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IIA Toolshed – Screencasting Tools

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IIA Toolshed #1

Screencasting Tools

 

Tooler’s Choice? Camtasia because of the range of functionality, ease of use, support and additional use for easy video editing.

General Information

And we’re off! We’re delighted to welcome you to the inaugural post from the IIA Toolshed!

What is IIA Toolshed? IIA Toolshed is a group of digital marketers & digital experts who know how difficult it is to keep up with the ever changing array of tools at our fingertips, to supposedly make doing business easier! To make things simpler, we’ve come together to test, evaluate and share the reviews of a broad selection of tools & technologies, to ultimately make the decision easier for you, when choosing what tools might best suit your business needs. At the IIA Toolshed, we come together every 6 weeks to evaluate a set of tools for a particular business objective, and we’ll publish our findings right here.

Who are we? The Toolers are:

TOPIC 1: Screencasting Tools First up to test were a range of screencasting tools! What is Screencasting, you ask?? Screencasting is a really neat process of recording what’s happening on your screen as you do it. You can include narration as part of the recording, to explain exactly what you’re doing on screen, all from your own computer or laptop. Screencasting software is often used for short “how-to” videos and online tutorials. It can be a really helpful way to show a customer how to do something technical, as if you’re by their side! Here’s what we found about the four tools we reviewed:

 

Product Namescreenflowcamtasia logoscreencast makerjing.jpg
WebsiteScreenflow 5CamtasiaScreencast MakerJing
What Is It?Screen capture for SpielbergsAn easy-to-use screen recorder that acts as powerful video editor by recording your voice and on screen actions. It also allow the easy import of additional media and advanced editing functions.A low cost easy to use screen capture tool for the Mac.Entry level screencasting & screen capture tool
What’s It Like To Use?
Easy to use. Simple to install. Free product. It's got a lot of functionality that make it too advanced for the average Joe.Intuitive and very flexible piece of software. Good tutorials. Trial download with only an email address required and full functionality for 30 days. Designed to have you up and running with projects very quickly. Lots of functionality and export options.Screencast Maker allows you to record your entire screen or just part of it. It also allows to narrate audio and even allows you to include video from your webcam. Output in.mov.Free, easy to download, you can record activity you carry out on your screen, to share with others, including recording narration for additional explanation. Output in swf format and png for images
Is There Anything I Should Know?
If you are an Apple app store maker and you want to make videos to sell your product, this is the tool for you.Camtasia has restrictions but its core abilities of creating professional screencasts is more than enough. Navigation and editing were easy with good ‘undo’ and keyboard shortcuts meaning you don't to start from scratch with mistakes. Transitions, inserting text, adding pointer arrows and animation are simple with drag and drop. Editing and cutting out sections was fast and less fiddly than other software.
Export as an MP4 was simple along with other sharing options for YouTube etc al.
As an MP4 it was simple to upload natively to other platforms and to insert on websites.
It took approximately 4 hours to go from first open to a reasonably polished looking screen cast.
There is a free trial available at screencastmaker.com where you can create screencasts of 2 minutes or less, but €4.99 will get you the full version. Screencast Maker is great for start ups and SMEs on a shoe string budget.Videos limited to 5 mins, output to swf makes videos hard to share on FB, YouTube etc. No editing capability.
Cost inc VAT€93.24€85.14 for a single license.€4.99FREE

 

General Criteria (Out of 4) – 1 is “Really Dislike”, 4 is ”Really Like”
Ease of Use 4 4 4  3
Price 3  3  5  4
Documentation 1  4  2  3
Mobile
Compatible?
 4 3 3  1
Tablet
Compatible?
 4  3  4  1
Specific Criteria (Out of 4) – 1 is “Really Dislike”, 4 is ”Really Like”
Captures Images? 1  4  4 4
Captures Video?  4  4  4  4
Edits Images? 1 3 0  3
Video Time Limit 4  4  5  1
Entire Desktop 4 4  4  4
Element of Desktop 1  4  4  4
Watermark 1  4 N/A  N/A 4
Conversion Formats 3  3  2  1
Total Score 35 47  40  37
Other Reference Points & Reviews


What’s next from the IIA Toolshed?
Well stay tuned, because every 6 weeks we’ll be reviewing another set of tools. Next up, we’re reviewing Social Media Publishing tools. Which ones?  Well you’ll have to come back to find out… all will be revealed in early May!

Summary: Overall, it’s fair to say that Camtasia is the standard that most people expect, and around the table it was commonly agreed that it had the best feature set. Thereafter Screencastmaker is a good option for those who are a bit more cash-strapped, but keen to get going. The other tools are more likely to be used for those getting started, or for internal communications.


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