Camtasia Studio

I love Camtasia Studio. I have created over a hundred online video tutorials over the years. You can see dozens of them that I did for Membergate software here:

http://www.membergate.com/public/department33.cfm

If you have seen any of these online videos, the value of them is pretty clear. To see demonstrations on the screen is much more powerful than the written word.

While it is an exceptional program, its price may be a bit of a deterrent for some people. Camtasia Studio costs $299

Free Alternative

There is a viable free alternative that is pretty powerful. I think a major reason it is not more popular than it is due to the fact that most people don't know it exists. The program is built into the Windows Media Encoder which is downloadable here.

After downloading and installing the Windows Media Encoder, here's how to get it going.

1) Once you start Windows Media Encoder, choose "Capture Screen" from the help wizard that pops up:

2) You can then select whether to capture a specific window, a region of the screen or the entire screen

Make sure you check off the box for "Capture audio from the default audio device" if you plan on narrating your screen capture as well.

If you selected a region of the screen, you can have a border flash around the area that you are recording.

You will step through the very basic setup screens. You can choose what file size (quality) settings you want between low, medium and high. There is obviously a compromise that you must decide on as to whether the size is more important than the output quality.

When you start recording, you can pause the recording at anytime by bringing up the Windows Media Encoder program. You can either click on it in the task bar or use [alt] [tab] to switch to it.

The Downsides

There are a couple of catches of course, like everything in life.

Because it is a Windows product, it will not work on Mac computers.

Also, the file output is naturally in Microsoft's native windows media (.wmv) format. Camtasia does offer a bit more flexibility in that regard as you can export in a wider variety of formats, including flash.

If you are a Windows user however, it is a powerful program and you can't beat the price! (free).

You can download the Windows Media Encoder by clicking here.

You can discuss this further in the forum.

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