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

In addition to basic recording capabilities, a number of functions are built into the Camtasia Recorder that can produce an array of eyecatching special effects. While some of these effects have been largely supplanted by the tools within the Camtasia Studio editing application, most have retained their usefulness for specific situations:

• The Annotation toolbar gives you various methods of marking up your content. You can choose to add system stamps (for stamping your videos with specific information), captions (for making a statement with text), watermarks (for branding your videos), Autohighlight and Highlight (for placing colored frames around content), and finally, ScreenDraw (for marking up your video with shapes and drawings).

• The Audio toolbar lets you opt to add voiced narration or system sounds to your recordings. Additionally, you can record keyboard and mouse click sound effects for your video.

• The Cursor toolbar allows you to hide or show the mouse cursor when recording your video. If shown, you can opt to show graphically when the user has clicked the mouse. A highlight can also be placed around the mouse cursor to let the audience more easily follow the cursor visually. The size, shape, and color of these elements can be easily adjusted. If desired, you may also pick a custom cursor for your recording.

• The Zoom & Pan toolbar lets you focus in on specific segments of the screen, even those that fall outside your current capture area. In addition to an array of tools to help you zoom in for a detailed view of an area (or zoom out to gain perspective), the AutoPan and AutoZoom tools can smoothly animate your zooming and panning for a more professional effect.

• With the Camera toolbar, you can choose whether to include video (and possibly audio) from a web camera or video device in addition to your screen video. You may also turn on a preview window of this video stream so that you can see exactly what is being captured.

• The ScreenPad provides a means of decorating the capture area with callouts, arrows, text boxes, and other graphic objects. Multiple ScreenPad objects can be saved as a single layout.

But special effects aren’t the only way you can customize the recording experience with the Camtasia Recorder. In our next chapter, we’ll look at adjusting your preferences in the Tools Options dialog.