Camtasia Studio 4: The Definitive Guide (Wordware Applications Library)

The Camtasia Recorder is used to record the basic footage used in your videos. After recording, your video clips can be imported into Camtasia Studio for editing and further processing.

Here’s the basic procedure for recording a video clip with the Camtasia Recorder:

1. Open the application(s) you wish to capture, and arrange these windows on your screen.

2. Open the Camtasia Recorder. From the Capture menu, choose your desired input of Screen, Window, Region, or Fixed Region.

3. Choose whether you want to include camera video and/or audio, selecting these elements from the Capture menu.

4. Click the Record button (or press the corresponding hotkey, F9 by default). Execute the actions you want to capture. You may pause at any point by pressing F9 again.

5. When finished, click the Stop button (or press the corresponding hotkey, F10 by default).

6. View the recording in the Camtasia Recorder Preview. Click Delete to trash the capture and start over, or choose Save if you’re satisfied and wish to continue.

7. If you chose Save, you’re prompted to provide a file name and location. Navigate to a folder, type a file name, and press Enter.

8. After saving, you’re presented with the options of editing your recording within Camtasia Studio, producing your recording right away into a shareable file format, or returning to the Recorder to make another recording. Make your choice and click OK.

Other Tips

• Pressing the Marker hotkey (Ctrl+Shift-M by default) during recording will add a marker to your project that can be used to facilitate editing, put together a table of contents, or more easily split up a lengthy recording.

• The Camtasia Recorder’s user interface is fully adjustable. In addition to having three different views, you have several supplementary toolbars that can be enabled/moved/disabled at will.

• Recording certain applications, such as games, media player content, and Macromedia Flash, require that specific steps be taken in order to achieve a quality capture.

Now that we understand the basics of recording, we’ll spend the rest of this unit covering other Recorder-related topics such as implementing special effects, adjusting your preferences, and making use of the Camtasia Studio add-in for PowerPoint. Stay tuned.