Over the last few years video has become one of the biggest forms of media on the Internet. This trend is only going to become a more integral part of websites and providing visitors with good quality content and learning resources. Visitors often expect to see video on websites and if you can’t give your customers what they want they may not hand around long. So if your business is not already involved in producing web video then you should seriously consider getting some of your web content turned into video. With all the information that is available on the Internet it is difficult to keep visitors’ attention focused on your content and video gives you the upper hand by keeping their eyes fixated on your website’s content and what you have to say.
Screen Capture videos allow you to capture everything that is happening on your computer’s desktop, meaning they’re great for computer or software tutorials, explaining how to accomplish tasks on your computer, or providing presentation that can be shown to anyone over the Internet. Many software companies are starting to use video in their help files and in training tutorials for their products. These types of videos provide a lot of value to customers and creating these types of video and publishing them online is not as difficult as you might think.
There are several software applications that can be used to create screen capture videos, below are my recommendations.
Camtasia is the leading software application for screen capture and video presentation. Camtasia has loads of useful features that will help you create screen capture videos that are capture your audience and help them stay focused. If you’re going to be creating long videos that may need editing Camtasia is the software for you.
Jing is Techsmith’s cheaper version of Camtasia, it doesn’t have all the features of their leading product but it is free or they have a pro version priced at $14.95/year. If you’re interested in creating short videos or want to practice your screen capture skills before downloading the trial of Camtasia then get started with Jing. With Jing you can only create videos up to 5 minutes long and the software doesn’t have the editing features of Camtasia but is a great tool for beginners or casual users.
CamStudio is an open-source project released under GPL license and with a dedicated team CamStudio is developing into a great free tool for creating screen capture videos. The software gets the job done but doesn’t have any of the editing features you get with some of the other software mentioned here.
ScreenFlow featured at MacWorld 2011 a couple of weeks ago. The software does exactly what you expect it to do but is only for Mac users. The software has a number of on screen features as well as good editing facilities to allow you to finalise your production. Another great advantage of ScreenFlow is the price at $99 it is a fair bit cheaper than its rivals without compromising on features.
Captivate is Adobe answer to screen capture software, it has a lot of features but this doesn’t necessarily make it the best buy. Adobe programs tend to have a steep learning cruve and althrough their software may have some additional features you have to ask youself if you’re actually going to use them. If there answer is no then the extra cash you’ll spend might not be worth it, you can read more about Capitvate on Adobe website it is currently selling for $799.
These are my recommended applications to create screen capture videos, I’ll let you choose the software that suits you best. Camtasia, Screenflow and Captivate all have free trials so you could try them all before deciding which one is best for you. Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or comments please post them below.