screencaster

The Screencaster #5: Screencast Safari - Tracking the Elusive iPad

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 11:52:43 -0400

In this issue: Screencast Safari - iOS: The easiest way to record screencast footage of your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch. Photos and Callouts: On rocking your screencasts with serious eye candy, and where you can find some real beauts. Success as a Pro Screencaster (or Pro Whatever): For the newly self-employed (or those who aspire to be), five simple tips for trimming years off your learning curve. August Savings: dappertext launches its web shop with the Definitive Guide, TechSmith products, and SuperStamps/SuperCallouts. Discounts galore, dude. Save up to $50 on sweet screencasting products you probably want, anyway. ------------------------------------------------------- Dear : Screencast Safari: Tracking the Elusive iPad. On the various screencasting-related net forums I monitor. One topic that's been burning them up for the past several months is how in the world you can make a screencast of the iPhone or iPad. There are no (official) apps that support that will let you make a screencast of the iOS. This of course isn't a technical impossibilty, but rather an Apple policy restriction. Steve Jobs just isn't letting any screencasting tools get approved for some reason. In this screencast, I cover both hardware- and software-related workarounds for this draconian restriction. It IS possible. Let's see how... Rock Your Screencasts with Serious Eye Candy (And where you can find some real beauts) A good part of my time spent on a project is devoted to hunting for images. Background pics and callouts are needed for titles, closing screens, exposition slides, b-roll, you name it. They help illuminate your point and make your presentation much more visually interesting.On the other hand, screencasts that consist exclusively of screen recordings are a wonderful cure for insomnia. Take a look at my screencast on iOS capture that I did for this issue. Image if I only used screen recording footage. Zzzzz.... If you want to create a truly compelling screencast, you'll need to mine some good image sources. Doing a simple Google Image search might seem like a fine idea, until you realize that all those pictures have owners that might not take kindly to having their pics being pilfered by a renegade screencaster. So let's respect the copyright holders and look to legal, royalty-free sources instead. There are four sources I would recommend to you. Two are free, and two paid (but reasonable). Let's look at the paid sources first. iStockPhoto.com. This stock photography service carries high-quality photos on every imaginable topic. Their business model consists of purchasing credits (either in bulk or by subscription). This is where I turn when I have something very specific in mind, as they usually have it. SuperStamps and SuperCallouts. These collections of PNG images are built specifically for SnagIt and Camtasia Studio by TechSmith, but can be used by any screencasting application. Rather than full-sized photographs, these are smaller icons that make excellent custom callouts. I've got SuperCallouts always at-the-ready in my Camtasia Studio Library. And check this out. I've got a no-cost trial pack of SuperStamps that you can download RIGHT NOW. You're totally welcome :-) It's also one of the few products beyond my own book that we carry in our shop, and if these collections sound up your alley, keep in mind that we've got coupon codes at the end of this message that'll save you beaucoup bucks. Scroll down. Microsoft Office clip art. If you're a Microsoft Office user, this free collection of clip art and photos should definitely be one of your browser bookmarks. Stock Exchange. Both amateur and professional photographers share their photos and graphics for your use. Quality level isn't quite on par with iStockPhoto, but a lot it is quite good, and it has the obvious advantage of being free. Pay attention to each image's usage restrictions, though. While most allow you to use their pics in your screencasts with no major restrictions, some wish to notified, or even credited. Have a topic to suggest? Please contact us! On Succeeding as a Pro Screencaster, or Pro Whatever For the newly self-employed (or those who aspire to be), here are five simple tips to trim years off your learning curve Next month marks the eighth anniversary of my consultancy. I began with two clients, one of which was my former employer, who had promised me but a single small project as a parting favor. These were scary times, made scarier by the fact that I had just moved (with an unemployed spouse and a year-old baby) to a foreign country where my job prospects were virtually nil. After years of gainful employement, I was utterly on my own, in the classic sink-or-swim dichotomy where I either find success as a pro screencaster, or (maybe) get lucky enough to score a counter jockey position at Burger King. So I put my nose down and started paddling like mad. And I'm pleased to report that with the noted exception of my son, I've never had to ask anyone if they wanted fries with that. (Besides, he always wants fries.) As the economy continues its downward spiral, I'd thought I'd take up a part of this issue laying out a few of the harder-learned lessons for anyone considering a similar path. While this is obviously the most applicable to those who screencast professionally, there are also lessons here for folks who screencast as part of their regular job as well as for those considering striking out into self-employment for ANY kind of business. So, regardless of your current professional situation, it would behoove you to spit out that gum, crack open your notebooks, and pay attention, because I'm gonna be dropping some serious pearls over here... Lesson One: The 80/20 Principle is a real thing. In 1906, Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto observed that 80% of Italy's land was owned by 20% of its populace. Decades later, business consultant Joseph Juran came to apply this Pareto principle to various aspects of business and of life. Nowadays, the Pareto distribution is applied mathmatically by economists and statisticians to gauge probabilities on populations, prices, incomes, etc. In practice, I've seen this play out time and again in my own consultancy. The following are but general rules of thumb, yes, but I'm often stricken at how frighteningly accurate the 80/20 principle can be... 80% of your profits come from 20% of your clientele. 80% of your income comes from 20% of your time spent. 80% of your complaints and hassles from 20% of your clientele. So, how can you wield this information to help your business? By separating the wheat from the chaff, of course. When you successfully identify that key 20%, and focus your attentions on it, good things happen. If 80% of my income depends on 20% of my clients, identifying and rewarding those clients is key to my long-term success. Conversely, identifying the 20% of problem clients who really need to be jettisoned is just as critical. Which leads me to my next lesson: Lesson 2: Don't be afraid to cherry-pick your clients and projects. A lot of new consultants worry that if they turn down any project, regardless of how many red flags are flying from it, they'll be out of business by the following month. In a volatile economy, it's often more than a little scary to say, Thanks, but we're too busy to take this on. Best of luck to you in finding another provider. But I'm here to tell you, these are two sentences that are much more likely to save your business (and your sanity) than kill it. Trust your instincts. If you get the sense that this is one of those twenty-percenters who's likely to bring on 80% of your headaches, run in the opposite direction. But they're offering a lot of money! you might argue. Don't care. Not worth it. I've walked away from buckets of boodle when I got the sense that something was off about the client or project. Of course, I've also learned to occasionally accept less money to make screencasts for organizations from whom I get a particularly positive vibe. This is especially appealing if they have heavy needs, where it becomes clear that the initial project is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. As a service provider, your most important asset is your time. Spend it with those who make your professional life a pleasure. And the ones who enjoy wasting your time and generally making life difficult? Kick 'em to the curb. Lesson 3: Don't leave money on the table. This may seem like a contradiction considering what I just said about discounting good clients, but when setting your general pricing, make sure your pricing is a good reflection of the value you provide. For service providers just starting out, particularly in a competitive field, there's often an enormous urge to distinguish themselves from their competitors by advertising as the budget provider. This is an awful trap to fall into. Budget-minded clients do not tend to easier clients than those with deeper pockets. If anything, they're more demanding. Even if you succeed in generating a lot of new business this way, you'll ultimately become a victim of your own success, scrambling to satisfy all these guys while reaping rapidly diminishing reward. In addition, at least for the field of screencasting, it cheapens and commoditizes an industry that ought to be rewarding innovation. So what to do? Find other ways to distinguish yourself, naturally. This may mean educating yourself on related services you could be offering. Know a foreign language? That could be an asset as well. If you're a true beginner in your field, you simply have to accept a smaller fee until you have a chance to train yourself up a bit, but generally, aim for the high side of the industry average. Lesson 4: Get it in writing. When signing a new client, I have a standard work order that has evolved over the years. Whenever I'd had a less than happy experience on a project, I would occasionally add a new clause to innoculate myself against a future occurrence. I encourage my clients to read the work order VERY carefully, as it carefully spells out the rights and responsibilities of each party. This avoids ambiguity and gives you a leg to stand on when clients don't hold up their end of the bargain (which, for me, is thankfully rare). Being able to preface with, According to the work order you signed, ... avoids the he-said, she-said drama that can sometimes plague business-related conflict. Without a signed work order and a financial commitment (in the form of a deposit), I won't even start a project. Lesson 5: Penalize changes that waste your time. In my standard work order, I have two clauses that make the following provisions (greatly simplified here): 1. If the scope of your project changes (in either size or complexity) from our original agreement, you owe me more money. 2. Projects proceed in a stepwise manner. First the script, then the storyboard, then a video draft. They build on each other. Each step serves as a blueprint for the following one. If you approve the script, and then make radical changes to the narration once it's put into video form, then guess what? You owe me more money. While many clients are very conscientious about not wasting your time, there are also those who simply don't take your time or sanity into account, and will sometimes request sweeping changes that would force you to practically start over from scratch. This is particularly likely with larger companies who like to critique by committee. Whenever possible, I insist on having a single point of contact who serves as their organization's gatekeeper, moderating the feedback of perhaps a dozen or more of their colleagues who are all anxious to make their mark on my project. Having clauses like this in place tends to force clients to consider your time and to respect the process of the end project's creation. In the end, they may heartily approve the blueprint, and then request that half the building be knocked down and built anew once they see it. But in that event, at least your interests will be protected, and you won't have to do a project twice for the same money. Ideally, I'd like to do more segments like this in the future. Got advice of your own to share? I'd love to hear and possibly incorporate it in a future issue... Savings! Save up to $50 with one our sweet bundle deals. To celebrate the launch of our new web shop, we're offering HUGE bundle discounts on Camtasia Studio: The Definitive Guide for the entire month of August. After writing our first digital version of Camtasia Studio: The Definitive Guide, we decided to launch an online shop devoted exclusively to screencasting. To celebrate its launch, I'm offering bundle deals of the Definitive Guide with Camtasia Studio, and with SuperCallouts mentioned above. Just enter any of the following coupon codes after adding the corresponding products to your shopping cart: Silver bundle: $20 off Camtasia Studio: The Definitive Guide and SuperCallouts. Coupon code screencaster20off Gold bundle: $30 off Camtasia Studio: The Definitive Guide and Camtasia Studio software. Coupon code screencaster30off Platinum bundle: $50 off all three products. That's like getting the Definitive Guide for free! Coupon code screencaster50off But don't wait around! When August is gone, so are these deals. Go to dappertext-shop.com today. dappertext LLC is a screencasting consultancy created and led by Daniel Park (that's me). Started in 2003, we've created hundreds of training and marketing screencasts for dozens of clients. Our client roster includes the likes of Pfizer, the Mayo Clinic, the Internal Revenue Service, Autodesk, The Cheesecake Factory, and Microsoft. If you lack the time or inclination to produce quality screencasts for your organization, we'd love to help you out. We'll take your materials, create an utterly splendid narration script and storyboard, capture, edit, produce, and post. Zero hand-holding required. And if you're a do-it-yourselfer, you may want to have us come onsite and train your team on Camtasia Studio and best practices for screencasting in general. For all things screencasting, give us a shout: info@dappertext.com. ----------------------------------------------------- All of the above is ©2011 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings. Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com. Got a friend or colleague who would enjoy The Screencaster? Feel free to forward it on... You're now enjoying The Screencaster because you subscribed to receive periodic content from dappertext LLC. Should you ever wish to unsubscribe, you may do so by clicking the link found at the bare bottom of this message.

The Screencaster #4: Honesty, Efficiency, and Other Assorted Virtues

Tue, 18 Jan 2011 06:59:44 -0500

In this issue: Honestly Compelling VO: What the voiceover acting industry can teach us about narrating a screencast. How Not to Waste Your Audience's Time: Making use of the new and improved Clip Speed tool in Camtasia Studio, and why you'll want to use it. The Grumpy Old FAQ: Daniel dives into the ol' mailbag, and answers all your questions and concerns about the Definitive Guide. ------------------------------------------------------- Dear : Before we dive in, let me quickly remind you that this is the final day to take advantage of our 30% launch special on Camtasia Studio 7: The Definitive Guide. The price goes back up to $49 tomorrow at 5pm EST, and it's not coming down again any time soon. We've gotten a lot of kudos as well as a few critical comments (thankfully all related to the format, not the content itself). If you haven't yet downloaded, you can do so here: If you are checking it out, and just wanted a bit of time to put the free content through its paces, now's the time to get off the fence, and onto the road to screencasting gurudom. Don't forget to check out our Definitive Guide Grumpy Old FAQ at the end of this issue for answers to all your burning questions. ------------------------------------------------------- Honestly Compelling VO. The was lovely, Daniel. You clearly have a lot of experience in front of the mic. But you sound like a radio announcer. Remember, it can't sound like acting. I was a little offended. Back in June, I attended a special workshop on voiceover acting for video games, put on by Outsource Media in London. Aspiring performers come from all over the UK to train themselves up on the art and business of delivering a convincing voiceover performance in the increasingly sophisticated world of interactive entertainment. I had come all the way from Spain. I had always taken pride on being myself in front of the mic, on staying genuine even when specifically creating a screencast with the goal of hard-selling a product. And yet there I was, being told that I sounded no more convincing than the schlock-jocks who hawk fan belts, fast food, and financial services down at Lite-FM. Days after the workshop, I went back and listened to the segments I had recorded that day, and my eyes went wide. My instructor was right. Honesty's a rare commodity in VO delivery. The slick, singsongy warbles of the radio pitchman almost invite suspicion nowadays. Consumers have been taken in before. We're wiser now. Voice acting and screencasting narration aren't remotely the same animal, of course. There are wildly different goals for each, but do remember that honesty in the delivery transcends all genres of voiceover work. It's essential no matter what reason you're going behind the mic. So how to attain it, that's the question. The cliché answer is be yourself. It sounds like something out of an after-school special. But sometimes clichés are so often repeated for a good reason. This one happens to be right as rain. So let's talk specific tips... First, take a look your script. Are there 75-cent words that have no place in everyday conversation? Strike them. Industry jargon that only a portion of your audience will understand? Simplify. The goal of your screencast isn't to demonstrate how much smarter you are than they. Whether training or marketing, you need to connect on a basic, human level. That's a little hard to accomplish when you're talking down to them. On a related note, try to use the first person in your narration when possible. When working for a large organization, I know this isn't always feasible. A lot of companies shy away from letting individuals in their group be, well, individuals. But think about the last time you were on hold after dialing up some corporate entity: Your call is very important to us. Yeah, right. Now think about the times (increasingly rare nowadays) that you actually managed to reach a human being on the other end who was compassionate, personable, and eager to help. In screencasting, you want to be that dude (or dudette). When one person is empowered by their large, impersonal employer to spread their knowledge and enthusiasm in a personal way, good things happen. Check out The Cluetrain Manifesto for more information on this. Try to avoid too many layers of polish. It is of course vital to be professional. But one thing that's always bothered me about products like Adobe Captivate, with its smooth-as-glass mouse movements, is that the content looks like a robot did it. In both your visuals and your narration, try to keep it a bit loose. Make an off-topic aside or a corny joke. Show a little emotion (so long as it's genuine). Let 'em know there's an actual human being behind the scenes. Of course, these assorted bits of personality tend to be first on the chopping block if you're one of those unlucky souls who must submit their storyboards for committee review. Narrow minds will always try to suck the humanity out of your work in the interest of professionalism. Fight to maintain it when possible. Based on this last point, it seems even I have some work to do, if my abysmal demo tape from that workshop is any indication. Radio announcers belong on the radio. Not in your screencast. Clip Speed and Screencast Efficiency As any of my screencasting students will tell you, one of my biggest pet peeves is work that's polluted by pointless content and pauses through which you could drive a Mack truck. I'll even go as far as to say that it's disrespectful to waste your users' time in that manner. If you show hunt-n-peck typing of whole paragraphs, endless loading screens, and progress bars that progress at the rate of drying paint, then you're guilty of this. When I as a user have one of these atrocities inflicted upon me, I more often than not end up shouting at the screen: Get to the damned point! Up to now, the best option for addressing this was to make judicious cuts while working through the video, but when you're wanting to show an entire process in an expedient way, this can be incredibly time-consuming. It's literally death by a thousand tiny cuts. Enter the Clip Speed feature of Camtasia Studio, formerly practically unusable, but it got a HUGE facelift with the release of version 7.1. I threw together a quick screencast showing you not only how to use it, but why you'd want to. Check it... Grumpy Old FAQ: A Cantankerous Author Dives into the Mailbag Over the last week, I've gotten loads of good feedback, including some questions and concerns. As a lot of the same ones tended to turn up over and over, I assembled a quick document here to help address them. NOTE: I was feeling a bit sassy when I sat down to compose this section, so proceed at your peril. This ain't your father's FAQ... I'm trying to figure out how to buy your book, but there's no link or button for doing so. What gives? Don't you want my money? Oh, darling, don't be silly, of course I do. Here's what you do... The first six chapters are free. Proceed to any point past chapter six, and the activation window will automatically pop, so that you can unlock the rest. I too was puzzled by the reader vendor's decision to not let me add an explicit button. I think it's because most authors only give away a few pages, or a single chapter at most. I gave away a full 20% of the book, so it takes a little time before you hit that threshold where the content isn't free any more. Why is your book an EXE file? I need admin privileges to open it, and I don't have them. Don't you hate that? The executable you downloaded is a combination file that contains both the book document and a tiny (about 1mb) reader application that gets invisibly installed on your machine. This install does require admin privileges. Sorry about that. Have your admin install it for you, or simply install on your personal computer, away from the corporate lock-down. Can't you just give it to me as a PDF? Absolutely! Assuming of course you're willing to become a volunteer employee, spending two arduous months painstakingly laying the book out for a new format, complete with all screenshots and accompanying screencasts, and then do custom programming to build e-commerce and DRM protection right into the book... Otherwise, no. DRM? As in Digital Rights Management? But DRM is pure, unadulterated evil! I'm outta here! Easy, Sparky. Yes, you'll need to activate the book in order to use it. But all my decisions regarding how to protect the book lean decidedly away from the draconian. You can activate a single license on up to three machines, and I also don't cripple printing or the PrintScreen key. I wanted some basic protections in place, but I'm not about hassling legitimate users. I downloaded it, and Norton/McAffee/some other app told me the file was suspicious! What are you trying to pull here? Oops, you caught me. I'd actually like nothing better than to infect your computer with a million viruses, which is of course totally consistent with my goal of selling you a book. ;-) Look, when you have a container file that contains a document as well as an application install, some of the more cautious security tools will send up a red flag. But the file has been checked and checked again. There are no viruses, malware, adware, spyware, or any other kind of ware other than bookreader-ware. Scout's honor. Destroying your machine would be very bad for business. I want to be able to zoom in on the text, OR only view one page at a time instead of opposing pages, OR set up bookmarks, OR make some other feature request related to the reader application. I agree that those would all be useful features. The problem is that I'm not directly empowered to do anything about it. I didn't program the reader application, an Australian company called DNAML did. I can pass your feedback on to them, and hereby promise to do so. But I can't twitch my little nose like Samantha on Bewitched and make it happen. The reader app does have its faults, but I chose this format because it gets a lot more right than wrong. And I'm certain it'll only improve over time. dappertext LLC is a screencasting consultancy created and led by Daniel Park (that's me). Started in 2003, we've created hundreds of training and marketing screencasts for dozens of clients. Our client roster includes the likes of Pfizer, the Mayo Clinic, the Internal Revenue Service, Autodesk, The Cheesecake Factory, and Microsoft. If you lack the time or inclination to produce quality screencasts for your organization, we'd love to help you out. We'll take your materials, create an utterly splendid narration script and storyboard, capture, edit, produce, and post. Zero hand-holding required. And if you're a do-it-yourselfer, you may want to have us come onsite and train your team on Camtasia Studio and best practices for screencasting in general. For all things screencasting, give us a shout: info@dappertext.com. ----------------------------------------------------- All of the above is ©2011 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings. Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com. Got a friend or colleague who would enjoy The Screencaster? Feel free to forward it on... You're now enjoying The Screencaster because you subscribed to receive periodic content from dappertext LLC. Should you ever wish to unsubscribe, you may do so by clicking the link found at the bare bottom of this message.

The Screencaster (supplemental): Camtasia Studio - The Definitive Guide

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 07:35:34 -0500

Dear : I'm pleased to report that the first all-digital edition of Camtasia Studio 7: The Definitive Guide is complete, and ready to rock your world via instant download. There is no upfront cost for doing so, so you have nothing to lose. The Guide (now in its fifth iteration) has been an amalgamation of my decade's worth of experience as a pro screencaster, and going digital with it has been able to let me do an amazingly cool stuff that just wasn't possible on paper. To wit: Include hundreds of screenshots that are not only in glorious full-color, but can also be blown up to full size with a click. Embed a series of screencasts to walk you the more complicated procedures. There are forty of 'em, totaling more than an hour in duration. Offer searchability as well as interlink between sections. If there's something in another chapter that's pertinent to what I'm talking about, I provide a link. No endless flipping back and forth. No papercuts. So here's the deal. The first six chapters of the book are F*REE of cost. Forever. There's no timeout or pageview limit. Even if you opt not to purchase the whole book, you can keep those chapters as my gift to you. How much material is six chapters? Just over 200 pages, roughly 20% of the overall book. What can I say? I'm generous to a fault. And I'm about to get even more generous. I know that some folks have been waiting a looooong time for this release. Being spoiled in the past by having had an editing and layout staff at my disposal, I was somewhat unprepared for the work involved in turning my musings into something resembling an actual book. As such, we've been slightly behind schedule on the release. But I want to make it up to you... FOR ONE WEEK ONLY, I'm offering you a special launch price of $34. That's a full 30% its regular cost of $49. But this price is only good until Wednesday, January 19th. At precisely 5pm EST next Wednesday, we'll be back at the regular price, and I don't plan to discount it again. So, take a good week getting absorbed in screencast preparation, recording, and Recorder-based special effects, and then make up your mind. The reason I'm offering so much content for f*ree is that I'm exceedingly proud of the work we've done here, and I'm confident that once you've devoured the first 200 pages, picking up the full 1,000 will be a no-brainer. Okay, I'm done plugging. We'll be back shortly with the next issue, chock with content to help you be a better screencaster. Until then, I wish you continued success in screencasting and all other life endeavors. cheers, d. ----------------------------------------------------- All of the above is ©2011 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings. Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com. Got a friend or colleague who would enjoy The Screencaster? Feel free to forward it on... You're now enjoying The Screencaster because you subscribed to receive periodic content from dappertext LLC. Should you ever wish to unsubscribe, you may do so by clicking the link found at the bare bottom of this message.

The Screencaster #3: The Times they are a-Changin'.

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 09:26:54 -0400

In this issue: Camtasia Studio 7: The Definitive Guide - going digital! New resouce: Sharpen your screencasting arsenal at The Forge Daniel's rockin' guide to Screencast Productivity. Hey D, where have you been, and where the @#$% is your book??? Dear : In the past month or so, I think I've e-mailed out more apologies than the during the rest of my life combined. A lot of good folks pre-ordered Camtasia Studio 7: The Definitive Guide on Amazon, and have been waiting many months for the book to finally appear, only to be disappointed to recently see their orders cancelled. Here's the deal: About a year ago, my original publisher was acquired by a larger one, and a couple of months ago, I received word that they were dropping most of the titles they had picked up, including mine. Totally unexpected, and more than a little ouch... But worry not: I'm wrapping a brand spanking new, all-digital edition that will be out by the end of this month. I'll send out an announcement when it's ready for download, but here are a few details I'm prepared to release now: All features, including the new ones recently introduced in v7.1, are fully represented, in a digital book that flips pages just like a paper book, but with computerized advantages like full searchability. It will be in glorious full color with clickable images that can be expanded to full size. No more squinting at small, greyscale screencaps on paper! The book is peppered with corresponding mini-screencasts (I dubbed them QuickCasts), so not only do you get descriptions of features and workflow procedures, you can see them in action. The book will be available for easy download, with the first six chapters available completely without cost, forever. If you decide you like it and want the rest, you can enter your payment details right inside the book, and the remaining chapters will instantly unlock. And the book release is just the beginning. There are big changes afoot that I hope will make you all better screencasters (and perhaps take the sting out the fact that you haven't heard from me in two years). I'm working to establish a fruitful, two-way conversation with Screencaster readers to more effectively teach what I know, and perhaps pick up an extra trick or two myself along the way. Stay tuned. Sharpen your screencasting arsenal at The Forge Here's a quick tip on a resource you may not yet have discovered. My friend Matt Pierce, training manager over at TechSmith, recently created a new web show called The Forge, a live show with a singular goal I obviously support: teaching people about screencasting. On a completely unrelated note (ahem), this Thursday's broadcast will be featuring yours truly as Matt's guest. I'll be talking about my experiences as a screencaster, the direction of the field as a whole, and will have plenty to say about the upcoming book, so feel free to tune in Thursday, November 4th at 2pm EST. Yes, I know that's tomorrow. Apologies on the short notice, but if you can make it, I promise it'll be worth your while. Tune in here tomorrow at 2pm EST. And if you can't make it, don't sweat it. They typically post the show afterward on the TechSmith YouTube channel, and I'll pass you a link in the next issue. Daniel's Guide to Screencast Productivity How to keep your projects moving forward when meetings, endless feedback loops, and all of life's distractions bear down on you. If you've been screencasting for any length of time, chances are you've come across at least a half-dozen hurdles for each and every project that block forward momentum like you wouldn't believe. These can be internal hurdles (aka YOUR fault), or external, as in, Yes, Daniel, Mr. Lewis got your video, but is now on vacation / in wall-to-wall meetings / waiting on feedback from Ms. So-and-so. This article has tips for conquering (or at least ameliorating) both. Let's start with the internal obstacles, those instances where the ball is decidedly in your court. Productivity is a gazillion dollar a year industry, and runs the gamut from what I would call organizational productivity, where organizations like Six Sigma strive to keep companies humming along, to personal productivity gurus like David Allen, to FranklinCovey day planners, not to mention hundreds of books and pieces of software. A substantial portion of that industry's revenue used to come directly from my pocket. I bought software, add-ins, books, wall-sized planners, etc. until I realized that I was spending more time tweaking my system then actually accomplishing the stuff that was important to me. So I decided to simplify. I am in no way a guru, but let me share a few techniques that have stayed with me over the years, and perhaps they'll help you, too. Below are a list of tips that start with general productivity, and then move on to screencasting specifically. Make lists. From writing my book to tackling a 40-video tutorial project to handling everyday minutiae, a to-do list keeps stuff out of my imperfect brain and in a trusted system. I use software (specifically Evernote, in case anyone was curious), but a sheet of paper works, too. If possible, I try to hammer out my list the night before, and then change it as little as possible later on. Things I was unable to accomplish get bounced to the next day. If something stays on my list for more than a couple of days, then it's a surefire sign that it needs to be broken down into smaller parts. Eat your frog. Brian Tracy spun a 128-page book around this concept. I'll sum it up for you in a sentence. Take your biggest, ugliest, smelliest task, the one you're reeeaally dreading, and knock it out as the very first order of the day. This seems like common sense, and to an extent, it is. But until I became fully conscious of this rule, I was constantly doing the small, unimportant stuff first, and feeling pretty good about it as I rapidly ticked off a couple of checkboxes on my list for the day. But in leaving the hard, critical stuff for another day, I was cheating myself out of true forward momentum just for the sake of handling expendable busywork. Personally, I always try to eat my frog before I even eat my breakfast. Some days, even if I accomplish absolutely nothing else, I'll still consider it a productive day. Of course, in order to eat your frog, you first have to prioritize. Your frog isn't necessarily your most unpleasant task, but it is your most important one. Unfortunately, these often coincide. Mercilessly order your tasks according to priority. This may mean putting a dull-as-powder tutorial screencast sanctioned by management ahead of the cool marketing spot you're doing for a colleague. It may mean putting paying gigs ahead of publishing your free newsletter (ahem). You know best what activities will benefit you and organization most in the long term. Try not to let minor distractions get in the way of those goals. Always know and strive for your next step. It doesn't matter if it's folding laundry or penning the Great American Novel. Every project is comprised of a series of steps. Mom always says, How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. For large projects, try to focus on the next bite rather than the whole elephant. At meetings, you should always ask What's the next step here? and if it's in your power, make sure it's done by the next time you reconvene. Keep lots of plates spinning. I generally have anywhere from 3 to 6 screencast projects going at any one time. Rather than focus on one project at once, I try to do work on at least a couple of them every day. In addition to keeping me on my toes, it also usually means that I'm never just twiddling my thumbs when waiting on someone for feedback. Even for single projects, I'll typically have several videos in varying stages of doneness so that my feedback is staggered. Set aside large blocks of time for screencasting. No matter what phase of a project you're currently on, quality work takes time. For complicated projects, it can take a good half hour just to get my bearings. Screencasting is not the kind of activity you pick at when you only have a few spare minutes here, a few spare minutes there. I try to ensure I have at least two hours free before starting on anything. Now, let's talk about a few common screencasting scenarios where things aren't within your direct control. Most of us creating screencasts out there are typically doing so for someone else, like a boss or a colleague, and we have to rely on their feedback to carry to process forward. Here's how to avoid endless feedback loops and the inordinate wait times that can accompany some projects. Have a single source of feedback. This is incredibly important. If it is within your power, NEVER accept a situation where you're getting committee-based feedback. In addition to often contradictory requests coming from different persons, you'll also get a lot of superfluous requests, as every committee member will want to put their own mark on your project. And of course, there's always the odd straggler who holds up the entire process by not providing timely feedback. Get that monkey off your back. Set a single source of feedback, someone with enough authority to filter out the stuff you can safely ignore, and let THEM separate the wheat from the chaff. You'll be amazed at how much more quickly you can bring a project to completion. Clarify expectations. Make sure that you agree with the people who commissioned your screencast what the responsibilities of each party are. Agree on a predefined scope, and make contingency plans for instances when the scope might need to change. The less time spent on the administrativa as the project progresses, the more time you can actually spend on your screencasting work. Create scripts and storyboards, and solicit rigorous feedback on them. The amazing thing about screencasts is that every minute of seemingly effortless screen video takes an hour+ of careful planning and execution. A lot of colleagues, managers, and clients don't realize this. Have you ever heard something like The screencast is great! Just change the background color and it'll be perfect, when said background color permeates the entire screencast? Or how about The text is all wrong; we'll need to rewrite, when the script had already been approved two weeks before, and now the incredibly flawed video is complete? In both cases, there are two essential facts at play here: a. Most people have zero respect for your time. b. Problems are much easier to fix early in the process, before you record a single frame of video. When you send off a script or storyboard for feedback, you need to stress that this document is the blueprint for this project/screencast, and how vitally important and time-saving it is that said document represent the organization's best possible work BEFORE it goes into production. Most folks, if given the option, will wait until they actually see a video in order to give you the kind of good, detailed feedback you should have been getting all along. After all, this doesn't cost them anything. You'll be the one sitting up late in your office incorporating all these late-game changes while everyone else is at home with their families. Don't let that happen to you. Do YOU have a screencast productivity tip to share? Please send it on to me, and I'll happily post it in the next edition. dappertext LLC is a screencasting consultancy created and led by Daniel Park (that's me). Started in 2003, we've created hundreds of training and marketing screencasts for dozens of clients. Our client roster includes the likes of Pfizer, the Mayo Clinic, the Internal Revenue Service, Autodesk, The Cheesecake Factory, and Microsoft. If you lack the time or inclination to produce quality screencasts for your organization, we'd love to help you out. We'll take your materials, create an utterly splendid narration script and storyboard, capture, edit, produce, and post. Zero hand-holding required. And if you're a do-it-yourselfer, you may want to have us come onsite and train your team on Camtasia Studio and best practices for screencasting in general. For all things screencasting, give us a shout: info@dappertext.com. ----------------------------------------------------- All of the above is ©2010 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings. Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com. Got a friend or colleague who would enjoy The Screencaster? Feel free to forward it on... You're now enjoying The Screencaster because you subscribed to receive periodic content from dappertext LLC. Should you ever wish to unsubscribe, you may do so by clicking the link found at the bare bottom of this message.

The Screencaster #2: "Sound" screencasting.

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 10:20:32 -0400

In this issue: It always has to be about YOU, doesn't it? Monthly screencast: Solving audio capture issues in Camtasia Studio. Hardware review: Røde Podcaster. Daniel's stunning admission: I'm a cheater! Job posting: The Monitor. It always has to be about YOU, doesn't it? Dear : The last issue I sent out was The Screencaster's first ever. I'd been planning its launch for some time, and was incredibly psyched about putting its content in front of the eyes of aspiring screencasters everywhere. But in the text itself, aside from the little #1 designation in the subject line, I made no mention whatsoever that it was in fact the very first. Why? Because, dear Reader, except for its creator (me), experience has taught me that no one would particularly give a damn. Truthfully, I've never really ever seen the advantage of grandiose product or web site launches. The attitudes of these companies are reminiscent of a line by Bette Midler from the otherwise forgettable 80s tearjerker Beaches: But enough about me. Let's talk about you. What do you think about me? Premiere issues and launch parties put the cart before the horse by placing creator over audience. As a screencaster (regardless of whether your forte is training or marketing), you need to stayed decidedly focused on the latter group. It's the audience you need to attract. They're the ones from whom you want the attention, the desire, and eventually, the dollars. In the heady days of the late 90s, web companies lost sight of this, and we all know what happened. Companies who are all talk and no listen tend to very quickly go the way of the dot-bombs. I certainly understand that lowly screencasters inside of larger organizations may not be in total control of the message, but I encourage you to exert whatever influence you may have if you see management going off the rails into self-indulgence. In the interest of walking the walk¸ I'd like to formally invite you to tell me what YOU would like to see in an upcoming issue of The Screencaster. I already have a lengthy ideas list for future topics, but it would be good to know if I'm on the right track, and that's where you come in. In the future, we may doing more formal input gathering like surveys or polls, but for the time being, I'd like to keep it informal and freeform. So please shoot me a quick message at info@dappertext.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Monthly screencast: Solving audio capture issues in Camtasia Studio Being a daily lurker on the TechSmith User-to-User forum (as well as one of its most prolific posters) has its advantages when planning each issue's screencast. It allows me to easily pick out the most common problems that people are experiencing. One thing that comes up again and again is the recording of audio. Narration, system sound, background music, keyboard and mouse effects. A lot of folks experience major problems when recording sound, particularly system sound (i.e. what you hear out of your speakers). Sorting these issues out can be a mess, considering that there are dozens of manufacturers with different driver versions and other software, a mess compounded by the fact that Windows XP and Vista are very different when it comes to how they handle audio devices. Hopefully, the accompanying screencast can help you introduce those dulcet tones into your videos with a minumum of hassle: Hardware Review: Røde Podcaster. As long as we're on an audio kick in this issue, I'd like to cover a recent acquisition I made while on the road. My family and I made an extended trip to the U.S. for medical reasons, and my studio setup, with my microphone, preamp and vocal processor, audio interface, and various cables, was going to be too unwieldy to come along for the ride. I needed to lighten the load. I needed simple. I picked up a Røde Podcaster. I should start this review by saying that I'm already something of a Røde fanboy. One of my main studio mics is the Røde NT-1, and I use their NTG-1 shotgun mic with my camcorder. This Australian manufacturer is incredibly skilled at producing low-cost, great quality microphones with incredibly low self-noise, and the Podcaster (at around $200) is no exception. But why merely tell you about it in text form? The rest of this review is in audio format, recorded using the Podcaster. I did have to compress the fomat in MP3 format, but this is actually a good thing, as it should convey more-or-less exactly what your screencasts will sound like when using this mic. Get your special audio review of the Podcaster. Stunning admission: I'm a cheater! Okay, folks, I have a confession to make. I've been cheating on you with another newsletter. The good folks at TechSmith approached me a few months ago about providing a guest critique for a chosen user-submitted screencast, for publication in their excellent Camtasia Studio News You Can Use. The temptation was just too great, and I broke down and ultimately acquiesced. But I swear I was thinking of you the entire time... At any rate, the response was so positive that we decided to make it a regular thing (a screencasting affair, if you will). Every three months or so, I'll be contributing a new review of some brave soul's screencast. So, if you're a Camtasia Studio afficionado, don't forget to go sign up for their newsletter. You'll get loads of great CS tips and tricks, and even better, more of me. So don't miss out... Job posting: The Monitor. With the feedback I've received thus far about the Screencaster, it's clear that its subscriber base runs the entire gamut of professional endeavor. We've got academics, corporate trainers, internet marketers, government employees, and yes, the occasional aspiring professional screencaster. This PSA is aimed solely at the latter group. The folks at the Scientific American are looking for a new pro screencaster to help continue their utterly fantastic humorous/informational video magazine,The Monitor. Here's a sample of a past Monitor screencast. They now need a new stalwart screencaster to pick up the baton. My dance card is currently too full to accept a regular weekly gig, but perhaps YOU have what it takes to carry The Monitor forward. If interested, please contact John Pavlus. ----------------------------------------------------- All of the above is ©2008 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings. Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com. Got a friend or colleague who would enjoy The Screencaster? Feel free to forward it on... You're now enjoying The Screencaster because you subscribed to receive periodic content from dappertext LLC. Should you ever wish to unsubscribe, you may do so by clicking the link found at the bare bottom of this message.

The Screencaster #1: The Elements of Style(casting)

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 16:15:07 -0400

In this issue: Lessons to the aspiring screencaster from Strunk and White. Monthly screencast: Let's get embed together... Client spotlight: Wordtracker and effective keyword research. Can you hear the drums, Fernando? Lessons to the aspiring screencaster from Strunk and White. Dear : The other day, I got a solid lesson in good screencasting from a most unexpected place. Most Americans, at some point in their academic careers (could be high school, college, or in my case, both), have an English composition class foisted upon them by the local administration. This is done with the supposed motivation of churning out graduates who can express themselves succintly and coherently in written form. Persons armed with this knowlege will be able to master business reports, research studies, doctoral dissertations, you name it. Or, at the very least, have the most eloquently written MacDonald's employment application on the block... One text that's basically regarded as standard issue in these courses is The Elements of Style by William Strunk and E.B. White, and has been thus since its initial publication in 1959. I bought my first copy back in 1989, when the book was a mere pup at the tender age of 30. In its nearly 50 years on the shelves, this tiny grey paperback has prevented millions of grammatical foibles the world over, defusing everything from awkward sentence structure to the careless use of non-words like irregardless. I recently pulled my dog-eared copy of the shelf in an attempt to decide the correctness between None of us were there and None of us was there (it's the latter, by the way), when I came across an essay at the back that I hadn't remembered. It was called An Approach to Style, and moved away from the specific prescriptivist grammar police ruleset that comprised most of the book, and instead just offered up a list of basic guidelines to bear in mind when communicating with words. I was astounded by how many of these suggestions were readily applicable to narrated visual media as well, despite the fact that it was written a good 45 years before Jon Udell ever coined the term screencast. I wanted to share a few of these with you. Place yourself in the background. Write in a way that draws the reader's attention to the sense and substance of the writing, rather than the mood and temper of the author. This is a particularly sticky one for marketing screencasters. When crafting a video advertisement or marketing spot, it's vitally important to focus on your audience. Their lives, their problems. With luck, you can be there to offer the solution. There are instances (such as this newsletter), where it's appropriate for the author to be more present within the content. But you can't ever lose sight of your users and the benefit to their lives that you're attempting to bring to the table. More on this next month. Do not overwrite. And this goes hand-in-hand with two other basic tenets of theirs, Write in a way that comes naturally and Avoid fancy words. Rich, ornate prose is hard to digest, generally unwholesome, and sometimes nauseating. As you write your narration script, you must take care to avoid the kind of thick, jumbled wordiness that makes your video impossible to penetrate without a dictionary in hand. Most people won't bother, so don't use a 75-cent word when a 10-cent one will do. This goes doubly for industry terms and other technical jargon. Only use a technical term when no other more common replacement exists, and when you're certain that at least 95% of your audience will understand it. Take a second in your narration to clarify the term if you're not sure. Do not explain too much. It is seldom advisable to tell all. Amen, brothers. Amateur screencasters often make the classic rookie mistake of explaining every field and button. Even a comprehensive tutorial should exist to show completion of a given task or set of tasks. Clarify only those features and aspects of the application that are directly involved in getting the user from point A to point B. In screencasting, the hackneyed slang phrase Too much information! really does apply, so don't inundate your audience with a lot of extraneous info. Revise and rewrite. Revising is part of writing. Few writers are so expert that they can produce what they are after on the first try. Revision is a necessity in the screencast production process. If possible, try to segment your revision as much as possible. What does this mean? Well, take a quick look at my workflow, which generally goes something like this: Write narration > Craft storyboard > Record footage > Edit silent cut > Record and clean up narration > Produce final output You should be giving the decision-makers (clients, managers, etc.) access to your work at nearly every point in this process. If there's an unnecessary paragraph in your narration, it's a lot easier to correct early on, when it's just words on paper. If something's destined to get the ax, you're wasting valuable time by coming up with visuals, recording clips, and cutting it all together. Don't overstate. When you overstate, readers will be instantly on guard, and everything that has preceded your overstatement as well as everything that follows will be suspect in their minds because they have lost confidence in your judgment or your poise. Overstatements are dangerous territory, particularly for marketing screencasts. Yes, you want to convey the benefit of your product or service, and yes, those benefits should be as compelling as possible. Just don't promise them the moon. Or, promise them the moon, provided you're ready to deliver on that promise and you can provide good testimonials and other proof that you're not just full of hot air. Good stuff. The advice of these two men from nearly a half century ago is as relevant as ever to those of us who create content for a living. Monthly screencast: Let's get embed together... One topic that seems to come up time and again on the TechSmith forums is how to integrate a Camtasia Studio screencast with a pre-existing web page. You know, the kind that's already filled with other content. This has been made easier in the past year or two with the introduction of ExpressShow and Screencast.com embedding, but those who don't output to SWF, or who don't want to pay service fees, are essentially left up to their own devices. In this screencast, I'll talk about the various options you have for embedding your videos into a content page, including a neat, easy option that works with all output formats, and has the added bonus of saving you bandwidth. Embedding a screencast into a content page Client spotlight: Wordtracker and effective keyword research. In the five or so years I've been in business as a freelance screencaster, I've served organizations of all sizes and flavors, and the exact vocations of these enterprises are as broad and varied as life itself. A few industries off the top of my head: stock trading, homebuilding, paperwork management, promotional products, plastics, and dental practice management, among many others. It's hard to imagine that such a broad range of business endeavor exists in the world until someone calls you up wanting a marketing spot to advertise their extensive line of holy bibles in audiobook format (yes, seriously). There are, apparently, exactly one million and one ways to fill a need for someone and get paid in the process. Nothing surprises me anymore. Of course, fortunately for them, when it comes to a company's screencasting needs, I'm pretty equal-opportunity... That said, I can't tell you what a rare treat it is to be approached by someone whose product you've not only heard of, but actually use. Such was the case when the good folks at Wordtracker contacted me to create a series of demos on their amazing keyword research service. If you're a MarComm manager or internet entrepreneur, then it's likely these guys need no introduction. For the rest of you, I'll give you the quick elevator statement: Wordtracker lets you research the popularity and competition level of internet search terms as well as easily pick out potentially profitable related terms. Armed with solid keyword research, companies can avoid costly mistakes in their pay-per-click and web optimization efforts by focusing on keywords that are more likely to bring in actual business. In fact, you're unlikely to meet anyone really serious about search engine optimization who is not already a Wordtracker subscriber. They're the de facto standard in keyword research. If you're still confused as to what these guys are all about, I created a seven-day series on getting the most out of your first week with Wordtracker that should serve to clear things up. Wordtracker is giving away the full tutorial series for anyone who signs up for Wordtracker's f*ree 7-day trial. If you plan on ever setting up an Adwords campaign or do any SEO at all, I strongly encourage you to check 'em out. A quick disclosure, in case anyone was wondering: I receive NO affiliate revenue whatsoever from these trial sign-ups or any subscriptions that may come about as a result. I'm hyping them because they run an awesome service, one that I used before they were ever a client. And also because I'm proud of the work we've done together, and I hope you'll watch a video or two and perhaps play with the service a bit on your own. But if you happen to be one of those jaded souls who's averse to no-cost, no-obligation signups as a matter of principle, here's a totally 'stringsless' link to the first video in the series. Enjoy! Can you hear the drums, Fernando? This month's Screencaster was partially brought to you by a generous bit of elbow grease from Fernando Alvarez Torres, a top systems administrator, my brother-in-law, and an all-around good guy. It may surprise you to know this, but even screencasting nobility like myself aren't immune to technical issues. The 'royal motherboard' on my production machine took a royal dump yesterday, and I was left scrambling to figure out how the heck I was to get this issue out the door with only a rock and chisel as my main toolset. Fernando came to my rescue, making an afternoon's inconvenience out of what would otherwise have been several days of frustrating trial and error. Let's take a brief moment to appreciate the systems admins of the world. Along with plumbers, secretaries, ombudspeople, and others whose sole domain is simply to make stuff work, these folks clear away the chaos and leave tiny parts of the world a little better than how they found it. If you happen to see your systems admin in the hall, conference room, or kitchenette today, please take a quick opportunity to say thanks. Unless, of course, you are the sysadmin, in which case, please take a quick opportunity to bask in your own glory... Thanks, Nando. ----------------------------------------------------- All of the above is ©2008 by Daniel Park, except in the case of articles by guest authors, who retain all rights to their own musings. Feel free to send Daniel rants, raves, and other assorted bits o' feedback to info@dappertext.com. Got a friend or colleague who would enjoy The Screencaster? Feel free to forward it on... You're now enjoying The Screencaster because you subscribed to receive periodic content from dappertext LLC. Should you ever wish to unsubscribe, you may do so by clicking the link found at the bare bottom of this message.