A few years ago, the nice people at TechSmith gave me a licence for Camtasia Studio, and I use it to make my Excel video tutorials.
I’m currently using Camtasia Studio 7, and use a few of its great features, like cursor highlighting. That surrounds the pointer with a bright yellow circle, so it’s easier for viewers to follow what I’m doing.
Of course, there are many features that I haven’t explored, so when today’s Camtasia Studio newsletter arrived, I followed a couple of the links to their online tutorials.
To test my new skills, I updated a short pivot chart video that I posted recently, by adding a title clip, transition, zooms, and a couple of callouts.
Below, you can compare the original video with the updated version. What do you think? Do any of the added features help? Please let me know in the comments, or in the features poll at the end of this blog post.
The Original Excel Tutorial Video
Here is the original pivot chart video, hosted on YouTube:
The Revised Excel Tutorial Video
Here is the revised pivot chart video, hosted on Screencast.
Vote in the Video Features Poll
In the poll below, please pick the features that help make the video better.
[polldaddy poll=4876611]
_________
I liked the original better since I could see the whole screen at once. If you view the video in full screen there is no need to zoom.
Thanks Naomi. I like the full screen view too, but thought some people might prefer the closeups.
I preferred the original video.
Although the new version did have better close-ups, the constant zooming into various areas of the screen was a bit distracting.
From your point of view Debra, it would also depend on how much extra effort is required to record videos using these new features.
Thanks Khushnood, I appreciate your comment. It does take some extra effort to add the effects, so I’ll stick with the full screen view, unless a feature is very hard to see.
I preferred the Original video too, because whilst listening, I was also able to view the typical other ‘Excel Tabs’, and that gave me a clearer picture of where I was on the ribbon, in terms of where to find the Pivot tabs, that I would need to use on the Ribbon.
In the new presentation, I liked the ‘turning cube graphic’ at the start of the presentation, however I would have preferred a smaller ‘yellow ball pointer’ which didn’t over lap across other headings, so that I could focus better on which tab you were clicking on, etc.
I also prefer to be able to see the whole page at once (as I watched the presentation in full screen); as the constant zooming in and out (and watching partially cropped tables, overlaid screens, etc) gave me a bit of visual stress. I would have liked it if you dragged the new pivoted table – side by side (to the original data table); than overlaid them.
I hope that helps, as I think Excel is a great program and I definitely need to learn more features, to improve my knowledge too.