Visual Lounge

Welcome Jing Pro!

2009-01-06T16:12:20Z

If you've ever purchased a car, then you're familiar with that 'new car smell'. Sometimes I wish software software came with that smell! Maybe someone needs to invent 'smell-o-vision' for computers. :-)

And, speaking of 'new' - I'm happy to announce that we have a new version of Jing available today. Meet Jing Pro! While Jing Pro doesn't come with that funny new car smell, it does come with something better - lots of great new features!

So, what's new with Jing Pro?

* YouTube support. You can upload a video to YouTube directly from Jing. Jing also gives you the link to your video. * For screencasts, in addition to the SWF file format, Jing Pro now offers a H.264/MPEG-4 AVC format video option. Without getting too technical, this format excels at capturing video with a lot of motion, is much more suited for editing, and is supported on YouTube. And, for those of you who have been wanting to tweak your Jing videos, you can now import them into Camtasia Studio 6 or iMovie to edit, merge or anything you want. * Branding removal. At the end of a Jing Pro-produced video, there is no Jing logo and branding.

You can upgrade to Jing Pro for $14.95 a year. And, we're not forcing you to upgrade to Jing Pro. The free version of Jing is still available complete with complimentary hosting on Screencast.com (2 GB of storage and 2 GB of transfer bandwidth per month). And, we also have free tech support for both Jing and Jing Pro. There is a great Help Center for Jing that is full of tips and tricks.

Jing Pro was built based on customer feedback. So, we need to hear from you! What do you think?

Camtasia for the Mac Update...

2009-01-03T16:47:11Z

What's the old saying? 'Time flies when you're having fun!'. Well, I have been having lots of fun and I can't believe it is 2009 already. I swear time is moving faster. It has been awhile since I've given you an update on Camtasia for the Mac and I thought you might like a glimpse of some of our progress.

We've been running some usability tests on Camtasia for the Mac which have been very insightful. And, we've been making changes based on the feedback we're getting. Also, to give you an idea of its look and feel, here are some recent screenshots of the Recorder and Main User Interface.

And, in the software world, I've learned nothing is final until it is released to the public. So, please keep in mind that these are pre-release screenshots and things are subject to change. We're looking at a mid-2009 release. I do not have pricing info or final feature list for you just yet. As soon as I have more details, I'll post them here.

And, again, let me extend our thanks - we're building Camtasia for the Mac based on your feedback and comments. So, keep them coming. We appreciate your input and insight!

Meet Us at the Macworld Expo - Free Expo Passes

2008-12-29T23:24:53Z

What's not to like about California in January... especially if you're coming from snowy Michigan!? A bunch of us at TechSmith are looking forward to getting out of the cold north and heading to San Francisco to the Macworld Conference & Expo.

And, we'd love to meet-up with you! I have some free expo hall guest passes for Macworld. If you'd like a couple passes, just email macworld@techsmith.com with your name and mailing address and we'll get them sent out to you. First come, first serve basis.

TechSmith will be in booth #3916. Stop by! Tony Dunckel, the Jing and Snagit Product Manager, and Troy Stein, the Camtasia Studio Product Manager, will be there. Tell them your feedback directly. They'd love to hear what you want and need in our products. And, I'll be there too. I'd love to meet-up - my treat for a beverage of your choice. You can contact me via email , cell (517.410.0030) or twitter (@betsyweber). Or better yet, get some free passes from us and stop by our booth!

See you there?

Happy Holidays from TechSmith

2008-12-26T02:17:35Z

I hope everyone is getting some time off this month for a little rest and relaxation as the year winds down. 2009 is right around the corner! We thought we'd help you get a jump start on 2009 so we created this crazy holiday calendar for you! That way you'll know when it is time to celebrate things like 'Pie Day' (January 23, in case you're wondering) or my favorite, 'Talk Like a Pirate Day'.

You can download and print your calendar here or drop me an e-mail if you'd like me to mail you one out.

Enjoy! And, from everyone at TechSmith, we wish you a joyous holiday season and all the best in 2009! Thanks for all of your support and feedback throughout the year - we appreciate it!

Happy Holidays Camtasia Studio Style...

2008-12-25T03:18:21Z

I'm so excited to share this holiday video 'card' created with Camtasia Studio that Greg Waite from FuseTalk recently sent in. Videos like these warm my heart! Greg used Camtasia Studio to synch the video and audio in the video you see below. It was -25 outside when they were recording the video! Be sure to watch through the end to see the snow flying!

You can't buy this 'gift' at the store which makes it even more valuable! What a great way to capture and celebrate the season!

Celebrate Lowercase 'i' Day!

2008-12-18T04:26:31Z

Last week we released Snagit 9.1. Not only did Snagit get a new logo and features, but we also ditched the capital 'I' in SnagIt and changed it to Snagit. Did you notice that? In honor of Snagit, we are celebrating lowercase 'i' day. Why the change? Well, check out this funny 'official' press release in our newsletter here. Also, you can watch the bonus video below to see the behind the scenes action, drama and comedy about how Snagit lost the capital 'I'. I think you'll find it very amusing!

And, if you like the video, feel free to subscribe to our monthly newsletters. They're filled with videos like this one, tips, tricks and news. Also, as an added benefit to subscribing to them, there are often special offers. Check out the holiday special here - you can save $10 - $25 off a copy of Snagit or Camtasia Studio this month. Perfect for gift giving!

Will you celebrate lowercase 'i' day with us?

Holiday Screencasting Wish List, Advice and Gifts Ideas

2008-12-17T02:58:59Z

Growing up, I could never keep a secret. If I went gift shopping, inevitably I'd end up sharing with a family member about their gift well before the holiday we were celebrating. I was just so excited to give the gift that I could not contain myself! As an adult, well, I still have a hard time keeping a secret. Thankfully I don't have to keep your gift a secret!

For your gift this holiday season, I asked some expert screencasters to share with us their screencast wishes for the future, advice and gift list. I hope you enjoy their contributions! And, I'd love your feedback and additions. What wishes do you have for the future of screencasting, advice or gift ideas would you share? Comment away!

* Tim Fahlberg - Mathcaster extraordinaire and Math 247 Looking for something to give to your favorite mathcasting student or teacher? How about a new Genius MousePen 8" x 6" graphics tablet (about $50 from Amazon or use Google Product Search). Or how about giving them a new voice with a new Logitech USB headset ($20-$40)? Or totally blow them away with a new LiveScribe Pulse SmartPen which can be used to create pencasts (including mathcasts like these) as well as capturing notes with voice and much more ($150 at Target or Amazon)? Or give them the free beta version of SMART Notebook 10 SE (Student Edition) which will be a fantastic tool for students to create mathcasts and much more. Want to share your mathcasts or learn more about creating or sharing mathcasts? Visit our mathcasts wiki at www.math247.pbwiki.com or email Tim Fahlberg at tim.fahlberg@mathcasts.org. * Bill Myers - Bill Myers Online Bill has a fantastic list and review of great products ranging from light kits to wireless microphones here. Since I travel a lot, this folding USB stereo headset on his list caught my eye. * Axel Becker - Camtasia Training Blog My favourite screencast hardware is my new headset microphone from Shure. You can find German information at: http://camtasia-training.de/technik-tipps/ In addition to that I bought an external sound card: Alesis io|2 which makes it easier to record my screencasts. * Rob Bushway - InkCaster and GottaBeMobile Looking for a way to make your screencasts more personal and engaging? Add handwritten notes and annotations by using a Tablet PC We'd recommend looking at Lenovo's X200 Tablet - plenty of speed and power, along with a beautiful screen to ink your next screencast on. * Daniel Park - dappertext, author of The Screencaster Newsletter and Camtasia Studio 5: The Definitive Guide book A lot of folks have particular trouble with adding background music to their screencasts. First, you have a heck of a time finding a buy-out (read: royalty-free) source that's reasonably priced and high quality. Then there's the matter of implementing it. I always found the abrupt fading in & out of music to be the epitome of lazy, low-class editing, but custom-cutting the music to the exact length of your screencast is incredibly time-consuming, to say the least. But all these problems went away when I picked up SonicFire Pro 5 from SmartSound. This amazing product offers incredible quality tracks that automatically adjust themselves to any length. They support mood mapping, meaning that you can kick up the intensity of the music at critical points during your video as well as take it down a notch when you want the focus on your narration. Its easy search tools let you find the perfect track with record speed and ease. The Scoring edition prices in at just under $90, and comes with their Core Foundations music disc free. * Jon Udell - The father of screencasting! I'd like to give screencasters (including myself) an easier way to record audio. I wish I could recommend a silver-bullet solution. But there are lots of moving parts -- operating systems, recording software, audio peripherals -- and I don't think the industry as a whole has done yet for digital audio what it has done for, say, digital photography. * Beth Kanter - Beth's Blog: How Nonprofits Can Use Social Media This year, except for the kids, my gifts are in the form of charitable donations. For some people, I'm making a gift to The Sharing Foundation in their name or for others donating to their charity or using a gift card from global giving or Network For Good. Here's some more ideas on how to be a geek who gives. * Kathy Jacobs - OneNote MVP and Vitamin CH OneNote: Getting ready to create a screencast, but not sure what to say? I recommend putting together your outline of steps and things to say in OneNote. Build a two column table. First column gets the step, second column gets what you are going to say. Practice doing the steps and reading the content. When you have it down pat, start Camtasia and make your recording... When you have your recording done, use your notes to build the text that goes with the video.

What's on your Screencast wish list, advice or gift giving list? Don't keep it a secret - give us a gift!

Create Cool Twitter Profile Pics with Camtasia Studio

2008-12-11T10:59:05Z

As you may know, I love Twitter! If you haven't heard of Twitter, check out a quick informative video here from Common Craft. Twitter has been great to keep up with friends, to get advice and answers to questions, and get feedback from the community.

I noticed something different about Twitter the other day. People's profile pics had started... well, moving! Profile pics in Twitter can be in a variety of file formats include BMP, JPG and GIF - which means you could use animated GIFs as your profile pic!

I noticed this post on Twitter from Nils Geylen. He mentioned how he used Camtasia Studio to create his animated profile pic!

I must admit, I had not put two and two together. The ability to create an animated GIF with Camtasia Studio is one of those options that I just don't think about or use very often. Thanks to Nils for shining the light for me to make an animated GIF for a Twitter profile pic!

Producing animated GIFs in Camtasia Studio is easy. I made a quick Jingcast that runs just over a minute showing you how to do this. Simply select in Camtasia Studio>Produce Video As>Custom Production Settings>GIF - animation file and you're on your way!

If you join Twitter, feel free add me and TechSmith as your friend! If you use Camtasia Studio to create your profile pic, let me know! I'd love to see your profile pic in action!

We Are All Family - Need Some Support from the Snagit Community

2008-12-10T11:48:17Z

I have some bad and good news to share. The bad news? Tony Dunckel, the Snagit Product Manager, lost his entire home to a fire last weekend. The good news? Everyone in his family made it out safely. Few of us will ever have to deal with a catastrophic loss like this and he's just at the beginning of the recovery process.

At TechSmith, coworkers are more like family than just other associates. And, the same goes for you. The Snagit community is more like family to us than a bunch of software users. That makes it particularly difficult when things like this happen.

I'm sure Tony and his family could use some kind words of support and encouragement. So, please drop them a comment below. I'd appreciate it and I'm sure they would too.

Thank you for being a part of our family.

Conjunction Junction and Camtasia Studio

2008-12-10T09:33:46Z

In the 70's and 80's in the United States, they use to play these great short educational films during Saturday morning children's television called Schoolhouse Rock! The cartoon videos would teach you about grammar, science, economics, history, mathematics, and politics with a catchy tune.

I've been riding the trains around Paris this week and Troy Stein, the Camtasia Studio Product Manager, has been riding trains around Berlin too. We were talking about the old Schoolhouse Rocks! video called 'Conjunction Junction'. If you haven't seen it, check it out below. It runs just over 3 minutes long.

As Troy and I were chatting about getting around town and switching through multiple trains to get to our destinations, the subject morphed into software. We were wondering... as you work through your Camtasia Studio projects, what other programs or junctions, if you will, do you switch through to complete your screencasts? For example, do you use a separate audio editor or do you use another program to convert your videos to additional file formats? And why? Any insight would be useful as we try to understand what you need to complete your videos projects.

And, I'll apologize in advance - if you're like me, you won't be able to get the song, 'Conjunction Junction' out of your head for several days. :-)

Thanks for any insight you can provide us!

Welcome Snagit 9.1!

2008-12-09T17:26:56Z

I'm in France this week for LeWeb and they have these wonderful Christkindlmarket's set up all over the city. I've had fun shopping at them for holiday gifts and other small presents to bring back to the office. The Snagit team has been working on some surprises - Snagit 9.1 was released today and it is full of some nice 'presents' for you!

**Mini Toolbar** - You can save time and extra clicks with Snagit's new Mini Toolbar. Instead of having to flip back and forth between tabs in SnagIt's Editor, you now have access to the most frequently used editing features from the Draw tab. When you select a vector object on the canvas, or when you right-click a vector object, the Mini toolbar appears. See the little menu in the yellow box in the screenshot to the left? That's an example of the Mini Toolbar in action.

**Live Preview** - I love this new feature! Curious to see what that torn edge or drop shadow might look like on your screencapture before you make the change? With live preview, you can see what a variety of different options look like before committing to the change. I made a quick 30 second Jingcast showing off Live Preview which you can see below. There is no audio.

**Auto-store Export** - I just switched computers recently. It was so much work to move everything over and get the new computer up and running. We've added a new auto-store export to Snagit so you can now take all your unsaved captures with you quickly and easily.

**Stamps** - Now you can find your favorite stamps easier with categories and visual search. You can download additional stamps from here.

You'll also notice that Snagit has a new look too. In addition to a new logo, the user interface has a new look and feel to it. Now if we could only figure out a way to incorporate that 'new car' smell into Snagit! Smell-o-vision anyone? :-)

You can see the entire list of what's new in Snagit 9 here. Or, if you prefer video, watch the 'What's New' video here.

And, this is a FREE upgrade for anyone who has purchased 9.0. Learn how to upgrade to Snagit 9.1 here. Or, try out the free 30 day eval here.

Enjoy and send us your feedback! I'd love to hear what you think of this new release and what you'd like to see in future releases.

Screencast of the Week - C360

2008-12-07T21:56:06Z

I love it when users share their screencasts with me! This week's Screencast of the Week was submitted by Kanika Jackson, the Business Development and Training Specialist from a software company c360 Solutions.

Kanika recently had to scramble to create several product videos that needed to be updated. She was handed the "Camtasia Studio 4: The Definitive Guide" by Daniel Park (By the way, Daniel is updating this book for Camtasia Studio v6) and had to jump in to creating the screencasts! Kanika made good use of both SmartFocus and call-outs to show better detail. Both are a great way to focus your viewer's attention. Check out her screencast below.

Any nominations for next week's Screencast of the Week? Email me or leave a comment. You could be next!

TechSmith User Meet-up in Paris

2008-12-06T18:07:19Z

Is it a bad sign when your airline sends you a holiday card and they recognize you at the airport and on board the plane?! I checked my airline mileage the other day and noticed I have been lucky enough to have flown over 100,000 miles this year! One of the best parts of traveling is meeting with our users all over the world, hearing about their experiences first hand, seeing what they have created and learning from them.

And, this week is no different. I logged some quality time in the airport today. I'm in Paris this week for LeWeb. It is my last trip of the year. If you happen to be attending LeWeb or live in the area, I'd love to meet-up to swap screencasting or travel tips, talk about technology, wine, or even about Twitter (you can follow TechSmith on Twitter here or follow me here - I write them both).

Drop me an e-mail or call or text me at +1.517.410.0030 and we can meet-up! And, I can practice some of my French with you - Soyez toujours en communication!

Excuse our dust...

2008-12-03T19:10:14Z

I just wanted to give all of our readers a heads up that our trusty Webstaff and IT Team are moving all of the TechSmith blogs - the Jing Blog, Screencast.com Blog and The Visual Lounge Blog - to a much needed new server. So, with that in mind, you may experience an interruption in service if you're visiting the blogs tonight or early tomorrow. And, they are working hard to preserve all of the wonderful comments. Hopefully we will not lose anything in the move.

Thanks for your patience while we get this maintenance done. See you tomorrow on our bright new shiny server!

Camtasia Studio 6... Product Manager for a Day!

2008-11-26T03:25:29Z

Camtasia Studio 6 has been out for a few weeks. Hopefully you've had a chance to try it. Now it is time to start thinking about future releases. This is where you come in - we need your help!

See the gentleman to the left in the pic? That's Troy Stein, the Camtasia Studio Product Manager. Take his job for a day! If you were him, what would you do for the next release of Camtasia Studio? What would you change? What features and functionality would you add?