This document discusses different options for creating screencasts, which are video presentations that capture a user's screen. It provides information on why screencasts are useful, noting they allow viewers to learn by watching step-by-step demonstrations. Several screencasting software programs are described for both Mac and Windows systems, including their features, prices, and suitability for beginners or advanced users. Both free and paid options exist.

1. How Do You Screencast?
Christian Caputo

2. What Is Screencasting
• Screencasting, or sharing your virtual desktop
via video presentation, has exploded in
popularity with the advent of podcasting, and
gives you the ability to bring the classroom
feel to a media presentation that can be
delivered over the Internet. The medium of
screencasting is readily available to everyone
and with a few tools of the trade you can be
ready to produce your own.

3. Why Should You Screencast?
• There are several advantages to screencasting
both from the user’s side as well as from the
creator’s. From the point of view of the
audience, the screencast allows them to learn
by example, seeing every step in great detail.
Learning by watching the host move through
the steps enables them to take note of where
everything is in the application or
presentation

4. Who Can Make a Screencast?
• Anyone with something to teach or present
can produce a screencast. Required are a
good idea, some screen recording software, a
microphone, a site for distribution, and a
willingness to share your ideas with the world.
In seven easy steps you can begin to produce
a screencast and deliver it to the world.

5. Seven Steps to Screencasting
• Content is king.
• Planning.
• Push the red button.
• Review the video.
• Editing.
• Produce.
• Distribute the videos ,Via, screencast.com, YouTube or
revver.com

6. Capturing Your Screen
• As is often the case with software, the options
are plentiful for capturing video of your
computer screen. The feature sets of these
software packages for the most part are
comparable, but advanced tools and pricing
set a few of them apart from the pack. There
are five ways of doing this.

7. Snapz Pro X (Mac)
• Snapz Pro X is a robust offering
of settings and compressions for
screen captures of all sizes. It is
fairly easy to use and captures
great quality of video and
sound. Video from this
application is exported in
Quicktime (.mov) format only
and Snapz Pro X does not allow
for video editing. This is a
feature‐rich application for a
reasonable price of about $70

8. iShowU (Mac ‐ Tiger or Leopard)
• iShowU offers polished
recording quality and plenty of
settings and export presets for
anything from YouTube
formatting to 1080p. Like
Snapz Pro X, iShowU lacks
ability to encode video to
different formats. Videos are
saved in Quicktime (.mov)
format only and editing is not a
feature supported by this
application. This is a
productive little application
and priced for the novice at
about $20.

9. Screenflow (Mac)
• Compared to other applications,
Screenflow has advanced algorithms
that only encode areas of change on
your screen. It can simultaneously
record from iSight or DV camera at
the same time as your screen (and
your microphone and computer’s
audio). You can also capture games
and DVD‐videos. With ScreenFlow
editor you can add zoom and pan
effects, trim clips, add drop shadow
and reflection, adjust audio levels
etc. You can also combine existing
media into your screencast.
Powerful and very user‐friendly,
price: $99.99.

10. Camtasia Studio 5 (Windows)
• If you are looking for an all‐in‐one
screen capture and video editing
software package, and you’re using
Windows, this is the one for you!
Camtasia Studio 5 lets you record
the screen, format and compress
for multiple outputs, edit and
enhance the audio and video, and
save in several different formats. A
host of other features including
themes, transitions, and captions
make this product stand out
among the pack, but at a price of
about $299.

11. CamStudio (Windows)
• CamStudio is a quick and
lightweight screen capture
application that allows for
recording of video and sound to
either an .avi or Flash based
swf file. It features the ability to
place banners/text boxes with
supporting text. This
application records only and
does not allow for editing, but
is a very functional screen
capture option and is free for
anyone to use, provided you
are using the Windows
operating system.

12. References
• http://www.smashingmagazine.com