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!

In the final week of the Camtasia test drive, Netvantage Co-Founder Adam Henige reflected back on their month of screencasting.

Netvantage

www.netvantagemarketing.com
@netvantage

What have you discovered during your fourth and final week of the test drive?
This week we started down a road that will hopefully provide a new revenue opportunity for us - training. We've often considered doing live SEO and pay per click management training, but given how time intensive that can be, it didn't really make sense from a business standpoint. Camtasia's ease of use makes training modules very easy to make, so we're actually exploring the possibility with a few corporate partners of creating subscription online marketing materials for niche industries (see sample below).

In the future we'll walk through specific tools and strategies for increasing Google rankings specific to businesses in regional niches. Historically, this wouldn't have been a possibility because most of these customers' price points wouldn't have made it profitable for us. But with Camtasia we can quickly update videos based on the ever changing Google landscape with minimal resource commitment on our end, making inexpensive training models a sensible solution for smaller niche businesses, and providing enough volume for us to be profitable supporting them. This is an exciting and scalable new opportunity for our business.

As far as using the software, it's been a slow and steady improvement on my part. For me, there was a bit of an initial learning curve for editing, as my background is using Avid/Final Cut Pro/Media 100 in the video editing world. So the controls (by comparison to these robust systems) were so minimal I wasn't quite sure what I was doing initially. Once I got a handle on it, though, things went quite smoothly.

Moving forward, I'd like a bit more precise controls as far as audio editing goes. For longer videos I've noticed that even if someone's mic'd up properly (we used a wired lavaliere microphone) that they become fatigued and their volume fades towards the end of a presentation. It would be nice to be able to finely adjust a sentence here or there (or maybe I just haven't figured out how to do this yet).

Watch Netvantage's sample training on photography SEO:



Watch on YouTube

Andrea Poole is a customer content specialist at TechSmith. She enjoys singing and playing the ukulele, a cappella music, running, and a good game of Euchre. Tweet her up @andiepoole or put her in a Google+ Circle.

In the final week of the Camtasia test drive, Lauren Colton, Information Architect and Editor at Gravity Works Design & Development, reflected back on their month of screencasting.

Gravity Works

www.gravityworksdesign.com
@gravityworksdd

What are some of the lessons learned during this test drive?
Our team enjoyed the chance to use and give feedback on Camtasia for Mac software. I learned about the benefits of having a longer recording time than with Jing, and I could add an extra bit of polish in client tutorials and documentation.

Usable, efficient software fits the needs of intended audiences. Gravity Works loves the challenge of pulling complex business rules from systems of disorganized data, recently working in partnership with the Michigan Public Health Institute and the Michigan Department of Community Health on an internal case management system. We built the system to track independently-living, elderly people, as well as MDCH funding for nonprofits that care for these community members. Extreme caution with sensitive information guided the creation of this web-based application. Our solution increased stakeholder-estimated productivity by two man-hours per case, saving taxpayer dollars on a statewide level.

Our custom development work has given us more first-hand experience of how great stakeholder communication is the basis of great solutions. Dave Smith, Director of Business Development for Gravity Works, has said that screencasting is fun, and it is easy to get caught up using fun tools as a solution to problems that aren't there (like a five minute video when a sentence would do). But screencapture is certainly an important communication tool.

Every person in the office uses USB-connected monitors, for the extra screen real estate. So moving forward, I do not personally expect to invest time (in tutorials) or money (for a more-advanced microphone) until the software can run in my preferred environment, which includes USB-connected monitors.

Andrea Poole is a customer content specialist at TechSmith. She enjoys singing and playing the ukulele, a cappella music, running, and a good game of Euchre. Tweet her up @andiepoole or put her in a Google+ Circle.

In the final week of the Camtasia test drive, Loudpixel Co-Founder Allie Siarto reflected back on their month of screencasting.

Loudpixel

www.loudpixel.com
@loudpixel

What are some of the lessons learned during this test drive?
Using Camtasia for screencasting really got us thinking about how we can improve our processes and communications. We love process, and a solid screencast certainly helps us to create a process around our sales and training. Rather than go through the same motions each time we work with someone new, we can use screencasts to streamline everything.

Do you see yourself looking into screencasting tutorials, or maybe more advanced equipment like a nice microphone?
We already use a pro mic and Pro Tools for recording. We're hoping to use screencasting as a sales tool going forward - both to demo our products to existing leads before we meet and to create educational content that we can use for inbound marketing. We also see it as a valuable internal training tool that we can integrate into our hiring process. We're already seeing so so much potential!

Watch a sample screencast from Loudpixel on how their process works for clients:

Loudpixel: Analyzing Sentiment and Context in Social Media from Loudpixel on Vimeo.

Andrea Poole is a customer content specialist at TechSmith. She enjoys singing and playing the ukulele, a cappella music, running, and a good game of Euchre. Tweet her up @andiepoole or put her in a Google+ Circle.

It's the third week of the Camtasia Small Business Test Drive! You can also catch up on the first and second week blog posts.

This week each business gave us their persepctive on how things were going with Camtasia today versus during the first week. Are they using it in ways different than they originally thought they would? Are there new barriers that popped up? What's been the initial reaction to their finished screencasts, both internally and from their clients?

CiesaDesign

www.ciesadesign.com
@CiesaDesign

CiesaDesign consists of 16 staff members with a wide range of skills in print and digital communications. Chris VanWyck and Thomas Ro gave us their perspective on week three.

Have you thought of new ways you might use screencasting in your business?
Thomas: Our training-oriented screencasts feature a lot of in depth demonstration on the use of our sites and technology. Visually, this could also contribute to capabilities demostrations or self-promotion--not just for web-based applications, but the use of any visually striking software such as graphics and animations tools.

Chris: We have almost exlusively used screencasting for technical training in the past. From the creative side of the business, I will be looking to use it in a much braoder sense as a story-telling tool. As brand development experts, we are tasked with positioning our clients' brands in the most authentic and consistent ways possible. I see adding screencasting to our list of tactical communication vehicles.

From a time management/people management perspective, do you feel like screencasting will be a realistic addition to your arsenal?
Thomas: We've found great value in being able to record on-screen activity because it makes our message easier to understand for our clients. When demostrating a particular process, there is no longer the abstraction of written instruction, because the process itself is unfolding for the viewer. For us, it also saves time in preparing this communication, because it's now a matter of doing the thing and not having to write and proof large paragraphs of text about it.

Chris: Yes, as our client base becomes more and more international in scope, we have a greater need to use tools that allow us to communicate at a distance without losing that personal touch. Screencasting allows us to bring our process to clients in a more efficient and effective way.

Would you recommend this software to another small business professional?
Thomas: As one whose duties are primarily focused on technology and development, I would recommend it because it allows me to represent myslef and communicate without the effort of 'translating' for those not familiar with said technology.

Chris: Yes, I can see this software being used for everything from technical training to community outreach.

Have you shared any of your screencast work so far? What's been the initial reaction?
Thomas: We've shared screencasts with many clients and with one another, and the reactions have been very positive. The level of understanding between every party has been markedly better than when we've done verbal, in-person, or written demonstrations.

Chris: Clients also love that they can go back and use screencasts as tutorials whenever they need reference.

What other software have you recommended to other small business professionals?
Thomas: For those that use Tickspot for time tracking, Tick Desktop Timer is an essential tool for professionals that find tracking their time to be a hassle.

Chris: BaseCamp from 37 Signals for better team organization and transparency in process and workflow and Skype and Google + Hangout for more authentic personal interaction. Additionally, I use an online tool called WhatTheFont to identify unknown fonts quickly.

Gravity Works

www.gravityworksdesign.com
@gravityworksdd

Lauren Colton, Information Architect and Editor at Gravity Works Design & Development, gave us her thoughts.

Looking back on the past few weeks, have you come across of new ways you might use screencasting, different than what you originally thought?

Everyone at Gravity Works is constantly looking to learn new things. We're approaching the Camtasia Challenge with the same drive that has us developing Android, iPhone, and iPad applications the very month new devices hit the market.

Gravity Works Design & Development has a very open and collaborative environment, so I am most likely to walk over and talk to team members about where this button should go or how that menu should appear. And things move quickly: in a given day, I could be working with a local business (American Flooring), statewide organization (Michigan Society of Anesthesiologists), and a national advocacy group (Lupus Foundation of America).

Camtasia isn't as helpful for internal design collaboration as I had expected. But for quality assurance, Camtasia has a few benefits I am starting to tap. Even if an error is simple to replicate, I give developers more to work with by recording quality assurance tests. Instead of creating multiple Jing videos—once I have replicated a bug—I can create one Camtasia recording of my tests, and edit that video to share highlights with developers.

We know that every client deserves a personalized answer. If two clients ask how to add an image to their website, they will receive a personalized answer. While Jing has been my go-to option for quickly responding to questions, Camtasia does seem to offer more polish. For initial training documentation especially, we are always pushing for more clear and precise communication.

It was very useful to embed screencasts in my talk, Your English Teacher was Wrong, which I gave in February at Refresh Detroit. Words connect people in phenomenal ways, but it's easy to get distracted by compound modifiers or gerunds. I can use Camtasia to help engage people with the concepts of plain language.

Loudpixel

www.loudpixel.com
@loudpixel

Jeff Siarto, Co-Founder and Director of Analytics, told us a little more about their third week of the test drive.

Have you thought of new ways you might use screencasting in your business, different than what you originally thought?
Screencasting remains our primary method for demoing software to new and potential clients. As we grow our business, I see us pushing more screencasts internally to help train new employees. Given how much of our work is in the browser, screencasts remain the best way to quickly build high-quality training.

From a time management perspective, do you feel like screencasting will be a realistic addition to yoru arsenal?
Definitely. Our only other option for training is in-person--and while this is fine for our local team--we have employees all over country (and the world, occasionally) so face-to-face training would become cost prohibitive. Screencasting is also a very powerful internal communication tool. Given the low barrier to entry, everyone on the team can quickly share ideas via video without a ton of training overhead.

Would you recommend this software to another small business professional? How would you introduce and encourage screencasting to someone else?
Yes, in particular small businesses that have a web presence or rely on web traffic for business. I think the best way to introduce someone to the concept of screencasting is to just make one. Sit down at the computer and record a video of yourself buying something on Amazon, quickly edit the piece and publish. You could probably do this in less than 10 minutes, and I can't think of a better way to convince someone that this is an important communication medium for their business.

Have you shared any of your screencast work so far? What has been the initial reaction?
We have shared our videos both internally and with our clients--the feedback is always good. I know our developers appreciate the clarity of seeing bugs actually happen instead of having to decrypt a sometimes vague description of the problem. Also, our clients are busy people and screencasting remains the quickest way to demo software or explain new features.

What's in your professional "toolbox?"
Including analysts, programmers and designers, here is our top 5:

1) Skype -- Video, voice and especially chat. This is the lifeline of our business.
2) EchoSign-- Paper contracts were so last decade. Saves tons of time and paper, and we get our contracts signed a whole lot faster.
3) Basecamp -- Not that this needs any introduction, but we use Basecamp for some project management and posting invoices to our bookkeeper source.
4) GitHub -- This is where we keep all our code (closed and open source).
5) Radian6 -- One of the top providers of raw social media data. We've tried almost every aggregator and social media dashboard out there and nothing holds a flame to the quality and quantity of Radian6's data.

Netvantage

www.netvantagemarketing.com
@netvantage

Adam Henige, Co-Founder of Netvantage Marketing, gave us some insight into their third week of the test drive.

In your third week of the test drive, what new ideas have come about, knowing that screencasting is an option for you?
This week we were discussing some ways to improve the services pages on our website, and amongst our ideas was to make them less wordy and more visual. One of the difficult things about what we do is that it can be hard to explain, so I started thinking about doing a case study using Camtasia. I assembled a handful of opened web pages for a case study for one of our clients - Swimtown Pools.

It took me a couple of takes to get through everything, and for the first time I dove into the editing features. I was able to add emphasis to key points in my presentation and zoom in to highlight the relevant areas of the screen. The more I worked with it, I realized what an effective sales tool this could be. After discussing it internally, we love the idea of following up with people at networking events with a link to check out our case studies. It can be hard for us to get people to understand how we build links and what type of results they can get from using our services, but a screencast makes this incredibly easy.

Our first attempt is still a bit rough around the edges, but we will likely be assembling these to go along with a variety of other case studies we will soon be adding to our website. Again, the more we use Camtasia the more exciting possibilities we find for our business. I would definitely recommend this to other small business owners, as I think it provides the ability to quickly and easily produce professional looking educational and sales presentations. Not everyone small business has someone with the skills to shoot and edit video, but anyone can create a screencast. Though, if you pick up software pretty quickly and aren't afraid of video and audio equipment, I would definitely recommend picking up Final Cut Pro if you wanted to combine professional video editing with your screencasting, as I think that will be our next video venture.

Watch Netvantage's case study on Swimtown Pools:


Watch on YouTube

Andrea Poole is a customer content specialist at TechSmith. She enjoys singing and playing the ukulele, a cappella music, running, and a good game of Euchre. Tweet her up @andiepoole or put her in a Google+ Circle.

We're turning the corner to the second week of the Camtasia Small Business Test Drive! If you missed out on the first week, catch up here.

This week each business created their first (or in some cases, second or third) screencast and sent us an exmaple. They also shared with us a little about their process, how they prepare and edit their videos, what challenges they faced, etc.

CiesaDesign

www.ciesadesign.com
@CiesaDesign

CiesaDesign consists of 16 staff members with a wide range of skills in print and digital communications. Thomas Ro is a developer at Ciesa and one of their heaviest users when it comes to screencasting. Thomas shared with us more about his process.

Do you like to prepare a script before recording?
We generally make a list of the things that need to be demonstrated or mentioned in the recording.  Since the narrative style tends to be similar between each screencast, an actual script isn't necessary. However, it's important to prepare the software you'll be using so that only the relevant items for the screencast are visible in the recording.

Do you have multiple takes, or just try to nail it one take and edit out errors?
Our screencasts tend to be done in takes. Sometimes that can mean one take or ten.

What's your editing process like?
For our purposes, the most interesting editing aspects of Camtasia are the callouts and the overlay abilities, to further highlight the things being discussed by our narrator.

How much time has it taken you, on average, to complete a screencast from start to finish?
This depends. Even a five-minute piece can take an hour or more, depending on the number of takes that are necessary. We also upload finished videos and share links from screencast.com.

What's your favorite thing about screencasting so far?
Screencasting allows us to communicate with client on detailed training and tech subjects. We've found that this is far more effective than written instructions or one-time live demonstrations. Screencasts create a lasting resource that clients respond well to, and can continue to refer to long after the video has been shared.

What's your least favorite thing about screencasting so far?
Doing multiple takes can be frustrating, especially with longer screencasts. Before using Camtasia, we recorded with Jing, which had a five minute time limit per video. This presented additional challenges for dividing up the subject matter across multiple pieces.

Gravity Works

www.gravityworksdesign.com
@gravityworksdd

David Silva Smith, Business Development Manager at Gravity Works, spoke with us about using Camtasia for Mac to communicate deliverables with stakeholders.

Tell us about your first experiences with screencasting. What was your process like?
Gravity Works launched an intuitive application for MSU researchers to replace programmable watches with an Android application while collecting survey data from research participants. We wanted to create a video showing off this cool project! Sitting down to create the demonstration video for prospective clients I thought of the message I wanted the audience to come away with, “this seemingly simple application serving up surveys has complex code running behind it.” Next, I thought how could I convey those two ideas: the complex code and the end solution.

So you had two different goals for the video. How did each one work?
Demonstrating the code was the hardest part. What does the audience care about? What should I show them? I got away from my original goal of wanting to show code and ended up focusing on the video. Getting away from the original goal of demonstrating complex code ended up hurting the messaging quality of the video, since the code is in there taking up half of the video real estate, but is not communicating effectively.

Demonstrating the software was easy. Launching our survey creation application I created a custom survey for the demo to show a sampling of the breadth of survey response types the application supports. It only took one recording to record the survey application. Camtasia enabled me to trim the beginning and end of the video to highlight the action, as well as extend the first frame so viewers could take in the scene before the survey goes off.

What did you think of the final product?
I was not happy with how the code recording turned out, but was happy with the application demonstration. I focused on the video strengths, using the Window Spotlight feature to highlight the application window and focus viewers on the action, while taking their focus away from the code area of the video. Camtasia’s Window Spotlight feature changes instantly which is jarring to the viewers. Splitting the clip onto a second track and adding a fade transition smoothed out the viewing experience.

What is your favorite thing about screencasting so far?
As a software development company, Gravity Works functions in an abstract world with clients ranging from expert computers to people who hate computers. Screencasts help us replace complex training instructions and technical terminology, with a video that everyone can understand. Instead of telling our users how the Android device goes off at a scheduled time, we show them a video. Can you describe what a word processor does to someone who has never used one? As software creators, we run into that communication issue every day. Instead of explaining our software for five minutes for a general idea of what the end product, we can show clients a short video, and they understand exactly what it does.

What is your least favorite thing about screencasting so far?
My least favorite thing about screencasting are the differences between the Mac and PC versions. When creating a project, I feel like I have to pick my “favorite child.” Some things the Mac version does well, like all the Video FX; some things the PC version does well, like being able to change the video framerate. If I had recorded the MSU Survey project in Camtasia for Windows, I would have adjusted the video speed during the survey demo to speed the clip up. In Camtasia for Mac, adjusting frames would have taken too long to be practical. In the PC version, I miss some of the cool Mac video FX like the Window Spotlight used in the MSU Survey video. I’d like to have all the features in both versions and be able to work on my videos in both versions.

Loudpixel

www.loudpixel.com
@loudpixel

Allie Siarto, Co-Founder and Director of Analytics, told us a little more about her screencasting process.

What's your screencasting process like?
90% of the screencasts I've created so far have been personalized and more "on the fly" to walk my clients through a part of our software that is set up just for them. For these, I use the screencasts in lieu of complex emails--it's so much easier to walk them through visually rather than trying to describe these processes in words.

In these cases, I simply open Camtasia, select my custom region (I'm almost always working in a browser) and start walking through the processes. I spend about ten seconds editing the video (I remove the last few seconds of the mouse moving up to stop recording), then I export the video to screencast.com and send the link to the client via email. I can literally have a screencast created and sent in less than five minutes from start to finish.

What's your editing process like?
I've played with the callout arrows to draw attention to specific actions on the screen, and I've added simple transitions between my title slides and screen actions. I've found everything to be quite intuitive so far.

Are you running into any difficulties/confusing steps?
The only thing that has been tricky is geting my dimensions right for YouTube. I like that Camtasia has a preset for YouTube, but I want to expand the dimensions to fill my entire screen then have the video format accordingly (rather than being tied to a specific screen portion during recording).

How much time has it taken you, on average, to complete a screencast from start to finish?
For my quick client videos, I'll spend less than five minutes. For more formal training videos, I might put 45 minutes to an hour or more into a polished three minute video (including setting up my mic and editing the audio in Pro Tools).

What is your favorite thing about screencasting so far?
I love that I can export my videos to screencast.com with a few clicks and share them with clients within a matter of minutes. Our company works in a fast-paced industry--we're always looking for quick and easy wasy to communicate, so we appreciate that there aren't a lot of barriers to entry. Camtasia is easy to use (no steep learning curve), and it allows us to get our point across quickly and clearly.

What is your least favorite thing about the process so far?
When I do write a script, I have a hard time saying everything I've written in the script while recording the actions, which is why I typically end up recording my audio after the video.

Netvantage

www.netvantagemarketing.com
@netvantage

Jerod Karam, Director of Online Marketing for Netvantage Marketing, gave us an inside look at his process of creating his first and second screencasts.

Tell us about your process as you created your first screencast.
This week I completed my first and second screencasts using Camtasia Studio and became quite familiar with the software in the process. Since the inception of this project, we’ve always thought that Camtasia would be fantastic for creating client tutorials. In our world things get complicated quickly and trying to talk a client through an issue on the phone can be difficult. That’s where this week’s lesson comes into play.

For my first screencast, I demonstrated to a client how to set up a custom desktop background and then resize their browser window. This can be useful when our client is designing their website on a 24” monitor but most of their website visitors are viewing the site on a 19” monitor or perhaps even 13” to 15” laptops.

Watch Jerod's screencast demonstration for a client:

Watch on YouTube

How much time did it take you to complete the screencast from start to finish?
This was the very first screencast I attempted with the software. From the time I began playing with it until the time this 4.5 minute video was up on YouTube was approximately 75 minutes. I already had the custom background prepared but that 75 minutes includes learning time, a “do-over” or two, and the video rendering and upload time. It was a very quick process. All of the videos I have produced thus far have been speaking without a script and recorded all in one take.

(ASIDE: After learning the software and how to use it, I produced and uploaded another video--2.5 minutes--within 30 minutes beginning to end.)

What are your favorite things about the process so far?
The software itself seems pretty intuitive and pretty full-featured at the same time. You can knock out a quick tutorial as I did above and have it online very fast. This ease of use and quickness to produce a solid video is one of the things that makes me really enjoy working with this software. I also love the automatic zoom in feature that helps track and focus on your mouse movements. Those are unedited in this video and they work out very well.

I'm also looking forward to working with some of the advanced editing features. I think splicing together several clips, recording voice-overs, and perhaps adding a sound track will be fun and open a new avenue for more professional-looking video production.

What are some things you found to be lacking?
There are a few points of improvement that I can already see are needed. First, immediately after recording the program opens a viewer window and auto-plays the recently-recorded video. I'd really like to be able to see the entire captured video, even if it's not a maximum resolution. Also, in the same preview window, you can "save and edit" the just-recorded video or you can "save as." In the "save as" option, I'd like to be able to save the mouse pointer movements when I go to save it as an .avi. Finally, I'd love to see additional options for transitions. The only one I'd use for professional videos at this time would be the "fade to black" option.

Having said that, the library effects, backgrounds, and intro sequences I stumbled upon are seriously cool. I will be using those perhaps with green screen in future screencasts.

Andrea Poole is a customer content specialist at TechSmith. She enjoys singing and playing the ukulele, a cappella music, running, and a good game of Euchre. Tweet her up @andiepoole or put her in a Google+ Circle.

We're excited to introduce a fun new project we're working on this month--the Camtasia Small Business Test Drive! Starting last week, we challenged four small businesses in the Lansing, Michigan area to "test drive" Camtasia Studio and/or Camtasia for Mac in their business setting for four weeks. Each week, they will share the experience with us through written responses, screencasts, photos and video.

We're hoping to learn a lot about how our software fits in to the small business setting and in turn, share with you valuable lessons learned and tips for successful ways to visually communicate within your organization.

For our first week, we asked each business to give us some insight into who they are, what they do, and how screencasting might fit in with some of their goals for the year. Visual Loungers, meet Ciesa Design, Gravity Works, Loudpixel, and Netvantage!

CiesaDesign

www.ciesadesign.com
@CiesaDesign

CiesaDesign consists of 16 staff members with a wide range of skills in print and digital communications. Meet Chris VanWyck, Vice President of Creative Strategy at CiesaDesign, who shared with us the inside scoop on Ciesa:

Tell us a litte bit about CiesaDesign.
We are a full-service agency with a core focus on brand and corporate identity development. We provide every step of the branding process from marketing strategy through tactical design execution for both the print and digital realms.

What's Ciesa's mission?
To provide national quality expertise, process and creative output to solve our clients' marketing communication needs.

What are your big goals for the upcoming year?
Continued growth as a firm both in quality of work we produce and the range of service we provide to our clients.

What's an average day like at your office?
We work within a process that is largely deadline-driven. An average day covers a range of things like client communications, creative brainstorming, team collaboration, design and production. We operate as a team on our client engagements. A typical client team would include an account manager, strategic lead, design lead, and production staff.

Describe Ciesa's company culture in three words or less.
Creative problem solving.

What problems do you solve for your clients?
We strategically and tactically connect our clients with their intended audiences with award-winning visual communications. Communication with clients is open and collaborative. We believe that we should be partners in our client's success, not just another vendor. We go to great lengths to foster transparency and trust with our clients.

What challenges do you face as a business?
Probably the biggest challenge is that of education. The digital revolution has created a perception that anyone with a camera/computer can do what we do. It is our challenge to showcase the true value that a strategic marketing team provides.

Where is Ciesa at with screencasting?
I think we can certainly improve on how we use currently use screencasting. The goal will be to use it for not only training, but for many other forms of communication. I could see using this technology for things like web content development and community outreach. We've used Jing many times to produce CMS training tutorials for our clients. They have proven very useful both as reference for clients to use after one-on-one training and for remote virtual training.

What are some potential barriers/concerns you feel about screencasting at Ciesa?
We provide multi-lingual marketing communications to our clients. This type of communication can amplify cultural and language barriers at times.

Watch a sample screencast from CiesaDesign on how to use FTP:


Watch on Screencast.com

Gravity Works

www.gravityworksdesign.com
@gravityworksdd

Lauren Colton, Information Architect and Editor at Gravity Works Design & Development, gave us an inside look at what Gravity Works is all about.

Tell us a little about Gravity Works.
Gravity Works Design & Development serves clients from the heart of historic Old Town, Lansing: we turn "I have an idea" into "you should see this app" for local businesses, state government agencies, national franchises, and international non-profit organizations. For us, technology is more than ones, zeroes, and screen resolutions; our team strengthens brands and bottom lines by improving the lives of people using technology. Gravity Works creates custom solutions--graphic design, websites, and mobile applications--with detail-focused designs and leading-edge development practices.

Where are you at with screencasting?
Our first use of Camtasia for Mac was by developers, recording mobile application features as they appeared in development emulators. With a simple-to-share video, clients quickly see their application in action, and focus on improving mobile user experiences.

The pixels captured on a screen are important because we can track receipts, pass on funny cat pictures, explain ideas, and understand the people we work with every day. Gravity Works is excited to participate in the Camtasia Test Drive because we are focused on the user: from local hockey mom to German-speaking concert attendee, we are harnessing the power of technology to connect people.

Can you share with us some examples of what you do for your clients?
Mobile applications can build powerful communities, connecting people with the resources they want using the functionality they need. Gravity Works developed a custom iPad solution for the ONE Campaign to collect supporter information with engaging features, while providing a strong aesthetic connection to ONE branding.We developed localized keyboards, predictively-populating fields, and a reporting function within the secured administrative system. The application has been used on an international concert tour.

More first impressions are made on mobile devices, and frustrating menus and hard-to-reach content can lose leads. Gravity Works launched a mobile website for Molly Maid. Mobile users are now automatically detected and redirected to an action-driven, informative mobile website designed for on-the-go people with touch-screen devices. But even when clients decide on a mobile website instead of a mobile application, screen capture software can help our design team work more closely with stakeholders.

Watch a sample screencast from Gravity Works on Signing Savvy:


Watch on Screencast.com

Signing Savvy is a video dictionary for American Sign Language (ASL) for real-time ASL learning on iPhone and Android devices created anddesigned by Gravity Works.

Loudpixel

www.loudpixel.com
@loudpixel

Allie Siarto, Co-Founder and Director of Analytics, told us a little more about Loudpixel:

What's your elevator pitch?
Loudpixel is a small company that helps companies make sense out of what's being said about them online. Our core business is based around monitoring social conversations for issues or opportunities and drawing actionable insights based around conversation trends. Watch an overview video.

What are your big goals for the upcoming year?
This is a really exciting year for us. Companies are really starting to catch on to the importance of social media listening and analysis, so we see a huge opportunity to grow our team this year.

How big is your team? How do you operate?
Our company has three founding partners (two in East Lansing, Michigan and one in Palo Alto, California). We also have analysts who are now literally around the world. One lives in Chicago, one just moved from East Lansing to Senegal, Africa, and others work from our office or freelance from home. When we find good people, we don't want to let them go. We can make it work from anywhere, as long as there's a solid Internet connection. Since we're so spread out, we have to get creative about how we communicate with each other.

What's an average day like at your office?
Our clients are all over the country--from East to West. We spend a lot of time on the phone, Skype or email since we can't always meet in person. Our days are typically some combination of coordinating the monitoring and reporting that we do, catching up as a team (almost always virtually) and meeting with current or potential clients (usually virtually).

Describe your company culture in three words.
Decentralized, lean, creative

What challenges do you face as a business?
When we decided to move the business from Chicago to Michigan, we knew we would have to work a little harder on client communications, since we no longer have the option of going a mile down the street to meet with clients and talk them through concepts in person. We deal with complex concepts that require a fair amount of explanation and visual communication.

Where are you at with screencasting?
We've already used Camtasia on a few fronts. We work with some fairly complicated software, and often it's much easier to walk our clients through specific questions visually rather than try to explain with words alone. Since we all run busy schedules and work in different time zones, we've been able to create quick videos in a matter of minutes to walk them through step-by-step directions rather than having to set up a conference call or webinar. It's definitely starting to save us some time.

We're also in the testing stage for a huge upgrade to our software. Since our lead developer is in Palo Alto, we've used Camtasia to walk him through areas in the software where we find bugs or have trouble. That way, he has the reference later when he goes to make the fixes.

Watch a sample screencast from Loudpixel on how they solve problems for clients:

Watch on Screencast.com

Netvantage

www.netvantagemarketing.com
@netvantage

Adam Henige, Co-Founder of Netvantage Marketing, gave us insight into who they are and what they do:

What is your mission?
At Netvantage Marketing our goals are simple, to provide our clients with search engine marketing and social media solutions that provide them a positive ROI.

What problems do you solve for your clients?
Problem statements clients come to us with are typically, "We need more traffic to our website" or "Our rankings have really fallen on Google." I'd say those issues are what bring 80 percent of clients to us.

What's an average day like at your office?
While there's no such thing as a "typical" day at Netvantage, there are some noticeable similarities between everyone's tasks. Our office operates largely independently. People get trained for their position and then are largely given the room to manage their clients. We're less collaborative than most tech companies seem to be, largely because of the task based nature of most of our work. Actually, our office is pretty quiet as most of our internal communication comes via instant messages and the majority of our client communication is through email. So the internet is vital to our day to day activities.

What are some of the ideas you have for ways you might use screencasting in your business?
Camtasia is an exciting product in my eyes as I think there are an enormous number of ways we can use this both internally and externally. Off the top of my head, three uses spring to mind:

• The first and most obvious one is as a supplement to our blog. We do a lot of tutorial type stuff on the blog and being able to quickly make a screencast to add into it makes a lot of sense.
• We're launching a new Google Chrome extension and we've put together a walkthrough of it to help explain how it works. That can be found at www.domainhunterplus.com.
• We're looking to partner with another online service and we may be able to create subscription based SEO tutorials leveraging screencasts.

In the past we've done some video for our website as I have my own video equipment, a degree in film and video production and 4 years of experience in that industry. However, it was limited to standard talking head and graphic-type content because we didn't have any real screencasting software, so that limited our ability to make internal tutorials for staff or leverage it properly for educational pieces on our blog. That is all about to change, however. Truthfully, I'm looking forward to having this available as we continue to grow and find more creative ways to leverage Camtasia both internally and externally.

Watch a sample screencast from Netvantage on their new Google Chrome extension:


Watch on YouTube

Andrea Poole is a customer content specialist at TechSmith. She enjoys singing and playing the ukulele, a cappella music, running, and a good game of Euchre. Tweet her up @andiepoole or put her in a Google+ Circle.

We received some great entries for our Les Paul Guitar Google Doodle screencast contest. And, I'm happy to announce the winner!

I love, love, love Ellen Hinton's (Ellen Once Again) entry, "I'm Feeling Lucky"! She is our winner! Not only did Ellen create a fantastic screencast of the Google Doodle Les Paul guitar, but she also wrote her own lyrics and added more tracks in GarageBand. She made great use of the webcam by showing herself singing and playing the keyboard. You can read more about Ellen's screencast video here.

Check out Ellen's screencast below. I hope you're feeling lucky too! Thanks to everyone who entered!

We caught up with Ellen and she shared with us more about herself and her music!

What do you do for a living?

I currently live in Grand Prairie, Texas (near Dallas). I am more of a singer- songwriter and make "indie-pop music". I love working on ideas, music whenever I get a chance. I sometimes get my husband involved in the process as well. When asked to describe my music, I say I'm one part vintage and two parts bubbly with a shot of Pop Soul. Hopefully, that narrows it down, maybe? Hopefully, one day my Pandora station would be the likes of Ingrid Michaelson, Adele, Colbie Caillat and Sara Bareilles.

Tell us a little about your music!

I teach elementary music and was inspired to use the Google doodle after I opened the search engine and saw that it actually played. I love making music with tech-related instruments. My hubby loves computers and has a lot to with getting me hooked.

What inspired you to join the contest?

I initially made a tweet about the video earlier so i decided to do a search on #googledoodle and saw that TechSmith was having a contest. I figured I might as well tag the link and take the risk and put it out to the public. I definitely wasn't expecting this, but I am so glad I did this.

Are you a long-time TechSmith customer?

I currently only have a trial copy of Camtasia for Mac. First time users! My husband is familiar with Snagit but it was the perfect solution for getting the best screen cast quality for what we wanted for the video. Especially for capturing audio coming from the browser/CPU.

It's that time again. Tune in to the next Forge live on December 2 at 2pm EST here on the Visual Lounge Blog. The theme will be all about music and fun! We'll explore places to find music you can use for free and legally, how to built a digital card, how to use music well in your videos and look at gifts for screencasters.

In the interim, enjoy this video with expert screencaster Ian Oszwald that Matt Pierce recently made. Ian Oszwald is the co-founder of ShowMeDo. ShowMeDo has 50-70k monthly visits from people who learn through screencasts! Ian is an professional screencaster who has also authored the Screencasting Handbook..

Highlights from the interview include:

• How did Ian get started in screencasting
• Suggestions for getting started in creating professional screencasting
• Why using stories in screencasting is important and helpful
• What are key things to include in screencasts
• Ian's process from start to finish for creating screencasts
• Information about The Screencasting Handbook, written by Ian.

You can see past episodes and information about The Forge here. What would you like to see us cover on The Forge?

It's that time again! Episode 3 of The Forge is coming up next Thursday, November 4 at 2pm EST. We'll have a very special guest joining us, Daniel Park from dappertext. He wrote the book about Camtasia Studio and has trained people to screencast around the world.

To tide you over until the next show, check out this interview that Matt Pierce, our Customer Engagement Manager (and The Forge host) did with Ellen de Vries from Brighton, UK. Ellen runs The Copy House, and is a copywriter and brand language consultant. Matt sat down with Ellen at the Skiff (see pics here), a co-working office that Ellen works in.

Ellen talks about her process for creating scripts and how she works with clients. Ellen also talks about some of the challenges that she's faced creating elearning projects. She also shares here tips on storyboarding and scripting for screencasts. The video runs 6:52 minutes.

Tune in here on the blog, November 4 at 2pm EST to watch Daniel live (stream and chat room will be embedded in a blog post) on our November edition of The Forge. I'm sure Daniel would be happy to field some questions at the end. Can't join us live? We'll also post the recording.

One of my favorite publications is InfoWorld. I always learn something from their articles and product reviews. Plus I also have a soft spot for InfoWorld because it is also where Jon Udell started the conversation that coined the term 'screencast' back in 2004!

This week at TechEd in New Orleans, I caught up with Brian Chee. In addition to being wonderful, Brian is a senior contributing editor at Inforworld and is also the director and founder of The Advanced Network Computing Laboratory at the University of Hawai'i at Manoa.

I grabbed a quick video with Brian on the Expo floor and he shared how InfoWorld uses screencasts, what his readers think of the screencasts, his tips for a new screencaster and also how they use Camtasia Relay at the University of Hawai'i. It's a quick video that runs less than 3 minutes long.

I also posted some pics of our trip to New Orleans and TechEd here. You'll see pics of beignets, creative uses of cable ties, pics from the TechSmith booth, kilts, the Mississippi River and more!

Our newsletter Editor, Daniel Foster, caught up with a Camtasia Studio user, David Frazier. David was kind enough to share his story and screencasting insights with us. Enjoy!

Meet David Frazier, State of Alabama technology trainer

With budgets being cut left and right, classroom training often suffers..and workers can fall further behind on technology. But as trainers like David Frazier have discovered, screencast videos are the perfect way to get people up to speed on new technology--quickly and inexpensively.

What is your role as IT instructor...who are you training and what kind of skills do they need?

I work for the State of Alabama, Department of Finance, Information Services Division (ISD). Primarily, my job is to train state employees on the software that my department offers to state agencies.

For example, our newest software is for web conferencing. It's relatively easy to use but it still needs to have some familiarization training and most employees don't have the time or the knowledge to "play" with something to learn it--they need to be able to use it productively right away. That's where I come in; get them familiar with the software in as short a time as possible.

As far as the skills of the people I train, that can range from very little computer skills to IT Directors. We don't specifically offer IT software. We offer products and services that cover anything from networking services, data storage, telephone support, to email, and a lot more.

How long have you been working with video and screencasts?

As far as my own skills, video is relatively new for me, within the last 3 years to be exact. It has all been self-taught; surfing the web and using the TechSmith website to get a lot of how-to information. I also go to one of those "mega-churches" that has its own TV station and uses a lot of video during their services; so I pick the brains of the people that work there to get ideas on how I can or can't do something.

What got you interested in screencasts as a way to deliver training? What problems does it solve for your department and/or you personally?

My interest in video training really came about coincidentally. I came on to ISD to teach in the classroom, but that really didn't pan out as expected. Then one day, one of our PC Techs came by my office and said "Hey Dave, you need to check out this website called TechSmith; they have video editing software". I went to the website, saw a free Camtasia download and started "playing" with it. My mind started turning and I thought to myself, "web page", "training", "easy access", "that's it, video training". The rest is history.

This "Web" training can and does solve several problems, not just for our department but for all state agencies that use our products and services. Our state is currently in proration: big budget cuts, no new hires, no new programs, no raises, and a of course no training because there is no money to send people to classes. People still get trained on highly technical programs; but for the administrative assistant, supervisor or manager, training on products like Microsoft software or our web conferencing software just doesn't exist.

I started with our email service and scripted, recorded, and edited a complete program for it. I have done the same thing with several other services also. Yes, I know companies like Microsoft do offer their own online training and they are very good but are general in nature. I like to put a homespun flavor to my videos. I like to use examples that our state employees are familiar with so they can relate to the topic being discussed, customized just for them and our environment.

Using the video training will save tons of money because people don't have to go somewhere to be trained--they stay at their desk. There is no money spent for the necessities of travel, they can train where they want (even at home), when they want, and what they want (I have started using the table of contents feature so users can go straight to a specific topic and not have to listen to the whole session).

How did you go about learning Camtasia...and what were the most helpful resources?

I used to dabble with editing when VHS cameras were the rage. But unless you had all of the sophisticated gadgetry to edit VHS, it was very basic editing. But it gave me a basis to start from; so when I learned of Camtasia and downloaded it, I was able to start playing right away. I took a couple of weeks of trial and error to really learn the software. I used the TechSmith forums to learn from others and honestly, I just watch what was being done on television; transitions, openings, closing, effects, things like that. Once I figured out what I could and couldn't do with Camtasia Studio, I really started experimenting.

This may be a plug for him, but the one outside resource that probably helped me the most was the book Camtasia Studio: The Definitive Guide by Daniel Park. In it he explained in layman terms everything about Camtasia Studio you ever wanted to know and then some. I have corresponded with him through email on a couple of issues and also have gotten a lot of answers from him through the user forums on the TechSmith website. His information was invaluable to me.

What was the biggest mistake you made along the way?

I am a perfectionist when it comes to putting out training videos; I want them to be perfect. And if you were to watch my very first video to my most recent, you would see how I have matured. But I am still in my infancy and still have a lot of room to grow and improve.

Although I have stumbled along the way, I don't think there were any big mistakes made. HOWEVER, keeping track of everything has turned out to be my downfall. I did delete (permanently) about a month's worth of work because I had just gotten so bogged down with saving everything. This is not a Camtasia Studio problem, it's a user thing--how to properly file, keep in order, maintain everything during a project. That is probably my biggest mistake thus far.

What kind of feedback do you get about the videos?

So far, I have had great reviews from people who have seen my videos. I do some on-camera work, but mostly just narrate video captures. One of our email techs watched my videos and came down specifically to say how good they were and is recommending them to all new clients.

Some great feedback I got was from the Director for Mental Health, who requested that we use captions on the videos so that our hearing impaired employees could get the same training as everyone else. I thought "Wow, I hadn't even thought about those employees", I was embarrassed to say the least. Out of ignorance, I started searching for this capability but was shocked at the cost for this kind of software and backed off. But then, I happened to mention this to a tech support person there at TechSmith when I had called for a completely different problem and she said "Oh yeah, we have that" and she told me where to find captioning [currently available in Camtasia Studio only -Ed.]. Needless to say, when I saw how easy it was, I added the captions to the video he reviewed previously, he was overjoyed and wrote letters to my CIO and my supervisors about it. He was thrilled. I am so glad that I am able to reach those employees as well.

Can you give a quick run-down of your process for making a screencast? How do you get from concept to finished product?

I don't consider myself a professional when it comes to video and I am not as polished as those that come out of film schools or had classes in video. I have a degree in business administration and nothing in marketing. So again, I am self-taught and I try to use a lot of common sense techniques.

Generate topics

My ideas come from several sources, obviously, our products and services, especially new ones, like the web conferencing tool we just recently released. Other sources include other divisions within ISD. The customer service manager asked for a video showing how to correctly fill out the forms they require. I am currently doing a video for our CIO, selling our services to other agencies. The personnel department wanted an employee orientation video so all new ISD employees get the same information.

Write narration

Once I get the idea of what I want to do and the goal I want to reach, I storyboard it to some degree, really just an outline on the order of progression.

Then I script it, literally, word for word. I have a form I use that has four columns to it: Action, Narration, On-screen activity, and File location/Clip title. I write the narration first: introduce the subject, teach the subject, and then close it out. This usually takes me several days to complete. Each time I go through the script, I see changes that need to be made, the order of presentation changed, or just see something I didn't think of at the time. I don't like to rush this part because to me, this is where a good video starts, the planning and writing stage. But at the same time, I have to say "enough" and continue on with the project.

Write actions

Once I am satisfied with the script, my next step is to go back to my script, open up the software I am going to teach, and start stepping through the demo. I need to make sure that the script and the steps being taken in the software coincide with each other. As I progress along, I add comments in the Action column of what I need to do and at what point it must be done: file > open, move the cursor here and click, etc.

Once that is settled, I'll start thinking about what happens on the screen: zooms, pans, what callouts I need, where to put transitions, things like that.

Record

Next I record my narration. I have to admit I use different software for that, just because I am more used to it. I also edit the narration and take out all of the "ahhhs" and my breathing sounds.

Then I start the screen recording process. I print out the script, set it in front of me, and rehearse several times before recording. I've also learned to break my recordings and audio narrations up into segments instead of doing them all at once. I'll break at a natural stopping point, like a change in a subject, then come back and press on with the next step. It's important to double-check that all my audio and video settings are the same as before, especially if the break spans more than one day.

Here's a tip I have found REALLY useful! I had a subject out of order in an almost completed video and realized that it needed to be at a different point in the presentation. But because I record "modularly", I was able to just swap the two sections with each other, rather than redoing the whole video. It was so much easier.

Edit

Once recording is complete, I then go into the editing phase. I add all the scenes to the timeline, edit out the bad and keep the good, sync up the audio, add the transitions, callouts, zooms, and all the while I am saving, saving, saving.

The last thing I do before publishing is add the captions for our hearing impaired employees. Then watch the video one last time to make sure I am happy with it and publish it so it can be put on our website.

You mentioned that you're using the new Camtasia Studio 7 now...any favorite features?

Yes, the one thing I like particularly is the Library where you have intro and exit graphics. I was using Adobe Visual Communicator for this before and they have some good graphics. But this added feature is really good. I just hope that you will get some more of these from Digital Juice and make it available to us all. To me, it really adds a touch of the professional side to each video. I also like the new Sketch Motion Callouts where you "draw" a circle or a box. I added all of this to my last video even though it was already published and on the web.

What are your top three tips for a new screencaster (independent of which software they use)?

1. Storyboard/Outline your entire project to stay on track.

1. Record all of your narrations and videos modularly. It's easier to re-record a part of a video than the whole thing.

1. Do something different with each video. Be imaginative with your ideas and editing. Don't get stuck doing the same thing each time. Watch how others do things and see if you can adapt them to fit your situation.

At your company, you have people who know the best practices and are experts in certain subjects, right? How valuable is their knowledge to the rest of the organization? Often it would be helpful to capture and share their expertise company-wide and maybe even with the public. How do you get them to share their knowledge?

Paolo Tosolini has helped get employees at Microsoft recording, sharing and teaching their fellow coworkers. Paolo is making a series of videos about "Enterprise Podcasting" and in one of his recent videos, he shared a how-to video about "Employee Generated Content" and Microsoft's Podcast-in-a-Box program. Paolo also reviews the equipment and resources Microsoft used with their Podcast-in-a-Box program. Check out his video below - it's a quick one that runs less than 5 minutes.

It's great that Paolo follows his own advice to capture and share his best practices and expertise for crowdsourcing knowledge in a corporation. You can see Paolo's entire "Enterprise Podcast" series here. I hope you find this to be a useful video to get more people in your company screencasting and podcasting.

What have you found that works to get people to capture and share their best practices and expertise?

I 'met' Chris Petescia, the VP & Director of User Experience at Carrot Creative, on Twitter when he was talking about Jing. I don't think I've heard from anyone using Jing more than Chris and in some very creative ways including creating a whole site dedicated to something he calls 'Jing Art'! I love all the different ways he and Carrot Creative are using Jing and I had to share that with you!

I sent Chris some questions and here's what he shared with me...

1.     How have screenshots and screencasts changed your own communication at Carrot Creative for the better?

Shortly before we stumbled across JingProject.com (the debate rages on here as to who gets credit and whether it was guidance from an Obi-wan at Hoth-like spirit vision, or just plain luck), we used another (now defunct) screenshot-to-web service. While the ingenuity of auto-uploading any screenshot taken- to a URL & clipboard- amazed us, we soon learned there was a far more vastly-featured and elegant tool to do this and more: Jing. The day we installed Jing was for Carrot, the day we landed in Oz and opened the door into so much vibrant possibility. We'd been living in the dark ages and didn't know it until then... one click onto the yellow Brick Road pop-bubble and there was no looking back. Jing immediately became valuable to us in all departments, especially to me with frequent travel and need to review/ communicate/ share visual ideas at odd times. iChat screen share never really worked anyway, so Jing made sharing easier across all needs, particularly those we hadn't previously identified.

2.     Are your screenshots used internally or externally? What is the viewer response to them?

We use Jing internally, externally and if there was a third option, that way too. Internally we share anything from financial notes among my partners and I to notes on mockups and code/CSS bugs during project QA... and of course humor (see: JingArt.us). Externally, it has quickly become a favorite way for us to communicate with clients during all steps of a process. Some clients are very hands on and involved: regular walkthroughs with screencast videos (including voice notes throughout) allow us to demonstrate and clarify. There is very little confusion regarding client perception and expectation of a project, when we can walk them through a workflow or design. Many of these clients have adopted Jing to communicate back to us as well, and with their other persuist I'm sure, as is the case with our friends at MLB.com. Other clients are only involved where milestones of a project are concerned, but for them Jing is a great way for us to send individual screens and video overviews. We use it to demonstrate usage and get feedback about their experiences before launch. Additionally, Jing is a great tool for reporting analytics and data to clients. Whether for a formal weekly report or just to illustrate user engagement on their site, page or social feed, Jing does it for us.

3.     What do you use Jing for primarily

Because we use Jing daily for so many things, I actually had to check my Jing "History" to get perspective on where it is used most. As the head of our design and production team, my History is flooded with design mocks: my review thoughts on our team's work with suggestions, as well as my own design work with video or text notes and questions to get feedback and guidance for our developers as they build it. Jing has smoothed this entire process of design concept to tweaking to producing to reviewing production.

Aside from the day-to-day work of a digital agency and production shop, Jing has been useful for the unplanned pitfalls that come with our field: Photoshop or Illustrator locking up or most recently a plague of sporadic crashes that Snow Leopard has blessed us with. In these times, Jing has more than once allowed us to quickly grab a screenshot as the pinwheel of death spins it's cheery and spiteful rainbow, signifying an impending crash. If nothing else, we get a reference copy via quick Jing'ing to refer to as we re-build (:grumble:) Jing Art came about by chance, as one of our creatives was taking a web-browsing (info snacking, we call it) break and came across a photo of a Russian Developer... or, as our Creative saw it, a potential Jing-Jedi Knight. One Jing arrow added to his perfectly posed hands and internal Jing humor was born at Carrot Creative. While we certainly don't mock clients by any means, the variety of projects and circumstances we deal with allows us to laugh and enjoy our jobs a lot, and Jing has become an integral part of sharing that among ourselves. I think there was one day when we were Jing'ing one another's Jings and adding comments until it just got out of control :)

Chris Petescia is a co-founder of Carrot Creative, located in the Digital District of DUMBO, Brooklyn, NY. Chris works as a mix of Art Director and Designer, focusing on the User Experience side of Carrot's projects. He is enthusiastic about Star Wars, gets excited about pixels and enjoys a good lolcat photo as much as the next web geek. When he's not attending a live show at one of NYC's numerous music venues, you'll find him scrabbling to last.fm/dmbpride, posting to chrispetescia.tumblr.com or tweeting from twitter.com/chrispetescia

I was also lucky enough to meet Mike Germano, the President of Carrot Creative at the Blog World Expo and he shared with me how they are using Jing at Carrot Creative. The video runs less than 2 minutes. See why Mike is 'mad' at his team for using Jing! Quite the funny story!

Big thanks to Carrot Creative for sharing with us how they're using Jing.

I hope you'll submit to Carrot Creative some Jing Art of your own! Here is the Jing Art I'm going to submit. What do you think?

I had a great time in Berlin, Germany for TechEd Europe recently. Not only was the conference great, but it was also the 20th Anniversary of the Berlin Wall falling. I was very fortunate to attend both events (You can see some pics here).

I met a lot of great people on my trip! I heard a really great story from Bob Simms about how he got to TechEd. Turns out he had arrived at TechEd on a bus! He made a Camtasia Studio video that won him a prestigious award from Microsoft and a free trip to TechEd Europe with a bus tour!

I got a quick interview with Bob from the Expo floor. He shared with me his story about how he won the Bus Trip with Camtasia Studio. The video runs just over 2 minutes.

You can see Bob's award winning video here that got him on the bus.

Also, check out another one of Bob's videos below. Bob sent me a video that got him into the heats of the Speaker Idol competition at TechEd (you can see the Camtasia Studio portion around the 2 minute mark)! I love how Bob uses beer to illustrate his example!

Check out Bob's travel diary from his bus trip to TechEd Europe here.

Congrats on your winnings, Bob! Very creative use of Camtasia Studio!

Have your screencasts won you anything?

A blog post title caught my eye last week, 'Why Most Screencasts And Online Presentations Are Tedious (And How To Fix It)'! I knew I had to check it out! Turns out it was written by Sean D'Souza who has a great site, PsychoTactics, that uses an understanding of psychology to understand why customers buy (or do not buy).

I love Sean's blog post and screencast. He talks about techniques they use in TV programing like the scene, camera angle or some other change in the shot. Typically there is a change every seven seconds. Now, if you look at the typical screencast or tutorial, you're more than likely watching the same single frame with the same presenter. No change. Makes it hard for the brain to pay attention at this point without movement on the screen.

What can you do to keep your viewers attention? Sean tells you the answer about how to not put your viewers brains to sleep, how to replicate the movement you see on TV and how to solve other problems on his blog post here. He answers many of the questions about on his blog plus he even has a great screencasting comic!

Here's Sean's great screencast. I like his use of music, narration, titling, SmartFocus and of course, his content! It's a short screencast that runs under 3 minutes. Enjoy!

Congrats to Sean for winning the Screencast of the Week award!

Any nominations for next week?

I recently heard from a Camtasia Studio user, Vivek Joshi who is a Product Specialist at IDV Solutions which happens to be right down the road from TechSmith in lovely Lansing, Michigan! :-)

Vivek has a hobby website he works on in his spare time called FindYourAuto.net. Vivek wrote an article about the site and entered it in a contest at Microsoft. In addition to his article, he also included a Camtasia Studio screencast with his submission. Others in the contest submitted only articles. With his screencast, Vivek was able to not only tell, but show what was cool with his website. And, he won first place! Screencasts can give a competitive advantage!

Kelly Rush, our Video Production Specialist, got a quick video with Vivek to hear about his FindYourAuto.net and how he's using Camtasia Studio. Check it out below. It runs less than 2:30 minutes.

Hardware used to create this screencast:

• Canon HF200 camera
• HP HDX18t laptop

Software:

• Adobe Premiere CS4
• Camtasia Studio

Congrats Vivek! Can't wait to see what you create next!

Got a great use of one of our products or some tips and tricks? Drop me an e-mail or leave a comment - I'd love to share your story!

How many of you screencasters thought people would be asking you for your autograph?! It could happen! I'm getting in line to get Len Charnoff's autograph!

Len's Camtasia Studio screencast was just shown on national television on a popular news show in the US, the Today Show!

How did Len's Screencast end up on the Today Show?

Len discovered a site, Yard Sale Treasure Map (YSTM). On Len's blog, Time Saving Tutorials, he did this screencast review of YSTM. YSTM mentioned Len's screencast on their 'About' page. Len noticed he was getting a lot of traffic to his blog that he was getting a lot of hits from YSTM. Then he received an email from DailyCandy.com saying that one of their editors was appearing on the Today Show and wanted to use his screencast. The Today Show picked up the story and the rest is history as they say!

You can see Len's screencast in the video below. You can also hear Len's voice in the background! Len's screencast appears in the segment around 2:00 minutes into the video.You can hear Len's voice in the background!

Bravo zulu, Len!

Where will your screencasting take you?! I'll be the first in line to get an autograph from you!

I think we may have a new world record... 1,000 screencasts! I just heard from Bill Jelen, aka Mr Excel, that he's completed his 1,000th screencast. And, each screencast was created with Camtasia Studio!

Every day, Monday through Friday, Bill produces a new Excel screencast. The screencasts average in length around 2 minutes. His first episode went out on October 15, 2005 and the 1,000th episode went out on September 15, 2009. At five episodes per week, it took just under 4 years. Bill does take about 5 days off per year for various holidays.

I asked Bill how we got started screencasting. He mentioned to me that back in 2005, he was traveling to Toronto every month to tape two episodes each month on Call for Help with Leo Laporte. Both of the hosts were early podcasters; Leo Laporte had started his audio This Week in Tech podcast in April 2005 and Amber MacArthur had started her CommandN video podcast in June of 2005. Bill became aware of podcasting around the time he was taping the July episodes. In August, Leo suggested a MrExcel podcast. By September, Bill had taped a 25 minute pilot, and it was Leo who suggested a short daily podcast instead of a longer weekly podcast. The podcast went live October 15, 2005. And, the rest is history as they say.

That idea...five podcasts a week...allowed Bill to be one of the first to reach the 1000 episode mark early.

Bill also shared with me how he creates the screencasts. He records the camrec and then sends it off to Lora White who edits and produces. In the beginning, Lora spent 18-20 minutes on each episode to edit and produce them. Bill would send her detailed notes on every edit, like..."I screwed up this word at 1:07". Now, we use the term "Pickup" to indicate that I screwed up the last part and I am restarting. Now, Lora spends 10 minutes start to finish to edit and produce each 2-3 minute episode.

You can see all of Bill's screencasts here

Simply amazing! Congrats Bill! Can't wait to see the next 1,000 screencasts you create!

Last weekend I jumped in the car and headed to Ann Arbor, Michigan. Why? They were having a "GiveCamp". Haven't heard of a GiveCamp? Well, they truly a wonderful thing. Here's the lowdown:

"A GiveCamp is a weekend-long event where software developers, designers, and database administrators donate their time to create custom software for non-profit organizations. This custom software could be a new website for the nonprofit organization, a small data-collection application to keep track of members, or a application for the Red Cross that automatically emails a blood donor three months after they've donated blood to remind them that they are now eligible to donate again. The only limitation is that the project should be scoped to be able to be completed in a weekend." See here for more info

The event kicked off on Friday and the developers and charities worked round the clock all weekend long. Some people camped out, while others pulled all nighters working on their code. At the end of Give Camp, the teams of developers, designers, database admins and charities present their project to the group. There's usually not a dry eye in the building.

While I was visiting, I got to talking with one of the sponsors, Matt Lagrotte from Verio (TechSmith was a sponsor too). Turns out that Matt is putting Camtasia Studio to good use at his company. I shot a quick 2 minute video with Matt so you could hear how he's using it and get his advice. The audio is not perfect since we were in the middle of GiveCamp central, but hopefully it is tolerable. :-)

Tools used to create the video:
Flip HD Mino
HP Compaq 8510
Camtasia Studio
Screencast.com

And, curious to see what a GiveCamp 'looks' like. Check out the quick video below from Patrick Steele. It's very entertaining! Jennifer Marsman has a great recap of the event here. I also snapped some pics which you can see here.

Inspired? Why not set up a GiveCamp in your area? You can see here how to coordinate your own event. Not a techie? Fear not, there's still lots you can help with at GiveCamp... bake cupcakes, teach a charity how to use Twitter, stuff envelopes, help set up work spaces... and so on.

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a screencast video worth? How about $2.4 million?! I was really excited to see this 'tweet' this morning on Twitter from Paolo Tosolini at Microsoft.

Paolo has been doing amazing stuff at Microsoft - he has created a "Podcast-in-a-Box". These are audio/video creation kits that allow Microsoft employees to capture and share their knowledge with each other in a rich multimedia format. In the Podcast-in-a-Box kit, there is a copy of Camtasia Studio plus a Flip video camera and professional audio recorder among other things.

Paolo captured a great video with Bob Lincavicks. Bob is an Information Worker Solution Specialist at Microsoft. He shares his story about how he leveraged Academy Mobile (Microsoft's internal enterprise podcasting platform) and applications like Camtasia as sales tools to close a $2.4M deal. How's that for ROI?! The video runs 4:30. Check out Bob's story below.

Paolo is willing to share his knowledge about enterprise podcasting with you - if you have any questions, email Paolo or you can find him on Twitter here

Got a story you'd like to share about how you're using Camtasia Studio, Snagit, Jing, Morae or Screencast.com? Grab a video camera and tell it to me! I'd love to share it!

This week's Screencast of the Week has it all... Great music, Picture-in-Picture, SmartFocus, Tilt and more. Kris Rzepkowski used a Camtasia video to communicate the launch of a new intranet at link Hudson. This is one high quality screencast!

What a great way to launch a new website! Entertaining and informative.

Check out Kris Rzepkowski's blog for a great post about the launch of Hudson's SharePoint Intranet (Challenge, User Research, Design, Development/Beta Launch)

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

Brooks Andrus and I are having a great time at 360|Flex today! We had a chance to catch up with Renaun Erickson, a RIA developer at Adobe and who is also the driving force behind Structured Log Testing, an open source project for RIA Flash platform developers.

Renaun shared with us the benefits of visual communication for him and how he needed a little more than Jing for his screencasting (he hit the 5 minute limit). He shared how he uses Camtasia Studio.

And, in keeping with the bacon theme, we got Renaun to try one of the maple bacon lollipops we brought to the conference! He may be the biggest bacon fan I have ever met! The video is just under 4 minutes long...

We recorded the video with a Flip HD Mino camera and Brooks edited and produced the video using Adobe Premiere and After Effects

The pic above is by Eric Stoike - See more of his great pics from 360|Flex here