Camtasia Studio 6 is best known for capturing screen activity with customized actions. Techsmith simplifies their marketing to a three step process when using Camtasia - Record, Edit, Share.
When recording, Camtasia can emphasize the location of the mouse and its clicks. It can capture the entire screen or a specific area, like a window. If the workstation has a properly configured web cam and microphone, Camtasia can capture audio and web cam content integrated into video output. As part of editting, it uses a function titled 'Call Outs' to highlight a specific area of a video screen capture. Typically, a callout might be an arrow or circle to draw attention to something on the screen. Camtasia can also do a blur call out to hide text, such as a phone number or password, in a video. It can also highlight an area, either with a yellow highlighter or using a spotlight, which darkens the video except for a selected area. Well chosen call outs can perk up a presentation, and are simple to create.
Other features available include the option to zoom and span the video. Users will feel like they are getting closer to the screen when zoom is configured to move a part of the video to the full size of the video. Camtasia also offers, through the help of Flash, the ability to incorporate quiz or survey questions. These can be used to test the audience or gather valuable information from those using your output.
I usually export projects to .avi or flash formats; however, Camtasia offers many different formats and optimizes them for specific destinations. You can export to an iPhone or iPod for example, or even Youtube. When you select 'Produce video as...' from the main editting interface the formats list Flash (.mp4/.swf), Windows Media (.wmv), Quicktime (.mov), audio video interleave (.avi), iPhone/iPod (.m4v), audio only (.mp3), RealMedia (.rm), Camtasia for RealPlayer (.camv) and even animated GIF (.gif). This variety of output means you will be able to produce content for almost every user need.
