The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

I don't know about you, but I use Excel a couple times a month. I don't use it enough to always remember how to do everything I need to do. So, every time I use it, I waste time digging around the internet looking for tips and tricks.

I was happy to hear from Bill Jelen, also known as Mr. Excel, this week. That's him pictured to the left. He has a comprehensive website all about Excel, complete with a video podcast.

Check out his blog with all the video podcasts here.

What I like about his videos is that they're 2 minutes long and he creates them daily! I have 2 minutes to spare every day to improve my Excel skills. Also, he makes his videos for the video iPod. So, I can subscribe to his feed in iTunes and take his screencasts with me wherever I go. You can read more about subscribing to his videos here.

Thanks Bill for helping to improve my Excel skills! I appreciate it!

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

This week's Screencast of the Week is from Fog Creek Software!

Fog Creek made a screencast showing off their new release of FogBugz. What I like about this screencast is that it is not your typical serious, dry product demo. I really like the dynamic of having two narrators. Fog Creek's CEO and founder, Joel Spolsky and Babak Ghahremanpour, from their technical staff, narrated the screencast. Having two narrators is nice as it makes the demo interesting and conversational. The audio, which was recorded in a studio, is really high quaility too.

Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast. It runs close to 13 minutes.

Congrats to Fog Creek on the new release of FogBugz Version 6!

I was digging around looking at screencasts last week and stumbled upon this mashup contest by the Sunlight Foundation. To enter the contest, you had to submit a screencast showing off your mashup!

There were several great Camtasia Studio screencasts entered in the contest which you can view here. Click the image below to watch the winning entry. It's a short screencast running less than 2 minutes. And, the winners won $2,000 for their mashup and screencast!

What great screencasts have you seen lately?

Do you sudoku? I have to admit that I'm a bit addicted to it. It is the perfect way to pass time on those long flights and when I'm standing in line anywhere. And, I feel like I'm exercising my brain by doing the math in the game.

Daniel Foster, TechSmith's new Newsletter writer, sent me a link for a sudoku screencast. I like it because the screencast is about a fun subject! Not all screencasts have to be about how to use software or a website. Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast. It runs just under 4 minutes.

And, Patty makes more screencasts! Check out Patty's other mathcasts here.

And, on a side note, if you'd like another option to share your screencasts, try Screencast.com. It does not scale your screencasts so your videos retain their original quality. There is a free trial for anyone who'd like to try it out here.

Any nominations for the next Screencast of the Week? I'm looking for some screencasts about the holidays. Have you seen any?