LibCasting

I just came across this nice guide to screencasting for Linux, if you don’t mind the “Capure” typo: Screencast Guide: Capure Your Linux Desktop on Video!. For any Linux users out there, this looks like it provides a variety of choices with different software from the usual Windows collection of screencasting programs. I have not tried any of these, but the post discusses four options (all downloadable from the Softpedia site which hosts this guide): Xvidcap, Istanbul, recordMyDesktop, and Pyvnc2swf (which also requires x11vnc).

I came across an interesting Quicktime screencast of How to use OpenID. I find it helpful to watch non-library-related screencasts not only to see how others put together a screencast, but by watching a screencast about a resource that I don’t know much about, I can analyze my reactions to try and understand how viewers might react to my screencasts, which are typically about resources that I know quite well.

I find Quicktime is a common format for screencasts, especially from Mac-oriented creators. While Quicktime works for this screencast, I find that it takes a very long time to download the file even on broadband. The author notes that it is 6.2 MB and links to a lower quality version at Google Video. Still, I find that I need to have a strong desire to see a screencast that does not load quickly. Otherwise, I just browse elsewhere on the Web. So this one is added incentive to try to keep my screencasts smaller.

I also found the pace of the OpenID screencast to be a bit quick at the beginning. I also realized that I have gotten used to screencasts which tell you how long they are. With Quicktime, there is no duration information shown. For me, at least, knowing how long the total screencast will be is important, and I certainly advocate having it included when possible. Most Flash-based screencast output does include that option.

I’ve added a couple new screencasts to my Database Examples page. First of all, CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox add-on extension which can, surprise!, customize Google in a wide variety of ways. When they updated their extension recently, I was pleased to see they offered screencasts, labeled as their “Introduction Movie.” With three versions available (Flash, Animated GIF, and Windows Media Player), all produced from Camtasia by the looks of it, I was surprised that the only audio was background music and that call outs highlighted the actions. In general, I much prefer an audio commentary that explains what is happening. In this case, I actually found the music helped to hold my interest as the call out speech bubbles would give the explanatory textual explanation. I think the pacing is just about right (perhaps a little fast), and the music is not too distracting.

Contrast those with the silent screencasts that LexisNexis offers showing its new Academic interface that will be launching in beta in January and go live summer 2007. These will be available within the new interface as well. But for now, to view these, go to the Redesign 2007 page and scroll down to the tutorials section under Features. Or use the links I’ve extracted below.

• Overview
• Selecting Sources
• Working with Results

I assume these have no sound since someone assumes they’ll be viewed in a library. Despite my interest in the new interface, I lost interest in these screencasts fairly quickly. The pause and other controls are at the top, rather than at the bottom like on most online video players. Even though I could control the pace, I found it a bit slow and confusing. The Selecting Sources tutorial kept giving a “You try it” option where I can click on a particular button, but then the next step did not have me click anything. I’d rather have more information, like an audio commentary.

So there are my conflicting evaluations of two screencasts with no audio commentary. I’m curious to hear if others have the same or different reactions to these.

At 7:40 into the YouTube video showing Adobe Photoshop CS3 beta, this video finally becomes a screencast and demonstration of the new Photoshop. What I found interesting here is that to demonstrate an application like Photoshop which uses up so much screen real estate and yet make it viewable within the small YouTube window, the creators just pan from one section of the screen to another. I find this to be fairly effective, although the pace was a bit quick for me to fully absorb the information. With most screencasting software like Camtasia, to get the same effect, the easiest way is probably to move the program window to have the highlighted features within the recording window, or add zoom and pan functions after a recording is made. I hope to experiment more with this in the future.

Last month, Meredith Farkas mused about screencasting. She mentions a variety of issues, includes links to other sources (including this blog), and talks about how more academic libraries seem to be using the technology than public libraries. My favorite quote — “You can make a very basic screencast — that you film and narrate simultaneously — in 20 minutes. Or you can spend an entire day or more developing a really polished screencast tutorial.”

She also talks about her process and issues with creating screencasts: An introduction to library services and resources and one for Academic Search Premiere. The importance of being able to create these quickly is highlighted by her story that “I’d created a screencast on using Thomas about a week before they redesigned their Website and had to do it all over again.”

Also note the comment from GinaP about Idaho’s use of a screencast to explain a statewide library catalog to legislators. That sounds like a great use of the technology for anyone working with legislators.

Screencasting software often has a PowerPoint plug in which can be used to convert a lecture with PowerPoint to a screencast. I have not used this feature to produce any screencasts yet, but I have seen several that have been done this way. It seems especially useful for recording an entire lecture.

Kevin Yank has posted Recognizing Web 2.0 which is a screen cast from his talk of that title delivered to the Victorian Association for Library Automation. He has a captioned and uncaptioned version of the screencast linked. These are screencasts of his lecture, which means they both are very large files. Even on broadband, give either one some time to download.

So I had the opportunity to create a quick screencast for an updated FAQ page at work. Since I’ve been busy lately, this was a good opportunity to use my techniques for creating one in less than 30 minutes, just like I teach in my Creating Online Tutorials in Less Than 30 Minutes workshops. I took just a few minutes to make the recording and re-did it once or twice to fix a couple problems. But then. . . .

Here’s my warning for others: don’t let yourself get distracted! I decided the tutorial might benefit from downloading the new Camtasia 4 and using some of the new features. So I download the trial and started experimenting with it. Soon I was trying new features and checking old problems, and then I ran out of time. An hour or so later, the screencast was unfinished, and I still had more to explore in Camtasia 4. This was last week, and I have yet to find the time to finish it.

For a reminder to myself, I’ve updated the process page and hope the my own advice will get me back on track to finish the screencast tomorrow. The process is a very basic outline, and for anyone who’s like to try it, I’ve also linked to a PDF of a screencasting planning worksheet.

Paul has posted links from his screencasting workshop along with the PowerPoint he used for it. The presentation gives an excellent overview of screencasting along with links to software, some examples, and other tidbits. I was especially intrigued by and will have to try out Sizer myself since it looks like it could be useful for grabbing the correct size screen shots.

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.

I have given my workshop “Creating Online Tutorials in Less Than 30 Minutes” several times this year. This site is based on much of that content, but if you’d like to read some attendee’s summaries of the workshop that I gave in Monterey at Internet Librarian 2006, see Cindy Chick’s post at LawLibTech and one from the Impromptu Librarian. For an older version, see a report from the workshop I gave in March at Computers in Libraries 2006.