I’m happy to see that after participating in the beta programme for TechSmith’s Camtasia for Mac, they’ve successfully launched.

They’re listing a $99USD price (1/3 off of the standard price) during the launch period.  I was running it on my MacBook, it seems to be as solid and useful as ScreenFlow (the main competitor).

I didn’t use it so much as we were forbidden under the terms of the NDA from releasing anything we recorded – as a professional of course I like to share my work   Now that I have a full license I suspect I’ll be playing with it some more.

I’ve recently added a page of screencasting software to The Screencasting Handbook site, along with a blog post of 24 screencasting tips.

The screencasting software page lists all of the packages I know for recording screencasts, editing and useful utilities.  I’m probably missing a few right now, I’ll be updating the page as more feedback comes through.

The screencasting tips list a whole heap o’tips that I’ve collected over the last year or two, ordered roughly as they should be used as you progress through a recording session.

Over the the Google Group for the Handbook I’m getting some darned useful feedback about the early version of the Handbook including more stories of how screencasting is used in education, Linux tools and microphone recommendations.  Do join the mailing list (here) if you’d like to be kept in the loop, the first version of the Handbook will be on sale in September.

Below you’ll find my proposed chapter outlines for The Screencasting Handbook that’s now in preparation.  If you the topics are interesting to you, visit the site and sign-up to our notifications list – I’ll keep you informed about our progress.

We’ve started to discuss the chapters in the google group, I’ve already had some great feedback from interested readers.

This list will become dated in a month or so, you can always find the current chapter outlines here.

• Introduction
  • Ian – Teacher, Founder, Screencaster and Researcher
  • Why I’m writing this book
• What’s the value of screencasting?
  • Tutorials – learning by seeing
  • Product Tours – seeing your problem solved
• Who else is screencasting?
  • Tutorials
  • Product Tours
  • Technical Support
  • Grant & Proposal Support
  • Recording a Meeting
• Making a Screencast in 30 minutes
• Making a Screencast inside 1 day
• A deeper look at the techniques behind screencasting
  • Research – what problem are you solving?
    • Tours
    • Tutorials
    • Tech Support
  • Planning – how are you going to show your solution?
  • Prototype – making the rough-draft
  • Production – creating the final screencast
    • Recording the video
    • Recording the narration
    • Sequencing it all
    • Adding music
    • Adding a title screen
  • Export – which file formats do you need?
• Embedding
  • CamTasia’s Player
  • JW FLV Player
  • FlowPlayer
• Distribution
  • YouTube
  • Vimeo
  • ShowMeDo
• Common Workflows
  • ShowMeDo – ‘good enough is good enough’ tutorials
  • ProCasts – professional software tours
  • Recording Meetings
• Screencasting software
  • Windows
    • CamTasia
    • BBFlashBack
    • HyperCam
    • CamStudio
    • Captivate
    • Screencam
  • Mac
    • ScreenFlow
    • iShowU
    • SnapzPro
  • Linux
    • RecordMyDesktop
    • xVidCap
  • Web-apps
    • Jing
    • ScreenToaster
    • ScreenCastle
• Microphones and hardware
  • Microphones
  • Mouse vs Trackball?
  • Webcam
  • Copy-holder
• How Screencasting Works
  • A History of Screencasting and Screencams
  • Screencast Technology
• Other resources
  • ShowMeDo.com
  • Lynda.com
  • Peepcode.com
  • Scrast.net
  • ScreenCastsOnline
  • Books
• Getting More Help
  • The Screencasting Handbook’s Google Group
• Tell others about The Screencasting Handbook
  • Spreading the word
  • Fair use and excerpts
• Acknowledgements

I’m happy to say that TheScreencastingHandbook.com, our eBook about screencasting, is now live.  Right now we have the main site online with an email sign-up box.

Today I’m fleshing out the planned chapter list, I’m hoping to have a first version of Chapter 1 ready for mid-August.

We’ve spent the last few months surveying the needs of many people so we have a pretty good idea of what we need to deliver.  As described on the site, we’ll be releasing chapters as they are written and iterating as we go, the aim is to make sure we’re really answering the questions that matter to you.

As a bonus we’re throwing in 30 mintues of email consultation with us for free (usual price: £50 GBP) and we’ve created a google-group that is only available to purchasers.

If you want to see a list of the topics we’re covering that will make you a better screencaster, sign-up to The Screencasting Handbook and we’ll keep you informed about our progress.

We’re rather proud of our latest screencam for Igor of MockupScreens.com.  Igor’s tool lets you quickly prototype a user-interface for desktop or web-based software.

“I needed a screencast for my product for quite some time, but actually doing it always got too complicated somehow. Then along came Ian and he helped me to get both the message right and the beautiful screencast online. I’m still fascinated by the ideas Ian and his team came up with to avoid any issues that arose during the making of the screencast.” – Igor Jese, CEO of MockupScreens

For this production we’ve taken a new approach:

• Richard and Ian tell the story of a Client and Consultant (this is our first 2-voice narration) working together on a new prototype
• We use a speeded-up section to build a part of the interface in just 15 seconds (this bit is very pretty!)

We’re very happy with the result – rather than just spelling out the features instead we take you on a relevant, context-laden tour of the package showing you all the tools that satisfy a prototyper’s needs.

The speeding-up with animated stop-watch is a nice mechanism to convey a time-consuming scene quickly, whilst still showing you that we start from the basics and build to the final product.

Kudos where it is due – our idea for the two narrators comes from Joel Spolsky’s wonderful FogBugz 6.0 tour where two of them lead us through a chatty tour of their bug-management tool.

Richard has a write-up too.

Armel at Ellié Computing wanted a short tour screencam to to demonstrate all the features of their ECMerge diff tool.  Diff tools help programmers, graphic artists and office workers compare different versions of files.  Programmers use them to compare source-code files, graphic artists can compare images and office workers can compare Word files.

We worked with Armel to identify the key features of ECMerge and the needs of his users, then we created a script.  Armel also created a demo screencast for us using Jing to show the main features in action, this helped us to understand his application faster so we could create the script sooner.

By watching the tour you’ll see how their Diff tool works.  If you’ve seen a programmer’s diff tool before, you may be surprised to see ECMerge highlight the differences between images and Word, OpenOffice and RTF documents (I used to be a programmer so I knew of the tool but seeing images diff’d – that was cool).

Richard has also written this up.

Crunch.co.uk offer a new type of on-line accounting solution for UK freelancers.  Their system combines both a book-keeping system and in-house accountants who manage and sign-off the yearly books.  Nobody else offers this service in the UK…and that’s a part of the problem.

Many freelancers didn’t ‘get’ the idea, Darren Fell (CEO) came to us to get a homepage screencast that would explain what they offer to first-time visitors.

We had a crazy-short delivery time to fit in with their launch requirements, we met the deadline and now our screencast helps explain to first-time visitors exactly what Crunch offers them and why they should sign-up.

“An outstanding service! Procasts did a staggering turnaround within 1 week. Now it’s live it’s made a startling difference to bringing customers on board.  If you don’t have a ProCast on the front of your website, get one now! In my view this is the only fast and coherent way to convey your product or service proposition in 3 minutes.” – Darren Fell, Managing Director Crunch.co.uk

Several prominent freelancers had explained privately that they hadn’t shouted about Crunch, even though it is local and sounded useful, because they hadn’t seen it in action.  Once our screencast was complete these same mavens were able to tell others to watch the video and see it in action, making the idea behind Crunch far more easy to transmit.

We chose to tell the story of how you, the Freelancer, would use Crunch to add an invoice, add an expense, bill the client, add the resulting payment and see your overall financial position.  The screencast also discusses how banks will be integrated into Crunch’s offering later so you need never login to your bank to see if a payment has arrived, and how they’ll automatically sign-off your accounts at the year-end.

The creation process included identifying the target users and their needs, building the right story and integrating key benefits into the script.  We used Jing with the client (thanks Michael!) to see how they used the application and from there we scripted the final narration and actions.  Richard worked on the animations and Andy White voiced the narration.

I’ve just finished production of a new 12-part tutorial  series for ShowMeDo, the result is OpenOffice Calc 3.1 for Microsoft Excel users.  The overview is embedded below, links to all the episodes are further down.

Note that this series is a part of ShowMeDo’s Club so you need to be a paying member or contributing author to get access to all the episodes.  The series was produced on Windows using CamTasia 6.

1. Series Overview in 3 minutes (OpenOffice 3.1 for Excel users) (Free)
   
2. Installing OpenOffice 3.1 on Windows XP (Free)
3. Working with .xls Sheets in Calc
4. Saving as an ODF Spreadsheet (.ods) and PDF
5. Where to get help
6. Constructing a Sales-Forecast Sheet
7. Formatting your Sheet
8. Creating a Chart
9. Printing your Sheet
10. Import and Export CSV files
11. Re-associating .xls files with Excel after OpenOffice installation
12. Light relief – Star Wars Easter Egg and others

Don McAllister, founder of ScreencastsOnline (Mac-focused screencasts) was kind enough to answer some questions about how and why he started screencasting for the Mac back in 2005.

Don started ScreencastsOnline around the time I was co-founding ShowMeDo (open-source software focused tutorial screencasts).

You started ScreencastsOnline in 2005 a touch before ShowMeDo.com started, do you have a potted history anywhere to inspire others?

The show originally started out as a hobby with a tutorial every week. I found I was spending more and more of my free time working on the show to try and keep making better and better quality screencasts.

Eventually, it got to the point where I thought I could make a business from my efforts and with some encouragement (or some might say foolhardiness), I decided to go full time.

Screencasting takes time and effort – what made you decide to share your knowledge in this form?

I think that screencasts appeal to a certain type of person. Those people who learn things visually. I’ve had countless emails from people who struggle learning from a manual but if they watch a 15 minute screencast, they instantly “get it”.  The fact that it’s a direct video of the computer screen allows people to see immediately what is required and how to use applications.

I see you’ve just recently recorded your 200th show (congrats!) – what skills took the longest to learn over the last few years?

Probably being able to keep continuity as you record. Knowing how to recover from making a mistake and rolling back so that you keep editing down to a minimum. You can always (well mostly always) fix errors in post production but I’ve developed certain tricks to help minimise any tweaking. Visual continuity is extremely important in creating a screencast.

You’ve been at this for 4 years – how long was it before you realised ScreencastsOnline could pay your salary full-time?

I started the Extra! membership scheme about 6 months following the initial launch of the podcast. It’s basically a way for members to access “Premium Content”.

The deal is for a low cost six month membership ($57) you get access to a brand new show every week for six months, a choice of resolutions from HD to iPhone, specially formatted versions of the shows with chapter markings for easy navigation and access to a members website.

You also get immediate access to a back catalogue of over 200+ HD screencasts. After the initial six months, it’s only $25 to renew each six months. The take up of the membership took a while to kick in but with the immediate access to 200+ screencasts as well as all the new ones, it’s a very attractive deal for new members.

From what I remember your transition into ScreencastsOnline to full-time work was gradual.  Do you have any tips for someone else wanting to follow in your footsteps?

It’s not easy but you need to have a plan and have multiple ways of bringing in some income. Whether it be a membership scheme, advertising, sponsorship or even setting yourself up as a production resource to do commissioned screencasts, you need to be able to spread out your risks.

You’ve explained the equipment and software you use here – how many iterations did you go through finding the perfect setup?  I’m on my 4th mic now – was it the same for you?

I must admit, I’ve not really changed my audio setup for quite a while. Whilst people are commenting on the quality of the video and the audio, I really don’t want to change it. I do change my computers though, well, you have to don’t you!

Some people use screencasts to educate (such as our ShowMeDo authors and school teachers) – do you have any tips on how they could get started with screencasting?

The easiest way is just to try it. I’d recommend getting a copy of ScreenFlow and seeing if it’s something you’re comfortable with doing. ScreenFlow isn’t cheap but it will take away the pain of editing and exporting video as it’s a self contained package.

Try and record a couple of dummy screencasts and see if it’s something you can cope with. It does take a bit of practice to be able to speak and drive the application at the same time.

Other people use screencasts to help sell or support their software – what do you think makes for a perfect demo of a software tool?

For a demo, it needs to be short and sweet. You need to cover all of the major selling points and advantages of the software but keep the screencast flowing. Invariably, this means carefully scripting the screencast.

I’ve noticed that it can take me just as long (if not longer) to record and edit a scripted three minute promo screencast as it does to create a 30 minute free flowing tutorial.  It’s really hard to get it just right!

Become a better screencaster – read The Screencasting Handbook.  We’re distilling 4 years of experience into our book, the book will contain everything you need to improve your skills and produce great screencasts faster.

Update – we just won an award for this screencast from TechSmith, woot!

We’ve just finished working on the following screencast for Andy (CEO) at Orchestrate to demonstrate their workforce scheduling software.  This screencast replaces Andy’s earlier screencast that we’d critiqued, the new version appears on their Tour page.

“Working with Ian was a pleasure from beginning to end. He has a fantastic understanding of the steps involved in shooting a compelling screencast, combined with the ability to communicate with our target audience.

His approach was methodical and focused reflecting his extensive experience in this field.

I was very impressed with the new video, and we have received many compliments on how well it demonstrates the features of Orchestrate” – Andy Wright (CEO)

Our solution shows you ‘a day in the life of Orchestrate’, it shows you how easy it is to schedule jobs and see that they’re completed.

The goals are to show Operation’s Managers:

• It is very easy to learn
• Everything runs in the web-browser with no additional software
• Scheduling and rescheduling are easy
• There are no start-up fees or lock-ins
• Operatives provide a write-up after the job for Compliance
• Clients can see the status of all their jobs

The ultimate goal is to convince more visitors to the website to try Orchestrate, improving their conversion rate so they acquire new paying users without having to spend more on advertising.

Given the number of software solutions available to Operation’s Managers it was necessary for us to design the right screencast to convince them that this tool is the one they need.  Our process involved:

• Profiling the intended viewers
• Analysing the needs of these viewers
• Dropping Andy’s approach of the Feature Tour
• Adopting the idea of a story
• Story-boarding to create the right story
• Creating a script that fulfills the story’s objectives
• Recording a prototype for critique
• Creating a finished screencast
• Providing YouTube, .flv and .mp4 versions

Now we are monitoring the results to see what kind of improvement the new screencast brings to Andy’s sign-up rate.  Details on this will follow.  Richard has blogged an entry from his point of view as the animator and co-creative and client-Andy has blogged a superb entry:

“I didn’t understand how to tell an engaging story about labour scheduling software, but the team at ProCasts did.”

If you want to more effectively convert your visitors into signed-up paying users, get in Contact to talk about our Examples and how we can help you.