Screencasts Defined

Screencasting is a way of creating software tutorials by recording your computer screen. Screencasts are an excellent tool to learn how to use computers, operating systems or software, because you can actually watch the process as you hear someone describe it, instead of trying to visualize the process in your head or having to extrapolate from screen captures. Screencasting has become a popular form of instruction for a wide variety of programs and software, including web-based software, like WordPress, video & computer games, graphics programs (like Photoshop), productivity software, widely used Office programs such as Excel, and many others.

To create screencasts, there are lots of different types of software. There is super-fancy and expensive software, pretty decent inexpensive software, and free software. Let’s start with the free stuff, shall we?

Free:

Jing - A free software by the makers of the highly-regarded Camtasia Studio, TechSmith. We have used Jing here, in the office and it is very simple to use. We were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the image and the audio. One limitation to Jing is that you can only record 5 minutes with the free version (see info about the upgrade, bleow in “cheap”).

Screencast-o-matic - This is a browser-based software that requires no download. You can record and host your screencast all from the screencast-o-matic website. You can record up to 15 minutes for free hosting and export to an .mov file, but the video and audio quality is reduced to allow for faster downloads from their site.

Wink - A multi-use tutorial and presentation freeware that can output flash files for the web, EXE files for PC users, stand-alone image files, or PDF files for printed handouts. Wink works in Windows and Linux, and also offers multilingual support.

Cheap:

Jing Pro - This is the upgrade for Jing, and costs ~$15a year. With the additional fee, you get the ability to record in an MPEG-4 format, upload directly to youtube, and removal of the “Jing” logo from your recordings. The downside is, of course, that this is a yearly fee, and not a one-time fee.

HyperCam - A software available only to Windows users, Hypercam allows you to use text annotations and screen notes in addition to audio, and to select your frame rate and compression quality. You can download a free trial or pay $39.95 for a full license.

ScreenRecord Studio- This Mac software allows you to add a date/time stamp, show or remove your cursor,  fixed, smooth, auto panning, or scrolling camera, editing, captions, picture-in-picture, and more. At $39.95, this software seems to offer many features. Free 30-day trial.

iShowU - This is a popular Mac software from Shinywhitebox that we have also used in the office. iShowU is easy to use, has your video ready instantly after recording, and comes with various audio and video controls. The newest version (available to users running Leopard) even records in HD, allows you to upload directly to blip.tv or youtube, and supports FinalCut Pro presets (Pro version). The regular version is $29.95 and the Pro version is $59.95.

Super-Fancy:

Adobe Captivate - Billed as enabling you to create professional eLearning content with “advanced interactivity, software and scenario simulations, quizzes, and other engaging experiences.” This is much more than just screencasting software and, as with anything Adobe produces, seems very deep and complicated. It better be, for the $799 price tag…

Camtasia Studio - Camtasia is a Windows-only software with in-software editing, screencast capture and webcamera capture abilities. The newest version has HD display and youtube presets, independent editing for audio and video, the ability to import and edit .mov or .mp4 files, and more. At $299, it’s cheaper than Captivate, but still not cheap.

ALLCapture - ALLCapture is a Windows program that allows you to record in video formats, EXE, SWF, and more. This program also has a built-in memory manager, to help you keep track of how much RAM your recording is eating up. Lots of editing features and up to 1 hour of recording available. ALCapture is priced at $199, but the feature descriptions available don’t seem to offer much over some of the $40-$50 software. I’d definitely take them up on the free trial.

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