time and send your SnagIt screen captures directly from SnagIt to the person you're chatting with on Skype. It's so much easier to do than it was before we had profiles. If you're not a Skype user, you might want to check it out - first, it's free. Second, you can talk to me - from across the country or the world - again, for free!

Want to practice? Download Skype from here if you don't already have it, grab the SnagIt profiles for Skype here and then Skype me at: betsyweber. Start snagging away!

One of the things I always struggled with in business school were the accounting and calculus classes. It's no wonder why my checkbook is always a little off (usually not in my favor) and in disarray. I took the required classes and that was it.

So, on that note, this week's screencast of the week comes from Assistant Professor of Accounting, Richard Campbell from the University of Rio Grande who's making accounting a lot more interesting. Richard is using Camtasia to create material for his Internet accounting course that he's teaching this summer.

Click on the screenshot below to watch this video about using Angel to teach accounting.

I like what Richard's faculty page says, "Bringing the Excitement of Accounting to Multimedia"!

Maybe I'll learn something about accounting just yet. Just don't test me. Or look at my checkbook. ;-)

Want to evaluate Daniel Park's book before purchasing it? I just got word from Daniel Park that he has an excerpt of his book, Camtasia Studio 3: the Definitive Guide, about recording your PowerPoint presentation posted at PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj's Web site here.

So, you can check it out before you purchase it. I've already referred to it several times on a recent project and it's proved to be quite useful especially in the audio area. I always struggle with audio - remember this? Heh!

Geetesh did a lengthy interview with Daniel as well. It's posted here. Quite entertaing and informative. You'll get a good sense of Daniel's personality, sense of humor, and expertise in the interview.

I have three copies of Daniel's highly coveted book to give away! Leave me a message here at Odeo (click the pic of the bird below) and tell me why I should give you the book. We'll do a random drawing of everyone who enters and post some of the replies. I'll throw in some free swag too!

I've purchased more tiny bottles of travel shampoo this year than I can count. Needless to say, I've been to a lot of conferences and presentations this year.

I started noticing a shift in conferences and presentations over the years. I wrote an article for Presenters University that you can read here about the shift in presentation styles.

I'm lucky that I've had a chance to attend a wide variety of shows ranging from Chris Pirillo's high tech Gnomedex (you'll read more about that in the article above) to shows for K-12 Educators and everything in between.

Let me know what you think about the article. Am I off base or on track? What have you noticed in presentations and conference lately?

On a side note, I'll be back on the road August 20 - 24 for a conference in Dallas. Anyone want to meet-up? Come on, we can learn to do the Texas Two-Step together...I'll try not to step on your toes!

That is the question!

Have you heard the term 'vlog or videoblog' but are unsure what it means? Or, maybe you've heard about vlogs, but haven't taken the leap yet and made you're own.

Well, you're in luck. You're invited to TechSmith next Wednesday. We're having a Vlogging Workshop on August 16 with vlogging expert, Stephanie Bryant. There are two sessions - one at lunch and one after work.

The topics are:

• What videoblogging - or vlogging - is
• How to create a vlog
• Effectively communicate with a vlog
• Resources for further learning

Stephanie literally wrote the book on Vlogging - Videoblogging for Dummies. It's all about online video in a blog or video podcast format. When she's not vlogging, Stephanie is a technical communicator and has also written several books on web design and graphic design. I had the pleasure of meeting her earlier this year the STC conference.

You can find out more about the workshop here.

And, don't worry, if you're not in the Lansing, Michigan area, we'll be filming it and will post it for viewing at a later date. Stay tuned.

Hope to see you here! RSVP here and please let us know which session you'd like to attend. I'll also be giving tours of the TechSmith and you can meet other TechSmithies.

Visit Stephanie Bryant's vlog here and learn about her book Videoblogging for Dummies here.

Remember the free book contest I mentioned back here on the blog? I think this entry is worthy of the Camtasia Studio 3: the Definitive Guide book...Don't you?

Since Ryan did leave the first comment on this blog post about Daniel's book, we'll send him a copy. See? Now, wasn't that easy? Tell 'em Ryan...

We'll pick winners by August 18 for additional copies of the. So, you still have time to enter. Just click the little birdie below and leave me a message. It's quick and painless.

I can't wait to show you this week's Camtasia Studio screencast of the week!

Long Zheng has made an awesome video showing off the voice recognition in Windows Vista! Contrary to some reports, it works... and the proof is in his Camtasia Studio screencast! Click the screenshot below to read Long's blog post about the video and to view it.

Interested in what the next release of Word will look like? Check out this screencast Long recently created. Not only is it funny, but it also shows off Microsoft Office Word 2007's interface quite well.

Word and Vista are so visual that text isn't enough. That's one reason why I love these screencasts!

Long's screencasting has gotten him quite a bit of attention - so much that some people at Microsoft saw his Vista screencast and now he's speaking at TechEd Australia!

Long is giving away a few copies of Camtasia Studio here. If you're interested in standing out from the crowd by screencasting but haven't taken the leap, maybe you can win a copy from him. Enter here. And, if you win, be sure to share your screencasts with me so I can show them off.

And on a final note, check out these words of wisdom that Long wrote while e-mailing me: "They say a picture is a thousand words. A video is 24 pictures per second. You've got to be typing awfully fast to explain to someone what you're doing."

Plus, I should mention he's an 18-year-old college student. And if a teenager can do it...

Professional speaker, Camtasia user, and all around good guy Terry Brock recently stopped by our offices by way of Florida.

I'll be honest, I'm not a public speaker. And, if you've seen any of my screencasts, you know this...really well. Maybe too well. :-)

So, I had to take the opportunity when Terry was here to get some of his top tips for public speaking in hopes that it would help my screencasting. And, you also get the benefit since we recorded it!

Click the screenshot below to start the video. It runs just over 10 minutes.

To learn more about Terry, visit here.

What would you like the next screencast to be about? (Need help overcoming any other fears, phobias, snakes on a plane?)

How do you create a new product from start to finish in 30 days? I'm not sure just quite yet, but Dana Epp from Scorpion Software will show you how with Project Anvil.

Project Anvil is Dana's quest to develop one product, by himself, and make it ready for beta in a month. So, ask me at the end!

He's blogging and screencasting all along the way so you can watch and learn from his journey too. Check out the Project Anvil blog here. It's best to start with the first post here. Dana will show you the development process he goes through as well as all the tools, technologies, and methods he uses to build the software.

Check it out...one month, one man, one project! Oh, and he has some great screencasts made with Camtasia Studio too!

The Astoria Project is no longer...it's now operating under its official name - UserVue!

The beta of UserVue is still rolling along, and you still have time to join in if you're interested. The beta will run until we launch UserVue around the end of September.

There was a new update of UserVue last week. There were several new, important features:

• Integrated telephone calling and recording - UserVue will call the facilitator and participant over the phone, automatically record the conversation, and synchronize the audio with the participant video.
• Improved participant interface - The user interface for the participant has been greatly improved to take up much less screen space. It is now unobtrusive for the participant and very simple to use.
• Video scaling for facilitator and observers - The screen video from the participant can now be scaled in the facilitator and observer applications. This makes the screen video view higher quality.
• Event capture is now integrated - RRT is now part of UserVue so all Web page changes, mouse clicks, keystrokes, and window events are captured and synchronized with the video when you import the recording into Morae Manager.

Please join our beta...We want and need as much feedback as possible from the new changes.

The product Web page has been updated here: http://www.techsmith.com/uservue.asp. Check out your new favorite program!

We're working on getting the recording edited and posted from the vlogging workshop that Stephanie Bryant, author of Videoblogging for Dummies, conducted at TechSmith last week.

In the interim, check out Steve Schofield's blog post here about the event. He lists a lot of great links from the workshop if you're interested in vlogging.

Stay tuned for the video...

The PowerPoint Live Conference is less than a month away. I'm excited to see old friends and meet new ones at the San Diego show. I plan on doing a lot of screencasts with these PowerPoint, graphics and presentation experts.

So, on that note, I thought I'd see what questions you had that I could ask the speakers! Post them in the comments and I'll see who I can find to answer them via a Camtasia Studio screencast. Want to learn more about animation, graphics or design? Let me know...We can all learn together!

And, if you'll be in San Diego September 16 - 21, let me know. I'd love to meet up with you! Looks like the Padres are in town...maybe we can take screencasting to the park!

I'm addicted to Sharpie markers! I like all the different color options.

But I'm not here to talk about my infatuation with Sharpies. Let's talk about another kind of marker - the ones in Morae. Like Sharpies, Morae Markers also have a lot of color and customization options.

Our Morae Newsletter ran an article this week about Morae Markers. Check out the article here.

And, sign up for our newsletters here. They're funny and informative...trust me, you'll like them.

Unlike Sharpies, these markers don't have that funny smell.

TechSmith friends Tim Fahlberg, his sister Linda Fahlberg-Stojanovska, and Rev. Graeme MacNeil were featured in an article in the Oxford Journal titled "Teaching Mathematics and Its Applications"! It focused on their whiteboard math movies - or as Tim likes to call them, mathcasts. (If you've missed my last posts about mathcasts, they are a Camtasia Studio screen recording of writing, plus audio, and sometimes text showing how to solve a math problem.)

The article discusses how mathcasts are perfect for asynchronous learning because they are an easy and inexpensive way for teachers and students to interact - plus student to teacher or teacher to teacher. You can find a link to the abstract or entire article at the top of Tim's website here.

On a recent trip to Seattle, Tim showed me how to make a mathcast using a Tablet PC or a Wacom Tablet and OneNote. You can read more about that here in the blog archives.

Tim mentioned to me that he'd be happy to talk with anyone more about mathcasts. So, drop Tim an e-mail here for more info. know he'd be happy to you more about mathcasting.

Tim's a pioneer in whiteboard math movies. In fact, he's been doing them for over eight years! I'm glad Tim and his team are the getting the recognition they deserve for their passion. Congrats to Tim, Linda and Graeme!

Where have your Camtasia Studio videos taken you?