WSU Technology Knowledge Base:Camtasia Studio 2 for Mac
About this article
This article includes instructions for downloading, installing, and configuring TechSmith Camtasia Studio. It is intended for instructors.
TLT support
TLT maintains a multi-user Camtasia license for WSU faculty who are interested in using it to develop instructional videos for class purposes. We strongly recommend talking to Chad Kjorlien, TLT Faculty Development Coordinator, Robin O'Callaghan, TLT Senior Instructional Designer, or Ken Graetz, Director of TLT, before investing in this tool. Give TLT a call (x5240 Option 3), send an email to tlt@winona.edu, or drop in to the Maxwell 130 Professional Resource Center during normal business hours. TLT offers consultation and training on the development of effective instructional videos and can help you match your instructional strategies with the right tool.
Installing Camtasia Studio
Download and install either the PC or Mac free trial version of Camtasia Studio directly from the TechSmith Camtasia website. Then contact TLT (tlt@winona.edu) for a license code.
Getting started
TechSmith has produced a wonderful series of introductory tutorials for Camtasia Studio. These are listed below to help you learn the basics:
- TechSmith Tutorial: Prepare, Script, Audio - Offers good advice about preparing for a recording session.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Creating Better Audio: Mics, Recording & Audio FX - This video clip offers great advice on recording good audio and how to improve audio once you've recorded.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Record Your Screen - How to configure your microphone, choose a capture frame size, and start and stop recording.
- TechSmith Tutorial: What You Really Need to Know How to save and organize raw video files and move them into the Camtasia Studio tool.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Editing Dimensions and Saving - How to select video dimensions and save the Camtasia project file.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Explore the Editor - The anatomy of the Camtasia Studio interface.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Apply SmartFocus to Zoom and Pan - Learn how to zoom and pan around a large video frame and how to edit SmartFocus instances.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Cut Unwanted Media on the Timeline - How to remove segments of video and audio from your video.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Increase Viewer Understanding: Annotations - How to add various callouts to focus attention on components of your video.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Make your Screencast Stand Out: Transitions - How to add transitions to clips, annotations or text to create a smooth transition and polished look
- TechSmith Tutorial: Make your Screencast Stand Out: Animations & Video FX - More depth on visual properties of callouts and the application of animations.
- TechSmith Tutorial: Creating titles - how to create titles using the text tool.
- TechSmith Tutorial: The Great Export - How to export your video as a movie
- TechSmith Tutorial: Produce and Share Your Video - This covers how to produce your video and share it to the TechSmith ScreenCast service. Publishing your videos to other locations, such as YouTube, follows a similar process.
- Closed Captioning with Camtasia
Save & Backup Camtasia Projects
Here are the steps to save and find your projects:
- Launch Camtasia program from you application folder.
- Go to File - Save As - Title your project - and choose where you want to save the project. Typically you will want to save it in the same place where you keep the rest of the content for that specific course.
Note: Save yourself considerable time by naming consistently all file associated with the project. Keep the same file name as you produce (i.e. Share) these into .mp4 format and upload your final videos to Mediaspace or other media streaming service.