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!

As you know, TechSmith is headquartered in lovely Okemos, Michigan. And, lately, I've noticed many men walking around town in beards. Now, what do Michigan and beards have in common? Well, our 'local' hockey team in Michigan, the Detroit Red Wings are in the Stanley Cup finals... tonight. And, there is a tradition that hockey players and fans will grow 'playoff beards' once their team has entered the playoffs!

So, that got me thinking... hockey, playoff beards, tech... how can we bring them all together? That lead me to thinking about the mustache custom Snagit stamp I shared earlier this week (you can download it here). Well, why not have a playoff beard custom Snagit stamp too?! Check out our Education Evangelist, Dave McCollom sporting the playoff beard stamp!

You can download your own Playoff Beard custom stamp to use in Snagit here. Enjoy! I'd love to see what you create with it... Give your boss a playoff beard, your dog, a baby... it works on anyone. :-)

You can find more info here about how to install and use custom stamps in Snagit.

The 'beard is back' as they say! And, I'll be watching the Detroit Red Wings win the Stanley Cup tonight! ;-)

Well, there may be 'no such thing as a free lunch' but you can get some free Camtasia Studio training! Our Training department is putting on a free webinar. The webinar will go over the basics of recording your screen, editing, and production. It's perfect for first time users.

Sign-up here. There are 15 spots available so sign up quickly.

Can't attend the webinar? We have lots of great resources online like our Learning Center which is full of tutorials and videos. Or, walk through your first project with the 'Fundamentals of Camtasia Studio' PDF.

And, about that free lunch... Catch up with me on the road - email or tweet me. I'd love to take you out to lunch, get your feedback and chat about screencaptures, screencasting, usability, etc. See? There is such a thing as free lunch!

Next stop for me is Chicago in July for the Blogher Conference, July 24 - 25. Hope to see you there!

Daniel Park of dappertext has been at it again! Daniel is a professional screencaster (and he use to work at TechSmith making our videos). And, when he's not busy making screencasts and training people all over the world about how to use Camtasia Studio, he works on his book - Camtasia Studio 6: The Definitive Guide. He just updated it for Camtasia Studio v6 and it is hot off the presses!

The book offers over 500 pages of step-by-step instruction and tips and tricks. It's perfect for Camtasia Studio newbies and veterans as well.

To give you an idea of the types of info you can learn in the book, the publisher of the book, Wordware was kind enough to give a free sample chapter from the book. You can read it here. It's all about audio, PIP and title clips. Very useful information.

I have a copy of the book to give-away. Just leave a comment on this blog post by May 10, 2009 11:59 pm EST with either some feedback about Camtasia Studio (ex. a feature you'd like added, something you'd liked changed or updated) or a link to a Camtasia Studio video you like. Make sure you include your email in the blog comment form so I can contact the winner (your email will not be shown publicly on the blog). I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner.

If you don't happen to win the book, you can pick it up in the TechSmith store here or on Amazon.

Remember those math story problems you had to do in school growing up? I know, I'm trying to forget them too. :-) They'd walk you through a scenario (A freight train leaves the station traveling 30 mph... ) and you'd work your way through the math problem. These exercises would help you learn some new fundamentals in math.

Matt Pierce, our Training Manager, has created something similar - a Camtasia Studio Walkthrough that will take you through a project to learn the fundamentals of Camtasia Studio. You can find the PDF here. Feel free to print it, pass it out at work or in your presentation, email it... share it any way possible!

Like this type of resource? What else could you use? We're always looking for new ways to help you!

Have you ever thought about using SnagIt for more than just screencapture? I wanted to share with you a new resource that's been added to our Learning Center. There's a great new creative tutorial series which you can find here. There are 12 tutorials that will walk you through projects ranging from creating a water color painting to making Comic Book Graphics. Take your SnagIt skills beyond screencapture!

What other types of projects would you like to see added to the tutorials?

One of the nice things about living in mid-Michigan is not having a long commute time. But the time I do spend in my car is usually spent listening to talk radio. And, one segment that I always enjoy is the 'listener mail' and questions. I thought, why can't we do something similar here, but with screencasts?! So, I'm teaming up with Training to answer your questions about SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, Morae, UserVue, EnSharpen, Screencast.com and Jing!

Matt Pierce, our Training Manager at TechSmith, picked this first topic about something the training team is commonly asked about. Matt made a screencast about creating a text box, in SnagIt, with a colored background. Matt also gives a tour of the Learning Center. The screencast runs a little over 3 minutes.

Here's where I need your help! In order to do these screencasts, we need your questions! So, post your 'viewer questions' in the comments and we'll create screencasts to answer a couple of your questions.

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:

Software:

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.

Our last post about how we got to SnagIt 9 is from Chris McQueen, from the Training Department. I love visiting the training department! They have lots of fun equipment (microphones, cameras, sound booth, etc) and they make lots of waffles for breakfast! And, on a side note, if you're ever in the Lansing area, I'm always happy to give you a tour of TechSmith and you're invited for waffles with Training! Doesn't get much better than that! Here's what Chris had to say about working on SnagIt 9...

The Training team is here to make you rock. We want you to be very successful with every product that TechSmith creates and understand all the great features the developers, user experience, and product managers come up with. Honestly, it's about the coolest job ever; I work with awesome software and determined individuals.

When I started working with the SnagIt team, version 9 was about half way done. The user interface was 80% complete and the primary features for release were already in place. My job, with the information developer Kelly Mullins, was to convey the vision TechSmith had for SnagIt 9 and pass it along to you. But, since I came on late in the development cycle, I had to work within the existing structure and development time frame. For me, this meant being creative and flexible, something I'm sure you're all familiar with. My first project was the 30-day tips, also known as the "Tip of the Day", that appear during the trial period. In SnagIt 8, these were static graphics that highlighted a feature and had a link to a video. I wanted the SnagIt 9 tips to give customers a bit more guidance. Ideally, I wanted customers to look at this tip and be able to perform the steps after viewing it once. To do that, I knew I needed something more than just static images and text. I wanted something more dynamic. So, I decided to create animations that could convey the procedure or process.

Of course, the first thing I looked into using was Adobe Flash for the animations, but that requires each user to have the plug-in installed on their computer. Unfortunately, we have a lot of users that use SnagIt in corporate environments that may not allow Flash to run on their system. So, I applied a careful dose of Occam's razor and decided on using animated GIFs for the tips. Animated GIFs have been around for a long time and they ensured 99.9% of our customer could view the animations. It also gave us a lot of control, with the fewest restrictions.

Using SnagIt and Photoshop we created 22 animations, 7 static graphics, and 1 graphic with a JavaScript mouse over effect. Of course, I didn't do this all by myself; I had help from Anton Bollen (Instructional Specialist), Sylvania Dye, and Paul Middlin to get all the pieces to work together. I mentioned determined people above--these are the people I was talking about.

The other half of the SnagIt release was instructional videos. We created 15 videos for release, all of which you can find in the TechSmith Learning Center here. All of these are designed to introduce new customers to SnagIt and direct existing customers to their favorite features. These were a lot of fun to develop and I think are some of the best instructional videos ever released with SnagIt (post a comment if you disagree, I really appreciate the feedback.)

What's nice is this isn't the end to the training material for SnagIt 9. We got stuff already in the works and have plans for some exciting new ways to learn SnagIt and achieve that ever impressive status of "SnagIt Ninja". As always, let us know what you enjoy and what doesn't work for you. And, we'll see you next time.

Chris McQueen is working on his degree in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State University.

Previous to TechSmith, Chris was a Technical Writer for a software company in Idaho and worked with the faculty at Brigham Young University-Idaho to help them integrate technology into their curriculum.

Currently he works with the SnagIt and Jing team. He loves his new Michigan home and doesn't mind taking care of his kids when they're sick. :-)

Chipmunks are cute, but that does not mean you necessarily want them in your videos.

Just wanted to give everyone a heads-up about an audio issue you may encounter. You might hear Camtasia Studio Flash content playing on the latest release of the Flash Player (v9.0.115.0 or later) where the audio sounds garbled and may contain a high pitched chirp that kind of sounds like, you guessed it, a chipmunk.

A future update from Adobe to the Flash Player may resolve this conflict, but in the meantime we have written a fix that will avoid this problem. You can find the fix included in the latest version of Camtasia Studio, which you can download here. Note: This is a free update if you have a license for Camtasia Studio 5.0.

The Camtasia Studio team and Tech Support have investigated this issue and found that it occurs when:

• The project was produced to SWF.

• The SWF file was produced with MP3 audio.

• The SWF file is played in the latest Flash Player.
  
  

  You can find out all the details on this issue, as well as obtain a tool to fix any video already produced with Camtasia that sounds garbled, here.

As much as I love the computer, sometimes I need to step away from it. You know, to do things like go outside, read a book, go photowalking, hang out with my dog and family, sleep...

There's a little known feature in SnagIt that enables you to do screen captures whether you're at your computer or not! Set the capture timer on SnagIt and walk away - SnagIt will do the work for you capturing things like stock tickers, websites, software...whatever you like. You'll never miss the action on your computer again. There's a tutorial about it here. You can see some of the settings in the screenshot below.

Want to see this feature in action? Amit Agarwal from Digital Inspiration made a time-lapse video, made with SnagIt screen captures, showing how the website Techmeme homepage changed over 50 hours! His screencast is 50 seconds long. Check out the video and his blog write-up here. Amit also has a nice write-up about how he created the screencast here.

Do you think you'll try this feature? What will you capture?

We've been laughing a lot at work lately about Lolcat pictures. If you haven't heard of Lolcats before, they are usually pictures of cats that have been captioned with internet slang and poor grammar. You can see a whole collection of the pictures at a website called 'I Can Has Cheezburger'. The Wall Street Journal even wrote an article which will tell you the history and background of Lolcats which you can read here.

The Lolcat photos always have great captions which brings me to SnagIt. SnagIt is perfect to make these types of images since it has tool that allows you to type text on an image. With SnagIt's Text Tool, you can add text and you can set the font, size, alignment and color of the text. SnagIt's Text Tool is useful to not only write captions, but also to add things like your copyright to an image, instructions, fill in content on a PDF form, and more. You can see in screenhots of the SnagIt Editor below where the Text Tool button is located (it looks like the letter 'A' on the left hand side).

I also made a quick little Jing screencast showing how I used SnagIt's Text Tool to create a Lolcat with my dog, Mutton, since I don't have a cat. (Would that then be a Loldog instead of a Lolcat?!). The screencast runs less than a minute long. And, no animals were harmed in the making of this screencast. Well, maybe Mutton's dignity was hurt, but she got lots of treats after the pic was taken. :-)

And, on a side note, do you have any suggestions for better captions for the Loldog pics of Mutton?!?

I'm sad to say that this is the last video in the series from the Training department. What a great way to start out 2008! I hope you found them as helpful as I have.

This video was made by Ryan Eash and it's a "behind-the-scenes" or "How we do it" type tutorial. Ryan will show you how he uses the 'Save Frame as'... feature to save a frame of his Camtasia project as an image file, and then import that image into SnagIt Editor to darken it. Then he imports it back into Camtasia Studio as a Custom Callout to add a cool little effect to his videos. He mainly uses it when he is trying to place a text callout, or maybe a PIP, on his screen and the background image is too bright or distracting with what he want his viewers to focus on. It's easier to just watch the screencast and you'll see what Ryan does. :-)

And, I have to note that Ryan got me the video on Friday, but I lost it in my bottomless pit of email. Sorry this was not posted sooner.

Got 4 minutes? Then you have time to watch today's screencast made by Matt Pierce! Screencast.com was recently updated and this video will show you what's new. And, the screencast also has links going to additional videos that go into depth about using these features.

Like these screencasts? Wish they were longer? Wish they were sized bigger or smaller? Let our Training department know your feedback. They've been working hard. Thanks for watching!

It's nice to share! And, we've got a special treat to share with you, blog readers! Training has created a set of 7 additional callouts that you can download and use with Camtasia Studio! Anton Bollen has made a video that explains exactly how to install the callouts, how to use them and what they allow you to do. He'll also show you how to remove any of the callouts that are no longer wanted, all in just under 5 minutes!

First, watch the screencast below. Then, download the .zip file with the callouts here. Be sure to share this with others and pass it on...it is the nice thing to do!

Did you know you could make your SnagIt captures interactive? You can add a hotspot to your SnagIt screen capture and specify parts of the image that, when moused over, will display text or images, or when clicked upon, will open a Web page. Why would you want to create these types of screen captures? Well, you can add a hotspot on an image so a helpful hint or explanatory illustration pops up when you mouse over the hotspot. You can read more about this feature here.

And, if you can save your SnagIt screen capture with a hotspot in three different file formats - SWF, PDF and MHT. Chris McQueen will take you through each of the file formats and show you their strengths and weaknesses so you know what you'll get with each choice. Enjoy!

You're going to love this video! It shows a secret way to add background music to your videos even when you have both Audio 1 and Audio 2 tracks being used! How? Well, it's a multi-step process, but in the end it frees up the Audio 2 track and makes it possible to add some quiet background music to the overall video. Check out this screencast that Ryan Eash made to see how he does the trick. The video runs just over 4 minutes.

As a little disclaimer - don't feel like you have to add background music. That's not what we're advocating with this screencast. It's not always needed for some videos. Use it at your own discretion. And, if the music takes away for your viewers learning by being distraction, don't use it.

Up next in our video series from the Training Department is a screencast from Anton Bollen. In this video, he'll give you a look behind the scenes of the Training Department to show how they use SnagIt create some of the arrow callouts that they use in their Camtasia Studio videos. It runs just under 4 minutes. Enjoy!

How many times have you quit watching a video because the audio was bad or unpolished? Audio is just as important as the video.

Today's screencast is from Matt Pierce and all about basic audio editing in Camtasia Studio and runs just under 3 minutes. Take your screencasts to the next level and learn a few audio tips from Matt. Enjoy!

My mother always taught me to share and share alike. Now, granted, I didn't always want to do this with my older sister growing up. But, now, I love to share, even with my sister - my mother would be so proud. One of the great things about Jing is that it makes it easy to share the screen captures and screencasts you create with it!

Anton Bollen made tonight's screencast that is all about creating your own embed and share code in Jing. It runs just under 5 minutes.

Make your mother happy and share your knowledge with Jing. :-)

Every so often (OK, often), my desk gets so messy that I have to take a break, file papers, move equipment, reorganize my books, clean and purge!

Well, the same thing goes for files. Often you need to move or organize your media. It's easy to do in Screencast.com. Why would you want to do this? Well, so you can quickly and easily find your content later which makes it easier to share.

Check out this quick screencast all about how to move and organize your media on Screencast.com. It runs just 2:20 minutes long. Enjoy!

Ever upload a wrong file or have outdated content? Well, sometimes you need to delete that content. Matt Pierce made a quick screencast for the Training video series all about deleting media in Screencast.com.

Watch the video below to see how to delete media - It's a short one at 1:26.

What training videos would you like to see next?

Our next video from the Training Department is all about adding and using markers during recording in Camtasia Studio. Why would you want to do this? Several reasons...as much as I try, I usually (ok, always end up flubbing some words in my screencasts. By adding a marker at those points, I can quickly find them again when I go to edit my recording. Or, if you're recording a screencast about many topics maybe you'd like to break it up with a table of contents. Markers help you find new sections or topics in your videos quickly.

Click on the video below to launch the screencast. It runs about 5 min. 34 sec.

I hope you find markers and this screencast useful! This screencast comes from Ryan Eash on the Training team. You can see his bio here.

Up next in our training video series we have a training video all about custom profiles in SnagIt. As you know, SnagIt comes with several default profiles like Region or Object Capture. How many of you have made your very own custom profile? One that fits your project perfectly? I found myself tweaking the default captures but never saving them. I end up setting up these same capture options routinely so I finally set up a custom profile in SnagIt. I saved time for my captures and life was better!

Well, we're going to show you in the latest video how to:

• Build a capture

• Save a custom profile

• Set a hotkey for your custom profile (extra credit)

Click on the video below. It runs just under 5 minutes.

Start creating your own custom capture profiles in Snagit - you'll save time and they'll make you look good. Now who doesn't want that?

Chris McQueen is working on his degree in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State University.

Previous to TechSmith, Chris was a Technical Writer for a software company in Idaho and worked with the faculty at Brigham Young University-Idaho to help them integrate technology into their curriculum.

Currently he works with the SnagIt and Jing team. He loves his new Michigan home and doesn't mind taking care of his kids when they're sick. :-)

Up next in the video series from our Training Department is a video about sharing your Jing captures on Flickr. As you know, I love Flickr so I was very happy when the Jing team added the option for me to share and manage my Jing captures there. I like sharing some of my captures on Flickr because people can comment on my captures. And, I can do many things with my captures on Flickr like have them made and printed into a poster, calendar, cards, and more.

Click on the pic below to watch the screencast. It is a quick video that is 3:22 minutes.

And, feel free to add me as a contact on Flickr. I'd love to see your Jing captures! Are you using Jing to share some of your captures on Flickr?

Anton, originally from Germany, just recently accepted a position as an instructional specialist for the Training Department. Prior to that he had been an intern at TechSmith for over four years. As part of that role he created many of the Camtasia Studio and SnagIt tutorial videos in English, German, French, Korean and Japanese. He also has a degree from Michigan State University in Interdisciplinary Studies w/Sociology and a degree in German.

In his free time, Anton likes to play soccer, listen to music and spend time with his 5 roommates and 9 animals (3 dogs, 3 cats, 3 rats).

Sorry about the delayed video - One of our trainers making these videos had sick kids and was tending to them. Sick kids take priority over screencasting.

Our next video is whether Morae Recorder or UserVue is a better fit during certain different circumstances. Click the video below to start it playing - it runs just over 4 minutes.

Thanks for watching this screencast. I hope this video helped answer your questions about when to use Morae versus UserVue. What other screencasts would you like to see?

Conan Heiselt, prior to becoming an instructional designer, worked in the Information Technology field as a Systems Administrator and Engineer. While earning his Masters at Indiana University, he also conducted research on the use of immersive technology and narrative to aid learning. Since then, he has worked for several eLearning companies, designing courses on topics from marketing and business statistics to software testing and programming. Conan currently works at TechSmith where he explores ways to help those who use its usability products to shine.

Up next in our training video series is a screencast about a useful Camtasia Studio feature called Screendraw. Screendraw allows you to draw on your screen and add objects like a highlight, box, ellipse and other special effects. Screendraw is the perfect way to add impact to your videos and help illustrate your point.

This screencast runs close to 6 minutes. Just click the pic below to start the video.

If you'd like a written tutorial about Screendraw, you can find it here.

Ryan Eash, from our Training Department, made this screencast. Ryan previously worked as an educator, where he held positions at various levels - elementary through higher education. He most recently worked at East Carolina University as an instructional technology consultant, where he assisted faculty members with their distance learning courses and trained teachers on a variety of technology integration tools. Ryan has also taught online courses through ECU, where he utilized Camtasia Studio and prepared numerous video tutorials for instructional purposes.

Ryan has his bachelor's degree in elementary education from Indiana University and his master's degree in instructional technology from East Carolina University. Ryan is currently designing and delivering hands-on training workshops around the country for TechSmith's Camtasia Studio. In addition to the workshops, he is a daily user of Camtasia Studio, which he primarily uses to create instructional videos for various TechSmith products.

Are you finding these screencasts useful so far? Any topic requests?

The TechSmith Training Department wanted to kick off January with a bang! They are going to be creating a video a day, Monday through Friday, for the rest of the month! You'll also get to 'meet' the members of the Training team. I know you'll love this new series of videos.

So, let's get started! Our first video is about how to embed your media from Screencast.com to a web page just like the screencast below! Click the play button on the screencast - it is a short one running just under 2 minutes.

And, if you haven't tried Screencast.com yet, give it a try. There's a free trial, so you have nothing to lose. More info is here. It's the perfect place to share a video or any file.

Matt Pierce created this screencast. Matt is the training manager for TechSmith Corporation. Previous to working in the training management role, Matt has been an instructional designer at TechSmith, The Eli Lilly and Company Tippecanoe Laboratories in Lafayette Indiana, as well as for WisdomTools, Inc in Bloomington Indiana.

Matt has a Masters Degree from Indiana University's Instructional Systems Technology department. He has a love of learning and for helping others learn.

When not designing instruction or managing Matt likes to spend time with his wife and three children (they're rascals- each in their own special way), try new foods, and sometimes play his guitar....

Now that Camtasia Studio v5 is out, would you like some training?

Did you notice on the new splash screen in Camtasia Studio that you can access training directly?

We also have many videos and resources on our website for free in our Learning Center here. Our training department won't be hitting the road for the rest of 2007. But, if you prefer to learn in a classroom setting, Chris Austin is conducting classroom training in Washington DC, Atlanta, Chicago, and Phoenix. You remember Chris, right? You can find out details on his site here.

Chris is conducting a two-day course where you'll master Camtasia Studio with hands-on exercises and expert instruction. You'll learn:

• How to record razor sharp screen captures, PowerPoint presentations, and even full-motion video.
• Step-by-step editing techniques to make even your first video look professional.
• Uploading and sharing videos on your website, blog, Screencast.com, and more.
• Tips, tricks, and resources to help you get it all done better, faster, and easier.

And, if you'd like to find a local trainer, we have a list of third party service providers. Check it out here.

So it's my turn to be insightful, possibly witty, and otherwise provide you all with information (knowledge) that will help you to learn. After all, isn't that what training guys do?

When Betsy asked for guest bloggers - I admit I jumped at the chance. She suggested that I talk about some of the presentations that we've given recently at NECC in our tradeshow booth. Well, with the chance of risking never being invited back, I think I'll present something else.

So as an Instructional Designer I know that each of you go about learning and using TechSmith's products in different ways. You probably each have your own unique slant on how and what you would like to learn about, well, anything.

So this is my chance to reach out and talk with you. As an instructional designer, I want to hear about how you like to and would like to learn TechSmith's software.

• What instruction do we need to provide to take you well past the point of being a blah user to a boastful user?
• What topics would you like to see and why?
• What presentation method (I won't name any for fear of skewing the results) do you learn best from or at least like to learn from?

You can e-mail me here with any feedback or ideas.

So here's the bonus, because I'm a training guy, I really can't pass on this opportunity to help you to learn. We use Camtasia Studio all of the time to create tutorial videos -so I thought I'd pass on the first chapter of our training manual that we use in the Camtasia Studio workshops we teaches. Click here to download it. (PDF 83.2 Kb)

Also, we've have a lot of other tutorials for Camtasia Studio and the other products, which you can checkout at our Learning Center.

Matt Pierce is the Training Manager for TechSmith Corporation - born and raised in Michigan, and having lived lots of other places, has fallen in love with learning and trying to understand how to best help others to learn. He is a nice guy and although Betsy cringes every time he says it - he's happy to be writing on the blog!

Note from Betsy...I would never cringe!

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.

I spent the day in Toronto at the EnergizeIT Conference today and had a great time meeting new people, seeing old friends and geeking out...

We got several questions in the booth about Morae. So, I thought I'd share one of the newer videos on our site. There's a 22 minute video that will show and tell you all about Morae, our usability and user experience software product. Click the screenshot below to watch the video.

The video is narrated by Dirk Frazier (pic below). He's a TechSmith Sales Engineer who specializes in Morae and UserVue. You'll find him at the TechSmith booth at Usability tradeshows or on the golf course (he's a great golfer).

We also got in some new Morae Swag to celebrate the recent release of Morae 2.0. I have a couple t-shirts to send out . You'll see the design below - yes, that's an orange with a zipper on it (wouldn't oranges be more usable if the skin had a zipper?!). They're modeled by two of our Morae Developers, David Wecker (front) and Scott Schmerer (back). If you'd like one, please drop me an e-mail.

I also have a few of these fab mini-whiteboards to send out as well. They're perfect to post on your door to let others know that you're conducting usability tests. Drop me an e-mail if you want one.

I'll post in the comments when I'm out of t-shirts and white boards.

I was happy to see Tom's recent article about how he uses SnagIt for IT Training and how he uses SnagIt for graphics in his books and other content.

Check out Tom's article here. I'm sure you'll learn something new!

Do you have any SnagIt tips to share? E-mail me or post them in the comments.

Ryan Eash (pictured below), an Instructional Designer from our Training Department, is headed out on the road conducting Camtasia Studio training.

This 2 day training course is perfect for beginner and intermediate Camtasia Studio users.

Upcoming dates are:

• 5/22 - 5/23 San Francisco, CA
• 6/19 - 6/20 Charlotte, NC
• 7/17 - 7/18 East Lansing, MI
• 8/21 - 8/22 New York City, NY
• 9/18 - 9/19 Los Angeles, CA

You can find out more about the Camtasia Studio training here.

If you come to the East Lansing, Michigan Training, I'll gladly give you a tour and introduce you to the Camtasia Studio team. And, I'll even spring for meal! How can you turn that down?

Just getting started with Camtasia and want to take a class about it? Well, you're in luck! Our Trainers will be hitting the road to conduct classes around the country.

I had the Training Manager, Matt Pierce, sit down with me to share more about himself, the Camtasia Studio classes and our Learning Center for a screencast. Click the screenshot below to launch the video. The video runs just over 5 minutes.

The classes run 2 days and are from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM.

Here's the schedule so far:

• Seattle February 27 - 28
• East Lansing March 20 - 21
• Washington D.C. April 17 - 18

If you come to the East Lansing, Michigan class, I'd love to give you a tour of the office and you can meet the different teams. Who can turn that down? Plus, all the snow just might be gone - no guarantees. ;-)

You can find more information and sign-up for training here.

Where else would you like us to come and conduct training?

Matt Pierce from TechSmith is conducting a 2 day Camtasia Studio course in our backyard, East Lansing, Michigan.

See Matt below? He's showing you where in Michigan the training will be held. You know someone is from Michigan if they hold up their hand and point to their town. It's handy (sorry for the bad pun) to do since the lower peninsula of our state is shaped like a mitten.

You'll learn a lot and get to meet quite a few people from the Camtasia Studio team. I'll be around to share more bad jokes like the one above.

So, come visit us and learn the ins and outs of Camtasia Studio. More details about the training and registration can be found here.

While I cannot promise that there will be no snow in Michigan in December, I can promise that you will learn a lot and have fun.

Earlier this week I posted some dates for some classroom training on Morae here. I just heard from our training department that in order to incorporate the newest features and functionality available in Morae 2.0, they're going to modify the dates.

Once I hear what the new dates are, I'll be sure to post them here. Coming soon!

On a side note, what cities would you like us to train in? I'll pass on your feedback to the training department. No guarantees on where they'll end up, but if we can show demand, they'll consider other cities!

I just heard some exciting news. TechSmith will be conducting some instructor led training for Camtasia Studio and Morae.

The training is geared toward beginning to intermediate users.

So, if you'd like to learn more about how to use Camtasia Studio and Morae, here's a great chance. Maybe you can teach me! I could certainly use the help. ;-)

If you'd like to know about the Camtasia training, visit here to see more details and the topics covered in the training.

Same goes for Morae...visit here.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact: training@techsmith.com. The training staff will get your e-mails.

Here are the dates and locations:

Camtasia Studio

• Chicago Aug. 28th - 29th
• Seattle Sept 5th - 6th
• LA Sept. 19th - 20th
• DC Sept 26th - 27th
• San Jose Oct 19th - 20th

Morae

• San Jose October 17th - 18th

We thought we'd do a little experiment and you get to benefit! Leave me a voice message on Odeo (click the pic below) about why you'd like to attend. We'll award one lucky winner for each locale with the most compelling message a free seat in the training! (You still have to get yourself to the location - but hey, free seat!)

Leave us a message by August 9, 2006 (be sure to leave your name and contact info on the Odeo form). We may also use your message in a podcast, so feel free to share your thoughts about TechSmith, our products, or anything else you'd like to share wtih the world! Good luck!

Hope to see you there!

I neglected to post links to the new SnagIt 8.1 tutorials in my blog post about SnagIt 8.1 last week. So, here they are!

Click the screenshot below to view. Be sure to check out the Interactivity Into PowerPoint, Vector Callout and Multiple Selections sections to see the new features in action.

Screencast with Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt product manager, is being wrapped up so that should get posted soon.

What other features would you like to see tutorials on?

We want to personally show you how to get the most out of Camtasia Studio..and what better way than coming to you?

If you're in the San Francisco area, we'd like to invite you to participate in a training event on Monday, November 14.

TechSmith's Software Training Manager Daniel Kazup will walk you through the newest Camtasia Studio features, including Picture-in-Picture, quizzing, title clips, and interactive callouts.

He'll also focus on best practices, like how to get the smallest Flash files and easily share your videos on the Web, CD and DVD.

This is your chance - ask him anything!

Working on a project and need advice? Bring your laptop along with your questions.

Space is limited. Please RSVP to this exclusive event by November 4, 2005 by e-mailing me.

DETAILS:

THE ARGENT HOTEL SAN FRANCISCO

DATE: November 14, 2005

TIME:

Morning Session: 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m.

Afternoon Session: 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Ever wish your PowerPoint presentations kept people on the edge of their seats like the latest Hollywood thrillers? With Cliff Atkinson's help, they now can.

Since I know many of you use SnagIt and Camtasia Studio for adding visuals in PowerPoint and recording your presentations, I thought you might be interested in Cliff's upcoming webinar on November 3 called 'Unlock the Visual Power of Your Persuasive Story'. Make sure you register early!

I met Cliff a few years ago at PowerPoint Live. I was blown away by his keynote, "The Science of PowerPoint Overload."

Later, I discovered his book Beyond Bullets. Blown away again! He never ceases to amaze me. He's changed my PowerPoint presentations for the better, and he'll help you use it in a whole new way that really engages your audience. No naps for my audience members!

Cliff told me he plans to use SnagIt in the webinar as well, so watch for that, too.

I'm attending, so I hope to see you there...while Cliff saves us all from boring PowerPoints one bullet at a time.