Online Tutorials with CamStudio Kevin Smith Assistant Director, Cass District Library The Fiddling Librarian

What are the basics Screen capture software With or without audio

Equipment A computer A microphone  I like the headset types.  People say good things about this onethis one Webcam (optional)

Different Software Choices CamStudio  Free – Open Source  Audio and Video Capture  Can save as.AVI or.SWF

Different Software Choices (cont) Wink  Freeware (not open source)  Takes screen shots then joins them into an animated clip  Small file size

Different Software Choices (cont) Camtasia Studio  Full featured presentation software  Records in multiple formats  Good file compression  Not free (about $300 for single license) Macromedia Captivate

Things to consider File size  Different compression codecs  Different file formats.avi.mpg.swf

Things to consider Audio compression Screen annotations

Additional Software Sizer Windows Movie Maker  WMM compression tutorial WMM compression tutorial

Have a plan Practice doing the tasks in your tutorial Do you want audio or not Consider writing a script Don’t be afraid to start over Practice everything in the screen space that you have Experiment with your sound settings

Do some testing Have others review your work Have some folks in your target audience watch the tutorial Ask them what works an what doesn't  (down and dirty usability testing)  Try to get five usersfive users

The Magic of editing Add screen annotations, transitions, etc. Speed things up…..slow things down, etc. You can rerecord the audio You can join multiple recordings together

Where to put it On your web page On a blog  Some have embedded players On a hosted site such as youtube

Keep your content current Make sure that you update your tutorials when topics change.

Questions? AIM fiddlelibrary