Become a better screencaster

• Does it take you too long to plan, record and produce a screencast?
• Struggling with the features of Camtasia Studio, BBFlashBack and ScreenFlow?
• Not sure you’re using the best tools?
• Want to edit your Jing and ScreenToaster recordings?
• Could you be producing tutorial videos faster?
• Need better audio and narration?
• Want more confidence?

We have been producing screencasts for over 4 years and now we are writing The Screencasting Handbook. We’ve been through the trials of choosing (and discarding!) software and microphones, processes and techniques – we’re now boiling down our expertise into an easy to read handbook that will quickly help you improve your screencast and screencam skills.

The handbook covers tools like Camtasia Studio, BBFlashBack, HyperCam, CamStudio, ScreenFlow, RecordMyDesktop and Adobe Premiere for Windows, Mac and Linux environments.  It also recommends hardware and microphones to fit your needs.

Ian is the main author, he is the co-founder of the screencast-based learning site ShowMeDo and founder of the professional screencasting company ProCasts, this is the kind of feedback he gets for his screencasts:

This is an excellent tutorial screencast. Not only is the presentation very professional and well paced, you’re also a very, very good teacher. … VERY, VERY good job, I’d say one of the, if not the best tutorial video and series available on ShowMeDo today – Lucas Holland

An outstanding service! ProCasts did a staggering turnaround within 1 week. Now it’s live it’s made a startling difference to bringing customers on board. If you don’t have a ProCast on the front of your website, get one now! In my view this is the only fast and coherent way to convey your product or service proposition in 3 minutes – Darren Fell Managing Director Crunch.co.uk

Lessons we’ve learned

By creating over 1,000 hours of screencasts we’ve learned an awful lot about how to efficiently plan, practice, protoype, record and produce a screencast that quickly and clearly educates the viewer. If questions like the following bother you, we can help:

• Could I plan this screencast faster?
• Am I using the right tools?
• Is there a faster way to do this with Camtasia Studio and ScreenFlow?
• Have I identified the best, shortest message for my viewer?
• Which short-cuts will help me record and produce faster?
• What’s the best way to export my screencast?
• How do I host the screencast online?
• How do I upload HD screencasts to YouTube and Vimeo?
• Can I get more exposure for my screencast with popular video platforms?

In The Screencasting Handbook we will answer these questions and plenty more. We are writing and updating the book every month and we’re darned keen to get your feedback – if we aren’t answering your question then we want to know so we can add the right answers to the book!

Checklists

Inside ProCasts we use checklists to make sure we’re covering all the necessary steps (just like Pilots do!). We’ve created checklists for the Handbook so you can be confident that you’ve covered everything that is important.

We’ve produced over 170 screencasts since 2005

The team behind ProCasts (that’s Ian, Richard and Ellen, amongst others) have produced over 170 screencasts in the last 4 years covering Tutorials, Product Tours and Tech-Support.

ProCasts has also won awards from TechSmith (the largest supplier of screencasting tools) for our creative use of Camtasia. Here’s a comment made by Betsy Weber, TechSmith’s Chief Evangelist, about one of our screencasts:

I liked this screencast for several reasons. The audio is high quailty – as you know audio is king! I also thought the opening animation was interesting and added a nice touch – it made the screencast seem professional and polished. And, ProCasts made great use of zooms, transitions and callouts. And, I also liked the storytelling aspect of the script for the screencast – Betsy Weber of TechSmith.com

Download the Chapter Outlines

You can preview the chapter outlines and first three chapters in the Handbook Outline or view the PDF below if your browser supports it:

Monthly release history

• January 2010 Release 7 – Added “Export – which file formats do you need?” and extended “Screen resolution and your recording area”. Approximately 33,000 words and 94 pages.
• December Release 6 – Merged “A deeper look at the techniques behind screencasting” into “Making a screencast in 1-2 days”, added checklists to the three “Making a screencast in…” chapters, added two new examples to “What’s the value of screencasting?”. Handbook has approximately 25,000 words.
• November Release 5 – Wrote “Make a screencast in 2 hours” chapter, added “Distribution” chapter to talk about YouTube, Vimeo, Screencast.com and ShowMeDo.com. Handbook has approximately 13,000 words.
• October Release 4 – Added ‘Making a screencast in the next 30 minutes’ chapter and screencast, started an outline of the “Make a screencast in 2 hours” chapter
• September Release 3 – Second release, added examples recordings to Microphones section, expanded the Other Resources list, expanded “What’s the value of screencasting”
• August 2009 Release 2 – First release, chapter outlines and early chapter drafts

This book will grow and improve every month

Books (especially printed ones) tend to be static…but that’s crazy, a subject like screencasting is constantly evolving. Right now we have Camtasia Studio 6 on Windows and Camtasia for the Mac is new, ScreenFlow 2 is also new and HyperCam 3 came out in December.

We want to write a book that keeps evolving so you are always on top of the latest information. Because we want to share all of our knowledge with you quickly, we’re actually releasing this book a chapter at a time – we’ll be releasing the chapters as we write them!

You have a great opportunity to get involved, share your knowledge (you’ll get credit) and direct how we write the book. After all, we want to write the book that you need.

Get Questions Answered in the Screencasting Discussion

You are bound to have some questions that are more easily answered by talking to other screencasters.  We have setup a Google Group to discuss screencasting, it is available to anyone who joins our list down below.  Take a look at the Group to see what’s being discussed, you’ll get instructions for how to join after you’ve confirmed your membership to the notifications list down below.

Suggest useful additions and we’ll refund your fee

If you like the idea of making additions to the book, get in contact. We’re keen to add wider expertise that will help others – things that might be interesting would include a full account of your workflow or a review of a tool we haven’t covered.

If we want to use your addition we’ll happily give you your money back and add an acknowledgment for you in the book.

Get a copy or join the notification list now!

An early release of the Handbook is now available, 6 chapters are finished covering 77 pages. Updates are released every month, the next comes at the start of January.

“The Screencasting Handbook then is just such a guide, a comprehensive introduction to the world of screencasting with exploration of many of the fundamental concepts and practical advice on the production of screencasts with a variety of leading screencast development applications.” – see Paul McGovern’s review

The book is a work in progress, you can buy an early discounted copy by clicking here. You must be aware that the book is being updated every month (by purchasing you get all of the updates) and is currently unfinished.

There’s a full anytime money back guarantee if the book doesn’t cover what you need – since the book isn’t complete I don’t want anyone buying it and finding that it doesn’t answer their question, the guarantee is there to protect you.

If you’re not sure that you want to buy yet then join the mailing list below. You’ll be notified of everything that’s added to new releases every month and you’ll be informed if the discount is reducing too (the discount decreases as the book becomes more complete).

Join the mailing list now to get details of how to buy and to get notifications as each new chapter is added to the book: