Recording a Narrated Camtasia File

Goals

After you have prepared your computer and headset for Camtasia, you are ready to record. If you have not prepared your computer or headset, refer to Setting up Your Computer for Camtasia and Connecting and Adjusting Your Headset for Camtasia

Preparing for Your Recording Session

Decide what portion of your screen you would like to record. Examples include your whole screen, an active window, or a region of your screen that you define.

From Camtasia Recorder, click the Select area to record button.
To select a region click and drag to highlight the area you wish to record.
To select a specific application window, hover over the desired window until the red border appears and then click to select the window.

Tip

Recording area selections can be modified using the Camtasia Recording Selection Area tool which appears after you have chosen a recording area. Use this tool to select preset recording sizes, such as Full Screen, or to lock the recording area to the selected application window.

Decide whether you would like to record just your voice narration, or whether keyboard strokes and mouse click sounds should also be recorded. These selections are made in the Audio toolbar.
If you want to have your mouse cursor recorded, select the appropriate settings in the Cursor toolbar. Hovering your mouse over the cursor settings buttons will show a description.

Tip

If you plan to use your mouse cursor as a point of reference so that students can see where you are navigating in your presentation, you might want to highlight it yellow or have it turn red when you click so it is easily visible to the people watching your video.

Prepare the webpage, document, or PowerPoint presentation you plan to record.

Tip

When preparing to record a PowerPoint presentation, you should start your slideshow so that Camtasia does not record you setting up the show.

Recording

Press F9 when you are ready to start recording. As you record, you will be able to see the borders of what is being recorded as an indicator.
If you are recording only a region of the screen, you will notice a little toolbar on your screen with play controls. This toolbar will not be visible in the final recording.
Speak into your microphone to narrate your presentation.
Press F9 or the Pause button to pause recording. Repeating this will also resume recording.
Press F10 or the Stop button to stop recording.

Tip

Record a short test video clip of a few seconds before recording your actual clip. This will make sure your audio settings are working properly and everything sounds and looks the way you want it to before you begin recording your "real" file.

Saving Your Recording

When you are done recording, your video will play back in a preview window. At the bottom of the window are two buttons, Save and Delete. Select the Save button to save your file. You will be prompted to save the file to your computer. Browse to where you want to save the file and select Save again. The file will save as a .camrec file, which is a Camtasia Recording file. You should keep a copy of this file in case you decide to edit it later.
After the .camrec file has been saved, you will then be given the option to produce your video. The Post-Save Options window appears. Select Produce my video in a shareable format and click OK.
The Production Wizard window appears. Select Custom production settings and click Next.
How would you like to produce your video? screen - Select WMV for Windows Media Video and click Next.
Windows Media Encoding Options screen - The default production details are usually fine for screencapture productions. Click Next on this screen to advance to the next.
Video Size screen - Select Largest Video Size and click Next.
Video Options screen - Uncheck the box next to Embed Video into HTML and click Next.
Click Next again, you do not need to make any changes on the Marker Options screen.
When you get to the Produce Video screen in the Wizard, uncheck the box next to Organize produced files into sub-folders.
Name your file below Production Name and browse for a location where you would like to save it.
Your video will now produce. When it is finished, it will play automatically in Windows Media Player.

If you need assistance with producing your video, contact atc-ttc@wpi.edu

Maintained by itweb@wpi.edu
Last modified: Jun 04, 2008, 15:37 EDT