VIDEO TUTORIAL TIPS & TRICKS RECOMMENDATIONS AND PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR GETTING THE MOST OUT OF CAMTASIA 8 Last updated 8.17.2013 by: Tami Garrard ([email protected])

TABLE OF CONTENTS How to Use this Guide ...............................................................................................................................................1 Recording Audio: Voice Narration Tool .........................................................................................................................2 Improving Audio Quality ................................................................................................................................................2 Recording Animations Created in Powerpoint ..............................................................................................................4 Using the Camtasia Add-In ........................................................................................................................................5 Using the Record the Screen Option in Camtasia ......................................................................................................7 Overlaying a video or image over another track (formerly known as the Picture-In-Picture (PIP) Tool) ....................11

HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE  Click on the heading in the Table of Contents above to jump to the section in which you are interested.  Disclaimer: this guide includes personal recommendations and practices which are not intended to be considered definitive or official “How-Tos.” Rather, use this guide as a suggestion for ways to go beyond the Camtasia User Guide.  If you find a better way of accomplishing a task, or a new way of doing something, share your own tips and tricks with your colleagues!

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RECORDING AUDIO: VOICE NARRATION TOOL  Instead of using the Record the screen option to record your audio, use the Voice Narration tool. There are three reasons why you’ll prefer using Voice Narration over Record the screen: o

Voice Narration only records an audio track, so you don’t have to worry about uncoupling the video/audio tracks and deleting the video track.

o

You are able to optimize the volume settings when you use Voice Narration, which helps save you some editing effort down the line.

o

Because Voice Narration only records audio, the size of the file is smaller than the Record the screen file, so you’re saving disk space.

 See the Camtasia User Guide for instructions on using the Voice Narration tool. https://staffweb.lib.washington.edu/units/uw-bothell-library/portals/onlinelearning/tutorials/resourcestemplates/tutorialguidesresources/camtasia-user-guide

IMPROVING AUDIO QUALITY  There are two quick and easy ways to improve the quality of your audio in Camtasia: volume leveling and noise removal. 1. To make the volume for your entire audio track play at a level volume, on the “Audio” menu tool, click “Enable volume leveling.” (I usually leave the Volume variation setting to “Medium.”) 2. To remove noise along your entire audio track, on the “Audio” menu tool, click “Enable noise removal:”

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3. If you notice your track sounds a bit mechanical, try checking the boxes in reverse order to fix that issue. 4. There are some other useful options in Camtasia for editing audio. a. Go to Help >> Camtasia Studio Help in the top menu:

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b. In the Contents index, navigate to Edit Your Video >> Audio:

c. This section includes basic, easy-to-follow instructions on using the audio editing tools in Camtasia. I particularly like the “Silence” option (to change breaths or mouse clicks to silence so that I can maintain the length of the pause without cutting any time from the track). And, if a particular section of my audio is too quiet, I can highlight that section with the cursor and use the “Volume up” button to increase the volume on that section of the track.

RECORDING ANIMATIONS CREATED IN POWERPOINT  Do you want to include animations in your tutorial? Use the animations option in PowerPoint to create your animations, and then record them to include them in your tutorial.  There are two ways to record animations created in PowerPoint: (1) Use the Camtasia Add-In for PowerPoint, which records your presentation during the slide show, and (2) Use the Record the screen tool in Camtasia. o

Because the Add-In records the animations at a smaller size, this portion of your tutorial will stand out from the rest of the video, so I prefer to use the Record the screen tool in Camtasia to record PowerPoint animations. However, using the Record the screen tool means you have to do some things differently when creating your animations, so this guide will walk through both recording options.

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o

What your recorded animations will look like once they have been imported into Camtasia:

Recorded slides are smaller than video:

Size of recorded slide show using Add-In

Recorded slides are the same size as video:

Size of recorded slides using Record the screen tool

USING THE CAMTASIA ADD-IN 1. Create your animations in PowerPoint a. Make sure you use the Design >> Page Setup menu to set the slide size to the same ratio as your Camtasia video:

b. Add/edit animations using the Animations tab in the top menu:

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c. I make the Animation Pane visible so I can make timing changes to my animations easily:

d. I use the “Start On Click” setting for each of my animations, so I can control when they occur during the slide show. e. When you’ve completed your animations, click the Add-Ins tab in the menu to view the Camtasia Add-In. I usually leave the settings as-is, and just use the “Record” button:

2. When you’re ready, click the “Record” button. You will go to slide show mode, and you will need to click the button in the lower right corner to start recording:

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3. When you’ve finished your slide show or stopped the recording, you’ll be prompted to save the recording. (**Tip: Remember to save the file in the same folder as all your other Camtasia project files!) 4. After saving, you’ll see a window asking if you want to “Produce your recording” or “Edit your recording.” Choose “Edit…” and click “OK:”

5. You will be asked what size your video should be. You will need to choose 1280x720.

6. Your recording will be automatically imported into Camtasia and added to your Video 1 track. USING THE RECORD THE SCREEN OPTION IN CAMTASIA 1. Create your animations in PowerPoint.

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a. Make sure you use the Design >> Page Setup menu to set the slide size to the same ratio as your Camtasia video:

b. Add/edit animations using the Animations tab in the top menu:

c. **Tip: I make the Animation Pane visible so I can make timing changes to my animations easily:

d. Use the “Timing…” setting to set your animations to occur at specified times. Do NOT use the “Start On Click” setting, because that setting does not work in Preview mode.

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e. **Tip: If I have a substantial number of animations going on, I will split them up into different slides, if possible, to help myself keep track of the different animations. To do this, I make sure the background images on all slides are identical. This is necessary because each slide will be recorded separately, and when they are played one after the other in Camtasia, the animations will look seamless as long as the background is the same. f.

Check the timing of your animations by using the “Play” or “Preview” buttons:

2. When you’re ready to record, in Camtasia, click the Record the screen tool just like you would to record any video:

3. Size the PowerPoint slide image to the size of the Record the screen recording rectangle. You may have to use the PPT zoom tool to get it correct. (See how the slide fits exactly within the dotted green recording rectangle in the screenshot below?)

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4. When you’re ready, click the red “rec” button. When the countdown is complete, click the “Play” button on your Animation Pane. When the preview has finished playing, click “Stop” to stop the recording:

5. When you click “Stop,” Camtasia will automatically play back a preview of your recording, and you can choose to save and edit the file, or delete it and try again. Once you save it, the video will be imported into Camtasia just like any other recorded video and you can proceed with editing. (**Tip: Remember to save the file in the same folder as all your other Camtasia project files!) If you are asked what size your video should be you will need to choose 1280x720.

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OVERLAYING A VIDEO OR IMAGE OVER ANOTHER TRACK (FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE PICTURE-IN-PICTURE (PIP) TOOL)  In Camtasia 7, the PIP tool allowed you to insert an image or video on top of your screen recording, which can be helpful if you want to compare a previous step’s screenshot to the current step, for example. 1. Camtasia 8 you no longer need to use the PIP tool and a special PIP track to overlay an image or video on top of your screen recording. Simply add another track by clicking on the plus in your timeline and move your image or video from your clip bin to the new track where you want it to appear.

2. You can click and drag to change the placement, drag the ends to adjust duration, add call outs, effects, and borders. (**Tip: I usually check the “Drop shadow” and “Include border” boxes in Visual Properties to help the image stand out from the rest of the video. Also consider using the “Fade” transition because it helps make the appearance/disappearance of the image in the video less abrupt.)

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