What Is Camtasia?

Camtasia is a reasonably priced, user-friendly and feature-rich pc-based video editing and production tool that provides users with the capability to produce high quality videos; regardless if you are putting together video footage from your camcorder or if you want to capture a software application's screen for training purposes, Camtasia will surely give you more than enough video enhancement firepower to compete in the big leagues.

Essentially, Camtasia's main modules are the Player, Recorder, and Producer including an audio editing module called Dub-It. It also includes a video compressor that allows you to produce high quality loss-less video files.

The program also offers users the ability to add watermarks to their video footage just as TV networks do when airing their footages.

Adding narration and music to your video footage/production is a snap with the Dub-It module using your microphone or MIDI files.

You can effortlessly record your pc screen, PowerPoint presentation, audio tracks, and webcam video to create composite training videos, and presentations right at your desktop. With Camtasia Studio, users can effortlessly deliver high-quality video content anytime.

Authoring Requirements:

-Windows 2000, Windows XP or later
-DirectX 9 or later
-GHz processor minimum Recommended: 2.5 GHz*
-500 MB RAM minimum Recommended: 1 GB
-Windows-compatible sound card, microphone and speakers
-60MB HD space for installation
-Camtasia Studio Add-in for PowerPoint requires PowerPoint 2000, 2002, 2003, or later version
-Production to the Apple iPod format requires Apple QuickTime 7.1 or later

Playback Requirements:
-Windows 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, XP or later
-166 MHz processor
-32 MB of RAM

It also includes features that allow you to save video footage as an animated GIF file with sound.

The best feature of Camtasia Studio 4 is that it provides anyone the capability to share your video files with anyone, anywhere. It offers a complete solution for recording, editing and sharing high-quality screen video on the Web, CD-ROM and portable media players, including the ubiquitous iPod.

Uses and Applications:
-Businesspersons can utilize Camtasia Studio 4.0 to publish marketing videos and MP3 files for portable media players.
-Educators can use Camtasia to record PowerPoint presentations using the Camtasia toolbar, and then post them as online lectures for their students.
-Corporate software training.
-Integrating video content into Flash projects to quickly create project-specific prototypes of Flash training and presentations.

Camtasia was recently awarded the Jolt 16th Annual Product Excellence Award.

"The Jolts gets increasingly competitive every year and TechSmith's Camtasia support of multiple output formats and extensive editing formats put it to the top of our list," says Rosalyn Lum, Dr. Dobb's Journal, technical editor. "The judges loved this very polished and professional product for producing tutorials and other high-quality animated presentations."