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!

This week I'm in Barcelona along with our IT Manager, Mike Morgan, for Microsoft TechED EMEA. We're working hard with a great view of the sea as you can see in Mike's pic to the left. :-) How's that look for a remote office?! If you're in Barcelona, we'd love to meet-up! Our treat for a meal or a beverage of your choice.

If you can't meet-up in Barcelona, you can see all the events on the TechSmith Calendar of Events here. You'll see many events happening in November and December including Camtasia Studio training in Berlin (Product Manager Troy Stein will be helping with this event), London, Dublin, Chicago and Seattle.

I'm also hitting the road and going to Calgary, Banff and Edmonton in Alberta, Canada for CanUX as well as heading to Paris, France for LeWeb.

Email, text or call me at +1.517.410.0030, comment on the blog, or send me a carrier pigeon... contact me however you'd like if you would like to meet-up! I'd love to hear your feedback and hang out.

Earlier this summer, a longtime friend, Shaan Hurley from Autodesk, stopped by TechSmith for a visit! That's a pic of us on the left in our Shipping Department along with Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt Product Manager. Shaan's been a long time user of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio.

Shaan travels the world showing users how to use Autodesk products. I was reading his blog the other day and noticed this recent post. He had a great screencast in the post which you can see below which is this week's Screencast of the Week.

I picked this as the Screencast of the Week for a couple reasons. First, I liked that it was short and succinct. I love quick tips and tricks. I also liked it because Shaan was sharing his answers to users questions from around the world. What better way to answer a user question than with a video showing exactly where to find the feature in question? And, location no longer matters - Shaan can be anywhere in the world (and usually is) and answer questions with a quick screencast. Perfect use of technology!

TechSmith will be at Autodesk University in December. If you're attending the show or are in Las Vegas, stop by and see us.

And, that reminds me. If you'd like to come visit TechSmith like Shaan did this summer, our doors are open! We love having visitors! Email or call me (+1.517.410.0030) and I'll give you a tour, you can meet the product teams to give them your feedback directly, and I'll even treat you to lunch. Come on in!

It's that time again! Every four years in the United States, we have a political circus for the Presidential Election. I have been in Europe for quite a bit this fall (and am in Spain now) and it has been interesting to get a different perspective watching the campaigning and debates from the other side of the pond.

While I generally stick to the rule of not talking about politics, I recently talked with Joey Infortuno (that's him in the pic on the left) who does marketing for JibJab. I found out they were using SnagIt at JibJab. So, with the election fast approaching tomorrow, I thought this was the perfect time to share how JibJab is using SnagIt. I'm not here to pick sides and JibJab makes fun of both political parties. So, we should be on neutral ground here, right?

Here's a little Q&A that I (BW) had with Joey Infortuno (JI) about JibJab's use of SnagIt.

BW: How have images and screenshots changed your own communication for the better?
JI: Conveying more with the right pictures helps us move forward faster. SnagIt has made it all too easy to share everything.

BW: Are your images and screenshots used internally or externally? What is the viewer response to them?
JI:We use SnagIt for internal and external communications. Sharing high impact screen shots can mean less text, less text means less reading, we think people like that.

BW: What do you use SnagIt for primarily?
JI: From high-level mockups, product flows, capturing web-press, conveying support issues to sharing laughs by capturing and editing funny images, we use SnagIt whenever we can find an excuse to.

BW: What are the last three captures in your Open Captures Tray?
JI: ... Obama, Palin and Mario Lopez

BW: Is there one feature of SnagIt that has flat-out delighted you? Tell me about it...
JI: The editorial tools are a lot of fun but I love how fast it is... capture, edit and share quickly.

BW: Anything else we should know?
JI: A new JibJab user demo produced with Camtasia Studio 5 is on the way, stay tuned!

About JibJab: Brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis founded JibJab in 1999 with a few thousand dollars worth of computer equipment, a dial-up Internet connection and a dream of building a global entertainment brand. In 2004, their election parody "This Land" spark an international sensation and was viewed more than 80 million times online. NASA even contacted the brothers to send a copy to the International Space Station! Since then, JibJab has premiered ten original productions on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and received coverage on every major news outlet. In 2004, Peter Jennings named the brothers "People of the Year."

Put on your party hats and dancing shoes! Camtasia Studio 6 was released today! We've been working hard to make it much easier for you to deliver what you want, to the audience you want to reach, in the format you want to based upon their play back choice. It is a much better user experience too.

Here are some of big new features:

• Camtasia Studio users can now easily deliver their screen recordings (screencasts) in HD-quality video (MPEG-4 AVC, H.264+AAC) and Flash to their audience online, on DVDs, and on Apple portable media devices.
  
• Camtasia Studio's support for HD Flash ultimately means a better viewing experience for your audience, great clarity and small file size for fast loading and bandwidth efficiency.

• Based on early benchmark studies we've conducted with Camtasia Studio 6 you will realize a 20-40% time-savings when editing large projects.
  
• With Camtasia Studio 6 you can edit your audio and video independently, move your audio from one track to another, giving you quicker and more efficient means to create crisp looking and sounding video presentations.
  
• Camtasia Studio 6 editing features allow you to perform chain moves and have complete control over transition and call out fade durations to create more informative, polished videos.
  
• Camtasia Studio's new editing hotkeys deliver time saving short cuts and an overall better editing user experience.
  
• With Camtasia Studio 6 users can edit MOV files to combine digital camera video with screen recorded content to create more personal and engaging videos.
  
• Camtasia Studio 6 comes with 2GB of storage and 2GB of monthly bandwidth on Screencast.com, and gives you more control over which folders you save your content to on Screencast.com.

You can download a trial of Camtasia Studio 6 here.

For a complete list of what is new, visit here. And, check out the Getting Started video.

You can find upgrade information here.

Give it a try! What do you think of the new release?

After attending the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC) recently, I have to say that I'm excited to see some of the technology they demoed at the conference. Attendees walked away with "the goods" so that they could install and start playing with Windows 7 which is the next version of Windows. I was happy to run into blogger Long Zheng (that's him pictured on the right) at the conference.

After PDC, Long made a quick screencast showing off a new feature in Windows 7. It runs 15 seconds (no audio). You can see the video here. I like this video because its a perfect use of a screencast - it is a quick way to show a new feature in action. It is nice to have full blown longer demos, but small and sweet is nice sometimes too! And, even though Windows 7 won't be available for retail for another few years, we can still see Windows 7 in use with screencasts. Expect more screencasts of Windows 7!

Any nominations for next week's Screencast of the Week?

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes... I find myself often humming this classic David Bowie tune at TechSmith. We're always working on each of our products so they are often being updated or changed - Screencast.com included.

I wanted to share with you some of the recent changes. Screencast.com now has recurring billing so your account will now automatically renew at the end of your monthly billing cycle. Or, you can also set up your account to renew on a yearly basis - this option saves you money and is perfect for people like me who don't want to bother with monthly billing.

Also, instead of having several different tiers of accounts, we switched to having two options - a 'Screencast.com Pro" or a Free account. Hopefully this is less confusing than having multiple tier options. With the "Screencast.com Pro" account, you get 200GB of monthly bandwidth (2X the available bandwidth of the old Premium account plan) plus 5GB of storage space for only $9.95/month. And, we've added a Screencast.com FREE account that is not time limited. No more 60 day trial.

These changes are from direct feedback from users. Keep the ideas and feedback coming. We need it! The Screencast.com is still working away on thecustomer requested features and enhancements. Either leave comments here or via our product feedback form here.

Happy Screencasting! What else would you like to see added or changed at Screencast.com?

Oh! And, be sure to check out the Screencast.com blog for all the latest news.

Our good friends over at Fog Creek Software worked with us to develop a new SnagIt output for their project management software, FogBugz. With this new output, you can quickly send your SnagIt screencaptures directly to FogBugz.

You can learn more and download the output here. Fog Creek also has a great blog post walking through the steps to use the output here.

Why do you need this? Well, let me share how we use it. At TechSmith, we use Fogbugz to submit, manage and track projects in several different departments. For instance, I might need to make a change to this blog. In the past, I'd submit a project in FogBugz with tons of text. Now, I can simply take a screencapture with SnagIt and use the FogBugz output to quickly attach the screenshot to a new case in FogBugz. My task for the webstaff is clear and concise with a screenshot showing exactly what I need changed. In the end, it saves the team time and avoids any confusion. Everyone is happy!

Big thanks go to Joel Spolsky, Michael Pryor and Fog Creek Software for their help developing the SnagIt FogBugz Output.

You can see all of the SnagIt outputs here. What other programs would you like to see a SnagIt output for?

As a kid, I was constantly drawing. As a student, often my notes from class were supplemented with sketches and doodles. And, now as an adult, I often sketch out ideas and concepts for work projects. I like drawing out diagrams, mindmaps and flow charts. I find it can be easier and more effective to plan, share information and concepts with visuals. A picture is worth a thousand words as they say...

I'm out in Banff this week at CanUX. I know, I know. I will try to suffer through it. :-) One of the speakers is Dave Gray from XPLANE (That's him on my right at Lake Louise, Alberta on Sunday). I've had the honor of seeing him speak at the VizThink conferences and he is always interesting and inspiring.

And, it just so happens that Dave uses Camtasia Studio. Check out his video about the basic principles of visual language - Forms, fields and flows.

You can see additional videos and content from Dave here.

And, if you're interested in what's going on at CanUX, Kaleem Khan will be live tweeting the event. Follow his Twitter stream here to see what's going on.

And, in interest of transparency, TechSmith is a sponsor of CanUX.

Any nominations for next week's Screencast of the Week?

Sometimes when I narrate a screencast, I stumble over my words. OK, most of the time I do audio in a screencast, I mess up. :-) I was playing around with Camtasia Studio tonight and once again, I made a mistake on my audio. I was reminded of a quick audio trick I thought I'd share with you.

Whenever I make a mistake narrating my audio, I will often either tap the microphone or pause for a minute. That way when editing, I can quickly locate either spikes in the audio or dead time which signals to me where I need to edit my audio. It makes it a lot faster for me to locate the problem areas to edit.

Hope this helps you! See the screenshot below showing where I tapped the microphone to indicate to myself where I needed to start editing. The spikes in volume stand out on the audio track.

Do you have any quick tips to share about audio?

One of the things I love about my job is working with people in a variety of industries. I'm always amazed at who is using our software. And, this week was no different. I have to admit, I was surprised when I heard from Robin Heppell from Funeral Futurist about who he was creating screencasts for - funeral professionals! Robin is a funeral director and consultant! But, he's not your ordinary funeral consultant - he's utilizing technology like no one else in his industry!

I picked Robin's videos for the Screencast of the Week because he's bringing screencasts to a non-traditional industry and bridging the technical divide. Even if you're not in the funeral industry, you can learn from Rob about how he is utilizing technology. Check out some of Robin's screencasts here:

• Relationship Marketing for Funeral Homes
• 5 Fatal Flaws Funeral Directors Make On The Phone
• Funeral Industry Tutorials

Also, check out the quick Q&A that I (BW) did with Robin (RH). Enjoy!

BW: How have videos, images and screenshots changed your own communication for the better?

RH: The funeral industry, like many industries, is a relationship-based industry. Relationships are how funeral directors have created their own businesses, so I can build and strengthen my relationships with my clients (the funeral directors) with videos as they get more familiar with my expertise and personality.

BW: Are your videos, images and screenshots used internally or externally? What is the viewer response to them?

RH: I create a lot of free training or tips for external use as my main form of marketing. If I am recording a demonstration with a client, it usually contains sensitive information so that video is used internally for them. But since I have taken some notes and have an outline for demonstration, I will immediately record a similar, generic video and upload it to be another externally marketing / training piece.

BW: What do you use Camtasia Studio for primarily?

RH: Recording training courses for funeral directors with PowerPoint & Camtasia.

BW: What do you use SnagIt for primarily?

RH: Screen captures of Google results displaying how to dominate those results with online video (many of those videos are produced by Camtasia - kinda full circle eh?)

BW: What are the last three captures in your Open Captures Tray?

RH: Google Results for "Funeral Consulting" , Home page of a funeral home website I created with WordPress, Order form from my online shopping cart.

BW: What was the last video project you worked on about?

RH: "Price Shopper Secrets" training course that teaches funeral directors how to be more effective when talking with price shoppers on the phone.

BW: Is there one feature of Camtasia Studio v6 that has flat-out delighted you? Tell me about it...

RH: YouTube preset. It was the only change that I needed to see to want to upgrade to Version 6!

Any nominations for next week's Screencast of the Week?

Camtasia Studio 6 has been out for a few weeks. Hopefully you've had a chance to try it. Now it is time to start thinking about future releases. This is where you come in - we need your help!

See the gentleman to the left in the pic? That's Troy Stein, the Camtasia Studio Product Manager. Take his job for a day! If you were him, what would you do for the next release of Camtasia Studio? What would you change? What features and functionality would you add?