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Camtasia for Librarians

Plan and Create Visual Content

  • Plan your visual content around the audio content. At what point do you need to use a PPT slideshow? At what point will you use live video? Do you need to use still images at some point, for instance when demonstrating OpenAthens?
  • Remember that YouTube video quality is pretty bad, so try to user larger font size in slideshows, etc.
  • Feel free to use any of the previous PPTs others have created. You can find them all on Sharepoint.
  • Determine how many slides you need and create those; capture and edit any still images you might need; save everything to your project folder.

Record Video

This is where it gets tricky. You can't listen to audio on your timeline while recording visual content. You can get around that issue by following these steps. Note that you must be using two screens.

  1. Open your audio file in a media player desktop app.
  2. If you're using PowerPoint, open the presentation and start the slideshow. Drag the presenter view over to the screen displaying the slideshow so that you can keep Camtasia open on your other screen. The PPT presenter view will the superimposed over the actual presentation. If using a live screen, select the area of the screen you want to record. 
  3. Click Record in the Camtasia app and select your recording area on the PPT presenter view or in your browser. 
  4. Make sure your audio file is open and visible. Click Record on the Camtasia recording panel. A 3-second countdown will begin. After the countdown has finished, click play on your media player. The audio will begin.
  5. If using PowerPoint, use the PPT presenter slide arrows to advance your slides as the media plays. If recording in your browser, proceed with whatever onscreen actions go along with the audio.
  6. Once you've finished recording, click Stop on the Camtasia panel. The clip will automatically be added to the Media section under Screen Recordings.
  7. Drag the video recording down to the timeline on the track above your audio track. Test out the audio and video tracks together to make sure they align pretty well. Determine if you need a do-over or if the flaws can be fixed in editing (usually they can).
  8. Record the next section of video and continue until all screen recordings have been completed.