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THE SCREENCASTER
The Official Newsletter of dapper|text

 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.

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 "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.


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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:

http://livestream.com/techsmith

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 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, 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.




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All of the above is copyright 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.

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