Captivate 2 vs. Camtasia 4
November 5th, 2006 by Greg R Notess
I’ve been waiting a bit before I try the new versions of Captivate and Camtasia, in part in the hopes of reading what others have to say first. Yesterday, Paul pointed to just such a comparison. At WebBriefcase, we now have Camtasia Studio vs Adobe Captivate. Written from the perspective of a Captivate user, this short comparison primarily looks at the new Camtasia. While the author decides to stick with Captivate, Camtasia gets credit for having more output format options. There is a nice description of the different approaches to recording and editing that the two programs use.
I’m not sure that I agree with a few comments, just based on my experience with Camtasia 3. “With Camtasia, everything on your screen (within your selected area, that is) is recorded. Recording is done in real time. So, if you were to pause for awhile to think, the pause would be recorded as well.” Yes, but Camtasia can easily be paused during the recording. As to “several features that were available in Captivate are not in included in Camtasia, for example, adding a highlight box, adding a click box, text entry box,” if I’m interpreting this part correctly, the first two, at least, are available as callouts, “highlight rectangle” and “transparent hot spot.”
I’m looking forward to seeing additional reviews and comparisons. But maybe it is time, and I just need to test them both myself.
Greg,
I realize this was posted in November. Have you since posted your comparison of Camtasia and Captivate?
I’m currently researching these two applications to decide which one to invest in for our training department here at Fidelity and would be very interested in your thoughts and opinions.
Thank you,
Wendy Howard
I’ve been working with the new Camtasia Studio 4, but I’ve not found time to use Captivate. So my comparison is not forthcoming any time soon. Both have free trials. I think both work well for many projects. Camtasia is less expensive and relatively easy to use. Captivate is also relatively easy to use and should integrate better with other Adobe/Macromedia products if you might be using any of those. If you are just planning on producing standard screencasts of video and voice, either should do the job well.
Hello, I have tried both (NOT the last version), and I consider that this comparision does not make much sense, are both programs are not doing the same stuff. It’s like comparing MS Excel and MS Access… Both can make graphics and contain data, but their purpose is not the same…
Camtasia record everything on the screen, as a camera directed to the screen would do.
Captivate record only some actions, and makes a swf file (other option). He does not record the actual move of the size, but the start and end points. The choice of program will depend on your needs, not on the price.
Wink is a free option too.
I am just looking at Captivate vs Camtasia?
What advise?
What sites are good to give me a step by step for free to see if this is the direction I want to go?