Microsoft PowerPoint and TechSmith Camtasia have long been friends. Did you know that, until recently, PowerPoint lacked the option to save a presentation as a video? This inability made screen recorders like Camtasia necessary if you wanted to capture your PowerPoint presentations as video. But, even now that recording capabilities are built into PowerPoint, Camtasia and PowerPoint remain a dynamic duo. Why is it that the two haven’t parted ways?
Posted by Lauren Buskirk on December 15, 2015
Microsoft PowerPoint and TechSmith Camtasia have long been friends. Did you know that, until recently, PowerPoint lacked the option to save a presentation as a video? This inability made screen recorders like Camtasia necessary if you wanted to capture your PowerPoint presentations as video. But, even now that recording capabilities are built into PowerPoint, Camtasia and PowerPoint remain a dynamic duo. Why is it that the two haven’t parted ways?
Geetesh Bajaj, our friend and internationally acclaimed PowerPoint and presenting expert, has put together information on why you may want to use Camtasia for recording PowerPoint Presentations. He’s also generously shared some thoughtful tips for creating screencast-friendly PowerPoint slides.
Geetesh has been awarded the Microsoft PowerPoint MVP (Most Valuable Professional) every year for 15 years now, making him the longest serving MVP in India. Based out of Hyderabad, he trains presenters in corporate houses, media, medical and financial sectors, IT companies, and more. He’s authored 6 books on PowerPoint and presenting skills, and his website, Indezine.com, attracts more than two million pageviews each month. Geetesh’s site has thousands of free PowerPoint templates and other goodies for visitors to download that you should definitely check out, so click that link above to keep the resource handy. Now, read on for Geetesh’s pointers, then apply what you’ve learned as you browse his site later!
Why Use Camtasia with PowerPoint?
Let’s explore first what you may be trying to do with your PowerPoint slides. You may want to…
1. Record your slides, along with your voice-over.
2. Record yourself on a camera attached to your computer at the same time.
3. Switch between one presentation to another while recording.
4. Click hyperlinks on your slide that may open another program, such as Excel with some sheet calculations – and you also want to record that.
Most of the scenarios explained above will not work well with the available video export within PowerPoint. You’ll certainly need Camtasia’s special capabilities in these situations.
Geetesh’s 14 Tips for Creating Great PowerPoint Slides for Recording
Here are some things to keep in mind while creating your PowerPoint presentation:
1. Use fonts that are not too thin. For example, Calibri Light may not work too well when you render your video. A little blockier font will work so much better. Try to use a sans-serif font. Arial at a larger point size tends to work well, but do an experiment and find out what works best for you. As a rule of the thumb, do not use any text smaller than 24 points.
2. Do you intend to play your finished video on a regular TV via DVD player or even on a connected USB drive? If you answered yes, that try not to add any important content too close to the edges of your slides since some TVs crop out the edges while playing videos.
3. Another sharing option for video is sites such as YouTube. Make sure that your text is visible and readable in a smaller window since most of the time YouTube users will not play the videos full screen. Also, if you are sharing finished videos via YouTube, you must make doubly sure that you are not using any pictures, backgrounds, videos, or music scores that may be considered as a copyright violation.
4. Stay away from very thin lines in your slides, especially if you show connected flowcharts or line charts in your slides. Set the width of these to be over 3 points or more.
5. Do not use too many glaring colors in your slides. Why? Because videos will certainly be compressed to deliver in an optimized file size. This compression is known to affect areas that are too brightly colored. Red is one of the colors that shows such pixelation more prominently than other colors.
6. If you are recording your voice-over along with the slides, make sure you have a proper script created before you record. This script is very important, and can make a difference between an end-result that’s awesome and something that’s just ordinary. Creating a script will also give you the confidence to speak better in a more authoritative and knowledgeable way. Also, do not assume that your viewer knows everything you know. You may have to provide longer explanations in your script quite often.
7. If you did create a script, print the script with a fairly larger sized font size. This larger sized font will help you to read the script even if you place it a little far from you. You can then ask someone else to move to the next page of the script as you proceed while recording.
8. Make sure you refer to any charts, pictures, or other visuals in your script. There’s no benefit in adding visuals and then not explaining them properly. Incorporate any mention of visuals in your script as well.
9. If you plan to click on hyperlinks within PowerPoint that open other programs such as Excel, then make sure that you open your Excel files prior to recording and activate the worksheet you want to access. Then save your file. The next time you open the same file, it will go straight to your last saved location within Excel.
10. Also, it can be helpful to close the Excel file but keep Excel open without any files. Just minimize Excel. When you click the link in your PowerPoint slide to open Excel, it will show up in an instant and launch the file you need. Of course, this snappy recording will be part of your Camtasia recording session as well.
11. Are you working on a very high resolution display? Consider switching to a lower resolution display. This will make your recording quicker. Also many times, your end output may require you to downsample the resolution. So why not record at the resolution you really need, and get better results?
12. Are you working with a multiple display environment? Zero onto the display you will use for the recording. Camtasia will autosize to fit your monitor.
13. Do a small test recording in Camtasia before the complete recording. A one minute test will help you preview and see results. Then you can tweak audio controls, or the area selected to record if they do not meet your requirements. This is so much faster than abandoning an almost complete recording and starting all over again.
14. Even then, don’t expect not to make mistakes. For that reason, you must first practice. Also, be prepared to re-record as required a few times. That will mean that you will have to schedule a longer time for the actual Camtasia recording.
0 comments