Unit I: General Introduction

Chapter List

Chapter 1: Introduction to Camtasia Studio

Chapter 2: About This Book

Part Overview

At the dawn of the year 2000, while working as a technical trainer and consultant for a local training firm in Michigan, I got an assignment to create some training content about a brand-new software product. The application was called Camtasia, and I was given the task of using Camtasia as the tool of choice to create some video tutorials about Camtasia. The program was fairly basic at that point: just a small screen recorder utility and a production tool that let you string together multiple clips. But it had two things going for it:

• It worked well, unlike similar products that had been offered up previously.

• It sported a brand-new compression algorithm that let you preserve the actions on your screen with perfect quality.

In the years that followed, Camtasia became more and more robust, eventually evolving into the comprehensive suite of applications now known as Camtasia Studio. And my, how things have changed! Users of Camtasia Studio now have no fewer than nine file types to choose from when producing video. They’re also armed with new streams of content, such as picture-in-picture video and markers, and have a dizzying array of special effects from which to choose.

The two chapters in this unit will get you up to speed on what Camtasia Studio is all about and precisely how this book can help you become more familiar with it.

• Chapter 1: Introduction to Camtasia Studio. We’ll talk about what Camtasia Studio does and what’s new in the latest version. I’ll also brief you on the system specs as well as tip you off about some handy third-party applications that can support your efforts with Camtasia Studio.

• Chapter 2: About This Book. This brief chapter discusses the general style and formatting conventions used in this book and tells you about all the goodies you can find on the book’s CD-ROM.

In one way or another, I’ve been working with Camtasia Studio (and its predecessor) for nearly its entire run. In that time, I’ve managed to win over a lot of converts. And I’m no salesman. A person’s first experience with quickly shooting a tutorial video that would otherwise have necessitated pages and pages of instruction text is what usually leads to the “revelation.” The benefit is just so clear and compelling that it leaves many wondering later how they ever got along without it.

Whether you’re a novice or a power user, and whether you’re merely dabbling in video creation or you want to learn every feature in detail, this book will have something to offer you. Welcome. Now let’s get to work…