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Make The Perfect Screencast With These 6 Great Tips
Jul. 17th, 2009 ByWez Pyke
Over the yearsscreencasting, also known as videotutorialshave became very popular on the internet.The reason that they have became so popular isbecause it lets a user record their screen and share itwith others to show them how to do something on acomputer.If you browse through sites such asYouTube,Vimeo  andBlip.tv, you will see that there are lots of videotutorials but with very few of them clear to view andunderstand.There are many things that are needed to create a great video tutorial and in this article, I willtry my best to teach you some techniques I have learned along the way.
The Right Apps
To start creating a screencast, the you will need to first of all download an application that willallow you to record your screen. ForMac OS X, there are a few applications such asiShowU, ScreenFlowandScreenium. You can try out these apps by downloading them from their website. However, to be able to use the full functionality, you will have to purchase a license.If you are a Windows user then I recommend usingCamtasia Studiobecause it has a lot of great features. Camtasia Studio for Windows is very similar to ScreenFlow for Mac OS X.A
free
alternative for both Windows and Mac OS X is
Jing
. Jing is a screen capture tool fromthe creators of Camtasia Studio but has been created specifically for screencasts. Although theapplication can be used without any real limits, the only downside is that the limit on a singlerecording is five minutes.For Linux users, there is an open source project on Sourceforge calledXvidcap.
Set The Right Resolution
The first thing to do when creating a screencast for the online audience is to set yourscreenresolutionto the lowest possible setting.The reason why we do this is so that we can record as much of the screen without losing toomuch quality when we compress the screencast after we have finished recording. Also, whenviewers on video sharing websites view it at full screen mode then the screencast dimensionswill most likely be smaller than their resolution. This means that they will be able to seeeverything clearly including the text.
 
 
 
The Right Gear 
When creating a screencast, it is very important that viewers can understand what you aresaying so that they can easily follow what you are trying to teach or show. For this reason, itis
not recommended
that you use the microphone that is built into your laptop because thereis a chance that they will hear the fan and you may sound distant and unclear.If you are going to create a screencast then invest in a standalone microphone or a headset.The headset that I use is theLogitech ClearChat Pro headsetand it works great.
The Right Words
If you are doing a screencast for a video tutorial on how to create a script inPHP, for example;it is a good idea to perform a test run, create the script and think about what you would say atcertain steps and making notes so that you can best describe what you are trying to getacross. If you are creating a long screencast,it is better to
pause the recording
a take a breakfor a few minutes because if you make a mistake that you can’t resolve when recording thescreencast, you can start again from the recording before you paused. If you are showing off anew tool to perform a certain task, then take some time to introduce the tool and the link todownload it so that you do not cause confusion. Most probably, your viewers are those whoare new to computers and don’t really know the means to search for the tool you areshowcasing.When you feel that there is no more that you can explain to the user, end the recording byletting them know the ways that they can contact you if they need help. List yourTwitter username or email address.
The Right Format
Because the screen resolution was a very low setting, when it comes to exporting ourscreencast, keep the dimensions to 100%. The image below shows the settings I use forexporting my screencasts. For a short screencast I did recently, the size of the exported MOVfile was 32MB and the duration of the screencast was 7 minutes 30 seconds. That works outto 4.3MB per minute which is relatively low to other compression techniques I have used in thepast.
 
Add MakeUseOf to: Compressing a file can take some time, depending on how long the screencast is and itsdimensions. So go and grab a cup of coffee while you wait for it to finish.
The Finishing Touches
When the file has been successfully encoded and compressed, I will then open it withQuickTime Playerand add a logo at the beginning of the screencast as well as a link to mywebsite so people who stumble upon my videos on video sharing websites know where theycan find more of my stuff.Now that you have finished all the recording, editing and exporting, it is now time to uploadyour screencast to
as many video sharing websites
as you know. I upload to many videosharing websites because different people use different services so the more video sharingwebsites you upload your content to, the wider the audience you will reach.If you have a website, then you should also embed it there. When displaying screencasts onmy website, the service that I use isBlip.tvbecause the compression of your screencast whenit has been uploaded is very good and hardly any quality is lost. They also have ads within thevideos so you can make a little bit of money.It is time to promote your newly created screencast on your website, so tweet about it andask people to retweet. Add it toStumbleUponanddel.icio.us, useFacebook to promoteit and here are5 more tips on promotion, hope they come in helpful. Don’t forget to add it to tutorialwebsites if it is relevant to them also.If there is anything else that you would like to know about creating a screencast then pleasefeel free to post a comment below and I shall reply the best I can.
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(By) Wez is a student studying computers, also does programming and video tutorials and writesabout technology, software and websites, check out his blog @www.TheTutorialBlog.com
 
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