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

Now that we’ve talked about the why of making a video out of your PowerPoint presentation, let’s move on to the how. For this, it’s time to explore the actual toolbar:

The Camtasia Studio Add-In for PowerPoint toobar.

Simply launch PowerPoint, and the add-in appears in your toolbar palette automatically. The toolbar sports six buttons:

• Launch Presentation and Start Recording. This will put PowerPoint into Slide Show view and begin the recording process.

• Record Audio. If pressed, this button will record all sound from the microphone while the capture is in progress. As I’ll discuss in a minute, it can also be set to record any sound from the system, such as sound effects within PowerPoint or any prerecorded narration embedded in the PowerPoint file. It is on by default.

• Record Camera. When clicked, this will enable the capture of camera video. This video data is saved as a separate stream inside the resulting CAMREC file. During editing, you can superimpose this video over your screen video, setting its size and position as desired, or place it next to your presentation in a side-by-side layout. Your webcam, camcorder, or other video device must be connected and the appropriate driver software installed in order to use this option.

• Show Camera Preview. Clicking this button will bring up a preview window of your camera video, so that you can make sure the camera is properly aimed, and that you stay in-frame and in-focus during the entire recording session. This window will appear on top of your presentation, but not to worry - it won’t be recorded. The opacity of this window is somewhat reduced so that you can see what’s underneath it while recording. As with the Record Camera option, it only works if you actually have a camera plugged in. Also, keep in mind that you can still view the camera preview even if you elect not to record the camera output during capture.

• Camtasia Studio Recording Options. This will let you adjust the add-in’s recording preferences. The details of this button and its corresponding dialog are discussed in the following section.

• Open help topic. Brings up the help topic on the PowerPoint add-in.