Screencast Demonstration - What screencast can do

Maximize Your Benefit of Your Software Demo

2009-09-02T23:28:00.000-07:00

As a software product provider or vender, whether you need to make a deal, show progress to your clients, or simply illustrate how your product works, you will need to demo your software product. "We created great software products, and we need better marketing tools to demo our products to make them stand out in this competitive marketplace," is realized by software companies.

Visual software demo has been considered a highly effective way to deliver software information clearly and concisely.

If you are in the list of the following business, software demos are the most compelling way to show the features and benefits of your products to your target market.

Enterprise Software Applications (ERP, CRM and SCM)
Software Applications for Healthcare, Financial, Insurance and Retail Verticals
Consumer Software Applications
Internet Companies (E-business and Content Websites)

What are the benefits you can get from software demos?

Improve the User Experience and Accelerate the Sales Cycle
The software demos are friendly to users. They make users learn your software faster by showing them guide videos that help increasing product knowledge, reducing confusion and illustrating key benefits.

Demonstrate Product Features and Benefits
Step-by-step demos can show better of the features of your software. Demos with interactivities can show your products in a simulation way. People can learn about your product with ease and it makes your products easy to understand. Just show what your products can do for your clients with a vivid demo.

Deliver Product Information in Multiple Ways
Multiple publish options allow you to increase product exposure in multiple ways. Streaming Flash movie for Web sharing, video for video host such as YouTube, Executable file for best compatibility and it can be can be burnt to a CD or DVD for distribution.

Drive More Traffic to Your Product Website
In your software demo you can add the Website domain or the company logo inside to make more people learn about you company and go to your Website. If it is a Flash demo, you can even put a clickable button to direct users to your website.

So how to create an effective software demo to maximize your benefit?

Be familiar with your software product and create the movie script.
To ensure you do a good performance in the software demo recording, you have to know about your software very well before hand. Creating a software demo is like making a movie. You get to create the movie script. A solid script will follow good marketing and sales techniques. So ensure it properly highlights the features and benefits of the product being demoed. By continually pointing out the features of the product and then going further to explain why they’re beneficial to the users.

Do practice runs with voice recording.
Practice delivery while moving the mouse and speaking. In the software demo you will record, how much time will be spent describing an action, what will you say to highlight a feature, and when will you zoom in for details, you should learn to control the timing. During your rehearsal, ensure that you are speaking clearly and slowly. We all know that a demo with voice can show your idea better. And now screen recorder DemoCreator provides 3 ways to add the audio to software demos: record sound at capture time, record sound at preview time, import audio file to the screen recording with audio editor. You can easily make a voice-over demo.

Add illustration callouts to important actions in recording.
Now the editing features come to be popular in screen recording software. You can delete unwanted video clips, and there are multiple objects to enhance the software demos. For example, you can add zoom and pan effect to show the specific area in details, you can spotlighting an area of the recording, and you can add callouts for important actions. In one word, users can edit the demo by adding the objects to make it explicit.

Publish the software for easy online sharing.
If the technology you are using to build your demo takes forever to load, or asks the viewer to download and install a plug-in, then there would be few people watch your demo. Streaming Flash movie can be the right solution. It enables audience to start watching right away after requesting the video and to jump forward to any part with little playback delay. It can be played with the popular Flash plug-in in web browser, so almost everyone can view it readily.

Summary
To create a demo for your software product, you may go with a professional company that creates software demos, but you can also create the software demo by yourself. You are the one that knows your products very well, and you know the important features which should be shown to your clients, what you need is a tool that helps you do the recording and editing. DemoCreator can be a helpful application for you to create your compelling software demos.

Screen Recording in software Teaching and Training

2009-09-02T22:52:00.001-07:00

In the production of multi-media courseware presentation, we often need to capture the computer screen actions of operating the application, such as tracking the movement of the mouse and the keystrokes from the keyboard, and so on. That is to make a multimedia animation presentation document from your onscreen activity. And they can be used for software training and self-learning. The research shows that screen recording applied to teaching and training receives a good result.

Multi-media technology like screen recording can be used to create virtualized scenarios combined with driven tasks for breakthroughs of the keys and difficulties in teaching. Students can view the screen recording documents online or on their computer screen. They explore independently, and exchanges opinions mutually. They work as partners to complete learning tasks, while teachers guide and support them in a timely and professional manner.

Let’s say that the teacher is having the course of how to make a good PowerPoint presentation. He shows the students the operating steps and tips with screen recording courseware and then arranges the task.

He prepares a detailed demonstration of software video tutorial recorded from computer screen (Flash video files recorded by DemoCreator). Via multi-media teaching system and network, the software video tutorials can be posted to the learning management website and the desktop machines of students. And students can watch the tutorial and operate the application at the same time, and communicate with teacher and exchange opinions with other students readily. So the teacher has enough time to understand the learning process of more students, and guides them to learn better. For some unexpected operational problems, teachers can produce tutorials and send to students to support their learning online.

There are many benefits of screen recording on computer teaching and training:

1. Fully reflect the subjectivity of students, and drive the entire class to complete the task and explore more.

2. With the video tutorials recorded from screen, it breaks restriction of time and space in learning. Usually, students listen to the teacher in the class, and then go to practice. If they don’t focus their minds, some operations or main points may be unable to grasp. And it is not practical for teachers do repeat the course. Screen recording provides a convenient way to help students to learn and explore, no matter in classes or in extra-curricular.

3. All levels of students are taken in consideration. There are some differences of learning progress among Students. It is more conducive for different levels of students if there are detailed video tutorials. Students who master fast and do some deep exploring while students who master slowly can spend more time and opportunity to consolidate their learning.

4. A big help for teachers. There will be more time for teachers to manage and guide students in computer course learning. And there will be more time for Students to collaborate with peers, and more opportunities for exchanges opinions with their teachers.

5. Screen recording documents can be done by both extra-curricular and in class. The screen recording documents need to be prepared before such computer courses. If necessary, teachers can install the screen recording software to help students deal with some unexpected problems in class. On-site recording and distributing is a necessary complement for pre-class preparation improvement.

6. In favor of post-production and application. The screen recording documents used in class can be improved in accordance with the learning performance of students because of the post-editing and publishing features of screen recorder like DemoCreator. So that teachers can make better screen recording documents, and they can be used for other classes or for the next year.

There is a sample video tutorial to show you how to add audio file to PowerPoint.

Screen Recording Software for Usability Testing

2009-08-27T04:50:00.000-07:00

For usability testing on an application, a system or a Website, users are trying to finish the assigned task on computer. It is an important part to recording what users do on screen and publishing the process as videos for analysis. The content of videos can include screen activity such as mouse movement and click, page scroll and keystroke.

A video of these mouse movements, keystrokes, and other activities is most helpful for usability testing. Without good observational skills, it is difficult to remember what happened in the test. A video of screen recording not only helps you recall what happened on the screen, it provides more details to analyze and compare the processes between individuals.

There are various Windows screen recorder available. Most of them are free to try before buy and some of them with simple recording feature are even free. You can choose the one fits your need.

Screen recording software will slows down your computer performance more or less, but it is the best way to do the recording of the desktop compared to camcorder or VCR (Video Cassette Recorder). Besides, now hardware requirements are no longer the hurdle as they used to be.

The following requirements of screen recording software can satisfy most usability testing situations:

Optimize recording settings.

Recording at lower frame rate and lower resolution(like 800×600) in lower color depth(16-bit color)has no obvious impact on system performance. If you can disable your hardware acceleration, you can get better result.

Unobtrusive recording.

Most of the tools will not completely disappear while recording, but they all reduce to a small icon in the toolbar. And now a few screen recorders enable users to hide the system tray icon. So users will not be distracted or feel anxiety by being reminded of recording.

Instant playback.

In this technique usability test, users are doing the assigned task and their screen activities are in recording. When the task is completely they are shown the video and asked to conduct a think aloud. It’s best to watch the video right after the test to minimize forgetting.

Pause, Fast Forward, and Rewind.

Some common video formats are nice because they can be played with video player. Some of the tools use a special video format with special player should have a pause feature and preferably fast-forward and rewind.
Here were a few other features for usability testing but they are not critical.

Record Sound.

If the usability testing is concern with audio, it will be better to get a screen recording application with sound recording feature to do the recording. And now more and more applications supports sound recording from multiple sources such as Microphone, Rear Input, and Stereo Mix. And it can be used to record the interview dialogue after session with participants.

Editing feature.

This enables users to edit callouts to illustrate some special procedures in the recorded video after the test. Some notes can be added according to the after test interview.

Hotkeys.

To minimize futzing in testing sessions, hotkeys for important commands like Record, Pause, Play, and Stop is a useful feature.
Screen recording softwareDemoCreator is mainly designed for creating software tutorials and system demos. However, it can be a useful tool for usability testing. And now more and more requirements of usability test are considered in the design of screen recording software.
Note:

People may think there is one limitation to the software approach - it only records what happens on the screen but users themselves. If you want to learn something from the body language and physical movements of the user then you still need a camcorder. Now the good news is some screen recorders also support the webcam recording and picture-in-picture video. They can record the video of your webcam while recording screen activity.

Screen Recorder Software in Computer Science Teaching

2009-08-26T00:16:00.001-07:00

Abstract: This paper introduces the main functions of the screen recorder software. Combined with the characteristics of computer science courses and teaching methods commonly used, screen recorder software is playing a more and more important role. Practice has proved that screen recorder software improves the learning and teaching effectiveness. It is a helpful tool to facilitate teaching of professional computer science courses.

As students of the major of computer science, regardless of the learning of operating system, image processing, web design, animation or database design, we must be familiar with and skilled in using the appropriate software and system.
At present, most schools are equipped with CAI laboratory, but the computer science teaching method is to play the courseware with main text plus pictures and demonstrate software operating by teachers. Teachers guide students to do repeated operations in this way, but it is difficult for students to remember and process by themselves, not to mention to strengthen their knowledge after class or in the experiment. Screen recorder software can record the operating process, and the results can be embedded in teaching courseware. That will be a good solution to the problem.

Screen Recorder Software

Screen recorder software is an application that records the onscreen operating activity as video, or we can called it screen video recording software or screencasting software. There are a lot of screen recorder software, such as DemoCreator, Captivate, and HyperCam. They are with powerful features but simple to use. We will take DemoCreator as an example to explain the main functions of such screen recorder software.

First, it supports the long time onscreen video recording, and you can set the voice recording at the same time.

Second, screen recordings can be generated as EXE file which can be played on any computer without any player installed.

Third, the Flash movie output is a streaming video file of small size, which can be played online instantly.

Fourth, DemoCreator can publish files compliant with AICC/SCORM for Learning Management such as Black Board, SharePoint and Moodle.

Fifth, it enables users to rerecord the voice narration as screen recording. The voice recording process can be separated and user rerecord the narration or import audio file to the screen recording.

Sixth, it is the free to select any recording area of your desktop, full screen, selected window or custom area.

Seventh, users can PAUSE in the process of recording.

Characteristics of Computer Science Courses

There are computer science courses such as database programming, web design, image processing, programming languages and so on. One important thing for all the students is being familiar and skilled in using the related computer software. Software interoperability is a major feature of computer courses.

From the perspective of classroom teaching, the characteristics of computer-based courses are quite different from other courses and it has its own characteristics. Classroom teaching of computer course is often dependent on certain software application, teachers not only train the students on theoretical knowledge, but also operate the process of software and show it to students. Students get in-depth understanding of the software by primarily lectures and repeated use of the application.

Computer Science Curriculum and Experiment

l, the status of classroom teaching

Most computer science courses are based on multimedia teaching method. The essence of multimedia-based teaching is displaying the content of teaching in a more intuitive way, so that students can accept more easily and produce more profound memories.

At present, the commonly used method is to play "text + image" courseware to explain the theory and display software interface to introduce the functions of software. This can show some content that is difficult to show on blackboard with chalk and language. It plays an important role in computer teaching in the early days. However, with the increase of graphical interface software, some software is more complicated to operate. It is difficult to rely solely on this approach which is hard to reflect the operation process of the software.

Another method often used in computer teaching is to process a live demonstration by teachers. The advantage of this approach is intuitive, dynamic, and effective. However, there are downsides as follows: First of all, teachers display the operating by mouse clicking and keyboard typing with poor interactivity. If teachers do not prepare well, or there are some failures in process, it will make the process of interruption or repeated presentation. In that case, students are difficult to understand the steps absolutely correct;
Second, CAI laboratory must have all the software installed, then the machine is not easy to maintain, and the software also slows down the machine performance, so that it will lags machines when teachers are in the presentation. This reduces the effectiveness of the demonstration.

2, The status of experimental teaching

Experimental teaching plays a vital role in the whole process of computer course teaching. Mastering the theoretical knowledge of computer is not enough in learning computer science courses. Experimental teaching is to train students to use computer applications to solve real problems. The significance of computer experiment teaching is so important, that has been recognized by the whole education sector. There are two mainly used experimental teaching methods for computer science course:

The first method is broadcasting the screen recording to all students, and then they do the experiment through their memories. The inadequacy of this method is that students can only see but can not follow the operation. It is very difficult for students to remind the processing steps when they do it alone. In the experiment, teachers have to guide students in individual counseling, repeating the operation so many times. It is inevitable that guidance teacher can not take care of all the students. It is a waste of teachers’ work. The class time is so limited that teachers can not solve all the operational problems for students, thus affecting the effectiveness and the progress of teaching.

For schools with better experimental conditions, teachers demo steps through the projector in the laboratory, and students can solve the problem by following the operation. That is the second teaching method for computer science course.
However, because of the difference of computer basic, earning method and learning ability for all students, some students can keep up with the teaching process, while others can not. So teachers need to repeat the same presentation, or only take care of the students of middle level. Some students can not learn as much as they can, and some students can not keep up the situation. This also
impacts the effectiveness of teaching.

There are some difficulty in classroom and laboratory teaching. The teaching conditions are improving and teachers are trying to do better, but there are still some deficiencies. These deficiencies are not only reflected in the classroom and laboratory teaching. For operational content, the students are difficult to review and self-learn after class through the difficult text + pictures courseware.

The screen recorder software in the computer science teaching

Screen recorder software is easy to record the onscreen operating into a video or EXE file, and the process of recording and playback can be set arbitrarily. It plays an extraordinary role for teaching computer science courses.

First of all, it totally demonstrates the whole process of software operation. The process is intuitive and dynamic. It makes teaching can achieve a better result. Besides, it solves the problems of "text + image" courseware.

Second, teachers do not have pay attention on screen, and it is free to set up suspensions in recording. That avoids confusion in the process of presentation, and the phenomenon of disruption because of the operational errors or system failures. It ensures the progress of the course.

Third, CAI classrooms do not have to have all the software applications installed. It makes the machine easy to maintain and it does not reduce the performance of the machine.

Fourth, teachers distribute the recorded files of software operating to students in experiment. Students control playback speed and progress by themselves. In this way, it make that students can learn more based on their level, but also bring teachers out of duplication of effort.

Fifth, the recorded results will be (with the voice narration) uploaded to the teaching site. Students can review the document online. For energetic students, they can learn more by themselves.

In general, screen recorder software like DemoCreator enhances the effectiveness of teaching of computer science courses in all aspects. Multimedia-aided teaching is unique, advanced, and highly effective, but not suitable for all the teaching content. How to achieve optimal teaching effect? It should be based on the rational use of the actual needs to achieve the best results. Multi-media-assisted teaching and traditional teaching complements each other when they became Organic combination. Appropriate use of instructional media can fully mobilize the enthusiasm of learning. It cultures innovative ability of students with enhanced learning efficiency. Practice has proved that the screen recorder software bring good results for computer course teaching, no matter in classroom teaching, laboratory teaching and self-learning after school.

Top Desktop Recording Tools

2009-08-05T04:26:00.000-07:00

A question I'm often asked when people are putting together their training content, is "What screen recorder should I use?".

I've compiled a short list of screen recorders that I know a bit about. Please do add more detail,
plus your own experience and suggestions in the comments section as I know there are a lot more on the market, free or otherwise. These are not product reviews, my post is just intended to make people aware of these products. Each person has a different idea of 'easy to use', so it's worth shopping around and making use
of those free trials:

For PC Users:

JingProject
Free 5 minute screen recordings with audio and a little Jing branding, which can be exported to .swf. You can also take screen shots which produce as .png. Plus, there's a
Pro version for USD$15/yr with no branding, and more options including upload
direct to YouTube and produce as MPEG-4 (or .swf). Super easy to use but you're
restricted on editing/effects.
DemoCreator
Free 30 days trial available. Recording your desktop with audio, which can be publish
to .swf or .exe. You can do the editing after recording. There are enough objects for you to decorate your recording and presentation. It is an easy-to-use screen recorder application with nice editing feature.
Camtasia Studio 6
Free 30-day trial available. It's quick to get started recording your interaction with the screen be it a PowerPoint or demo. Record or overlay audio, add effects and Picture-in-Picture (PIP) to produce high quality, professional looking videos. Once you get used to the timelines lay-out, they are easy to edit, cut and add to. Output to multiple different formats.
Adobe Captivate
Offer a free 30-day trial as well. There's an on-going debate between Camtasia and Captivate users as to which is better. Some say editing is easier in Captivate, but I think it may just come down to personal choice. Captivate is a winner when it comes to creating interactive content and instead of timelines, interactions are stored as a series of screens.

For Mac Users:

Jing
(As above)
Screenflow

Built for Mac OS X Leopard, it comes highly recommended for smooth captures and a wide variety of editing tools. Output screen recordings as QuickTime movie. Screenflow is a 'no go' on Power Mac.
iShowU HD
A very powerful piece of software, but has an optional low CPU usage mode. Once created
sceencasts can be uploaded directly to YouTube, Blip.TV and other online video services.
Copernicus
(Danicsoft)
Free product that captures screen and video, but no audio.

Free, web-based screen
recorders i.e. nothing to download:

ScreenToaster - designed to capture your screen activity, audio and images, then publish and share in blogs and websites. Works in all browsers.

Screenjelly - allows you to quickly record your screen and voice then share it via a link in Twitter and other social networks

Record Screen Activity: Take Screenshots or Full Motion Recording

2009-07-23T00:26:00.000-07:00

There are two recording modes in DemoCreator: Take screenshots and Full motion recording. What recording mode you need? It depends on what
activity on the screen you want to record. For standard application, Take screenshots recording is nice. For really changes on screen, full motion recording is better option.

Take screenshots:

This recording mode works great at recording standard application like MS Word, Excel or Internet Explorer, where there's not a lot of animation and moving images. This mode will do very little impact on your PCs performance. With this option, you can select to record more actions like cursor movement and keystroke and edit them later. Furthermore, you can generate Auto-text and mouse click animations to illustrate your screen recording.

The recording movie is divided as multiple slides, and slides are generated based on the mouse clicks and keystrokes. Basically, one mouse click or a series of keystrokes generates a slide. So each slide lasts only a few seconds. You can click and drag and edit various objects for your recording.

You can adjust the length of the slide and its show order and edit it in the time line, but it may cause some synchronization problem between video and audio. It is recommended that you record the audio with the audio editor after editing the slides and there is no more adjusting to the time line. If there is no audio in the recording, it is free to adjust the editing objects and the time line.

Full motion recording:

Full motion recording will record the really changes on your screen. It records the onscreen changes even you don't move your mouse or there is no keystroke. So it can be used to record some playing animation movie (SWF, FLV, AVI) and some actions like dragging and scrolling on screen. It records a few screenshots in a second and combines them as a movie. The default recording setting is 25 FPS(Frame per Second) . Record a large area with full motion recording mode need to collect a lot of data and it consume much resource of the computer. If the computer can not support that high FPS, the FPS will be lowered automatically. So to improve the recording effect, you can do some settings to optimize the computer performance.

If you are going to capture full motion video, disable your computer's hardware acceleration beforehand. That will make your computer runs more smoothly in recording. There is a screencast to show you how to disable hardware acceleration:

A basic rule is that if there are many screen actions like dragging and scrolling, or there is animation movie on the desktop, Full motion recording is better option to show your recording. But if you want a smaller streaming movie and more auto-generated editing objects to decorate your screen recording, Take screenshots recording mode can fit your needs better. To show the necessary actions like dragging and scrolling actions but also reduce the file size, you can combine the two recording modes together with the Import project feature.

More tips to make effective screencasts

Record Desktop - Record any area of your desktop

2009-07-10T00:05:00.000-07:00

DemoCreator provides flexible recording area selections when you start to record the desktop:
Application option to record actions on a selected application window;
Custom Size to record actions within a specified area on the screen;
Full Screen to record actions on the entire screen.

Which portion on the desktopdo you need to record? It depends on what you want to show. The main principle is to make small streaming movie to show what we want to show. Unnecessary portions on the screen recording make the final movie file bigger, increasing both the time required in loading and playing. So we will just select the necessary area for desktop recording. There are some rules to select the recording area of your desktop:

Record application window

If the software operation you want to record is in one window and there are few dialog boxes or pop-ups that show up out of the recording scope of the recording window, select this option is fine. Dialog boxes and pop-ups will only display if they are in front of and smaller than the main window. Anything which extends outside of the boundary of the main window will be cut off. Try to run your application to see would it be OK to make the application window as the recording area. Also keep in mind that the default size of the publishing movie will be the same as your application window. To make it play in a smaller playing area, it is recommended to restore down the application window and do your recording. Or you can change the publishing dimension in the setting dialog box. After that, you may add the zoom objects to zoom in to emphasize the details for the resized slides. Select the application you want to record on your desktop, and snap to it, then you can start your recording.

Record the custom size

If you want to record a part of your desktop activity, you can customize the recording area. Any operation like the mouse curse and keystroke on that area will be captured. This is an easy way to set the recording region and aspect ratio for your video and make it right for the player or Web page where you want to show the movie. Furthermore, there are some pre-set dimensions for desktop recording: 800*600, 640*480, 400*300. Do some recording rehearsal to make sure you getting everything you want to show to happen inside that region. You set the exact size by typing in the pixels data in the setting entry, and you can drag the rectangle to position the recording area.

Recording full screen

This option is for you to capture everything that happens on your entire screen. Compare with small area recording, it will take up more computer resource and create a bigger file. However, that if there is a really high resolution monitor for full screen recording, you probably don’t want to create a video file that has to be played back at the same resolution in a really big player. If possible, lower your screen resolution before you start to record your desktop. For example, if you use the screen resolution of 1026*768 or higher, you can adjust the resolution as 800*600 and do you recording. And if you want it to show in a smaller player like 640*480, you can resize the movie dimension as 80% of the original one. So you can publish the video of smaller dimension, but it could be a little blurring. However, you can add the zoom object to magnify the import area of your recorded desktop to show the specific details. You can even set the zoom objects through all your recording slides.

Screencast: How to lower the monitor resolution

More tips to make effective screencasts

Screen Recording in Computer Teaching and Training

2009-07-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

Multi-media technology like screen recording can be used to create virtualized scenarios combined with driven tasks for breakthroughs of the keys and difficulties in teaching. Students can view the screen recording documents online or on their computer screen. They explore independently, and exchanges opinions mutually. They work as partners to complete learning tasks, while teachers guide and support them in a timely and professional manner.

Let’s say that the teacher is having the course of how to make a good PowerPoint presentation. He shows the students the operating steps and tips with screen recording courseware and then arranges the task.

There are many benefits of screen recording on computer teaching and training:

1. Fully reflect the subjectivity of students, and drive the entire class to complete the task and explore more.

2. With the video tutorials recorded from screen, it breaks restriction of time and space in learning. Usually, students listen to the teacher in the class, and then go to practice. If they don’t focus their minds, some operations or main points may be unable to grasp. And it is not practical for teachers do repeat the course. Screen recording provides a convenient way to help students to learn and explore, no matter in classes or in extra-curricular.

3. All levels of students are taken in consideration. There are some differences of learning progress among Students. It is more conducive for different levels of students if there are detailed video tutorials. Students who master fast and do some deep exploring while students who master slowly can spend more time and opportunity to consolidate their learning.

4. A big help for teachers. There will be more time for teachers to manage and guide students in computer course learning. And there will be more time for Students to collaborate with peers, and more opportunities for exchanges opinions with their teachers.

5. Screen recording documents can be done by both extra-curricular and in class. The screen recording documents need to be prepared before such computer courses. If necessary, teachers can install the screen recording software to help students deal with some unexpected problems in class. On-site recording and distributing is a necessary complement for pre-class preparation improvement.

6. In favor of post-production and application. The screen recording documents used in class can be improved in accordance with the learning performance of students because of the post-editing and publishing features of screen recorder like DemoCreator. So that teachers can make better screen recording documents, and they can be used for other classes or for the next year.

There is a sample video tutorial to show you how to add audio file to PowerPoint:

Make a Screencast for Thesis Defense Presentation

2009-06-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

A screencast is a digital recording of computer screen output. It is widely used in illustrate technical concepts and operation procedures which are hard to explain in words. Most screencasts are generated by screen recorder software. So we can say screen recorder is a helpful presentation tool to create screencasts for software and system demonstration.

For most graduates from technology universities, they will make some software applications or systems for their thesis defense. When in the presentation, they will show their productions to their teachers while operating the computer. Students can show the overview and structure of the production with PowerPoint presentation. When it comes to usage of the production, showing the teachers step-by-step illustration will be good. Speaking and operating at the same time is not that comfortable for students especially they get nerves.

If there are screencasts showing the operating steps of their productions, they will perform better in the thesis defense. In that case, screen recording software is in need.
Supposing you are going to have your thesis defense, you can rehearse the thesis defense before presentation. Try to express and run the productions. Practice delivery while moving the mouse.

Create solid screencast script. Ensure that your script doesn't just explain how to perform a task, but ensure it properly highlights the features and benefits of the production being demoed. By continually pointing out the features of the production and then going further to explain why they're beneficial to the audience you make a more compelling demonstration.

Control the operating timing. In the task you will handle, how much time will be spent describing an operation, what will you say to highlight a feature, and when will you zoom on an area for details, you should get a feel for controlling the timing. During your rehearsal, ensure that you are speaking clearly and slowly like that you are at the thesis defense presentation.

Avoid unnecessary mouse movement. During your production operating recording, ensure you don’t move your mouse unnecessarily. Movement on the screen will draw your audience’s attention. Consider using some screen recorder like DemoCreator which enables users to modify or delete the mouse curse.

Add interactivity objects to the presentation. You can add interactivity objects to enhance your presentation. Then you can interact with your teachers and audience for better communication.

Record voice-over narration in practice. You will express your point in the thesis defense presentation by yourself, so making a silent screencast is OK. But you can check the audio recording option and record your narration and listen to your recorded voice, you will know the defect of your presentation. Then you can make improvement for better performance.

Prepare the screencasting software. There are a lot of screen recorder available. According to the requirement we mentioned above, a Flash screencasting application with powerful editing feature, and supports audio recording is good. DemoCreator is a nice option.

Streaming Flash Movie for Web Sharing

2009-06-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

Using Screen recorder DemoCreator, you can create compelling screencasts and deliver them in a couple of ways. The most popular way is to distribute and share your screen recordings on the Internet. In that case, streaming Flash movie is the perfect solution.

Why creating streaming Flash movies?

There are many advantages that make Streaming Flash movie an outstanding format for web streaming.

Instant On
Streaming Flash movie starts playing instantly when the first section of the Flash movie is loaded and the play button is selected.

Advanced Seek
Viewers can jump to any point of the movie regardless of the length of the movie or whether it has been fully downloaded.

Multiple browsers and operating systems support
With browser penetration for the Flash plug-in above 95%, almost anyone who can browse the Web can watch streaming Flash movie without hassle. Users can expect consistent media experiences across operating systems and browsers.

Content Security
The Html web page generated by DemoCreator does not link to Flash movie directly, so streaming Flash movie is not cached by Web browsers.

High-quality Video
The new Flash 10 codec, now widely supported by browsers, offers superior video quality at smaller file sizes.

Programmable connection and delivery control
Developers can adjust the setting options to define how their video is streamed. The streaming video begins playing as soon as the first segment has been downloaded, and you can set the segment size based on the local bandwidth.

Customizable player skins - and more
Developers can set custom players that are in accordance with your site's design style or with unique functionality.

Rich decoration objects
Streaming Flash movie can be a Flash presentation containing text, still images, animation - even interactivity.

In general, streaming Flash movie is different from Flash movie for download in that it can be viewed while it is being delivered over a network. It enables audience to start watching right away after requesting the video and to jump forward to any part with little playback delay. It can be played with the popular Flash plug-in in web browser, so almost everyone can view it readily.

Record Computer Screen and sound

2009-06-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

DemoCreator enables users to create narration-based software
presentations with ease. Here we will learn how to use DemoCreator's
advanced audio capabilities to add and edit audio in your movies. This screen
recorder provides 3 ways to add the audio to the screen recordings:
record sound at capture time, record sound at preview time, import audio
file to the screen recording with audio editor.

Record sound at capture time

Record the onscreen activity with voice-over narration at the same
time.

1. Launch DemoCreator and select the recording area, and you can see more
recording option in the following window.

2. Tick the option of Record narration, and there are some
settings to test the audio recording device.

3. Select the Microphone as the audio input(this depends on
the recording input you want to record).

4. Click Calibrate button to detect optimal recording
sensitivity level, then speak to the microphone and you will see the audio
sensitivity level if the recording device works.

Tips:

DemoCreator can detect the recording device of your computer, and you can
select the right recording input. Here are 3 input resources to choose:
Microphone, Rear Input, and Stereo Mix.

Recording voice-over narration with microphone can significantly enhance the
impact of your presentation. Stereo Mix is for recording the playing audio in
the computer. If you want to record some audio from some other resource, connect
the audio device with the Rear Input port.

DemoCreator enables you to record a narration from microphone and also you
can record the narration from playing audio tracks on your PC.

If there is no problem with the recording device, click
Record button and start your recording.

Record sound at preview time

If you are not satisfied with the audio you have recorded with the screen
recording, you can rerecord the audio when your audio when you preview the
recorded screencast; And it is OK if you want to add the narration to the silent
screencast at preview time.

1.When screen recording is over, Click the Audio button and
you can see the audio editor window.

2. Click on the Record button at the bottom of Audio
Editor and you can see the audio Device testing window. Just test your
audio recording device as the method we mentioned in Record sound at capture
time.

3.Start recording your narration, and you can view the recorded movie at the
same time.

4. When it is over, press the Stop button.

5. Click the Play button to view the recorded movie with
audio. Further more, you can modify the narration with editing tools on the
audio editor.

Import audio file with audio editor

Besides the two methods mentioned above, you can import audio
file to the screen recording as background music.

Back to the audio editor, there is an Import button for you to add the
wanted music file from you local disk.

After the recording you can get the audio file of MP3 format in the project
folder.

View
samples>>
More
Tutorials>>

Record Computer Screen to EXE File

2009-06-02T01:00:00.000-07:00

Flash movie and AVI are the popular formats for distribution. However, it can be a problem when the user is unable to play the SWF file because Flash player has not been installed, or some codec is missing for playing AVI file. For best compatibility, we can record screen activity to a self-played executable file because all Windows computers are able to run executable file without players.

Further more, EXE file of screen recordings can be burnt to a CD or DVD for distribution. If the screen recordings are software demos, you may give them out in the software exhibition; If they are some technical support documents for technical support, you can send them to your clients; If they are some software or system video tutorials, disks offers an off line distribution way. DemoCreator make it easy to create EXE files from screen recordings.

The EXE files generated by DemoCreator is played in a built-In video player. To play the screencasts published as EXE files, you don’t need to install any player on your computer. Besides, the original dimensions can be preserved and you can keep good quality of your screen recordings.

Why Generate EXE files from DemoCreator

There is an executable wizard that packs SWF of screen recordings in a built-in player. So the published EXE files own almost all the features of published SWF files.

1. Preserve the interactive objects

The features of all the objects in the screencast can be maintained. For example, you can add some direction buttons to guide users to the sections they want to view, and the direction action and be used in the running EXE files. Here are some action settings for the button in DemoCreator: Continue, Go to slide, Go to URL, Close Demo and E-mail.

2. Customize the player

The two built-in player options: Classic style and Active style. You can select to show the player you like or not to show the player at all, or just show the necessary buttons on the player.

3. Compression

Because the EXE files generated by DemoCreator are published based on the SWF files, the compressed files will be rather small.

4. Burn the files to CD

For CD-ROM delivery, please burn all the files in the output folder to a compress disk. And we have discuss the convenience at the beginning of this tutorial.

How to publish EXE File in DemoCreator

To create an EXE file using DemoCreator, follow the steps given below:

1. Click the Publish button on the main menu, and you can see the publish option window.

2. Select EXE/CD, you can add the title and change the publishing directory.

3. Click the Publish button, and go to the publishing process.

4. After a few minutes(it depends on the length of recording and the performance of the computer), a pop-up dialog window will show you publishing is over and you can open the EXE file to view your recording.

As we can see the EXE file from your screen recording is generated, you can pack it up and email it to your friends or burn it to compressed disks and send them to your clients.

Record Computer Screen to Flash Movie

2009-06-02T00:38:00.000-07:00

When you finish your screen recordings, what format you would like to distribute? This depends on you purpose of your screen recording. If they are software demos that you would like everybody to watch them online, or they are some software tutorials you want them shared on the web, distributing your screen recordings as Flash movies, or we can say publish your screencasts as SWF files with Html page is a good idea. DemoCreator enable you to make clear Flash movies from computer screen, and there is more control over the viewing experience when your screen recordings are played back. We can learn more why publishing Flash movie SWF file for your screen recording.

The Flash movie format SWF (originally standing for "Shockwave Flash", later changed to "Small Web Format") a partially open repository for multimedia and especially for vector graphics. Intended to be small enough for distribution on the web, SWF files can contain animations or applets of varying degrees of interactivity and function.

SWF currently functions as the dominant format for displaying "animated" vector graphics on the Web. The SWF file format delivers vector graphics, text, video, and sound over the Internet and is supported by Adobe Flash Player. From the systematic, Flash Player already reaches over 98% of Internet-enabled desktops and more than 800 million handsets and mobile devices.

Generate SWF files from DemoCreator

1. Preserve the interactive objects

Publishing the screen recordings as Flash movie can preserve the interactive objects you edited in the movies. You can add some interaction buttons (like Stop and Continue) in your recordings to enhance your training effort. At the end of the movie, the SWF files can be set to Loop Demo or Go to URL.

2. Customize the player

There are two built-in players in DemoCreator: Classic style and Active style. You can select to show the player you like or not to show the player, or just show the necessary buttons on the player. Further more, the transparence the player is changeable in DemoCreator.

3. Compression

SWF files published by DemoCreator are compressed by default setting. They are small in size and easy to share to all.

4. For web sharing.

Publishing as a Flash movie and generate Html files to be uploaded to web server can be accessed by web browsers. And you can embed the Flash movie to your web page to play your screencast.

Steps to publish SWF movie

When finishing screen recording, follow steps given below to make a Flash
movie using DemoCreator:

1. Click the Publish button on the main menu, and you can see the publish option window.

2. Select Flash, you can add the title and change the publishing directory. And you can choose to publish Html page for you SWF files or not.

3. Click the Publish button, and go to the publishing process.

4. After a few minutes(it depends on the length of recording and the performence of your computer), a pop-up dialog window will show you publishing completed and you can view your recording in Flash player or Internet
browser.

Now that the Flash movie is generated, you can upload it to web server to play on the web or you can email it to your friends for technical support.

How to view the YouTube video bypass the network

2009-05-27T04:13:00.000-07:00

How to view the YouTube video bypass the network restrictions?
Browse anonymously and/or bypass your school, college or workplace network restrictions. Your favourite site blocked? Browse through our site instead! When YouTube is restricted in your area but you do want to watch the video, this would be of great help!
http://www.sneakme.net/

Demo Created by DemoCreator.

DemoCreator - Screen Recorder for Learning

2009-05-25T00:33:00.000-07:00

Screen recorder is the software for recording screen activity and mouse movement to create movies and interactive demos. It is useful for creating training materials, software tutorials, presentations, and product demonstrations. As a powerful presentation tool, nowadays screen recorder is widely used in teaching and learning.

The research about screen recording suggests that screen recordings increase teaching presence and thus improve students' learning experiences.

For teachers, they can perform demos in an online learning environment; the tutorials can be edited with multiple interactive elements before delivery, the demos support reuse...

For students, the presentations created by screen recorder is clearer and more engaging than written instructions or static screen shots; the demos can be played as many times as needed; the tutorial videos is for "anytime/anywhere" learning...

Here is a short review of a screen recorder for learning. DemoCreator is a nice screen recorder for creating electronic learning presentations. It provides friendly interfaces and powerful editing features. No need of multimedia and programming skills to make interactive tutorials. We will take a look at this screen recorder in details.

Capture the onscreen activity

DemoCreator record video tutorials with audio by screen capture, and show exactly how the application (such as PowerPoint, Photoshop and website) or system runs. The screen recording is saved as slides. The slide format makes it easy to edit. For example, the mouse curse is recorded as an editable object in the timeline of a slide, users can change its clicking area, clicking effect, movement route and time. A mass of slides for a lengthy presentation could be a disadvantage for some users, but this enables users to save the desired slides and discard the unwanted slides for their presentation.

Edit the recording tutorial

Because tutorials and simulations are shown as a slide format in DemoCreator, users can readily modify the pace and control the timing of objects such as visual components on the timeline editor for each slide. There is a library of available objects to decorate the recording, such as Flash animation, mouse movements, text box, edit entry, highlight boxes for spotlighting areas in a slide, and clickable buttons for directing users to a different slide or URL page. Users can enhance the presentation by adding the objects to make the illustration explicit. Users can rerecord the narrations for the tutorials, or they can import the music files to their tutorials. Furthermore, the existed project can be imported to the current presentation project. It means that DemoCreator supports tutorial reuse, and the multiple tutorials can be integrated as one.

Publish the presentation

To make interactive presentations, the predominately used publishing output media type in DemoCreator is Flash movie. The main drawback is that lengthy presentations can result in a large number of slides that can be time consuming to publish and result in a larger file size. And DemoCreator enables teachers to provide students with record results through Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) or Aviation Industry Computer-based Training Committee (AICC). SCORM and AICC courseware are available through both commercial and open source learning management systems for school education and enterprise training.

"Teaching is a performing art."
— Bob Ross,
professional speaker and humorist

Easy to make your presentation with screen recorder. But remember, to make a good presentation, instructor enthusiasm and creativity are the key.

Related Links :
Get started with DemoCreator

Record Computer Screen with Audio

How to make an effective sceencast

2009-05-14T05:38:00.000-07:00

A screencast is a video of onscreen activity. It is a helpful tool to show technical tasks, or to illustrate technical concepts hard to explain in words. It might take the form of a formal narrated presentation, a software demo, or an informal walk-through of a particular concept. It can be readily distributed by blog posts, RSS feeds, tags, and social media video hosts like YouTube. These media enable users to share screencasts with a distributed audience, and people can get portable training with podcasts.

But, how to make an effective screencast?

Some important tips from Microsoft to prepare your computer for screen recording:

To improve your computer’s performance during the screen-capture session, especially if you plan to capture the entire computer screen, reduce the screen resolution and color quality. You can set your computer according to the following screencast:

If you plan to capture full-motion video during your screen-capture session, disable your computer's hardware acceleration. That will make your computer runs more smoothly when in recording. There is another screencast to show you the steps:

Then, close the unneeded programs. This helps clear the clutter from the screen and reduce problem of device of resource conflicts.

When everything is ready, just make a compelling screencast according the following tips.

1. Develop an audio narration for your screencast.

Write voice narration scripts for the screencast. The best scripts are written word-for-word to ensure the audio track is never silent. It doesn’t mean that there must be narration for the entire screencast - musical transitions might be appropriate. Now screen recorder like DemoCreator allows user to import music as the background audio to enhance the demonstration.

A solid script will follow good marketing and sales techniques. So ensure that your script doesn’t just explain how to perform a task, but ensure it properly highlights the features and benefits of the product/service being demoed. By continually pointing out the features of the product/service and then going further to explain why they’re beneficial to the audience you make a more stunning screencast.

2. Rehearse the video recording

Practice delivery while moving the mouse. In the task you will handle, how much time will be spent describing an operation, what will you say to highlight a feature, and when will you zoom on an area for details, you should get a feel for controlling the timing. During your rehearsal, ensure that you are speaking clearly and slowly.

3. Record the Screencast

Launch the screen recording software and select the area on the screen, then start your screencasting. When the recording is over, preview your screencast. You can edit or rerecord the audio and modify the video, or rerecord the screencast or audio narration until you are satisfied. Just record the minimum area, that will make your publishing files smaller.

4. Edit the screencast

Now the editing features come to be popular in screen recording software.You can delete unnecessary video and audio content as you wish. Also, you can insert new video, graphics, or audio clips to decorate the screencast.

For example, you can add zoom and pan effect to show the specific area in details, you can spotlighting an area of the recording, and you can put a clickable button to direct users to your website. In one word, users can decorate the movie by adding the objects to make the illustration explicit.

5. Publish your screencast

There are some publishing options:
For widely sharing, publish your video as .avi or .wmv file and upload the file to the Youtube.com or Vimeo.com web service.
Publish as a Flash movie and generate HTML files to be uploaded to a website for access by web browsers.
If you are going to send your screencast to another, EXE format could be a good option. It is an executable format can be run without any player.
And you may create SCORM or AICC compliant demo packages for being uploaded to LMS like SharePoint, Moodle or Blackboard.

Screencast Tools

What screen recording software you need depends on your utility and what effect you want to achieve. DemoCreator could be a good option.

Get Exposure - Increase Your Business Sales

2009-05-08T22:47:00.000-07:00

No doubt about that, the one thing that any company, corporation or business wants is exposure. Exposure shapes and molds a company or an idea to formulate a process in the potential customer’s mind. If you can get them to think it, perhaps you can get them to buy it. In other words, more exposure, more money. But how to get more exposure and make it work? A convictive demonstration of your product and service can be good.

Advertising on TV is a good way to get exposure. But the budget is not affordable for everyone. When the internet became available for business and consumer consumption, now the truth is that: no matter what the size of a company is, they can create visibility for themselves, especially online. Online demonstration can be more effective to spread your business and increase your
business sales. A stunning demo is helpful to show the features and functions of your product and service. And it could be a way to attracting more people to learning about your business. Statistics shows that offering your potential customers a product or service they can actually see will help create a massive increase in your sales.

Here is a story from Marketing Your Business on YouTube.

Charles Smith, a pottery artist from Mobile, Ala., thinks about the tens of thousands of people worldwide who have clicked on his videos to watch him create works of art on his pottery wheel only to break them up at the end.

“You’ve got to have a gimmick, so I broke up the pots,” says Smith, who says about 90 percent of that traffic is students, but 10 percent is actually generating sales.

To make a compelling demonstration video, you don’t have to find a professional advertising company. There are plenty convenient devices for you to get it done, what you need is creativity.

Camcorders come to be prevalent in making personalized videos. If you don't feel comfortable to speak in front of the machine, creating a PowerPoint presentation can be the way of your demonstration, but it is not the right format to share online. Converting the PowerPoint presentation file into a Flash movie or a video for wide distribution sounds flexible. For that, PPT2Flash Pro or PPT2Video is available. Another Screencasting tool like DemoCreator provides a highly effective way to guide people through a complicated operating task: it records the onscreen activity to generate the step by step videos for software and website system demonstration.

The video demonstration can better illustrate your business than text with pictures, not matter products or service, in an unconventional way. When the information of your business can be delivered clearly to people, they will respond very well. The video demonstration enhances their experience. They feel a connection because they can visually see and hear how the products and service work. This will help them to make the purchase decision.

The predominately used publishing media for online demonstration are Flash movie and video. This makes it easy to share on product websites, podcast websites, blogs, social sites and more. As far as you know, YouTube, Blogspot and Myspace are all popular all over the world. So, you are getting mass exposure advertising to reach out to the masses. And it may transform them to
your future customers.

More benefit you can get from the step by step online demonstration videos…

The demonstration video reduces service costs with online customer self-service. It could be the solution when users meet the trouble using your service and products. If they can find the related solution demos on your websites, users can get the problems done by themselves most of times.

When you want to drive more traffic to your website, you can put your company logo with the site link in the movie. This will remind them to go immediately to your website for additional information. For example, you are making a video demonstrating a software product. You can add the URL at the downright corner of the Flash movie to direct the viewers to your product page and they may immediately buy.

What can you or your company do to create more visibility and exposure for your service or product? What creative ways can you find to share what you want to share?

Why make a screencast?

2009-04-29T19:37:00.000-07:00

Screencast is a digital recording of computer screens, full screens or screen regions and usually comes with an audio narration to describe the on-screen actions. The term screencast dates back to 2004 with an interesting story.

In 2004, a columnist Jon Udell invited readers of his blog to propose names for the emerging genre. In all the suggested terms, Udell selected screencast, which was proposed by both Joseph McDonald and Deeje Cooley. His "Heavy metal umlaut" screencast is a well-known example - which explains how Wikipedia works. http://weblog.infoworld.com/udell/gems/umlaut.html
Since then, the term screen has be known by more people and the use of screencasts has itself become more popular. Currently the new trend of screencast is documentary filmmaking of software-based social networking services like Wikipedia, del.icio.us. or digg.

Screencast Types

Product Tutorials:
The screencast tells users how to use a software application or service by showing screen introductions. Usually, there is a recorded voice over to walk through the steps. See examples below.
Eventools online Demo http://www.eventtools.nl/demo/Eventtools-Toevoegen-wijzigen%20personen.html

Short How-to:
This kind of screencast is often short and demonstrates a simple guide or gives tips and tricks to solve a small problem or dig into a product feature.
See example below.
Xtrmlive Web Service Demo http://xtrmlive.com/demo/sponsorship2/

Conversational Demos:
Conversational demos have more focus on the conversion rather than the screens. Usually, there are two voices for the screen. Often one is asking question about the screen and another gives the answer.

Software review:
If you are asked to write a software review , you can always make a screencast to highlight some features.
Boq System Online Demo http://www.boq.se/help/qounter/qounter.html

User produced demo:
Some software applications are difficult to use and you sometimes have some unexpected troubles. Making a screencast to explain, will help you a lot when you are talking to the technical support. You can even make yourself a troubleshooting demo to share with your friends and families.
DMM Online Support Demo http://www.dmm-support.dk/uploads/video/4pictures/add_pictures/add_picture_to_SDB.html
Of course,there are more types has not yet included in this article.

Screencasting Tools

For Window Users
Windows Media Encoder - Free but with high system requirements http://www.videohelp.com/tools/Windows_Media_Encoder
Wondershare DemoCreator - Flash-based Screen Recorder http://www.sameshow.com/demo-creator.html#107
CamStudio - Free. It has the ability to capture in .avi or Flash (swf) http://camstudio.org/

For Mac Users
Snapz Pro X http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
iShowU http://www.shinywhitebox.com/

Guide Lines of making a screencast

Know what you want to present
First and foremost, You’ll need to have an idea about what you’ll present, and you’ll need to figure out which platform to use. Knowing your purposes of making a screecast is the first step.

Make it real
Always make a screencast real and substantial. For example, if it is for software demonstration or a network monitor, then work with the software or live network.
Of course , for reasons of logistics or security, this isn’t always possible. But the more real you can make it, the better.

Interactivity is important
Interactivity engages viewers through the demo. If your screecast is just screen by screen, your viewers will leave soon. You can and should record narration or insert background music to the screencast. Usually, some screencasting tools like DemoCreator enable you to add some visual aids to the captured screens like callouts, shapes, annotation buttons and animated images. Note that when a screencast is interactive it will engage the viewers in a conversation that steers it into unexpected areas.

originated from: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Screencast

Free Online screen recording

2009-04-28T20:43:00.000-07:00

People love to watch how-to videos or demo screencast of your software and Web applications manual to cut down your support and marketing efforts. A screencast is a simply video capture of your computer screen. Most of the screen recorders available are desktop based, but with the Web-base moving towards Software as Services (SaS) platform, a few online screen recording services have emerged. We take a look at some of the popular remotely hosted screencast services. and it is totally Free.

ScreenToaster uses a Java applet to capture your computer screen, video and live streams from your webcam. Recorded videos are streamed and saved live making editing and publishing faster. The web-base application video editor allows you to annotate videos or add voice. Once your screencast is ready, you can upload it to the servers of ScreenToaster or send it to your Youtube account. Alternatively, you can download a copy of the video as .mov or .swf. Screencasts published on the ScreenToaster site can be set to be accessed publicly or privately and supports social sharing and commenting features.
Price: Free
Pros: Extremely fast video upload and processing.
Cons: Lacks video editing features.

GoView is a new player in the screen recording business that has been developed by Citrix Online, the company behind GoToMeeting and GoToMyPc. Similar to the other services, it supports both video and voice recording. After downloading and installing a small application, GoView will sit in your system tray. Your screencast are automatically uploaded to the goview.com site which can then be easily shared. When tested, we found that the quality of video recorded is far better than the other services. GoView also has a web based video editor that allows you annotate, split and export your videos to MP4 format.
Price: Free
Pros: High quality screen recording
Cons: Uploading screen capture is slow. Video cannot be embedded on site.

Screencast-0-Matic was the first service to offer web-base screen recording right from the browser without any software installation (requires only Java support in the browser). You can select to record your full-screen or just an area of it. Once recorded, your videos can be uploaded to the Screencast-O-Matic web site or sent to YouTube in HD format. You can also export the video as downloadable formats like Quicktime (MP4), Flash (FLV) or as Windows Media Player (AIV).
Price: Free
Pros: Multiple export features.
Cons: Lacks video editing features.

ScreenCastle is the easiest screencast recorder. It no registration requirement, just the download of a lightweight Java applet that takes less than a minute to install. It supports both video and audio recording from your microphone. You can select to record full-screen or just an area of your computer screen. After the recording, it will take a few seconds for your video to be uploaded and right after upload, you will be presented with linking and embedding options. The best part about ScreenCastle is that it has an API version, called Skoffer. Skoffer allows developers to build in the screencast recorder into the web application. Plugins that makes use of this API are already available for popular scripts like WordPress and MediaWiki.
Price: Free
Cons: Lacks video editing features.
Pros: Extremely simple and easy to use and has an API available.

originated from: http://freefree-online.blogspot.com/2007/04/free-online-screen-recording.html

Screencast Demo - How to Add Google Analytics Tracking Code to Your Blog

2009-04-23T05:56:00.000-07:00

Do It Your Self Video

2009-04-22T18:06:00.000-07:00

Whether you need to have a plan or not for making a tutorial video project depends on how complicated the video project is. You need to at least have a one-page project plan if you are making a fairly complicated project involving lots of media elements and having a number of steps to complete the project. If your project will contain just a small number of media elements and just a few steps to accomplish, then you only need to have a project idea in your head. A good practice to follow when making videos using your computer is to group your files into your various video projects. Make a single folder for each project and put all the files and media elements pertaining to that project in its own project folder. This practice can save you a lot of time and effort in looking for misplaced or missing files.

A video tutorial is a movie that teaches how to do something on a computer by showing the student how the computer screen looks while the teacher is explaining what he is doing. It's an effective way of teaching a computer skill because it shows how actually the task is accomplished in a computer. If a picture is worth a thousand words, then a moving picture could probably be worth millions.

Things You Need to Make a Video Tutorial

For you to be able to start and complete a tutorial video, you need to have the following in your computer:

A Vista or XP computer with Internet connectionMicrophoneThe Paint ProgramCamStudio softwareWindows Movie MakerA video project ideaAn Internet connection is not an absolute must but being connected to the Internet will be vitally important if you need to download something that you need to complete your project. You will also need an Internet connection if you want to upload your video to a file hosting site as a way of sharing your video with people who are interested in viewing it.

The type of microphone that you are using to make your voice over determines the voice quality that you can achieve in your video. You will either have an in-built microphone in your laptop or you might be using an external microphone that you connect to your computer. You generally have more flexibility in using an external microphone since you van move it as closer or further from your mouth. It is very much possible for your microphone to have a very low level of pickup that your voice comes out barely audible in your speakers. If you're using a Vista laptop, you can use the Sound tool in your control panel to increase the recording volume and boost the pickup of your computer's microphone. In the Sound tool, click on manage audio devices link and then click on the recording tab of the pop-up window that comes out. By clicking the name of your microphone hardware, a properties button that becomes visible can be used to increase the microphone's recording volume and its pickup boost.

The Paint program is already present in your Windows computer if your computer is using the XP or Vista operating system and can be found under the Accessories folder in the Start menu. CamStudio is a free screen capture software that you can download from the Internet. It is a powerful but easy-to-use software that you can use in showing how to do certain things in your computer. Window Movie Maker is already installed if you're using either an XP or a Vista operating system in your computer.You will learn how to make a video tutorial by actually making a video project. Have a simple project idea that you will undertake as a first project. Start by making the media elements that will comprise your video, and then integrate everything using the Windows Movie Maker.

Steps to Be Done in Making the Video Tutorial

To make a tutorial video, you need to perform the following steps:

Download, install and test CamStudioHave a short plan or project idea in your headPrepare slides using the Paint programRecord a discussion of the slides using CamStudioMake demonstration videos using CamStudioAssemble all the media using the Movie MakerInclude special effects or background musicUpload video to hosting sites in the InternetYou might need to use an administrator account when installing the CamStudio software. Once installed, make a short screen capture to make sure that both the video and the audio are working well. Your final project brings together all the media elements that will comprise your tutorial video. The basic approach really comes to making the media elements using the Paint program and CamStudio and then combining all the media elements into one video file using the Windows Movie Maker.Using the Paint ProgramPaint's default document size measures 640 by 400 pixels. This is too small if you want to put in more text in the slide and use larger size fonts. You can increase the document size by clicking on the Image command and clicking the Attributes option. Use a larger document size like 800 by 600 pixels. A medium font size like 20 points makes the text legible in both small and large screens. Choose an attractive font style and prefer to have your text in bold. A darker font color degrades better when the screen size is increased or reduced. Having a light background color will go a long way in making the image more pleasing to the eye.

How to Use CamStudio

Before using CamStudio, make sure that you check the record audio from microphone option before you start capturing your screen. Capture a medium sized screen that can remain readable when the screen size is enlarged or reduced. Using approximately three-fourths of your total screen area can be used as a guide in determining how large a screen size you need to use. All the video elements that should go into the making of the screen capture should ideally be opened but minimized and ready to be restored as needed in your discussion. Make sure that the image will fall inside the video capture boundary when it is brought into the picture.

It can happen that you become at a loss for words when doing a screen capture. If you think you cannot talk continuously in an extemporaneous way, write a script first then read your script as you perform your screen capture. Keep your discussion focused on the topic at hand. Your screen capture area should never be allowed to be cluttered with unnecessary images so it is best to keep the images to the minimum. If you happen to make a mistake, just click on CamStudio's stop button and cancel any prompt to save the video.

Using the Windows Movie Maker

If you have a lot of media elements in your project, it's a good practice to have a sequenced list that can be used as guide in sequencing the media elements in the timeline. Make sure that all your media elements are already included in the timeline before setting the transitions and effects that you will be using in your video. Movie Player has an undo button that you can use when you make a mistake in making your video. It can be particularly helpful when you want undo a mistake that affects most or all of the media elements in the timeline.

Windows Movie Maker offers a lot of special effects and transitions that you can be tempted to use a lot of them in your video. While effects and transitions can help improve the visual impact of the images shown on the video, too much of it can also hinder your viewers' understanding and appreciation of the video you are making. As we are using Windows Movie Maker for learning purposes, you will be well advised to use special effects and transitions sparingly. When using the Windows Movie Maker's titles and credits wizard, make sure that you use the same background color and font face that you have used in making your slides. This is to give the uniformity effect that can help a lot in making the video easily understandable.

How to Upload Your Video to Files Hosting Sites

You generally have to open an account with the file hosting services provider by registering a user id and email address and providing other information about yourself. Each hosting service has a different upload page but basically, you will be asked to enter information about the video you are uploading. It takes some time after uploading your video before it is published in the file hosting site. It is good practice to read the terms of agreement that you make with the file hosting web site so as to avoid any problem that may arise regarding your upload. You should be very careful that you do not include any copyrighted material in your video without the permission of the copyright holder. Check your video once in a while to check on the comments that viewers give on your video. These comments can prove useful in improving your video making skills that you can use in your future video making projects.

Making a Video Tutorial Has Never Been Easier Now

With the advent of more powerful computers and ready availability of user-friendly hardware and software, it has become very easy for computer users to produce learning videos that can prove to be of immense value to people interested in learning how to make better use of their computers. Undertaking a simple video making project as a kick-off activity can go a long way in helping you learn how to make a video tutorial using the resources available in your Windows computer.

originated from: http://tipsfortechy.blogspot.com/2009/04/do-it-your-self-video.html

Experience of Zoom and Pan in Screen Recorder DemoCreator

2009-04-15T23:57:00.000-07:00

Wondershare released Democreator v2.5.5 in Mar. 2009, a screen recorder on Window Platform that creates interactive presentations, tutorials and demos. This version shows the zoom and pan feature that provides specific details of a certain area on the screen, and more editing features are available. Zoom-n-pan is especially useful when the movie is replaying on a small screen. And it can also help to focus the audience’s attention on important screen operations.

Besides the zoom-n-pan feature, the developers redesign the beginning and ending of the movie. That makes the published demo more professional. The master image object introduces the new feature that you can adjust the transparence and add the redirect link in you Flash movie. You may find its good when you want to add the logo to the demo to mark it of your own, and the clickable logo can drive more traffic to your website.

The advanced editing features enable users to edit the recording readily. Because the recorded movies are shown as slides, you can drag the visual components to modify the pace and control the timing of objects. There is a library of available objects to decorate the recording, such as Flash animation, mouse movements, text box, edit entry, zoom-n-pan for specifying details of selected area, highlight boxes for spotlighting areas in a slide, and clickable buttons for directing users to another slide or a URL page. You can decorate the movie by adding the objects to make the illustration explicit. Besides, you can record the narration or import the music file to enhance the movie.

Back to the Zoom-n-Pan feature. Click the Zoom-n-Pan object in the Objects Library, then click and drag a rectangle area in the edit scene to adjust the area your want to enlarge for emphasis. When editing, the zoom area is displayed and can be easily repositioned or resized with the mouse or the property dialog box.

When you put the Zoom object in the movie, you can see its length in the time line. The total Zoom length includes the Zoom in duration, Zoom out duration, and the time when the zoom area playing as the enlarged status. Easily modify the Zoom in duration and Zoom out duration in the zoom property dialog box. Most slides are short for seconds, if you want to zoom in to show part of the screen for quite a while, you can set the zoom object to apply to multiple slides.

If you link up two zoom objects and preview the movie, you can see it pans smoothly from the first zoom area to the second one. That is how the panning effect achieves.

Last step is to publish your movie. There are only some publishing formats for you to choose from, but no dimension setting for the movie. It seems there is some logical error for this software. Most people don’t have the idea where to set the movie dimension, so what they do is just publishing the movie of the original size. When zooming in to enlarge an area of the movie, it comes to be a little blurring!

The truth is that you can adjust the movie dimension in the scene setting dialog box. But the Scene scale in the same box make me confused, in fact, scene scale is just related to the ratio of the editing scene but the movie dimension.

Anyway, there is the zoom-n-pan feature available in this software. In general, it is nice tool to make demos of your screen. And there are still some details and features need to be improved for better use.

Top 7 Screen Recorders with Zoom-n-Pan: Show Specific Details

2009-04-14T19:56:00.000-07:00

Zoom-n-Pan is very useful when making videos for the small screen. This feature allows you to zoom and pan in a specific area smoothly showing specific area in details, and focus your audience’s attention on important screen movements or actions to make your point clearly. Now more and more screen recorders come to introduce this feature that provides full visual clarity when replaying on a smaller screen. Here I have collected 7 screen recorders with the zoom-n-pan feature, you may pick up the one that fits your need.

1. DemoCreator

Easily creates the powerful animated software video tutorials and website demos just by three steps: Record, Edit, and Publish. The new version of DemoCreator 2.5.5 has enhance the user’s experience and the editing features.

Put the zoom object on the area of the slides you want to enlarge for emphasis. When editing, the zoom area is displayed and can be easily repositioned or resized with the mouse. If you link up two zoom objects, you can see the panning effect.

2. Captivate

Captivate from Adobe lets you create powerful and engaging Flash-based simulations, software demonstrations, and scenario-based training without programming knowledge or multimedia skills. Captivate 4 has just been released.

To achieve the zoom-n-pan effect in Captivate, you need to put a zoom object to select the area. It works like a magnifying glass on your screen.

3. Camtasia

Easily record onscreen activity. Edit for professional polish, enhance for emphasis. Share multiple video formats conveniently. Version 6.0 features support for HD, timesaving editing hotkeys, and the ability to edit audio and video tracks independently.

Add the zoom-n-pan effect to the selected key frames, and adjust the zoom speed and scale for best result.

4. BB FlashBack

Easy-to-use screen recorder creates compact, high quality movies for tutorials, demos and presentations with powerful video and audio editing features. Version 2.5 includes and enhances multiple formats export.

You can emphasize key actions and areas of the screen by adding 'pan' and 'zoom' effects to your presentation for that professional
finish.

5. Instant Demo

Using a very simple interface you can create animated Flash demos quickly and easily. Most controls to edit and annotate are contained in just one small window.

Zooming is done during editing by dragging a rectangle around the region to be enlarged. The zoom region can automatically follow the mouse activity.

6. DemoBuilder

A powerful Flash-based tool that allows you to create eye-catching and professionally-looking interactive presentations that do not require any programming skills.

Set the zoom scale and time for the key frames. Adjust the parameter by dragging the parameter to left or right. You may find setting your zoom target area confusing if you are not familiar with this screen recorder.

7. TipCam

Free screen recorder for Windows. Record your screen and voice in a flash video (FLV format) and share it instantly at uTIPu.com or via e-mail.

The only free application supports Pan-n-Zoom so the recording area can easily follow the movements of your mouse cursor. The Pan-n-Zoom feature is controlled by some hot key when recording. Not that convenient for users.

Step-by-step Guide Video - Tech Support Solution

2009-04-08T05:13:00.000-07:00

As a technical support staff, a question that I am asked a lot by my customers is "Can you show me the solution of the problem step by step?" I try really hard to state the operating steps to them by the words in the email or on the phone, but they don’t get what I mean for most of times. In fact, the 80% questions have been asking again and again, but I still have to answer them one by one. Now the solution is clear for me: Creating the step-by-step video for troubleshooting.

Why create a video for technical support?

It is an easy way to explain your solution process
No continual stop/start grabbing screenshots and typing instructions
Easy to follow along and reproduce steps
Friendly to users
Reduce service costs with online customer self-service

To make a troubleshooting video, there are 4 steps to go: prepare your script, record screen activities, edit your recording, and publish your movie. There are some applications available to record what happens on your computer. A few of them are free, but with little editing feature. Some editing is necessary for making a compelling step-by-step video. Here I will focus on the editing feature of DemoCreator.

The advanced editing features enable you to edit the recording and add details to your video. Because the recorded movies are shown as a slide format in this screencasting tool, you can readily modify the pace and control the timing of objects such as visual components on the timeline editor for each slide. There is a library of available objects to decorate the recording, such as Flash animation, mouse movements, text box, edit entry, zoom-n-pan scale for specifying specific details for selected area, highlight boxes for spotlighting areas in a slide, and clickable buttons for directing users to a different slide or URL page. You can enhance the video by adding the objects to make the illustration explicit. Besides, you can rerecord the narration or import the music file to the video if it is in need. Furthermore, the existed project can be imported to the current recording project. It means that this screen recorder supports project reuse, and the multiple videos can be integrated as one.

To make a good step-by-step video, there are some useful tips:

Prepare your recording script: Be familiar with the software you are going to demonstrate, and know clearly of the operating steps. If you want to add the narration to the video, you’d better write down the script or prepare it in your mind.
Capture only the minimum screen area that you need. This will reduce the file size. And you can emphasize the important part by zooming and panning.
Adjust the screen resolution and color quality: To improve your computer’s performance during the screen-capture session, especially if you plan to capture the entire computer screen, reducing the screen resolution and color quality is good for the recording performance.
Be aware of your mouse movements: When selected the Taking screenshots recording mode, avoid the unnecessary clicks; when selected the Full motion recording, you may hang the mouse to the area which need to be selected or clicked for a second or two. For a video with audio, the synchronization is very important.
It's OK to pause. If there is a long video or if you have to pause when in recording, it is all right. And you can resume your recording by capturing additional slides.
Save your recording in the shareable format. To put the video on your websites, publish the output as Flash movie with Html page is nice. To share it on video sharing website like Youtube, you can publish it as Avi.

Well, have a try and make the video of screen for technical stuff. You may enjoy doing that.