Quick Start: Creating App Tutorials with Camtasia

If incorporating a slide show, create the deck for the lesson (including a simple, animated INtro and OUTro).

Now that the outline and slide deck has been created, complete planning with a script.

Start your course planning with an outline.

Before we dive into a recording, set up your system before doing any recording. You’ll save yourself “redos” with the proper choice and configuration of your system and devices. Seriously, don’t skip this session! There are a number of important best practice tips that are highly recommended when planning the recording.

After a quick recording test, we’ll record our first video app screen tutorial.

There is an alternative to screen recording that is less expensive and less feature-rich: TechSmith Snagit.

To record using Snagit, follow the steps you learned to prepare an external display monitor in lesson 02-01, “Setting up Your Equipment for Recording.”

Starting with an overview of the Camtasia UI, you’ll learn how media is placed on tracks across a timeline, adding, removing, and moving tracks, changing project and canvas settings, adding annotations to placed media, and setting properties to clips.

Take the original script and modify it to prepare for Audiate voiceover text-to-speech generation.

Use the TTS-modified script and generate the voiceover with Audiate.

Segment screen recordings and voiceover media along the timeline into clips. This is a requirement to simplify the alignment of media to be performed in step 3 (sync).

This lesson starts with arranging and optimizing recording clips from step 2 into a unified timeline. The result should be a multi-track Camtasia project consisting of the synching of voiceover and screen recordings.

With the sample recording voiceover and screen recording tracks separated into clips in a Camtasia project, align the video clips to the screen recording track.

With the voiceover track segmented into clips, there is still some work to do to complete the alignment with the screen recording track.

Focus the tutorial to certain parts of the screen with zoom and panning animation. You’ll also learn how to identify effects as favorites.

Complete the sync alignment by applying basic effects and adding annotations to the video screen recording timeline, including box highlights, fade in/outs, callouts, and changing the clip speed.

A screen recording tutorial is never complete without an introduction and ending. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to create a simple INtro and OUTro.

To highlight specific tasks in a screen recording, the use of an animated lower third can help inform and focus the learner on what is being presented.

Markers are a convenient way to build a tutorial screen recording’s table of contents while Camtasia’s ability to export thumbnails graphic images from key points in a screen recording can be used in marketing and social media.

Export the completed video screen recording tutorial three different ways for viewing: local files, Screencast, and YouTube.

The wrap-up with some helpful tips and techniques for managing and updating your Camtasia screen recording projects.