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!
Don't let a lack of professional equipment stop you from filming a video or screencast. Effective use of a webcam can lead to a high quality video if used correctly.
This week's video is posted below and presents three tips that will help you avoid common hiccups when filming a video with a webcam.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com.
Using music can add an extra element to your video or end up distracting the viewer. Don't let the latter be true when trying to enhance a video with music.
This week's video is posted below and presents three tips that will help you effectively use music in screencasts.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com.
Video Tip Series - Part three: Holding Viewers' Attention
Posted on Monday April 2, 2012
Viewers' minds tend to wander when the subject material isn't "fun". So what do you do when your content is instructional or otherwise not exciting? This week's video presents some tips and tricks including effectively using transitions and editing down scripts.
The video is posted below and will present three tips designed to keep your audiences engaged.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com.
So you have your audio and video recorded but don't know how to take it to that next level? No worries. Week two brings you tips on how to reinforce your audio instructions using editing tools such as annotations, callouts and zooms.
The video is posted below and presents three tips that will help you utilize editing tools to enhance your final product.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com.
Check out a new Video Tip Series - Part one: Recording Videos
Posted on Monday March 19, 2012
Creating videos from stratch can be tricky if you are a newcomer to the game. From camera placement to recording and editing techniques, we have you covered.
A new video tip series will be sent out via Twitter and published weekly to our blog for the next 6 weeks. The first video is posted below and will present four tips that will help you record your video right the first time around.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com.
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 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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
TechSmith and Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA)
Posted on Friday January 20, 2012
While I've been traveling the English countryside, meeting some great customers and users... several popular sites went dark and my friends back in Michigan started to hear from some of you about TechSmith's stance on the SOPA PIPA issue.
TechSmith wants to thank our customers who have been in touch with us about SOPA or PIPA. There have been some assumptions regarding our position and while we normally don't engage in political conversations we do want to make our position clear. TechSmith is against piracy of intellectual property for profit-driven purposes, but we don't believe SOPA and PIPA are the solution.
Thanksgiving was never meant to be shut up in a single day. ~ Robert Caspar Lintner
Today we're celebrating Thanksgiving in the US. It is one of my favorite holidays! It is simply about sharing a meal with friends and family and giving thanks. Every day should be Thanksgiving - well, maybe not the big turkey dinner part, but more of the giving thanks part and getting together with people that matter to you.
This week, Greg Smith from our logistics department, and I wandered the halls at TechSmith and asked people to share what they were thankful for. Check out their responses in the video below.
TechSmith is so thankful for you! Thank you for using our software, helping us improve it, and for taking time out of your busy day to read the Visual Lounge blog. I don't say it enough, but thank you, thank you, thank YOU! I appreciate it and TechSmith does too!
And, thanks to Greg for taking the pics in the video!
Tune in Live: The Role of Sketching in Interaction Design
Posted on Thursday November 17, 2011
Tonight the IXDA Lansing (Interaction Design Association's global professional network) group is hosting a meeting at TechSmith. If you're in the Lansing, Michigan area, you're welcome to join us. If not, I thought others might want to tune-in to watch.
The topic tonight is "The Role of Sketching in Interaction Design" led by guest speaker Peter Tascarella. Peter will talk about using sketching as a tool for interaction design. Peter will cover how sketching is fundamental to the process of art and design. When the focus is on interaction, how can sketching be made to serve that process? Peter will be guiding us through ways it can be incorporated into the design process and applied to interaction design. You can see Peter's bio here.
Tune in on this blog to join the livecast tonight at 6:00 pm - 7:00 pm ET
You might need to refresh this post at 6:00pm if you don't see the live stream right away. I hope you can join us! I'll be in the chat room field questions. Come keep me company.
By now, many of you may have heard of the new social networking platform on the internet scene. Google+ is here.
"What is Google+?"
Google+ is a hybrid of the various social tools many people are already using on the web. It's Google's attempt to do social media better than the rest. In order to connect with people, users are instructed to add them into "circles." Users can create an unlimited number of circles, with an unlimited number of people in each circle. Posts shared on Google+ are not subject to a character limit and are editable after they're posted. Posts can be shared publicly, to your circles, to individuals, and many more unique ways.
Google+ also introduced "Hangout," a place for multiple users to video conference. "Huddles" can be created for multiple user text messaging, and it's available on an Android and iPhone app.
Watch a video about the Google+ Project:
Google has asked businesses to refrain from creating identities on Google+, so you will not find an active TechSmith Corporation presence just yet. In the meanwhile, we've compiled a list of TechSmithies on Google+ to share! Feel free to add them to whatever circle you please, be it "Following," "TechSmithies," "Screencasters," or otherwise! Just remember: we are individuals, too. We're on Google+ for our own personal use, but we're always game to talk shop. If you need help with a product, head over to Get Satisfaction to give us feedback or look at Support.
Google+ is live, although still in invitation only for those with Google accounts. Read more about the Google+ project on their Project Page.
Ali White is the Social Media Intern for TechSmith. She studies Professional Writing at Michigan State with a minor in Theater and specialization in Digital Humanities. Follow her tweets at @DesignLightning or check out her Tumblr.
UPDATE 1: The TechSmith Terrible Screencast contest has been extended until June 20! Please keep submitting your Terrible Screencasts nominations! Thank you!
UPDATE 2: In addition, we've heard a lot of feedback (thank you!) and we've responded with a blanket anonymity rule- your identity and submissions will never see the light of day outside TechSmith, so no fear! We're not trying to embarrass anyone, just trying to understand what makes bad screencasts so very bad.
How many of you have watched a terrible screencast? I know I have. Heck, I've made my fair share of terrible screencasts!
I'm happy to announce we're having our first ever TechSmith Terrible Screencast Contest!
Here at TechSmith, we are proud to make products for entertaining and effective screencast experiences, and we love to hear about examples of exceptional screencasts. However, it's hard to ignore that some screencasts are, well, exceptional in a different way. We like hearing about those too! Nothing can teach us more about what not to do in a screencast than learning about the most devastatingly terrible experiences you've had with a screencast (not to mention they can get pretty darn funny!)
Send us your stories of the horrors of screencasting, and win acclaim and a $50 Amazon.com gift card!
Here's more info about the contest:
Deadline: June 6th, 2011
Instructions: Send your story of a terrible, awful, very-bad no-good screencast that you've had to endure to userexperience@techsmith.com with the subject line [Why Did I Watch This]. (click on the email address link above and it should fill the email address and subject line for you automatically)
There's no need to send links or the screencast in question- just describe the experience in gory detail! We're interested in your impressions and stories more than anything.
Prizes will be awarded for Worst Instructional Screencast Story, Worst Required-For-Work Screencast Story, and Worst Overall Screencast Story. Prizes will be a $50 Amazon.com gift card!
NOTE: The Terrible Screencast Contest will be completely anonymous- we won't reveal the names of winners or the submitted stories or screencasts themselves. We're not trying to embarrass anyone, just understand what makes bad screencasts so very bad.
Prizes will be awarded for Worst Instructional Screencast, Worst Required-For-Work Screencast, and Worst Overall Screencast. Prizes will be a $50 Amazon.com gift card and immortality, as your tale of woe will be published in the official TechSmith blog (don't worry, we'll be happy to keep you anonymous!).
Free Ticket to Attend Cliff Atkinson's Beyond Bullets Course
Posted on Monday May 16, 2011
Raise your hands... How many of you have sat through a boring presentation? And, how many of you have given a boring presentation? I'm guessing all of you raised your hands for one or both of those questions. Let's break this cycle!
TechSmith friend Cliff Atkinson is conducting a one day workshop in Washington DC on May 27 that will help you become a more effective presenter. Cliff wrote the book on better presenting called Beyond Bullet Points (BBP)
I have one registration ticket to Cliff's BBP workshop. I can't attend the event and I'd hate to see the ticket go to waste. Want to go? Please leave a comment on this blog post by May 19, midnight EST. Share why you'd like to attend and I'll pick a winner on May 20. I will also include a copy of Snagit and Camtasia (Mac or PC) if you're selected for the free registration.
Find out more about the event here. Check out the brochure here (PDF) to see the agenda.
Note: Please be sure to leave your email address when you fill out the comment form on this blog post. It won't be visible to other readers, but I will need it to get in contact with you. It's up to you to get yourself and find lodging in Washington DC.
Most of you probably know that TechSmith is a global company, but did you also know that one of our largest international offices is in Tokyo, Japan?
We opened our Japanese office in April 2009 to increase our connection with the Japanese and Asian markets, but over the past two years, the office has become much more than an expansion of our company. Although TechSmith is headquartered in Okemos, Michigan, we are excited that our family spans the entire world.
We were devastated at the news of the tragic earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant meltdown. We knew that our TechSmith family in Japan would need support and we wanted to help. At our headquarters, employees have taken up a collection to donate to help Japan recover as quickly as possible. Every donation given by a TechSmith employee has been equally matched by the company to send to Japan.
We interviewed a few employees in Japan to gain a better understanding of how these tragedies have affected their lives, work and family. I'll share their stories with you in a couple of blog posts...
Meet our first interviewee, Hiroshi Kusaka, TechSmith's Country Manager in Tokyo.
The earthquake took everyone in the country by surprise, and Hiroshi cannot explain how he managed to stay safe. He said that he has never experienced an earthquake like the 8.9 magnitude quake that hit the country on March 11th. Although earthquakes are fairly common in Tokyo, the earthquake was, noticeably, the largest Hiroshi has ever felt. The last reported earthquake of this magnitude was over a century ago.
Hiroshi, like most people in Japan, is just trying to continue his life normally. Of course there are some things that make this slightly complicated, like the serious shortage of food and gasoline. And even though some things are more difficult now, Hiroshi has been able to remain comforted and informed by keeping up with news from the internet and real-time reports via Twitter.
Through it all, Hiroshi keeps a positive attitude in remembering that Japan has made heroic recoveries before and is confident that "Japan will recover again." He believes that what the country needs most right now is peace of mind and encouragement.
Our thoughts remain with TechSmith's overseas family and all of the Japanese people affected by these tragedies.
TechSmith Brings Sense of Smell to Visual Communications
Posted on Friday April 1, 2011
As you know, we're always listening to your feedback and looking for new and innovative ways to enhance visual communications. And, a picture is worth 1000 words, a video is worth 1000×1024 words, but that's not always enough. TechSmith Labs has been hard at work on some new technology that I'm happy to announce today. TechSmith has developed a device that is able to convert smells into bits and bytes and then back again. Welcome the TechSmith Olfactory Sensory Device (OSD)!
We prototyped the OSD with our Makerbot. With the OSD, we are able to 'sniff' the air around a capture. Now, think back... some of your most powerful memories involve smell. The smell of an apple pie baking or your mother's perfume can take you back to a place in time... Studies show that smell plus images are more powerful than images alone. And, that's where the OSD comes in.
OSD is easy to use. You just plug it in any usb port (a ThunderBolt connection for iPad is under development), push the red button. The OSD simply sniffs the air, and converts the molecules into digital format that can then be easily reproduce with any OSD extractor module. Smells captured with OSD do not expire so you can easily build a catalog of smells to use with image.
You can read all the details about the OSD here.
And, better yet, be sure to check out the video below to see OSD in action.
Who would like to be the first person to have the TechSmith OSD? What smells would you add to your visual communications?
It's Thursday and that means it's time for this week's Dev Corner! Software Engineer, Matt Mercieca, shares his insight about comments and our code. Enjoy!
"Comments: A Dissenting Opinion"
Many--- actually most--- of the questions I'm asked at work start with the phrase, "Do you know why?" That's not surprising. "Why questions" about our code can't be answered by Google, Ctrl + F, or file history. Why we implement features a certain way is usually the result of more than one discussion which we distill into objects and functions which perfectly capture how. We miss "why".
The majority opinion at TechSmith seems to be: comments are evil. I don't believe that. Because comments can aid in the maintainability of our code, it is worth examining some of the criticism around them.
"Comments lie!" or "Comments get outdated."
Sadly both of these are often true. This usually happens when comments are included to explain what the code is trying to accomplish. Nothing conveys that better than clear naming and design. Also clearly named functions and variables stay up to date.
That does not stop developer time from being saved when a comment is included to explain why a particular method was chosen.
Obligatory example: years ago, one of the tasks I worked on when I was on the web staff was writing the pack list printer. This is the program which pulls orders from the database and prints those which need to be shipped. Finding those orders was a straightforward SQL query. The program worked fine on our test system, but when deployed to live nothing printed.
Debugging with live data showed why. For the only time in my experience, the SQL Server Query Optimizer chose the wrong execution plan. Going against my developer soul I rewrote the query incorrectly so that it would run. Life went on. I couldn't check in code that looked that bad, however, so I included a comment saying why I wrote it that way.
The next time I looked at the pack list printer my bad SQL and comment were still there. I didn't waste any time figuring out why the query was written that way or waste any time trying to fix it. Other developers also knew that when a new version of SQL Server came out they could address that bad code and test appropriately.
"Comments clutter the code."
Again there is some truth here. However, I find that this critique most often applies to comments which violate the above rule and describe what the code is doing instead of capturing why.
"OK, if it's that important it should be in a README.TXT or included in other documentation."
I don't think I'm alone in that I read documentation as a last resort. I'll look for code examples, search the web, and ask coworkers before I check to see if someone took that time to write a README--- even if I'm the someone that wrote it. The documentation that gets read is the documentation in the code.
Like every tool, comments can be used poorly. I'll admit that a lot of why strange things happen is to get around a bug, framework quirk, strange hardware, or other abnormality. These are not reasons to brand comments as evil. One of our top goals is clarity and maintainability of code. In some cases, comments help with both.
--- Matthew Mercieca, Dissenting Commenter
Matt Mercieca started at TechSmith as an intern in 2002. After graduating from nearby Michigan State University with degrees in Computer Science and English, he started working full time as a software engineer. He has contributed to: UserVue.com, Screencast.com, and is currently working on supporting TechSmith's growing ecommerce needs.
Some wise person once said that for a relationship to thrive you really need to study the one you love. Get to know what makes him tick...or ticked off. What kinds of little things light up her face. And, of course, which type of chocolates to buy.
Customer relationships are not so different, really. The better we get to know you, the more ways we can find to make you happy.
Our User Experience (UX) team spends a lot of time doing this--observing and dialoging with the people who use our products. People like you!
By the way, there are usually monetary gifts (and/or chocolates!) if you're selected to participate. But perhaps just as great is knowing that you're helping improve the products you use and love.
Here are just a few of the hundreds of things we've learned from past UX activities with people just like you....
The blizzard is over here in Michigan and the giant snow spork is still standing. We're taking the spork offline for now. Thanks for tuning in! Until the next blizzard...
Everyone has been preparing for the giant snow storm that's hitting the country. In Okemos, Michigan, where TechSmith is located, they're calling for a foot or more of snow!
We thought it'd be fun to make a time lapse video to show the snow fall. But, we wanted to add a special twist. I figured if we just put a measuring stick out in the snow, it'd probably fall over. We needed something more substantial that could withstand all the snow and wind. And, most importantly... why not do something different?
If you know me, you know I love sporks. We even have TechSmith Titanium sporks. A spork is durable, useful, and well engineered. And, those are the same qualities we needed for something to measure the snow fall. That's where the idea came from to make a giant version of the TechSmith spork to measure the snow fall. Why not?!
Conan Heiselt, an instructional designer, and I headed out to get supplies. Everyone at the hardware store thought we were crazy when we explained what we wanted to make. After gathering all the supplies, we came back to TechSmith and got to work on the giant spork. It ended up being taller than I am (I'm 5'6")! We attached a measuring stick to it and took it outside my office. You can see some pics of us building the giant snow spork here.
Tune in live, right now! You can see the giant snow spork plus our snowfall at TechSmith's office - Just hit the play button below
Enjoy our beautiful Michigan snowfall! And, stay warm! Oh, and what should we do with the giant spork after we use it to measure the snow?
Thanks to Conan Heiselt for making the giant snow spork, Kelly Rush, our videographer, for setting up the tech on this project (live stream, computer, cameras, etc), Jordan Skole, our intern for the idea to record the snow fall, and Lucas Anthony, our Logistics Coordinator, for adding the final touches (logo and decorations).
Ever wonder what it's like behind the scenes at TechSmith? What's a typical day like for a software engineer at TechSmith? Every Thursday over the next several weeks, two of our Software Engineers, Randall Brown and Jared Wein, will share with you what happens in our development department. Welcome to the new 'Dev Corner'!
Randall and Jared stopped by the TechSmith studio to share a little bit about themselves. The video runs 4:37.
A little more about Randall and Jared...
Randall Brown started at TechSmith in 2009 after graduating from the University of Michigan with a degree in Computer Science. He is a member of the Camtasia Relay team where he works on bringing lecture capture to the masses.
Jared Wein started at TechSmith in 2007 as a Software Engineer Intern. In 2008, he graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in Computer Science. He is currently finishing up his Masters in Computer Science while working full-time as a Software Engineer on the Screencast.com and Camtasia Relay development teams.
What would you like to know from our developers? How do they come up with new feature ideas? What books do they read? Mountain Dew or Coca-Cola? They'd love to hear your questions.
UPDATE: Tune in to the Forge Today at 2pm EST (Recording Available)
Posted on Thursday November 4, 2010
Update: The recording of The Forge is now available! See below and enjoy!
Join us live today for Episode 3 of The Forge at 2pm EST! We have a great line-up...
We'll be talking with Daniel Park from dappertext will be talking about all things screencasting, Justin Carpenter from Tech Support will give us a Jing tech support tip, Conan Heiselt will give 10 tips for Camtasia for Mac in 10 minutes, and we'll a special guest appearance by one of our software developers, Larry LaHaie.
Check out the recording below. It runs close to 40 minutes and is separated into four segments.
You can download the template files for your website to allow Jing to decode Jing Pro videos in Flash that Justin Carpenter referenced in his segment here.
Think about the last 5 years in tech... Things have changed so much in the last few years. Camtasia was released just over 10 years ago. YouTube officially launched in 2005. With smartphones, tablets and other mobile devides, we can watch videos anywhere at anytime.
We worked with The Blog Herald to create an infographic showing the history of online video over the last 5 years. It's awesome to see the data the Blog Herald analyzed, shown visually.
What do you think the future holds for online video? Any predictions?
Carving pumpkins is serious business at TechSmith! This week we had a pumpkin carving contest at the office. And, since we're geeks, we had some pumpkins carved with a technology theme. Check out the winning pumpkin - yes, that's the Jing user interface!
Snagit can be your competitive advantage in the office and also outside of business hours for something like a pumpkin carving contest. Capture a logo or image you would like to use for your pumpkin with Snagit. Then use Snagit to scale the image to make a custom stencil for your pumpkin. Print off the capture, tape it to your pumpkin and start carving!
In Snagit 10, here's how you can resize your captured image to fit your pumpkin perfectly:
The Resize Image task page appears. Make selections and click Close. (note: You must flatten all vector-based to resize the entire canvas. If there are vector objects on the canvas, you are prompted to flatten objects and continue).
Enter a new width and height.
Select Smooth Scaling to give the capture or image edges a "smooth" appearance. The Smooth Scaling option also improves the readability of the scaled down capture.
If necessary, change color of canvas when making the canvas larger than the capture.
Keep aspect ratio maintains the correct proportion when changing the width or height.
Check out some pics here from Greg Smith, our Logistics Specialist, of all the pumpkins. And, I have some pics from the 2005 pumpkin carving contest at TechSmith here. Yes, I even used Snagit back then to make a Visual Lounge pumpkin.
Activities like this make TechSmith a truly fun place to work! Are you using Snagit for anything crafty or creative?
What do you want to know about TechSmith? What's in the Fridge?
Posted on Monday October 25, 2010
I asked a simple question on Twitter the other day... "So.... what would you like to know about the inside of TechSmith?" I got several interesting questions to answer that you'll see in some upcoming blog posts.
Up first... Bryce Johnson asked, " I'd like to know what is in the @techsmith fridge."
Well, be careful what you wish for... one of our devs, Larry LaHaie, will show you what's in one of our refrigerators... the video runs 5:22 minutes.
So, faithful blog readers, I'll ask you the same thing... "What would you like to know about the inside of TechSmith?"
TechSmith Around the Web - Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and More...
Posted on Saturday October 23, 2010
If you're reading this blog, I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that at some point you have visited TechSmith's website. :-) That's great, but did you know that we're also active on a lot of other communities beyond TechSmith's own website?
Feel free to check us out on a variety of other sites like Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr. They're another place you can connect with us and get an inside view of TechSmith.
And, if you know of other sites or communities that would be useful for TechSmith to explore, please let me know. We're always looking for new places to connect and learn with you.
TechSmith Blogs
The Visual Lounge
The Visual Lounge - German
Education Community Blog
Jing Blog
Screencast.com Blog
Twitter:
@techsmith - all things TechSmith including tips, tricks, polls, news, job postings, tradeshow news, and more. Written by Daniel Foster, New Media Specialist and I
@techsmithEDU - all things TechSmith in the Education world, written by Education Evangelist Dave McCollom
@techsmith_de - all things TechSmith in Germany, written by German Evangelist Anton Bollen
@techsmith_jp - all things TechSmith in Japan
@snagit_jp - Snagit updates in Japan
@camtasia_jp - Camtasia updates in Japan
@camtasia tips - Camtasia tips and tricks
@camtasiamac - Camtasia for Mac tips and tricks
@jingtips - Updates, news and tips from the Jing team
TechSmith Team - A list of TechSmith employees that tweet
@betsyweber - That's me!
Facebook Fan Pages:
Snagit
Camtasia
Jing
Video:
Channel TechSmith on YouTube - we've got over a 100 videos here and are adding more all the time...
Flickr:
TechSmith - view some pics at TechSmith events, tradeshows and around the office
My Flickr pics - pics from my TechSmith travels, customer meet-ups, see inside TechSmith, view our tradeshow events and more... (Don't want to look through over 11,000 pics? You can start at this TechSmith photo set or these tradeshow pics). I add new pics weekly!
Howdy friends... I need your help. You know me but I need to know you better. I want this blog to be a valuable place. That's where you come in. I need to know what you want to see here on this blog.
As the summer winds down, blog writing will ramp up especially as it gets colder and snowy in Michigan. :-) Please chime in on the comments with any suggestions or ideas that you have for The Visual Lounge blog. Any input would be helpful and appreciated. Feel free to email or call me (+1.517.410.0030) with your input as well.
Need some sample questions? These might help you get started...
What kind of job do you do? What industry are you in?
What topics should we explore?
What do you want to learn more about?
Any ideas for a series?
What do you have to share (Interested in being a guest blogger?)
PS: That's part of our User Experience team in the pic above pleading for your help. :-)
Take a Peek Inside TechSmith - Interview with Bill Hamilton
Posted on Wednesday August 4, 2010
37signals recently interviewed Bill Hamilton, the President of TechSmith, for a series on their blog called, "Bootstrapped, Profitable, & Proud: TechSmith, Litmus, iData, and A Small Orange". It was a great article. I thought I'd share all of 37signal's questions with Bill's answers so you could have a more in-depth look inside TechSmith. I hope you enjoy it! What do you think? Any questions for Bill?
How successful is TechSmith Corporation? Any numbers you're willing to share?
BH: We've grown from approximately $1.8 million in 1999 to just over $34 million in 2009. And we've been profitable every year. We've also launched several new products along the way, including several products that have been localized into German, French, Korean and Japanese. We've also gone from about a dozen people in 1999 to about 210 people now.
How did you fund yourself at first?
BH: We were boot strapped! In the beginning, we took on contract programming and consulting projects until we were completely product financed in 1994. Before then, we contracted ourselves out.
How many employees do you have? What do you look for in people you hire?
BH: We have 210 employees. When we're looking for talent, we first look for people who are honest and can stay open to new information and requirements that it takes to keep up in this industry. We look for those who naturally commit to lifelong learning. We also emphasize personal skills as well as being able to work effectively in teams.
We have a very stable workforce. For many of our team members, TechSmith has been their only employer since finishing college! This allows us institutional continuity in both development and other parts of the organization.
What is your culture/work environment like at TechSmith?
BH: The culture of TechSmith is that we try to be a company that engages in long term conversations with our customers and we base all of our internal decisions around that focus. We are very open and honest internally; we share business and financial information with staff who are then able to engage, understand and influence decisions, as well as their own development.
We are also very much a family. We're a great example of a company that has grown relatively quickly but has been able to maintain the close-knit, family feel. It's a fun company to work for. We work hard and play hard together. We push for creativity and sharing of ideas. For example, we have a company-wide Monday Morning Meeting each week where we share learning, ideas, what we did over the weekend, opinions, family news, insights and experiences. This is important because work/ life balance is very important to TechSmith and the productivity of our family.
So you share all business and financial information with staff? What do you say to other companies who feel this is impossible to do? Any surprising pros and cons to being that open?
BH: It can be a bit disquieting, especially during economic downturns and for people given a sugar-coated story by previous employers. We believe in the powerful liberation of the truth. Be it sales or customer feedback.
210 people sharing what they did over the weekend sounds overwhelming. How do you get everyone to feel included while not bogging the company down in hours of meeting time?
BH: Well, we draw names and ask for volunteers. We did a round-robin when we had fewer people.
You've mentioned that in a small company everyone has to wear many hats. Why is that? What are the different hats you've worn?
BH: To be a functioning company, there are essential tasks that have to be done- whether you're 1 or 1000. You just do what needs to be done. I've worn the hat of doing payroll, programming, marketing, managing development teams. I also clean the break room from time to time!
Were there mistakes you made in payroll, hiring, firing, marketing at first? Any examples come to mind? What did you learn?
BH: Made hundreds of mistakes of almost every color, luckily. I hired a man I didn't really trust because I needed his experience on the industry. Big mistake. I should have used him in a consulting capacity but don't bring a person lacking integrity inside your company. The point of mistakes is to recognize them, analyze the cause, adjust and move along. The only way to avoid mistakes is to be a sitting duck, which is fatal in our industry.
Firing someone should always be painful. It is, after all, an acknowledgement of your failure. So do it and learn from it. But not firing someone that should not continue is a disservice to the company, all of the other employees and to the person who should have left and learned.
Has being outside Silicon Valley helped or hurt your business?
BH: Yes. Both. Not being in Silicon Valley has its advantages and disadvantages.
Advantages include having more continuity in our workforce than we would probably have if we were in Silicon Valley. I also think that an advantage is a better work/ life balance which offers long term advantages. Also, since we are located very close to Michigan State University, we are able to get the international experience we want as well as those that are very gifted in computer sciences and other crucial skills to TechSmith.
The disadvantages would include the lack of other peers to interact with which would probably take place in Silicon Valley. That informal networking and opportunity to bounce ideas off peers is missing. But we work hard to try to make this available and happen whenever we can. We've also found that sometimes we have to develop people from within to fill specialized gaps in our talent pool, rather than recruiting externally, as there may not be anyone locally who can fill that gap.
Is developing people from within to fill those gaps something you suggest other companies pursue (as opposed to hiring from the outside)? Why?
BH: We did it from necessity. If I had more of a choice, I would do a blend of outsiders and grow-your-own. I think that would actually be more powerful than either alternative alone.
What hiring advice do you have for other firms?
BH: Look for core values. Integrity is so, so important. And don't ignore those nagging warning signs and feeling of discomfort - trust your gut. On the other hand, you need people who won't just fit in.
How do you differentiate yourself from competitors?
BH: Truthfully, we don't spend a lot of time differentiating ourselves from competitors. We spend a lot of time trying to talk to our customers about the issues and product features they like, want, etc. We don't want to get into a 'Me Too' situation with competitors.
What's your goal with the company?
BH: This is a hard question for us. Our goal really is to satisfy our customers. We really focus on trying to understand the convergence of unsolved problems with community issues. Where that will take us, I don't know. This industry is too dynamic to guess. If I look back 10 years, there's no way we could have predicted where the adventure has led us so far.
What advice do you have for someone considering starting a business?
BH: I think it's important to learn a lot about what the components of a business are. There is a lot of value to be gained by working for other small businesses before starting your own, if that isn't naturally part of your background. If you have no experience in payroll, hiring, firing, marketing, etc, it can be very valuable to learn from others first. I didn't have this background.
And many have very successfully ignored this! Whatever works best for you.
Are there other aspects of your company that would be interesting to readers?
BH: I think it's very important to always try to engage in experiments. You have no idea if they will work or not, but use the retrospectives to discover what you did learn from it and move forward. Lots of these experiments will be failures, but will contribute to the success of the company over time.
In other words, don't be afraid to fail.
Someone once asked me what an entrepreneur is. I said 'Someone who's almost lost their home twice'. I qualify! But don't let that discourage you. It's all part of the process.
What are some experiments that have worked out (or not) for TechSmith?
BH: One of our first products (a DDE development library) was obliterated by Microsoft. They released a DDE library that wasn't as good but was from MS and free. Such is life under the feet of the elephant. Long live elephants.
I'm happy to announce that there is a new kid on the block! No, not a new boy band member, but rather a new TechSmith evangelist! Anton Bollen will be joining Education Evangelist, Dave McCollom and me! Anton is TechSmith's new European Evangelist. He'll be focused on Germany and will be based in Berlin.
I hope you'll put him to work - need someone from TechSmith at your next event in Europe? Need help with your workshop? Want to share your story or feedback about using the German or French version of our software? Anton would love to hear from you!
Some of you may already "know" Anton from his training videos. He has been making lots of screencasts for our Training department over the last few years. We shot a quick video so you could 'meet' Anton. In this quick video, you'll learn more about Anton, his history at TechSmith and even who he is rooting for in the World Cup. The video runs just over 4 minutes long.
Anton is also taking over the German Visual Lounge blog. You can contact Anton via the blog, read the latest news and learn where he is going to be next.
The rumors are true! I'm excited to share the news that Camtasia Studio 7 is coming soon!
UPDATE: Embedded video below should play just fine now. :-) Click the pic below to see the video. Sorry for problems with the embedded vid.
Stay tuned for news here on the Visual Lounge blog and on our TechSmith YouTube channel. More updates, information, and of course more videos about Camtasia Studio 7 will be posted shortly.
Meet Walter Pelowski - Customer Solutions Engineer & Paczki Purveyor
Posted on Tuesday February 16, 2010
I walked into our main office building today and immediately smelled a sweet treat! I was quickly reminded that today is a very special day here in the Midwest! We're celebrating Paczki Day (pronounced "poonchkey") at TechSmith!
Walter Pelowski brought in not one dozen, but 22 dozen paczkis into TechSmith today! Check out this quick 2 minute video that Kelly Rush and I got with Walter to learn about what a typical day is like for him at TechSmith as a Customer Solutions Engineer and learn all about paczkis and this special day!
And, in case you're wondering, 'Just how healthy is a paczki?'... Let me do the math for you. Walter brought in 22 dozen paczkis! That's 264 of these traditional Polish doughnuts which is more than one per person at TechSmith. Depending on the filling, a paczki typically has around 450 - 700 calories and 25 or more grams of fat! Grand total calorie count for all the paczkis = approximately 118,800 - 184,800 calories and around 6,600 grams of fat!
Here are a few more facts about Paczki Day - It originated as a day where Polish families would use up all the sugar, fats and fruits in the house before fasting for Lent. Paczki Day is similar to "Fat Tuesday" and "Mardi Gras". In the Detroit, Michigan area, they even have a Paczki Day Parade to celebrate!
You can see a few more pics of the paczkis at TechSmith here. Too bad you can't smell or taste them. Come visit us next year and try one! Anyone interested?
Meet Dirk Frazier - Jing and Screencast.com Product Manager
Posted on Monday February 15, 2010
Up next in our behind the scenes interviews at TechSmith is Dirk Frazier. Dirk is the Product Manager of Jing and Screencast.com.
The video runs just over 8 minutes. Dirk fills me on his background, different roles he has had at TechSmith, what a typical day is like for him as a Product Manager, the exotic place he was born and... we also talked about the 5 minute screencast limit in Jing.
We've gotten a lot of feedback in the past about the 5 minute screencast limit in Jing. And, we'd love to hear your thoughts about the 5 minute screencast limit in Jing? Is it long enough or are you just getting started on your screencast? Chime in on the comments below.
The Jing Team and Dirk need all the feedback they can get to improve the product. Please send your feedback to the Jing team directly using this form. The more feedback and insight you can share as well as why you need something added or changed, the better. With your help, we can make better products!
Who would you like us to interview next at TechSmith?
Kelly Rush and I have been wandering the halls of TechSmith for our behind the scenes interviews. Cathy Nagle-Ervin left a comment on one of our recent videos requesting an interview with someone from Tech Support.
So Kelly and I headed down to our Tech Support department to grab some video. Meet Kate Sumbler, one of our seven Technical Support Specialists. Tech Support gets over 2,000 calls a month plus 2,000 emails for help on eight different products. And, they have written over 1,300 articles to help users. In this video, Kate will share with you what a typical day is like in Tech Support and how they can help. You'll also find about out the really unique gift her husband just got for her. The video runs just under 4 minutes.
Kate references this tutorial in the screencast about sharing files between Camtasia Studio (PC) and Camtasia for Mac.
By the way, we have a new YouTube channel - Channel TechSmith. We're adding new videos all the time. To keep up with the latest and greatest videos, we'd love it if you friended us or subscribed to Channel TechSmith.
Who else would you like to see us interview at TechSmith? How about our President, Bill Hamilton? What questions do you have for him?
Suggestions Needed - Screencaster Suggested Reading List
Posted on Sunday January 31, 2010
I recently had a request by email to share a list of suggested books for screencasters. So, I asked a few people around the office like Daniel Foster, our newsletter editor, Matt Pierce, our Customer Engagement Manager, and Dave McCollom, TechSmith's Education Evangelist.
And, I was also thinking about different elements of a screencast: preparation, planning, writing, graphics, presentation, storytelling and promotion.
Based on that, here are some of the books we came up on our suggested reading list for screencasters:
The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam - A picture is worth a thousand words. This book helps you create compelling graphics and visuals for your screencasts.
Beyond Bullet Points by Cliff Atkinson - learn how to use storytelling and graphics to effectively communicate. I've seen Cliff speak several times - he has wonderful advice!
slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations by Nancy Duarte - effective visual communication for your screencasts. Make great graphics especially when recording PowerPoint. I've seen Nancy present several times - every time I see her speak, I am in awe.
Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun - learn techniques behind what great communicators do and how to effectively present ideas. Use these tricks to make better screencasts.
The Screencasting Handbook by Ian Ozsvald - Ian has created hundreds of screencasts and his handbook reviews software and microphones, processes and techniques.
Promotion:
Get Seenby Steve Garfield - now that you've created your screencast, make sure your screencasts are promoted and seen!
LSSM (Lonely Single Screennoms Monster) Seeks Loving Adventurer!
Posted on Wednesday January 20, 2010
If you love making tasty screencasts and delicious captures with Snagit, Camtasia Studio, Camtasia for Mac, Camtasia Relay, Jing and Morae, there's a Screennoms Monster waiting to meet you! Meet the TechSmith Screennoms Monster!
We've been invaded by a bunch of Screennoms Monsters and they need new homes. If you'd like your own free Screennoms Monster, please fill out this form and we'll mail one out to you. First 100 people to respond get a monster - US only.
And, we'd love to see all the fun your Screennoms Monster has with you! Take him on an adventure, bring him to your office or take him around your hometown. Email us pics of his adventures or post them in our Flickr Group here. We've been using the hashtag #screennoms so its easy to find him.
The Screennoms Monster has already been to Scotland and met William Wallace, hung out in Ireland at the Guinness factory, visited Notre Dame in Paris, ran off to join the Blue Man Group in Las Vegas, hung out with the Laker Girls in Los Angeles, and has been spending lots of time around the TechSmith office.
You can also find the Screennoms Monster on Twitter at @screennoms. Follow him to find out about his adventures and the tasty screencasts and screencaptures he finds! Om nom nom!
Meet Mike Kujansuu - TechSmith Product Marketing Manager
Posted on Monday January 18, 2010
Kelly Rush, our videographer and I still wandering the halls of TechSmith to get interviews with the people behind the products you use. We recently caught up with Mike Kujansuu, the Product Marketing Manager for Camtasia Studio, Camtasia for Mac, Camtasia Relay, Morae and UserVue. In this video, Mike explains how to pronounce his last name 'Kujansuu', what a Yooper is, how he got started at TechSmith as an intern, and what a day in the life of a Product Marketing Manager is like. It's a quick video that runs 4:40 minutes.
As Mike mentioned, he also helped organize the Ugly Sweater Day at TechSmith. Check him out him in his festive red blazer.
We also had a request from a previous blog post to interview someone from Tech Support. Kelly and I will be interviewing Support tomorrow. Any other requests? Any questions?
Also, you might notice that Mike's video is on YouTube. We started a new Channel TechSmith on YouTube. We're adding new videos all the time. To keep up with the latest and greatest videos, we'd love it if you friended us or subscribed to Channel TechSmith. Stay tuned!
I was at CES and CodeMash last week. I met with lots of User Group leaders and people conducting workshops. And, that reminded me that it's been awhile since I've mentioned our Presentation Materials.
If you run a local User Group or professional association, or are conducting a workshop, class or brownbag, and would like to show off Snagit, Camtasia Studio, Camtasia for Mac, Jing, or Morae... we are happy to support you!
Feel free to fill out this request form here and we will send you eval CDs, product booklets, and other materials you need for your event. You can also find a generic PowerPoint presentation, product logos and more here.
Give us about a week for shipping the materials to you in the US, and two weeks for international shipments.
And, we'd love to come visit you. Please email me if you'd like us to participate at your event. We'll try to coordinate with you. If we can't attend your meeting in person, we can always set up an online meeting with you.
We're always looking to provide you with the materials you need. Are there other items you need for your workshops or meetings?
Meet Dave O'Rourke - Lead Camtasia Studio Developer
Posted on Tuesday January 5, 2010
Kelly Rush, TechSmith's videographer and I have been roaming behind the scenes at TechSmith and filming as part of our ongoing series about the people at TechSmith who make the products you use. This time, we stormed Dave O'Rourke's office. Dave is the Lead Developer for Camtasia Studio. As Lead Developer he's not only involved in software engineering and design, but he's also responsible for the code that makes Camtasia Studio work. Dave also steers the development of Camtasia Studio.
Dave started at TechSmith around the same time I did in 2000. There were less than 20 of us at TechSmith at that time! Now, we're over 200 people. Dave talks about his history at TechSmith, what a typical day is like for him, how he uses TechSmith products as a developer, how he uses the feedback you send, and what he loves about TechSmith.
It's a quick video running 4:37 minutes. Enjoy!
Any questions you would like to ask any TechSmithie? Kelly and I will be wandering the halls of TechSmith and conducting more interviews.
The thermometer reads 17°F today in Okemos, Michigan where TechSmith is located. And, Weather.com says it feels like 4°F (which I can confirm, it does feel that cold!). I have to admit, I am pretty happy to be hitting the road next week and heading to a warmer locale!
I'll be in Las Vegas for the Consumer Electronics Show, CES, next week (Jan 6 - 11). I will be looking for new webcams, microphones, computers and other new technology to use with Snagit, Camtasia, Morae and Jing. And, I'm also hoping to meet-up with any of you who are attending the show or are out in Las Vegas.
I'll be posting pics from the show floor and events here. If you're not attending, but would like me to scout out some new technology for you, let me be your roving reporter! :-) Just let me know what company you're interested in and I'll stop by.
If you're attending, I'd love to meet-up. Please feel free to call or text me at +1.517.410.0030, email me or leave a comment on this blog post.
I need to start packing today, but at least I can save some room in my luggage and leave my long johns behind in Michigan! Hope to see you on the road...
Our videographer, Kelly Rush, and I have been wandering the halls at TechSmith to show you what goes on behind the scenes at TechSmith and the people that are making the software that you use.
Kelly and I stopped in to see Paul Middlin, our Lead Developer for Snagit for Mac. He's been at TechSmith for several years and has held a variety of roles.
Paul shared with us his history at TechSmith, what he's been up to as the lead developer on Snagit for Mac, what a typical day is like for him, and even about the cheese-making class we had at TechSmith (yes, after hours several of us got together and learned how to make cheese! You can see some pics here!) ...
The video runs just under 3:30 minutes.
Hope you enjoyed the video! Do you have any questions you'd like me to ask around TechSmith? Let Kelly and I be your roving reporters!
Happy Holidays from TechSmith - It's the Most Robotic Time of the Year!
Posted on Sunday December 20, 2009
Robots are always cool, right? I've always loved them - in fact, I'm even knitting a robot army! At TechSmith, we're getting in the holiday spirit by celebrating the most 'Robotic' time of the year!
We made an electronic holiday card to celebrate the 'Most Robotic Time of the Year' which you can view here. It even has a TechSmith holiday jingle, some pics with our favorite robot around TechSmith, and... you can even download and make your own TechSmith robots (PDF)! We have a robot for each product!
I would love, love, love to see some pics of these TechSmith robots (PDF) in action! Please email me pics of the robots in action or post a link to their picture in the comments on this blog post. If you post pics of the robots online, please use the hashtag #techsmithrobot so I can find them.
The TechSmith robot visited several departments around the office for some fun. Check out some of the pics in the video below. Don't blame me if the song gets stuck in your head. :-)
And, be sure to check out this month's TechSmith Times newsletter. You'll find downloadable robot stamps, backgrounds, and a very important poll! If you could invite only one robot to your holiday festivities, who would it be? Be sure to cast your vote here! I'm going to have to agree with our newsletter writer, Daniel Foster, about Rosie the Robot Maid. I would love a robot to clean-up after me!
2009 was a great year because of you and your support! You've done so much for us and we appreciate it- you've given us feedback and helped us create better products, you've inspired us with your projects, you've done things with our products we never expected and, heck, you even read this blog! Thank you!
Be TechSmith's Guest at StackOverflow DevDays or Defrag
Posted on Wednesday October 14, 2009
I love loading up the car and heading out for a roadtrip! It's a good time to turn of the technology (expect for GPS!), clear my mind, and think creatively. And, once I reach my destination, I love meeting with our users, attending events, and learning about a new city and culture.
I have a few extra tickets for two upcoming events that you can enter a drawing to win!
The first conference I have a ticket to share with one lucky reader is the StackOverflow DevDays in Toronto on October 23. You can find out details on the event here. I'm attending this event with TechSmith's lead developer of Snagit for the Mac, Paul Middlin. If you'd like to meet up in Toronto, please let me know! Email, text or call me (+1.517.410.0030)
In November, we're heading to the Degrag 2009 conference in Denver, Colorado. I have one conference pass to give away.
To enter the drawing to win one of the free conference passes, please leave a comment on this blog post by 5:00pm EST, Friday, October 16. Please include:
A topic or idea you would like to me cover in a blog post on The Visual Lounge blog
Which conference you would like to attend - StackOverflow DevDays, Toronto or the Defrag Conference
At TechSmith, we are passionate about our users and our software. I thought I'd give you a peek behind the curtain and show you the people at TechSmith who make the products you use and who are here to help you. Kelly Rush, our Video Production Specialist, and I will be roaming the halls to get quick interviews with people who work at TechSmith in a variety of jobs and departments. Consider us your roving reporters!
Up first, meet Amanda Pardo. She's one of our Inside Sales Specialists! She'll tell you what a typical day is like in the Sales department and more. The video runs just over 2:30 minutes. Enjoy!
I've got someone new for you to meet. I know you'll like her! Meet Tiffany Wood - She's the new Snagit Product Manager!
Don't worry, Tony Dunckel, is still with TechSmith. He's recently been promoted from Snagit Product Manager to our Director of Web and Enterprise Services and he's still wearing the hat of the Jing Product Manager. So he's still got at least one foot in the fun stuff ;-)
I grabbed a quick video with Tiffany last week. Check it out below. It runs less than 2 minutes - meet Tiffany, and even hear which is her favorite football team. Any guesses?
And, I also had a chance to ask Tiffany a few questions. Here's what she had to say...
• How have images and screenshots changed your own communication for the better?
TW: I have been using Snagit for at least seven years, well before I was lucky enough to work here at TechSmith - I cannot imagine my life without it. I use Snagit every day. Screen captures visually convey ideas and concepts, guide people through a process, and add polish to presentations.
• What do you use Snagit for primarily?
TW: Right now, I use Snagit to create presentations about Snagit, capture feedback from customers, create mockups to share ideas, and capture receipts from online transactions.
I also enjoy adding funny callouts to pictures I send to family and friends back in Wisconsin.
• What are the last three captures in your Open Captures Tray?
TW: My last three captures are a pie chart illustrating the top feature requests for Snagit, a Snagit dialog box I had a question about, and the Green Bay Packers football schedule.
• Is there one feature of Snagit that has flat-out delighted you? Tell me about it...
TW: It's difficult to pick one feature, two of my favorites are the Tray in Editor so I can easily drag multiple captures together to create a composite capture. Another favorite is whenever I capture something online, like an interesting gift idea for my sister, Snagit stores the link to the website for me so I can go back later.
Tiffany is here to help you, to listen and to continue to make Snagit even better. You'll see her on the road at Tradeshows and on Twitter at @snagit. Do you have any questions for her?
UPDATE: I received a few questions about the route, so I added the map below.
We're celebrating Labor Day here in the US. And, while this is typically a day of rest for many people, there are several people at TechSmith who are definitely laboring this weekend! And while they're not logging time in at the office, they are spending time on the road.
In Michigan, we have an annual bicycle tour every Labor Day weekend called the DALMAC. Riders start at Michigan State University in lovely East Lansing and end in Mackinaw City or DeTour Village, Michigan. Depending on the route they choose, riders trek between 300 to 400 miles or more!
One of the nice things about working at TechSmith is that fellow TechSmithies enjoy not only working together, but also spending time outside of work together. And, this weekend is no different. We have several TechSmithies participating in the DALMAC Bicycle tour this weekend together. Good luck to the riders from TechSmith - Dewey Hou, Vice President, Product Development, Katie Lewis, Product Marketing Manager, Stacey Hansen, International Marketing Manager, Andy Rudnitsky, Software Engineer, Brian Lesperance, Sales Manager, and Brent Beckman, Channel Account Manager.
Check out this short video I made using Animoto with TechSmithies at the office cheering on our DALMAC riders plus some pics from the tour. Special thanks to Kelly Larson, our Channel Account Manager, for taking lots of pics at the office and of the TechSmith riders on the tour! There are lot of funny signs of encouragement mixed in with the pics. Enjoy!
Hope you enjoy this little peek behind the curtain at TechSmith! And, you are always welcome to visit us if you'd really like to see what happens behind the scenes. We love visitors! Just e-mail me. You can meet the teams, we'll take you to lunch, and maybe even on a bicycle ride - the ride would be less than 300 miles, I promise! :-)
I've never been good at keeping secrets. Even to this day, I still have a hard time keeping holiday gifts or other news as a secret - I just get so excited and have to share the good news!
So, blog readers, you get the benefit from my weakness! I'm going to let you in on a few secrets as we get closer to the launch of Camtasia for Mac on August 25.
Up first is a sneak peek of one of the new features in Camtasia for Mac - SmartFocus. Those of you familiar with Camtasia Studio on Windows will recognize this feature. Camtasia for Mac will also include TechSmith's patented SmartFocus technology.
How does SmartFocus work? You can record the whole screen while the SmartFocus technology keeps track where all the action happens during the recording behind the scenes. Then, when it's time to edit the video, SmartFocus automatically zooms in on the parts of the screen that I need to show which helps focus viewers attention. That means I can record full screen and deliver my screen recorded videos at any dimension with superb clarity at any size - whether it's for my blog, website, or an Apple mobile device like an iPhone.
SmartFocus is completely automatic, but if I choose, I can add and edit SmartFocus key frames for greater precision over zoom and pans, as well as edit key frames of any element on the timeline and change its location and properties over time. So, it can be automatic or customizable. Your choice.
It's great for creating dynamic screencasts or to highlight a particular section of your screen, or create a fly-over effect, or focus your viewer's attention for greater detail.
Want to see it in action? Check out this quick screencast. It is less than a minute long.
Look like a feature you'll use? What do you think?
You have probably already heard that we've been working on Camtasia for Mac. I'm happy to say that the wait is finally over ...well almost :-)
Camtasia for Mac will be available on August 25! Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing more information and details with you about the release.
Camtasia for Mac will have a special introductory price of $99, through the end of 2009. After that, the MSRP will be $149.
I've posted some preview screenshots of the UI (user interface) of Camtasia for Mac at the end of this blog post.
In the meantime, if you'd like to be alerted the minute Camtasia for Mac is available, please sign up here and we'll get the news to you as soon as possible. And, you can follow the news here on the blog and on twitter too.
Are you excited? Because we are! Thanks for all your feedback at tradeshows, events, via email, twitter, and blogs about Camtasia for Mac. We could not have created it without your input and help! And, we look forward to more feedback from you - you make our products better!
As you know, I love my job and I love working at TechSmith! :-)
I feel very fortunate that I look forward to going to my job to every day. And for me, my job is perfect - I'm surrounded by smart and inspiring TechSmithies and users who continually amazed me. And, I love working working with people (internal and external), utilizing technology, being creative, participating at tradeshows and in the community (online and off), and being a user advocate. Plus, I love the fact that every day is different - there is no typical day.
We've been building the Evangelist team over the last few years. Dave McCollom, our Education Evangelist, joined the team in 2007 and we're now ready to jump the pond and add a European Evangelist.
You may be wondering what kind of activities does this role do? Some activities include:
You'll need to be a power listener. As the old saying goes, "We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak." You'll need to do just as much (if not more) listening as talking. Dave and I each attend several conferences and events a year to get feedback and talk with our users. We speak at shows, work in the booth, coordinate meet-ups with users, etc. And, we make sure the user's voice is heard back at TechSmith so we can make products that meet the needs of our users.
We're evangelist for our evangelists! We spread the word about them online and offline - at tradeshows, on the blog and our website, and internally at TechSmith.
Get ready to write! Lots. You'll be sending lots of e-mail, writing blog posts, creating presentations, tweeting on twitter, writing articles...
You will also create lots of screencasts and screencaptures with Snagit, Jing, and Camtasia Studio. :-)
Interested in joining Dave and me on the Evangelist team? You can see the full job posting and requirements here. And, you can also apply online here.
I've got my mini bottles of shampoo packed and ready to go! I'm headed to the BlogHer where I will join over one thousand other bloggers. I'm looking forward to learning from them, being inspired and joining the conversation.
If you're in town attending the conference or are in Chicago, I'd love to meet-up for a meal or a beverage of your choice. :-) Just drop me an email, call or text me (517.410.0030) or contact me on Twitter @betsyweber
I need your feedback to share with the teams at TechSmith so we can make you better products. And, if you're really feeling crazy, I'd love to shoot a quick video or screencast with you. I'll be armed with my camera and video camera.
Any restaurants I should try out in Chicago or any recommendations for some new music? I've got a 4 hour drive ahead of me and I'll need something new and fun to listen to on the road!
It's that time of year... Time to dust of my comfy shoes so I can hit the tradeshows running!
At TechSmith, we're busy planning our travel schedules for the fall and 2010. Here's our current calendar of events. We're always looking to participate in events around the world.
That's where I need your help. I'd love to know what tradeshows or events you'd like to see TechSmith attend? Where would you like us come visit?
Dave McCollom, our Education Evangelist, also wants to know what Education events you want us to attend - leave him a comment on his blog here.
And, the best part of travel and tradeshows? I'll give you a hint... It's not going to an exotic location or spending time at the airport. :-) The best part is meeting you, hearing your questions, getting your feedback and seeing how you're using our software. Let us know where we should go and hopefully we'll see you this fall or in 2010!
By the way, that is Kathy Jacobs on the right in the pic above. She's a Snagit, Camtasia Studio and Jing user. We met at a tradeshow many years ago and she's become a lifelong friend. :-)
I'm happy to share some good news with you! My partner in crime, Dave McCollom, our Education Evangelist at TechSmith has just launched a brand new blog. Plus, he's added a new page chock full of great resources for educators that are using all TechSmith products.
There already are some tutorials and examples showing how to creatively use Snagit, Camtasia Studio and Jing in the classroom. Dave will be working to provide you with more content all the time. We made the site with you in mind and need your input on what you need and how to improve. So, poke around the site and let us know what you think.
Check out some useful links from the new site below!
Education Community Site
Screencast Tour of Community Site (also embedded in the first post on the Education Blog)
Education Blog
Want some creative inspiration in the classroom? Check out some of these ideas and examples (you can find more on the TechSmith Education Community site too!):
Introduction to Screen Capture in Education
Students Demonstrate Understanding via Video
Have a "digital hallway" to display student work
Create quick "how-to" guides for students and staff
Make a video for when you or students are absent
Provide Thorough and Personalized Feedback to Students
Capture Instructional Content for Additional Student Practice
If any of you educators out there have any Snagit, Camtasia Studio, or Jing content and/or stories that you'd like to share please let Dave know! And, please keep the feedback coming...
It's good to share, right? And, I have got something fun to share with you!
As you know, I love our products and I love stickers. We just got in some great new buttons and stickers and I thought many of you would like them too!
If you'd like some Snagit, Camtasia Studio and Jing stickers and buttons, please feel free to order them from here.
And, please, please, please email me some pics of you with your buttons and stickers. I'd love to see how you put them to good use!
Come Visit TechSmith! May 28 is 'Take Your Customers To Work Day'
Posted on Friday May 22, 2009
Now here's a 'holiday' I'm excited to celebrate and I hope you will join in too! I just learned that May 28th is 'Take Your Customer To Work Day'!
We like to think that every day is 'Take Your Customer To Work Day' at TechSmith and our doors are always open to visitors... We love it when users come to visit. We've even had people spend part of their vacation with us!
So, on May 28th, I'd like to invite you in to visit TechSmith in Okemos, Michigan. Come have coffee (or a beverage of your choice) and some sweet treats with us! Jen Middlin, the Community Relations Manager, and I will give you the grand tour, you can meet our president, Bill Hamilton, and our Product Managers and dev teams, training, tech support and more. And, more importantly, come give us your feedback and help shape the future of the products you use.
If you're interested in coming in from 1:00 - 3:00pm, on May 28, please RSVP here. Come on in - we've been waiting for you!
Can't make it on May 28th? We're happy to have you visit anytime! Just drop me an email and we'll set something up.
By the way - I learned of the 'Take Your Customer to Work Day' from Ben McConnell and Jackie Huba who write the Church of the Customer Blog, authored two books, "Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message" and "Creating Customer Evangelists" and created SWOM (Society of Word of Mouth). Ben and Jackie taught me just about everything I know and have a profound impact on my life and career! Seriously. I just learned that Ben went in for surgery last week for renal cell carcinoma (cancer of the kidney). Ben - From your friends at TechSmith (and me!) - we're wishing you a speedy recovery! You're in our thoughts...
I'm at 360|Flex this week and was at Microsoft TechEd last week. After talking with many of the attendees, I noticed that one of the things that the shows have in common is that a lot of participants also are active in User Groups. And, that reminded me of something that many newer blog readers may not know about. If you participate in a User Group or professional association, or are conducting a workshop, class or brownbag, and would like to show off Snagit, Camtasia Studio, Jing, Morae or UserVue... we are happy to support you!
Feel free to fill out this request form here and we will send you eval CDs, product booklets, and other materials you need for your event. Give us about a week for shipping the materials to you in the US, and two weeks for international shipments.
What else do you need from us to support your user groups and meetings better?
TechSmithies have descended on Los Angeles this week for Microsoft TechEd. If you're in the area or attending the show, I'd love to meet up! Beverage of your choice is on me! E-mail, call or text me (517.410.0030). I'm looking forward to a busy week doing demos in the booth and attending some sessions. Also, I don't know LA very well. Any advice on places to eat downtown?
I'll be posting pics of our travels here.
And, you can always see where in the world we are by visiting our Calendar of Events here. Any requests on where should travel to next or events we should attend?
New - Camtasia Studio 6 and Visual Lounge Blog in German
Posted on Tuesday March 31, 2009
Lots of good news at TechSmith today. In addition to putting FLV back in Camtasia Studio v6.0.2, I'm happy to announce that Camtasia Studio v6.0.2 is now available in German! Details are here.
And, we've launched a German version of the Visual Lounge Blog! The content will be similar to this blog, but in German :-) and with some additional contributing editors. So, for all the news, some tips and tricks and to see the great things people are doing with our German versions of software, please visit here.
On the road again... just can't wait to get on the road again! I always find myself humming that old Willie Nelson tune when I'm packing my suitcase.
And, this week is no different! On Monday (March 30), I'm heading San Francisco with Dirk Frazier, the Screencast.com Product Manager, and Justin Welsch, from R&D, for the Web 2.0 Expo.
It's my first year attending the Web 2.0 Expo so I'm excited to see what the conference is like. If you're in the Bay Area or attending the conference, we'd love to meet up. First round of a beverage of your choice is on me! Just email, call or text (cell: +1.517.410.0030) or tweet me!
"The stars at night, are big and bright... Deep in the heart of Texas!!!" I always think of that song when I'm in Texas. I'll spare you my singing (you can thank me later). Next week, the TechSmith crew is heading down to Austin, Texas for the SXSW Interactive Festival! Tony Dunckel - the Snagit and Jing Product Manager, Mike Kujansuu - the Camtasia Studio and Morae Marketing Manager, Brooks Andrus - Senior Flash Developer, and I are headed south to the event.
I have 10 One-Day Tickets to the SXSW Interactive Festival to give away! First come, first serve! The ticket is good for one of the following days:
Saturday, March 14, Noon - 6pm
Sunday, March 15, Noon - 6pm
Monday, March 16, Noon - 4pm
If you'd like a ticket, email me or contact me on Twitter (@betsyweber or @techsmith).
If you're in the area or attending SXSW, we'd love to meet up with you, hear your feedback about the products, do a screencast, or just hang out! Beverage of your choice is on me!
After SXSW wraps up, I'll be headed to Microsoft Mix09 in Las Vegas. Same rule there. Email or tweet me if you'd like to meet-up! I'd love to see you there!
Yes, I'm talking to you! :-) As you know, our software has been built on your feedback. It is better because of your input. Are you interested in participating in usability research projects to make TechSmith products work better for you? It is painless, I promise!
Our User Experience (UX) team is launching a major effort to collect a database of participants for their research projects. If you are interested in volunteering, there is a survey located here that will collect some of your background and demographic information. Make sure to include your email address - we will use it only to contact you about participation in TechSmith usability studies. Should you be selected for a study, you will be compensated for your time!
Oh, in case you're wondering, in the picture above is part of our UX team! Greg Smith from our Shipping Department took the pic.
One of my favorite sayings is, "A picture is worth a 1,000 words." We are visual beings. Evidence supports that people learn more from words plus visuals than from just words alone (see this post from the brilliant Kathy Sierra for more info). With that in mind, I'm headed to San Jose, on February 21, for the VizThink Conference which is all about Visual Thinking. If you're attending the show or are in the area, I'd love to meet-up!
One of the facilitators at the VizThink Conference is Dave Gray from XPLANE. He made a great Camtasia Studio video about to express yourself visually. Part of expressing yourself visually is to draw simple objects. His screencast shows how to draw a car using simple shapes. Follow along and draw some cars with Dave!
You can read Dave's blog post here about the video.
We're also having a Twitter 'tweet-up' before VizThink starts. If you're interested in meeting up on Saturday night, February 21, here are the details! See you there...
What's the old saying? 'Time flies when you're having fun!'. Well, I have been having lots of fun and I can't believe it is 2009 already. I swear time is moving faster. It has been awhile since I've given you an update on Camtasia for the Mac and I thought you might like a glimpse of some of our progress.
We've been running some usability tests on Camtasia for the Mac which have been very insightful. And, we've been making changes based on the feedback we're getting. Also, to give you an idea of its look and feel, here are some recent screenshots of the Recorder and Main User Interface.
And, in the software world, I've learned nothing is final until it is released to the public. So, please keep in mind that these are pre-release screenshots and things are subject to change. We're looking at a mid-2009 release. I do not have pricing info or final feature list for you just yet. As soon as I have more details, I'll post them here.
And, again, let me extend our thanks - we're building Camtasia for the Mac based on your feedback and comments. So, keep them coming. We appreciate your input and insight!
What's not to like about California in January... especially if you're coming from snowy Michigan!? A bunch of us at TechSmith are looking forward to getting out of the cold north and heading to San Francisco to the Macworld Conference & Expo.
And, we'd love to meet-up with you! I have some free expo hall guest passes for Macworld. If you'd like a couple passes, just email macworld@techsmith.com with your name and mailing address and we'll get them sent out to you. First come, first serve basis.
TechSmith will be in booth #3916. Stop by! Tony Dunckel, the Jing and Snagit Product Manager, and Troy Stein, the Camtasia Studio Product Manager, will be there. Tell them your feedback directly. They'd love to hear what you want and need in our products. And, I'll be there too. I'd love to meet-up - my treat for a beverage of your choice. You can contact me via email , cell (517.410.0030) or twitter (@betsyweber). Or better yet, get some free passes from us and stop by our booth!
I hope everyone is getting some time off this month for a little rest and relaxation as the year winds down. 2009 is right around the corner! We thought we'd help you get a jump start on 2009 so we created this crazy holiday calendar for you! That way you'll know when it is time to celebrate things like 'Pie Day' (January 23, in case you're wondering) or my favorite, 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'.
You can download and print your calendar here or drop me an e-mail if you'd like me to mail you one out.
Enjoy! And, from everyone at TechSmith, we wish you a joyous holiday season and all the best in 2009! Thanks for all of your support and feedback throughout the year - we appreciate it!
We Are All Family - Need Some Support from the Snagit Community
Posted on Wednesday December 10, 2008
I have some bad and good news to share. The bad news? Tony Dunckel, the Snagit Product Manager, lost his entire home to a fire last weekend. The good news? Everyone in his family made it out safely. Few of us will ever have to deal with a catastrophic loss like this and he's just at the beginning of the recovery process.
At TechSmith, coworkers are more like family than just other associates. And, the same goes for you. The Snagit community is more like family to us than a bunch of software users. That makes it particularly difficult when things like this happen.
I'm sure Tony and his family could use some kind words of support and encouragement. So, please drop them a comment below. I'd appreciate it and I'm sure they would too.
Is it a bad sign when your airline sends you a holiday card and they recognize you at the airport and on board the plane?! I checked my airline mileage the other day and noticed I have been lucky enough to have flown over 100,000 miles this year! One of the best parts of traveling is meeting with our users all over the world, hearing about their experiences first hand, seeing what they have created and learning from them.
And, this week is no different. I logged some quality time in the airport today. I'm in Paris this week for LeWeb. It is my last trip of the year. If you happen to be attending LeWeb or live in the area, I'd love to meet-up to swap screencasting or travel tips, talk about technology, wine, or even about Twitter (you can follow TechSmith on Twitter here or follow me here - I write them both).
Drop me an e-mail or call or text me at +1.517.410.0030 and we can meet-up! And, I can practice some of my French with you - Soyez toujours en communication!
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.
As many of you know, I end up traveling quite a bit for my job. This means I spend a lot of "quality" time going through airport security.
Part of the airport security routine is to remove your laptop from your bag for the scanner. Once you pass through the detectors, you are greeted on the other side by several of the same looking laptops piled up together... grey HP, Dell, and Toshiba laptops everywhere! I wonder how many people pick up the wrong laptop?! So, I've been adding stickers to my laptop - not only for fun, but so I can easily identify my laptop in a sea of grey laptops! :-)
We just got in some new stickers and pins for SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Jing! And, I'd like to share them with you. They are perfect for your laptops, notebooks, backpacks, tripods, etc... You can request the stickers and buttons online using this form here. We have a limited amount so put in your request early. Yes, we will ship internationally. And, yes, they are free. Just put them to good use.
I'd love to see your stickers and buttons in action! E-mail your pics to me, post links in the comments on this post or tag your photos so we can find them on Flickr or other sites as SnagItSticker, CamtasiaSticker, JingSticker, SnagItButton, CamtasiaButton, JingButton.
A couple of us are traveling from TechSmith to the BlogWorld Expo on Friday! I've never been to the event and am looking forward to attending. If you're in the Las Vegas area or attending the show, stop by the TechSmith booth, drop me a line or call (+1.517.410.0030).
And, to see the entire TechSmith calendar, click here. You can also see what events Dave McCollom, TechSmith's Education Evangelist, and I are attending here.
I was thinking about the last time I visited London. I was a senior at Michigan State University on spring break. I had a great time seeing the city, trying a full English breakfast (complete with baked beans!), riding the tube, visiting Piccadilly Circus and other landmarks. I even had a brush with royalty! I saw Prince Charles at a movie premier (OK, so I was in a crowd of people with a gate between him and the fans, but I did see him!).
On that note, I'm very excited to head across the pond for several fantastic events in September. And, I have no doubt this trip will be just as exciting if not more so! And, I'd love to meet-up with you along the way!
My first stop is on September 3rd at the London Geek Dinner (big thanks to Ian Smith and Cristiano Betta for organizing) - The London Geek dinner is a social evening for geeks and geek-friends. Come on out. I'll buy you a beverage of your choice!
After that, I'm headed down to Brighton, UK for dConstruct. dConstruct is a conference for "people designing and building the latest generation of social web applications".
I'm also visiting with Stewart Milton of BlueOrange (Remember he does the Morae Boot Camps?) I'll be doing some videos with him. Do you have any questions I should ask him?
I am attending the VizThink London event, "Why the Vision thing is a Visual thing". I'm a big believer in Visual Thinking so I'm excited to attend this event.
I'd love to meet-up! If you're in England or Scotland and would like to talk shop, drop me an e-mail, call or text me (+1.517.410.0030), or contact me via Twitter! I'll be roaming around September 3 - 12.
Or, if you can't meet-up, do you have any travel advice for me? Where should I go, what should I see, where should I eat in Brighton, London, Glasgow and Edinburgh? I'll be posting pictures along the way here and hope to get some great video as well.
Meet Dave McCollom - TechSmith Education Evangelist
Posted on Monday August 25, 2008
Students have flooded the campus of Michigan State University which is right next door to TechSmith. That means longer lines at the grocery store, freshman driving the wrong way down one way streets and general chaos. On the plus side, that also means football, basketball and hockey season are on their way! With schools getting back in session, I thought I'd introduce you to a great resource at TechSmith dedicated to Education. Meet, Dave McCollom! He's our Education Evangelist. He's focused on K-12 and Higher Education full time. So, if there's anything you need, feel free to put him to work. His contact info is below.
We shot a quick video in our office so you could 'meet' Dave. And, he is also our guest blogger today. And, with that, I'll let Dave take it away... enjoy!
Thanks for the intro Betsy. I think what you were really trying to say is that I am the Oates to your Hall, right? Or maybe vice-versa? Maybe that's a poor analogy anyway, because in a way this post is about launching a solo project of mine. In the not so distant future, TechSmith will be launching a new site for educators. The initial thought was for me to have a blog like Betsy's, but to have it be focused on educational users/content. That still may be the route we go, but before we get too far ahead of ourselves, we'd like to ask you (Educators) what you would like from us. You can help us by filling out this quick 10 question survey located here. If you have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions that don't relate to any of the survey questions please feel free to send me an e-mail (d.mccollom(at)techsmith.com). This is the same survey that was sent out in our recent Education Newsletter.
So without further ado, here is our intro video. It's a short one running 3:28 minutes (let the entire video load for best results). Don't forget to fill out the survey when you're done!
Materials used to make the video:
* Sanyo Xacti HD1000 Camcorder
* HP Compaq 8510p
* QuickTime Pro
* Camtasia Studio
* Hosting by Screencast.com
I recently got a new video camera and I wanted to put it to the test. Since we get a lot of questions about audio and how we record the audio for our videos, I figured this would be a good video to start with. I stopped by the Training department yesterday to record a little tour of our homemade sound booth with Matt Pierce, our Training Manager. The video runs just over 2:30 minutes. Matt will share why and how they made it, the materials they used, costs and some tricks they learned. It is not as hard or as expensive as you might think.
Materials used in this video:
Hardware:
* Sanyo Xacti HD1000 Camcorder
Software:
* QuickTime Pro
* Camtasia Studio
By the way, if you want to have fun in the office, just walk around with a video camera. It is interesting to see people's reactions - they either ham it up or they run quickly!
I hope to do more of these little behind the scenes videos with a variety of people at TechSmith in all departments. Do you have any requests or questions you'd like me ask our developers, designers, sales, tech support or ??? Let me be your roving reporter inside of TechSmith.
I've been thinking a lot about snow lately. Hard to imagine as the weather is great here in Michigan right now. But, we often work on projects several months in advance at TechSmith. So, even though it is July, we had a meeting about our yearly TechSmith holiday card the other day. And, that's what got me thinking about snow!
In the meeting we decided we wanted you to star in the holiday card! And, that's why I need your help! Please send me a pic, starring you, with something that represents or is meaningful to you from your favorite holiday. Maybe it's a picture of you holding that a homemade Valentine or you with that homemade pie for Pi Day! We're looking for holidays throughout the year that are celebrated around the world.
Here are the specs for the pics:
Images that are at minimum 1600×1200, Smaller is ok
Preferred formats would be png or Uncompressed jpeg
E-mail your pics to me. Please include in your email:
Your name (title or job function and company if you'd like them included)
Blog or website address
What holiday you've chosen and why it is meaningful to you
Which TechSmith products you use
I could use the pics by August 11 if possible. Don't worry - I'll probably nag you again when the deadline is closer. ;-) We'll use every pic that is sent to us either online or in print. They will all get used.
And, by the way, the cool pic in this post is from our 'unofficial' photographer at TechSmith - that's Kate Sumbler from Tech Support!
TechSmith Meet-ups - ASTD, STC and Microsoft TechEd
Posted on Saturday May 31, 2008
It's almost June and that means that tradeshow season is in full swing! Several TechSmithies will be spending some quality time at airports, hotels and tradeshow booths. That's where you come in! If you're attending ASTD, STC or Microsoft TechEd, we'd love to meet-up with you! I will be working the booth at ASTD and TechED. Feel free to e-mail or call (517.410.0030 - cell) if you'd like to meet-up. Details are below! Hope to see you on the road!
ASTD
When: June 1-4
Where: San Diego, CA - San Diego Convention Center
Booth #304
STC
When: June 1-4
Where: Philadelphia, PA - Pennsylvania Convention Center
Booth # - 430/432
Microsoft TechEd
When: June 10-13
Where: Orlando, FL - Orange County Convention Center
Meet Gudrun Cruz (pictured left). She's been busy, busy, busy. She does a variety of things at TechSmith and one of them being German Tech Support.
Gudrun has been busy writing over 60 articles for the top issues and questions from German customers. She has written articles ranging from "how to snag images from SnagIt itself", or "how to find the optimal frame rate in Camtasia Studio" to "error messages during installation and how to deal with them".
You can find the articles, written in German, here. You can also contact Tech Support directly from there and you can keep your own selection of questions and answers saved for later reference. Gudrun will continue to add answers to the database. And, best of all, you can use this resource 24/7.
What else would make your life easier and be helpful for you when you use our products?
Break out the ziplock bags, suitcase and mini bottles of shampoo that are less than 3 ounces...It's time to head out to some tradeshows!
Up first is Microsoft Mix in Las Vegas! I'll be there March 4 - 7. I'm excited to hear what's going on with Microsoft technologies like Silverlight and there is a great User Experience Track. I'm excited to see the keynote from one of the first tech Evangelists - Guy Kawasaki! And, I'm looking forward to meeting new friends as well as seeing old friends like David Crow, Josh Holmes, Nicole Simon, Jay Goldman and more.
TechSmith will have a booth at the SXSW Interactive Festival. I'll be there March 7 - 12. Have questions about Camtasia or SnagIt? Want to see Jing in action? Stop by! We'd love to meet you and give you a demo.
If you're attending either show or are in the area, drop me an e-mail or call me on my cell, +1.517.410.0030. I'd love to chat with you about future projects, screencasting, product feedback, twitter, hockey, or whatever topic you choose! And, if you can't attend the shows, I'd love to be your roving reporter. Any sessions you'd like me to attend?
And, if you're traveling around that time, look for me in the airport. I'll be the one wearing a SnagIt t-shirt clutching a zip lock bag full of tiny 3 ounces bottles, :-)
We have some exciting news about the TechSmith User-to-User Forums. We have some new moderators right from the forum community to help out in there! They're all very knowledgeable on TechSmith products. And, chances are that you have already 'met' them if you've visited the forums as they're each active and helpful in the forums.
Here's a little bit more about each of them:
Richard Campbell (forum name: campbell79)
Richard is an Associate Professor of Accounting at the University of Rio Grande.
His videos have been shown off multiple times on the Visual Lounge here. He has also authored several accounting books. You can see Richard's vita here.
Manny Carvalho (forum name: Manny Carvalho)
When I was 9, my family emigrated to the USA from my native Portugal. As an Analytical chemist I learned about computers in graduate school. I actually minored in Computer Science and learned how to program in Fortran. It was main frames and punch cards back then at the University of Pittsburgh in the late 70's. Computers have modernized many of the analytical techniques and made them significantly more useful. Since we retired and moved to the beautiful north Georgia mountains, computers have become a time consuming hobby. I enjoy learning about them and helping people where I can. I certainly have learned quite a bit from helping others. Due to this activity, I was awarded a Microsoft MVP in the Windows Shell/User category in October 2003 and again in 2004.
John Kirk (forum name: srsuptech):
As soon as I started using SnagIt several years ago I was hooked on TechSmith software. Like many of you the use of SnagIt is what introduced me to Camtasia. I have been using Camtasia Studio since version 1.0 During the day time I use Camtasia and Vegas at work while at night I use Camtasia to create short tutorials as a freelancer. Over the past years I have gotten to know many of the great people at TechSmith include the "GREAT" Betsy "Blogger" Weber.
Daniel Park (forum name: danielpark)
Daniel is a former TechSmithie who departed back in 2003 to start dappertext LLC, his own consultancy that specializes in content creation. And for screen video, Camtasia Studio is his tool of choice. He flies all over the world to do Camtasia Studio training for companies, government agencies, and academic institutions, but he spends most of his professional time actually creating tutorials and marketing spots for organizations that lack the time or talent to do it themselves. He's the author of Camtasia Studio: The Definitive Guide, now in its third edition (for v5). He lives in Huelva, Spain.
Ute Simon (forum name: ute-s)
Ute Simon started working with PowerPoint in 1997. She is working in IT training and support with a large international advertising agency. Training the employees in PowerPoint and other Office programs and helping them to solve their software problems is her daily business. Furthermore she develops templates and optimized presentations for clients and colleagues. But she also shares her knowledge in the German and international Microsoft PowerPoint newsgroup and other communities. Together with a team of nine other PowerPoint experts she maintains the website http://www.ppt-user.de, offering tips and tricks for users and presenters and issuing a monthly newsletter (in German).
Please welcome our new Forum Moderators! I'd like to extend a big thank you to each of them! And, remember, if you need tech support, visit here for support.
How do you sum up a year in just one post? I've been struggling with this post for awhile. Should I make a list of lessons learned, resolutions I know I'll break, or something completely different. Unsure of what parting words or great wisdom to share with you for 2007, I thought I'd simply say, 'thank you'.
I mean, at the end of the day, that's what matters...you! I'm so grateful you have supported and helped each other, TechSmith and me. You've inspired us and shared so much of your feedback and ideas. Our products and TechSmith are better because of you! And for this, I thank you!
And, what's up for 2008? Good question! If you had asked me this same question last year, I never could have guessed where 2007 would have taken us. I would have never predicted things like a Screencasting group or a Screenshot Addict group in Facebook. Or, meet-ups in Second Life or getting feature requests via Twitter. I do know we've got some exciting new blog series planned for 2008...watch for them soon. Maybe we'll pull another all-nighter screencasting again! :-) Keep the feedback coming and tell us where to go and what to do in 2008.
I look forward to another year of learning with you, sharing with you, meeting-up, and listening and talking with you. Thanks for a great year and for reading and commenting on the Visual Lounge blog! I can't wait to see where 2008 takes us! All the best in 2008!
I've posted about this in the past, but we have many new readers and I wanted to make sure everyone knows that you're invited to visit TechSmith. We love visitors! If you're ever in Okemos, Michigan, you are welcome to stop in.
We've had people visit us on vacation from as far away as Florida! Remember Phil Parr? I can't think of a better way to spend a vacation. :-)
Drop me an e-mail or call me on my cell, +1.517.410.0030 and I'll gladly schedule time for you to go on a quick tour, raid the swag room, meet the product teams so you can give them your feedback directly...and...if you come in on Friday, you can have lunch with the entire company! One of the cool things about TechSmith is that every Friday we all get together for lunch. It's a great time to catch up with friends from other departments or buildlings (we're in 4 buildings now).
Kate Sumbler from Tech Support took the pic of our front door. Come in and visit her too! She'll help you out on any of your SnagIt or Camtasia Studio questions...in person!
Just wanted to give you a quick update. We will be making some changes in the Forums (hopefully today). You may experience some downtime while we make the upgrades.
Also, we will be changing the topics to make the forums easier to navigate. No more Basic or Advanced topics. We'll have the following topics:
Questions and Answers
Tips, Tricks and Techniques
Feature Requests
Gallery (a place to show off your cool projects and work)
Thanks for using the forums. Feel free to e-mail me any feedback and requests or post in the comments here.
Our A/C isn't working and it's about 90 degrees in my department!
The lights are burnt out in my office!
The dishwasher is overflowing! What should we do?
Hi, my name is Renee and these are examples of the many calls I receive each week here at TechSmith. My official job title is Customer Service Manager, but I also wear many other hats. One of those hats is the "unofficial space allocation/facilities manager/broken desk/there are ants in my office /the toilet is plugged again/my chair is broken...........manager". I'd like to see someone try to fit that on a business card!
I can always rely on these calls to spice up my day. Since moving to our current location in late 2002, we have added over 100 employees. We started out in one large building and we were quite excited about it, as we had just moved from a two building location. Two buildings just seemed so inconvenient. Well, that didn't last long as we soon had to expand to a second building in May 2004, a third building in July 2006 and a fourth building in May 2007! We used to refer to the buildings by their addresses, but by the addition of the third, it soon went to Buildings #1, #2, #3, and eventually #4 because all of those address numbers just got plain confusing!
I am a veteran of moving at TechSmith, as I've occupied 5 different office/cubicles in my 5 years here. I don't mind much at all - I actually welcome the change of scenery. However, I'll admit that I do occasionally get confused. In July I took a week off for vacation. When I came back, I couldn't remember for the life of me what the address was of my newest building. I actually had to walk down the hall and ask someone where I was!
All of these growing pains are welcome ones to me because it means that TechSmith is a successful company. I'm glad to take these calls, because in my eyes they mean growth and job security! But don't get me wrong, I do hope that we can all be under one roof sometime in the near future, as it would make my life much easier!
I'm on road this week and next week in Vancouver, Seattle and Dallas for a few events (Ignite Seattle 4, Gnomedex and more). So, I won't have as much time as I'd like to write for the blog. And, since one of the goals of this blog is to show you inside TechSmith and the people behind the products, I thought it would be nice to have some guest bloggers from some of my fellow TechSmithies.
So, watch for posts from all different departments over the next few weeks. They'll give you their inside perspective, tell you what a day at TechSmith is like, their tips and tricks and more.
And, I'd love to have some guest bloggers from outside of TechSmith. Got a cool project or screencast to show? Any tips and tricks that will help others? Drop me an e-mail...I'd love to show you off.
I hope to see you on my travels! Drop me an e-mail, call me on my cell (517.410.0030) or find me in the airport. I'm the one usually wearing the SnagIt t-shirt.
Come kick the tires on the new TechSmith Learning Center! The Training Department at TechSmith has been working hard at updating our Learning Center. You'll notice the Learning Center has a new look and feel to it so hopefully it is easier to navigate. You'll find lots of training material to get you started on all of our products. And, they're adding new tutorials and videos all the time!
And, I know the Training Department would love to know from you what kind of tutorials and content you need. Would you more training about audio in Camtasia or more information about the different file formats in SnagIt? What would you like to learn more about? Feel free to leave comments here on the blog with your training requests or email training here. I'll make sure the Training Manager, Matt Pierce (pictured below) sees your requests.
You will start to notice some changes here on the Visual Lounge starting on Friday. We've been working hard to redesign and move the blog to a new blogging platform. We're moving to MovableType by SixApart to help everyone have a better experience with the blog. And, I like that SixApart has a Chief Evangelist too, Anil Dash! :-)
I hope you'll like the new changes - it should be easier to find old posts and we'll have tags and categories soon. And, when you post a comment, you'll be able to link to your own site or blog.
I just wanted to give everyone the heads-up. So, if something is not working as it should, you'll know what is going on. And, there is a small possibility that we might lose a comment or two in the process, but we're working to make everything port over and function properly. So, please bear with us and thanks for your continued support!
I was looking at our User Forums the other day and the topics seemed a little confusing to me. We have a 'Basic' and 'Advanced' Forum for each product. I mean, what constitutes a 'basic' question versus an 'advanced' one? What's the difference anyway?
So, how would you feel if we changed up of the forums a little? For each product have something like this:
Questions and Answers
Tips, Tricks and Techniques
Feature Requests
Gallery (a place to show off your cool projects and work)
On a side note, if you need tech support, visit Tech Support's site here. Tech Support does not monitor the forums at this time...
We're always working on new versions of our software and I wanted to get your input for future releases. If you were the Product Manager for SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, Morae, UserVue or Screencast.com, what would you do?
What would you add or change if you could do anything to the products? There must be at least one thing you'd add!
Comment away! I'll make sure the product teams get the feedback. Maybe we'll name a new feature after you. ;-)
I thought I'd share the good news with you! TechSmith is on the move! We're staying in mid-Michigan and moving our headquarters to Lansing, Michigan.
Currently we're down the road in Okemos, Michigan and are housed in several different buildings. Not only is it difficult logistically, but it's just not fun to trudge through the snow to other buildings for meetings.
Click here to read more about our expansion. You can even watch a video showing some of current office and an interview with our President and Founder, Bill Hamilton (he's pictured below).
There's another video here about our news. This video shows other parts of our office building and there are different interview questions for Bill Hamilton.
And, as the article states, we are expanding - not just our office space, but also the staff. If you'd like to work at TechSmith, get the ball rolling and check out our career opportunities by visiting here. I have so much fun on the job that it can hardly be called work! Don't you want to come work with us?
I checked with the team updating our forum and thought you'd like to know the status of them too.
The new server for the forum was set up last week. The data import from the old forum to the new forum is complete and we're getting ready to start some internal testing before making them public again.
When everything is running smoothly and passes our test, we'll launch the forums and send out new passwords to the existing forum members.
Thanks for your patience. We want the forums to be better than ever.
For those of you that frequent the TechSmith User Forums, I wanted to let you know that we're getting ready to update our forums. The forums will be down while we're revamping and updating them.
In the interim, please feel free to visit our other resources like the Newsletters, Learning Center, Support Center, and of course, the Blog.
Sorry to cause any inconvenience. We'll be back soon with a new fresh look and better functionality. Maybe the forums will even have that new car smell! Stay tuned!
Woo hoo! I was looking through the archives of our newsletters for a link noticed that there is now an option to subscribe to the newsletters with RSS (Real Simple Syndication)!
Since my inbox is a disaster, I prefer to get info like newsletters via RSS. That way it does not clog my inbox or get blocked by our spam filter. I'm an RSS junkie and have subscriptions to hundreds of feeds.
If you'd like to learn more about RSS, check out this great Camtasia Studio screencast from Alex Barnett here. It's an oldie, but a goodie. Or, visit here for more info about RSS.
Get the newsletters any way that you can, RSS or e-mail. They come out about once a month and are full of tips and tricks. Plus, they're entertaining!
Tag - You're it! 5 things about me, SnagIt, Camtasia and Morae...
Posted on Sunday January 7, 2007
There's a meme working it's way quickly through the blogosphere. I've been tagged by Chris Haaker and I am suppose to share 5 things you don't know about me. So, I'll play along...with a twist.
Prior to TechSmith, I worked at a dot bomb. Before that I worked as a software trainer and in tech support. I started at TechSmith in 2000 as the Camtasia Studio Product Manager.
I studied Latin in high school. Need anything translated? How about, 'Veni, Vidi, Screencasti'? I came, I saw, I screencasted. Or, what about, 'Cogito Ergo Screencast'? I think, therefore I screencast. OK, I'll spare you any more bad puns. :-)
I jumped out of a perfectly good plane...and I liked it! Yes, I've been skydiving.
I'm crafty...I can't sit still and like to try new things, so I'm always trying a new craft like knitting, felting, cake decorating (need a wedding cake? I can make it!), soap and candle making...really anything I can get my hands on. I wonder how they'd feel if I started knitting during meetings at TechSmith? Nah, better not try it.
I broke my wrist playing a midnight game of roller hockey in college. I was one of the few women in the Michigan State Roller Hockey Club back in the day. I had a final exam later that morning. In case you're wondering, my injury did not improve my test score. Not one of my smarter moves.
Here's the twist...to keep this post useful for you, I thought I'd expand on this meme and share with you 5 features you might not know in SnagIt, Camtasia and Morae. Get to know these features...
SnagIt:
SnagIt Capture File (.snag) - Ever added text or objects to your capture and later decided you wanted to change something? No need to remake your capture from scratch - you can modify or edit your text and objects any time if you save your capture in the .snag file format. If you save your image as a .snag file, you can open it later in the SnagIt editor to change the vector objects (Lines, Arrows, Shape, Highlight, Paintbrush, Stamp, Callouts and Text tools). You can read about it here.
Flash into PowerPoint - In the past, it has not been easy to add Flash into PowerPoint. If you added the SnagIt toolbar (version 8.1 or later) into PowerPoint, it's now easy to add your .swf files to your presentation. There should be a button on the SnagIt toolbar to 'Insert Flash into Presentation'. Perfect for adding those .swf's made with SnagIt or Camtasia. More info is here.
Capture Web Pages with Links - I love this feature. You can capture a web page with SnagIt and all the links remain active and clickable! You can even add your own links and hotspots. You can read more about this feature here.
Web Capture - Ever go to a site and need to capture multiple images? Try Web Capture - it's faster than capturing single images and it's easy. You can specify any public website URL and tell SnagIt to capture all the images. Then, it stores them in a folder to view, manipulate, save or print. More info can be found here.
Multiple Output - Sometimes when I take a capture I want to print, email and save the capture. In the past, I would have re-taken the screenshot for each output. But, you can actually send your captures to a variety of outputs at once. You can read more here.
Camtasia:
EXE Output - There's a neat little feature in Camtasia Studio called, Pack and Show that allows you package your video for easy sharing with your viewers. Pack and Show creates an executable (.EXE) file that your viewers can double click on to unpack the file, install the TSCC code and Camtasia Studio Player (if you have included them) and play the movie. You can read the instructions here.
Theater - If you want to add DVD-like navigation to your flash videos, you can use Theater. You can find more info about Theater here.
Screen Draw - don't have a Tablet PC, but would like to do some inking in your videos? You still can. There's a feature built into Camtasia Recorder called ScreenDraw. It allows you to draw on your desktop while you record a video. You can find out more about it here.
AutoPan - In Camtasia Recorder, there's a handy feature called AutoPan that follows your cursor as you record. So, you can record at a fixed region and still record all the mouse movements across the screen. Your recording follows the action. You can find out more about this feature here.
Fade Picture-in-Picture (PIP) - I was just using this feature tonight on a video I am producing. There's an option that you can select to have a nice smooth fade in and out of your PIP video, You can find out more about this feature here.
Morae:
Export Search Results - Working on a team for projects? You can share your search results will everyone, (even people without Morae) with the Export Results feature. In Morae Manager, you can export the search results into a comma-delimited file so you can view it later. It's also a handy feature if you need to combine data from multiple sessions in one file. More info can be found here.
Title Clips - Once you've completed your tests and want to share a highlight video, you can make custom title clips at the beginning of your video. It's a nice touch to add logos and graphics or a great way to introduce key findings in your study. You can read more about this feature here.
Automatic Start - You can have Morae automatically start recording when a participant launches or closes a specific app. No need for the facilitator to interrupt the participant to start recording. You can read more about this feature here.
Audio Notes - Go beyond text notes. You can add audio notes to any markers, segments, video clips and title clips that are created within Morae Manager. Audio Notes are nice because you can provide more richer information than with text notes alone. You can find out more here.
Save screenframes - In Manager you can save screenframes. These are perfect to include in highlight videos and reports (even better if you annotate using SnagIt - insert shameless plug here). Screenframes and annotated screenshots can also be included on title slides in videos.
This is the longest blog post ever. You deserve a prize if you made it this far.
I'm suppose to tag more people. Since I just saw the GottaBeMobile Crew out here at CES, I'm tagging them! Rob, Dennis, Warner, and Matt...I'd like to know 5 things about you and 5 cool things about Tablet PCs.
Notice anything weird in the screenshot below that I took of the blog this morning? Only the subject and comments were showing on the blog...the text, graphics and videos were missing!
The blog was down for a short time yesterday and today because it was hacked! I thought we had lost all 282 posts! But, the good news is that someone smarter than me backed up the blog. And thanks to our lovely webstaff, we are back up and running. I can exhale now...
Flash Video, Aardvark'd, Joel on Software and more...
Posted on Thursday December 28, 2006
I was going through our inventory the other day and found a few extra copies of some great books and DVDs. Rather than have them sit around, I thought they should be put to good use.
I have 2 copies of the Flash 8 Video book by TechSmith friend, Tom Green (remember him from here?) and Jordan Chilcott.
Which reminds, me...The Flash 8 Video book is from Friends of Ed. They're running a Flash Video contest called Video:FLV'ED, through December 31. You can win a copy of Camtasia Studio among other great prizes like an Apple Macbook. Details are here.
Also, remember last year when we went to Fog Creek Software's office to use Morae to conduct usability testing on their new product, Copilot? You can read all about it here or here. While we were there, they were filming a documentary called, Aardvark'd. I have a few extra copies of the Aardvark'd DVD up for grabs. Also, Aardvark'd is being shown on the Documentary Channel - looks like you can catch it on January 5.
And, I have a few autographed books to share from Joel Spolsky of Joel on Software and Fog Creek Software fame! I have 3 copies of the following:
Joel on Software - If you don't know Joel, you should. I'm a huge fan of Joel's blog, Joel on Software - I learn something from him in every post. This book is a collection of some of the best articles from his blog. You don't have to be a developer to gain value from this book (or his blog) - It's useful for anyone in product or project management, managers, designers...heck, this book is useful if you work with or know a developer!
User Interface Design for Programmers - This is an entertaining and valuable book that teaches you about good User Interface (UI) design. My favorite chapter is chapter 13 - Those Pesky Usability Tests. Joel talks about "The Joel Uncertainty Principle" which states, "You can never accurately measure the usability of a software prodcut". You'll have to read the book to find out more! It also goes over how to conduct usability tests that actually work. You can read more about the book here. This is a great book for all you Morae and UserVue users out there.
The Best Software Writing I - I loved this book. When I heard about Joel's book being about software writing, I was skeptical that it would be engaging. Believe it or not, the essays are interesting and from a wide range of contributors!
All of the books by Joel Spolsky are autographed. How cool is that?! Keep in mind that all of Joel's books are good for just about anyone - you don't need to be a developer.
I'm not going to make you jump through any hoops for these or conduct some elaborate contest. I just ask that you put the books to good use and read them. Maybe give yourself some good karma and pass them on when you're done. E-mail me if you'd like one of the books or Aardvark'd DVD. I'll post in the comments when all the books and DVDs have found new homes.
Happy holidays from all of us at TechSmith! We have so many things to be thankful for this season and we're especially thankful for you. We're not just thankful at the holidays, but we're thankful for you all year long!
That brings me to another subject. We had some great holiday cards made this year. They're actually calendars with some fun ideas on what to do with all those old CDs you might have lying around. If you'd like your own copy, you can download the PDF here. They're made to fit in a CD holder (instructions included in the PDF).
I have some extra calendars. If you'd like me to send you one of our calendars, drop me an e-mail and include your name and shipping info.
Got any other ideas on what to do with all those old CDs?
What to get your favorite screencaster for the holidays...
Posted on Friday December 22, 2006
I was inspired by Podcast expert, Leesa Barnes blog post about what to get your favorite podcaster for Christmas. That got me thinking...what would be the ultimate gifts for that screencaster in your life?
I divided the gifts up into three price levels - 'Loved-One', 'Liked-One' or 'That cousin you don't really know much about'...
Loved-One:
DVCam with mini tripod (we're partial to a Sony HDCam around here)
Adobe Premiere Elements - so they can tape and do some editing to the DV footage (export to AVI or WMV to use with Camtasia Studio)
Professional studio mic or USB Condenser mic (I've been using the Samson C01U)
Professional light/light kit
Camtasia Studio :-)
Liked-One:
Webcam (high-end one like the Logitech QuickCam Pro 5000 or Microsoft)
Lapel mic or headset microphone
2 x fluorescent neon tube lights (to turn vertically and use for lighting)
SnagIt :-)
That cousin you don't really know much about:
Webcam (whatever's cheap at Best Buy)
Standing garage halogen light (for decent lighting on the cheap)
Fun extras? How about green posterboard or fabric for chroma key green screen. We have a new green screen at TechSmith (we'll be putting that to good use in 2007!). And, they'll need something to show off their screencasts like a video iPod.
I've said it before, I'll say it again...I love our users, our products, TechSmith and my job! I feel very lucky to have a job where I enjoy going to work everyday...
We're ready to expand our department more! This is where you come in...
We have a newly created position to join our team - Special Market Liaison. You can find out about the position here.
How did I started in evangelism? I started as the Product Manager for Camtasia at TechSmith which I loved doing - I got to work with our users and all different departments at TechSmith. In 2003, we all read the book, the Tipping Point at TechSmith. From there, I decided it was something I wanted to do full time and thankfully the President of TechSmith, Bill Hamilton, allowed me to do create a new position. I was the first person with the evangelist title at TechSmith and I've been doing it for the last three years. My job is based on two books, the Tipping Point and Creating Customer Evangelists These two books changed my life and I cannot live without them! I highly recommend them for everyone!
You may be wondering what kind of activities does this role do?
You'll need to do just as much (if not more) listening as talking. I attend several conferences and events a year to get feedback and talk with our users. I speak at shows, work in the booth, coordinate meet-ups with users, etc. And, I make sure the user's voice is heard at TechSmith.
I'm an evangelist for our evangelists! I spread the word about them online and offline - at tradeshows, on the blog and our website, and internally at TechSmith.
Get ready to write! You'll be doing lots of e-mail and writing in general!
There is no typical day. Everyday is different. I love that!
You'll be doing all these things and more. Read about the position here.
You're either suited for it or not. I usually tell people, it's not a job, it's a way of life! You gotta have passion and believe in our products, the people who use them and TechSmith. If you don't, who will?
If you think, "I can do that!", I want to hear from you! E-mail me! Or, if you know someone who you think would be a good fit, would you forward this to them?
I'm a big fan of del.icio.us as you probably already know. I like being able to access favorite links on any computer and sharing them with others.
I was happy when our Senior Flash Developer, Brooks Andrus, told me about a nifty little feature in del.icio.us. You can search by tags!
You can see what other people are saving and tagging for our products. This is a great way to find tutorials, tips and tricks and other useful content that others have saved.
Here are links for the TechSmith family...
http://del.icio.us/tag/camtasia
http://del.icio.us/tag/snagit
http://del.icio.us/tag/morae
http://del.icio.us/tag/uservue
http://del.icio.us/tag/screencast.com
http://del.icio.us/tag/ensharpen
Some other interesting tags:
http://del.icio.us/tag/screencast
http://del.icio.us/tag/screencapture
At TechSmith, we've been saving links for you. You can see them at: http://del.icio.us/techsmith
And, if you find something that we should share with everyone, please e-mail the URL to us and we'll get it added to our del.icio.us library.
Video #19 delayed...instead enjoy a video from the Podcast Expo with the LabRats
Posted on Thursday October 19, 2006
I got word from Troy Stein that video #19 is delayed. So, you know the drill...tomorrow you get two videos! Sorry about that...
In the meantime, enjoy this video from the show floor at the Podcast Expo. Sean Carruthers and Andy Walker of Tech TV and Lab Rats TV fame did a quick screencast with me in the booth.
Click here to watch the video. It runs just under 4:30 minutes and is full of great advice from Andy and Sean.
To make this video, I only had a webcam at the show so we had to cram in the shot. You'll be happy to know I'll be taking a real video camera on the road soon so expect better video in the future. Or, at least everyone will be in the entire shot!
TechSmith and Del.icio.us - Great Resources All in One Place
Posted on Saturday September 23, 2006
I'm fortunate that a lot of our users e-mail me links to their screencasts, tutorials and other content created with our products. As you know, I try to share a lot of that on the blog. I was thinking of other ways to share this valuable content from you and connect our community together. So, with that in mind, we started bookmarking all these great resources in del.icio.us to share with you! You can view them here. http://del.icio.us/TechSmith. Be sure to visit often as we will be adding new links several times a week.
There's a group of us from several departments at TechSmith adding new links several times a week. Carla Wardin, our Newsletter editor, Brooks Andrus, from Development, Tiffany Wood and Rachel Clark from Documentation and I are working especially hard on this experiment.
If you'd like suggest items for us to add, please e-mail us at bookmark@techsmith.com. If you're a del.icio.us user already, add us to your network!
And, if you want more information about del.icio.us, check out these great screencasts made with Camtasia Studio:
View Jon Udell's screencast here.
View Raymond Kristiansen's screencast here, complete with Picture-in-Picture (PIP)!
View Phosita's screencast about all about del.icio.us.
Do you know what a codec is? Ever try to explain what a codec is to someone else? Either way, it's not easy to understand or explain. In tech support here at TechSmith, they get lots of questions about codecs every day.
That's why I was so happy to see the latest episode of Labrats.tv. It's all about codecs! Since they're a lot more eloquent than I am, I'll let them explain it all to you. Click here to watch the video.
If you want more information about TechSmith's Screen Capture Codec (TSCC) for Camtasia Studio, you can find out more about it here.
Phew...this is the 200th post on the Visual Lounge! Thanks for sticking with me on this long and exciting journey!
Here at TechSmith, we often practice the concept of the OODA Loop (Observation, Orientation, Decision, Action). So, in the spirit of learning and improving, what would you like to see in future posts? What would make the next 200 posts better? Is this blog what you thought it would be?
I'm off to celebrate the bbicentennial (blog bicentennial)...maybe at 2beer Friday!
We're working on getting the recording edited and posted from the vlogging workshop that Stephanie Bryant, author of Videoblogging for Dummies, conducted at TechSmith last week.
In the interim, check out Steve Schofield's blog post here about the event. He lists a lot of great links from the workshop if you're interested in vlogging.
I took a peek at the job page on our website. Look at all the jobs posted!
I'm often asked what it's like at TechSmith. I usually share some of this info and our history. As well as the following:
We're growing.
When I started at TechSmith in 2000 as the Camtasia Product Manager, there were 17 other people here. Now we're well over a 100. It seems like every week there is someone new starting at TechSmith.
We're in Michigan but our products are sold all over the world!
Our offices are located in Okemos, Michigan, in the shadows of the State Capitol and Michigan State University. It's cool - everywhere I go, I run into SnagIt, Camtasia and Morae users
We're well caffeinated.
Free pop, coffee, tea and espresso... no wonder I have a hard time falling asleep at night.
We've got game.
Our products are the leaders in their field. Don't just take my word for it - PC Magazine, Software and Development Magazine and others have recognized TechSmith and our products. SnagIt just celebrated its 15th Anniversary.
And...We're fun.
We've been known to go on ski trips, camping, baseball games and more together. Check out some of my Flickr photos here to see pics at TechSmith during work and after hours.
All that stuff listed above sound good? If you're interested, e-mail your resume here to Personnel and get the ball rolling.
I'm always happy to give you a tour and introduce you to the teams too. So, if you're interested in checking us out, e-mail me.
I've said it before and I'll say it again. I LOVE my job. Actually, it's so much fun, I can't really call it a job. It's more a lifestyle. ;-) And, at the risk of sounding like Steve Ballmer in that infamous video that went round the web, I'll say it...I love this company! Call me a shill, but shills don't mean it... I've worked at other companies and none of them even come close to the experience of working at TechSmith.
NECC was great, and San Diego was wonderful! Who could complain about spending the Fourth of July watching the fireworks on the beach at Coronado Island? Someone not fun, that's who. ;-)
I ran into a lot of great friends who are doing amazing things - like computer guru and all around nice guy, Patrick Crispen, pictured below. He's an Instructional Technology Coordinator at California State University at Long Beach. Patrick also co-authors a newsletter, The Internet Tourbus, which PC World Magazine deemed as one of the 15 best internet newsletters. Also, in his spare time he hosts a night radio program called "The Steve and Johnnie Show" on WGN Radio out of Chicago (AM 720). He fields tech support questions from all over the world. Oh, and he's a Camtasia Studio user! Check out his site here.
I met up with Ken Collura from Bishop Hartley High School whom I originally met at CES. Ken's on the cutting edge of technology. He took a few minutes to share his tips for using technology in the classroom, and how he uses Camtasia to achieve his goals in a screencast with me. He also gives some tips for getting your feet wet. Ken's deployed a lot of Tablet PC's in his district. You can read his latest article in TechLearning about Learning with Tablet PCs here.
Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast from the show floor at NECC with Ken. It runs just under 7:30 minutes.
A couple TechSmithies and I also walked across the border to Tijuana, but I promised to never talk about that evening ever again. :-) You can see some pics from the road here on Flickr.
And, by the way, look at what happened to tech writer Rachel Clark who was at NECC working in the TechSmith booth.
Heh! That's one of the reasons why I love working at TechSmith! Better make sure my office is locked next time I leave town!
At some point this summer (probably July), I'm taking a week off and unplugging...shutting down the laptop, turning off the iPod, throwing the Treo in the toilet...Okay, I wouldn't do that to my beloved Treo, but I might turn it off. Or at least not look at it. Directly.
So, that brings me to the Visual Lounge. I could write a bunch of posts before taking a break and have them posted for me. I could let the blog go dark for a week. Or, I could turn the blog over to you! That, of course, sounds more exciting to me.
I'm looking for between 5-10 people to write a blog post about SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, Morae, tips, tricks, hacks, screencasting, vlogging, audio, video, graphics, technology...you name it. Just one little blog post! If you want to do a video - even better, but not required!
So, drop me an email , send me your contact info, blog URL (if you have one - not required) and give me a short description of what you'd like to write. We'll see where this goes!
Screencasting about everything from Scoble to Z...
Posted on Thursday June 22, 2006
See what happens when techies meet over dinner? You end up screencasting!
Brooks Andrus, our senior Flash developer, and I went out to dinner last night. We were talking about all the new screencasts popping up and how it's exciting to see videos become more prevalent online. With the news from the VloggerCon about Robert Scoble leaving Microsoft and going to PodTech.net, it's only increasing the visibility of podcasting, video blogs (vlogging) and screencasts. Great news, in my opinion.
So, part of the way into our conversation, we decided we should be screencasting about it. I ran out to my car and grabbed my laptop, webcam, and microphone. Even though it was pretty noisy and dark at PF Chang's, we gave it a shot.
Granted, dark restaurants don't make for the best 'studio' in terms of sound and lighting, but it will do. It was a spur of the moment thing. That's one of the positives of screencasting - you can do it anywhere!
So, click the screenshot below to start our screencast. We ramble on for 9:26 minutes and discuss Robert Scoble, RocketBoom, equipment to get you started screencasting, LabRats.tv and GottaBeMobile and more... plus at the end, you can hear our fortunes from our fortune cookies.
In Sports Illustrated every week they ask professional players - you know, the ones that are the closest to the action and most affected by decisions - this question: What would you do if you were commissioner for a day? They always have insightful and often surprising answers.
So...what would you do if you were product manager for a day at TechSmith?
Thankfully our booth made it to TechEd in Boston yesterday. We scrambled this morning to get it set up - and did it in an hour!
Right away I ran into Tablet PC MVP Craig Pringle. He makes some great Camtasia Studio screencasts which you can see here. It was too busy to make a screencast with him, but maybe later this week we'll have a chance. Anything you want me to ask him about Tablet PCs?
Craig took me over to Motion Computing's booth to check out their Ultra Mobile Tablet PC Computer. Craig's pictured below with his Motion Computing UMPC. I was thinking this would be the perfect computer for doing screencasting on the go because I could easily walk around with it. Anyone use this Tablet PC with Camtasia for screencasting? I want your feedback. Mostly I'm wondering - is it going to be powerful enough for me to make great videos?
Microsoft had a store where you could buy just about anything branded with Microsoft's logo. I bought a t-shirt and mug that says, 'Geek'. I'm fairly certain that makes me a geek for buying it.
We're hearing lots of great feature requests in the booth. But, you don't have to meet us in a booth to send us product feedback. We'll take it anywhere! Feel free to leave comments here on the blog, e-mail me or use our online form.
If you're not at TechEd, anything you want me to scout out for you? If you are here, stop by our booth and chat. A couple of Camtasia Studio users and I will be heading out to lunch tomorrow and you're invited - call me on my cell (517.410.0030)!
Lots of good pictures, like the one below, from the booth and our visitors can be found here on Flickr.
Microsoft's TechEd conference has started out with a bang for me...and not in a good way. After finally making my way to the hotel (I only got lost about a dozen times - crazy roads), what's the first thing that happened to me when I got to the hotel? My laptop came spilling out the car, landing on the pavement with a loud...BANG! I'm fairly certain you could hear my heart break at that moment.
After running to my room, I checked the damage. I snapped a few things back into alignment and hit the power button. To my amazement, my old friend booted back up! Exhale...
Today I headed out to Waltham, Massachusetts to Microsoft's Regional Office. Again, only getting lost maybe a dozen times (why did I pay extra for GPS?). There was an INETA User Group Summit, and I ran into Thom Robbins from Microsoft. Remember him? He's the one making the great Camtasia Studio videos about Visual Studio which he sends out in the Fast Tips newsletter. See our pic below.
That reminds me...I'm happy to support you! If you're conducting a meeting, workshop or other event, I'm happy to send you materials. We have many resources available to you here.
It's been a fun day and I can't wait for TechEd to start tomorrow! Although, I just got word our booth has not arrived. Hmmm, anyone have any tips on how to demo Camtasia Studio, SnagIt and Morae without a computer? I guess I'll be waving my arms around a lot. I was hoping to have some screencasts from the show floor, but those might not happen until later in the week when we have tables and the rest of the booth...
I'll be posting pics all week here on Flickr. There are some pics in there that definitely need some captioning. Feel free to add your own captions and comments to the pictures!
On Friday in shipping we receieved a box that was returned by a shipping carrier.
When we opened it up, we saw the box was pretty destroyed. After investigating further, we found out that the box was sent seven or eight months ago...to Louisiana. It was diverted by Hurricane Katrina.
Sure, the box is damaged, but the CD inside still works fine. That's what we're hoping for the entire region as the clean-up continues - even though the outside is damaged, we know the heart and soul are still intact!
You're invited to a party at TechSmith's TechEd booth
Posted on Wednesday May 31, 2006
We'll be at Microsoft's TechEd Conference in Boston next month, and we'll be celebrating SnagIt's 15th anniversary! Bring your party hat - or we'll even provide you with one.
There's lots going on:
I'd love to meet up with you at the show (or outside the show)! Lunch, June 13? Drop me an e-mail if you think you'd like to go, since I need an idea of reservation numbers. If you want to get ahold of me, my cell phone number is 517.410.0030.
I've got five - count 'em, five - expo hall-only passes. First five people to e-mail me win!
Calling all webcam lovers! I'd love to do a screencast with you. Who's up for it?
If you're not going to show, let me be your roving tech reporter. Anything you want me to scout out...besides the Sam Adams brewery tour?
Sometimes I am too! Since it's not always easy to give a full answer at trade shows, I thought I'd talk to you a little about it here.
A codec is the abbreviation for compressor/decompressor. Codecs are applied to audio, video and image files to compress their size. The benefit is that the files don't use as much disk space when stored - or as much network bandwidth when streamed. To open a compressed file, the same codec must be used to decompress the file. You can learn more about the TechSmith Screen Capture Codec (TSCC)here.
If you want to learn more about codecs, it's best to learn from the experts, and Ben Waggoner from Microsoft is one of the best compressionists around. I just heard that this summer Ben is hosting an in-depth class that will help you master video compression.
This is an intermediate or advanced class that will cover all the major formats and areas where compressed video is used, including Web video, CD-ROM video, DVD, and HD.
One of the featured tools that Ben will be going over is TechSmith's Camtasia Studio and Screen Capture Codec. This is a great opportunity to take your compression skills to the next level!
The course runs August 21-25 in beautiful Stanford and you can find more details here.
And after you take the class? Maybe you can teach me a thing or two about compression.
Last week I attended a local conference - Connecting & Collaborating Conference: Online Tools for the Classroom. It was all about how to use blogs, podcasts and RSS feeds in the classroom to improve student comprehension.
I wish I were back in school with all this cool technology. (Video iPods, blogs and wikis? These weren't even WORDS when I was in school!) During a break, I recorded a screencast with TechSmith's Academic Marketing Manager, Tanya Reynolds. Many of you may not know that we have a Web site dedicated to education, so I had Tanya give me an all-access tour.
Click on the screenshot below to start the video. Meet Tanya and get a tour of our educational resources at the same time. The video runs a little over 7 minutes.
To visit our Education site, go here. The site includes resources for K-12 and higher education, and it's chockfull of best practices, lesson plans, stories from the classroom, and the latest industry news.
So, what else would you like to see included on this site? Also - how are you using TechSmith products in the classroom? If you're not using them, why not? How can we improve them for your classroom?
Just think...there's a whole crop of students out there that has SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, or Morae in their virtual lockers. I don't want to brag, but if I'd have had that while I was in school? I might have spent a little more time studying. : )
Whoever said there's no such thing as a free lunch didn't know about us!
You're invited to lunch with the TechSmith gang in Las Vegas or New York City - or wherever else we can schedule.
I'll be at the STC conference (Society for Technical Communication) in Las Vegas May 6 - 11.
Then I'll be in New York City for the Syndicate conference May 15 - 19.
Drop me an e-mail if you can meet up for coffee, lunch, dinner, drinks, indoor skydiving, or Elvis impersonator hunting. (This would be harder in NYC than in Las Vegas, I bet...)
If you'd like to do a screencast with me, that'd be fun too, but certainly not required.
What shows are you going to? What shows should TechSmith attend? Why?
Are you passionate about SnagIt, Camtasia, or Morae? You could be in a book...
Posted on Wednesday March 29, 2006
When I attended the O'Reilly Emerging Tech show, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a workshop conducted by author Kathy Sierra. She has a great blog too!
She's working on a new book about passionate users of tech products. She defines 'passionate users' as people who are "always learning, growing, and improving in some way related to the tool." So, if you'd like to share your story with her, she might include you in the book!
You can read more about what she's looking for and how to contact on her blog, Creating Passionate Users.
I hope you'll share your stories with her. If you're not passionate about our products, I hope you'll share with us what you don't like - so we can improve!
How many of you know about our fourth product, the EnSharpen Video Codec for QuickTime?
Well, we've just come out with a new release!
What's a codec you ask? Codecs, which stands for compressor/decompressor, are applied to audio, video and image files to compress their sizes. The benefit is that the files don't use as much disk space when stored or as much network bandwidth when streamed.
Back to the EnSharpen codec - EnSharpen 1.1 came out yesterday. This release was created for use on Macintosh computers equipped with Mac OS X v10.4.4 or later, using Intel processors and Power PC processors.
This is a free update for Macintosh edition EnSharpen customers.
EnSharpen integrates with Camtasia Studio, QuickTime Pro, Adobe Premiere, Final Cut Pro, Snapz Pro, iMovie and all other Macintosh and Windows authoring and editing tools that allow access to third party video codecs for QuickTime.
Here's a little factoid for you - EnSharpen is the first delivery codec to provide Macintosh users with lossless quality and a high compression ratio. EnSharpen also enables all AVI video files encoded with the original TSCC codec to play in the QuickTime Player on the Macintosh and Windows platforms.
Again, this is a free upgrade for current EnSharpen for Mac customers!
For more information, visit EnSharpen's Web page here.
I'm often asked to attend user group and other meetings to present about SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae. While I'd love to attend every meeting, I can't always go. (You know, the job, husband, dog, and various activities like knitting, gardening and concerts tend to sometimes get in the way.)
So, we have the perfect experiment idea! If you'd like TechSmith to present at your meeting, I have access to Live Meeting, plus a webcam and microphone. We can try presenting to your group remotely! We can run a short presentation followed by Q&A in real time.
E-mail if you're interested in having us babble on about our products and other techie topics. I promise not to subject you to too many of my bad jokes, but you'll get some. I mean, we want it to be like real life, right?
If we were to have a TechSmith User Conference about all things SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae, would you attend?
No, I wouldn't make you come to Michigan in January! If we were to do this, we'd have the conference in a more central geographical location. It would run one or two days, and it would probably feature top user tips and tricks, feedback sessions with the development teams, tutorial sessions, and conference papers.
There are no guarantees that this will happen - currently, I'm just trying to find out if there's enough interest.
Or, if you didn't want to travel, would you consider doing an online user conference?
I'd love to hear what you think - thanks! Comment away!
I need a nap and some Tums! We just had our 3rd Annual TechSmith Chili Cookoff! At least I'm not in as bad shape as the Morae Assistant Product Manager, Mike Kujansuu!
Every year between 10-15 people at TechSmith compete in our Chili Cookoff. One year we even had a batch of chili with chocolate in it. This year, Carolyn Smalley, our Advertising Specialist, made a batch with a secret ingredient...pineapple!
Some do it for the fame, others for the glory! But, always a good time is had by all!
To see more pictures, visit the photo gallery here on Flickr.
Penny for your thoughts, a dollar for your comments
Posted on Friday February 24, 2006
Thanks to everyone who left a comment on the recent post. I really appreciate it!
I know there are more of you out there. Just add a simple, quick comment and make us pay. In the end, the more I know about you, the better I can tailor the blog posts to what you want instead of me guessing.
I'd like to donate more than $50 to the National Center of Missing and Exploited Children. So please just leave a quick comment on this post and I'll extend the deadline for comments until Sunday at midnight EST.
I don't follow rules well - ask anyone at TechSmith.
So, it's no big surprise that I missed National Delurking Week this year. What's National Delurking Week you ask? That's where you come out from under your shell and tell me a little bit about yourself.
So, I'm not going to let missing a little date hold us back from participating! I want to know who you are so I can write and make videos about stuff you care about.
Which product(s) you use - SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae
Where you call home
And, I'll throw in an extra $1 if you link to some work you've done with our products - or any comment that just makes me laugh.
I have up to $1,000 to donate to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if we can get enough unique comments. If you're reading... please don't embarrass me by making me end up with a $3 donation.
Comments must be posted between now and Friday, February 24, 2006 at midnight EST. Comments must be on this blog post.
So, comment away, and thanks for reading the blog!
We had a visitor last week at TechSmith! SnagIt and Camtasia Studio user, Phil Parr, spent part of his vacation visiting us.
We had a great time. Phil - who came all the way from Florida - got to spend time with the SnagIt and Camtasia Studio teams and directly give us his feedback on our software.
When Phil's not on vacation, he's an instructional designer with a ten-year history in the corporate education field.
The same offer goes for you! If you're in the area, please e-mail me. I'd love to give you a tour, introduce you to the product teams and other TechSmithies, and hear your thoughts on our software.
When it comes to a way to spend your vacation, there's really no comparison. You can get a tan at the beach... but here you can get better software.
The Technical Writing Team is looking for 15-20 people to give feedback on our user assistance, documentation, and tutorials.
It's painless, I promise - no poking or prodding!
This is your chance to have an impact! If you're interested, e-mail me for more details. One of the people you would work with from the Technical Writing Team would be Kelly Mullins, pictured below.
What's Next for SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae?
Posted on Monday January 30, 2006
So, we've just had three huge releases in the last two months at TechSmith. We hope you liked the new features and designs we added to SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae.
Now...we need to know what you'd like to see in our next round of releases. Here's your chance to have a stake in your software. But, don't make us guess at what you want and need. See how confused Camtasia Studio Product Manager, Troy Stein, and Assistant Camtasia Studio Product Manager, Travis Stoliker, look without your feedback?
E-mail, call, make us a video, send feedback in via our Web site or leave comments on this blog with your suggestions. Or, you're welcome to visit TechSmith and give us your thoughts in person. Seriously!
Get your feedback to us any way you can, because our software is only as good as your suggestions.
We recently had a video club at TechSmith where we would meet during lunch to learn more about planning, creating, producing and everything else surrounding video production. Then, all the groups were armed with cameras and allowed to run wild on our video projects.
We had a film festival to show off the projects and Camtasia Studio Product Manager Troy Stein was the MC. He even donned a tuxedo for the event!
It was great to see all the different videos, so I thought I'd share one from a creative team that made an amusing SnagIt commercial. It took them about 10 hours to shoot and edit. The video was created by and stars:
We Need Your Help... SnagIt, Camtasia, and Morae Tutorials
Posted on Thursday November 10, 2005
A technical writer and an evangelist walked in to the break room.
Doesn't that sound like a beginning to a great joke? It's not. It's very serious ... because it's about you.
This morning technical writer Kelly Mullins and I got to talking about tutorials. Specifically, we began talking about tutorials users might wish for - like how to record a webinar, how to play a Camtasia Studio video on a Pocket PC, or how to record a screencast.
And, I got to thinking ... rather than guessing what tutorials you want, wouldn't it be better if we just asked you?
So, here's your chance to be heard. What kinds of things are you trying to do, but could use some help with? What other tutorials or examples do you need?
Let us know ... and maybe we'll stop talking about you behind your back.
You can find a list of our current tutorials in our Learning Center.
Many of you might not know that we offer four different newsletters. We have a monthly newsletter for each product and one devoted to education.
They're a great resource - they're always jammed with tips and tricks, case studies and new release announcements.
One of the best parts of the newsletter is the 'Letter from the Editor', written by Carla Wardin. She always keeps me laughing. You never know what she'll write. You can read more about her here
Carla now resides in Connecticut and telecommutes. She was visiting the office last week, so I got her to sit down with me and do a quick Camtasia Studio screencast video. She'll show you where to sign up for the newsletters and how to manage your subscriptions. She even busted me about something...you'll have to watch the video to see the public humiliation she puts me through.
Click the screenshot below to start the screencast.
I'm often asked by people what my typical day is like at TechSmith. My first response usually is, 'There is no typical day'. One of things that I love about my job is that every day is different.
Every Monday we have a required staff meeting where some of my fellow co-workers share what they did over the weekend. It's a great way to get to know people from other departments you might not often see. When I started at TechSmith in 2000, we were small enough that each of us would take turns telling how we spent our weekend. Now that we're much larger, we just pick a few people randomly ... otherwise we'd be there all day!
What day would be complete without lots and lots of e-mail, research, several meetings and working with great users and customers? I also spend time writing blog posts or contributed articles and pleading with people to be in screencasts for the blog (we have a lot of camera shy people here). I also chat via instant message with users as needed. By the way, if you'd like to IM me, my MSN IM is: b(dot)weber(at)techsmith(dot)com (replace the text in parentheses)
We're very well-caffeinated people. One of the great perks - no pun intended - of working at TechSmith is that we get free pop (yes, I'm from the Midwest), coffee and espresso. We go through a lot of espresso at TechSmith! One of the big questions when we outgrew our building and had to acquire a second building was, 'Will there be another espresso machine for the new building or will we have to walk across the parking lot for espresso?!?'
Sometimes during lunch we'll have a book club meeting or get together and watch a DVD. We've watched shows ranging from Band of Brothers to the BBC'sThe Office and Napoleon Dynamite.
They even let me out of the office - evenings often involve visiting local user groups and professional associations for monthly meetings. I also attend recruiting events for TechSmith.
Fun is definitely a core value at TechSmith. As I mentioned earlier, every Friday we have lunch brought in for the entire staff. This is a great time - not only are you seeing people from every department, but you're also talking over fantastic food.
We do activities after work, too - we've held events ranging from game night and LAN parties, to tie-dye and candle making, to taking a trip together out to the shooting range for target practice.
Frequently we meet for what we call 'Two-Beer Friday' to start the weekend right ... before we go off to gather more stories for the Monday morning meeting!
At TechSmith we have a high commitment to listening to our customers. Our best features are built on the feedback from our users like you!
So, if we could add a feature or make a change to SnagIt, Camtasia Studio or Morae for you, what would it be? Share with us and others in the comments sections of this post.
Users frequently contact me for materials to hand out at their events, workshops and meetings. I wanted to let everyone know that I'm happy to send materials for your event.
We have everything you need to present SnagIt, Camtasia Studio andMorae to a group. We even have presentations and graphics you can use so you don't have to create your presentation from scratch.
You can order evaluation CDs, datasheets, posters or any other presentation material from our Web site. It's all here at: http://www.techsmith.com/presenters
And, if we don't have everything you need, please e-mail me or add your suggestions in the comments below about what additional materials and resources you'd like to receive.
Also - We'd love to see your presentation! Record it with Camtasia Studio, send it to us, and we'll share some of them with everyone.
You're invited for a VIP tour and lunch with TechSmith...
Posted on Wednesday September 14, 2005
An open invite: If you are from Michiganor just visiting our lovely state, I'd like to invite you to visitTechSmith! Come see what happens behind the scenes at TechSmith.
I'll gladly give you a tour of where we work and introduce you to our staff.
And, if you happen to stop by on aFriday, you are welcome to eat lunch with the whole staff ofTechSmith! One of the great things about working atTechSmith is that we have lunch catered every Friday so we can eattogether as a group. Eating lunch together is nice because youget to know everyone better and catch-up with people you might nothave seen earlier in the week.
TechSmith is extremely saddened by the loss of life and destruction of property in the Gulf Coast region following Hurricane Katrina. To provide assistance to the ongoing relief and recovery efforts, TechSmith is matching employee contributions made to the relief funds.
For more information on how you can help, call 1-800-HELP-NOW(1-800-435-7669) or visit the American Red Cross Web page at www.redcross.org.
Welcome to the TechSmith blog, The Visual Lounge. I'm glad you're here!
This is your place to see what goes on at TechSmith behind the scenes and to share ideas with us and with each other. Many of you will have the opportunity to share those ideas visually. Whether it's a screenshot, a screencast, or a video instruction, we hope to see, hear, watch, listen, experience and learn together... After all, this is The Visual Lounge.
A little about my background...
I've been with TechSmith since 2000. I've lived in the Lansing, Michigan area most of my life, and I graduated from Michigan State University with a degree in marketing and logistics management.
I came to TechSmith with a background in corporate software training, and I also worked at a dot bomb. I've held various positions at TechSmith ranging from product management to training manager. In my current role as Chief Evangelist, I head up the company's evangelism program where I collaborate with customers, industry experts, and technologists all over the world.
If there's anything I can help you with, feel free to contact me!
This page contains an archive of all entries posted to The Visual Lounge in the “TechSmith” category. The blog entries are listed from oldest to newest.
Jaclyn Nagel is a digital media intern at TechSmith. She goes to Michigan State University and enjoys road trips, going to sporting events, music and bike riding. Email her at j.nagel@techsmith.com. 
Allie Siarto, Co-Founder and Director of Analytics, told us a little more about her screencasting process.
Jerod Karam, Director of Online Marketing for Netvantage Marketing, gave us an inside look at his process of creating his first and second screencasts.
