MacScreencasting

The 12 Days of Christmas Guest Post at TechSmith’s Visual Lounge

Scott Skibell — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 01:07:30 +0000

It’s always fun to share a post on other peoples blogs. You get to connect with a whole new audience. And when Betsy Weber from TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia:Mac and SnagIt asks, well, how can you say no?

Betsy has asked leading screencasters to submit tips for fellow ‘casters. I had a topic and started drafting things out and said to myself, “this one is going to be too long.” So I started drafting another. I thought this would be just right. Well, after finishing, it ended up being a long one too. But, I think you’re going to get A LOT out of it.

I outline how you can use transparent images in your screencasts. I share 3 ways you could use them. Perhaps you know more ways. Either way, it’s a great way to make your screencasts stand out.

Head on over to The Visual Lounge to see the whole post!

Keynote Outlines

Scott Skibell — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 19:55:45 +0000

Building great presentations requires organization. An often overlooked tool when organizing your presentations is Keynote itself.

I found a lot of people create presentations by opening PowerPoint or Keynote, selecting a template, and then replacing text in the placeholders. While this works, I believe a more efficient way to create a presentation is by using the built-in Outline function. Here’s how you do it.

Create a new presentation

Here I’m creating a new presentation from the theme chooser. Pick your template and click Choose.

Click the View Button

Click the View button to show the different view options available to you.

Select Outline

Choose Outline from the View menu. The left-hand pane changes to reflect Outline mode.

Outline Pane

The Outline Pane allows you to type text into it.

Resize the Outline Pane if necessary

Drag the pane adjuster to make the Outline Pane larger or smaller. Making it larger avoids unnecessary text wrap.

Type Text

Follow these steps to enter text:
• Click on a slide icon.
• Type text in field
• Press Return/Enter to create a new slide
• Press Tab to indent and create a sub-bullet
• Press Shift-Tab to outdent and create higher bullet or new slide

Reorder Slides

Click on the slide image, How-to in this instance, and drag the slide up to change it’s order. You can also grab the slide and drag it to the right or left to increase the indent or outdent.

This is a great way to re-organize your thoughts.

Best Practices

My suggestion is to get as much "out of your head" as possible. Type each thought as it comes to you. Don’t worry about the order or organization–just get the thoughts down. After you feel you’ve exhausted some ideas, rearrange the slides and put them in a more logical sequence. See if your sides should be bullets to other slides.

Use the Outline View and NOT a Text Box to add your text. Using the Outline View allows you to change the format of your text on a Master Slide and have the new formatting applied throughout your presentation. If you use a text box, you have to manually update each individual slide with the new formatting. Or if you’d rather, you can apply a new template and have the new formatting automatically applied throughout your presentation. This technique alone can save you hours of work.

And finally, make sure your slides have a logical beginning and end. I refer to this as "bookends" to your presentation.

Good luck.

iMovie ’11 Audio Enhancements for iPhone Videos

Scott Skibell — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 03:38:22 +0000

The new iLife ’11 just came out yesterday and I wanted to see the changes in iMovie. As you know, I use iMovie quite a bit for my video editing. I find it faster than Final Cut Express and well, good enough. One of the major improvements Steve Jobs touted was the improved audio. Did he deliver?

This video takes a quick iPhone 4 video, with the raw audio, and shows you 5 key enhancements iMovie brings to the table. They include:

Turn on audio waveforms
Adjust the volume
Add audio effects
Reduce background noise
And, adjust the equalizer

[View iPhone version]

The new iMovie brings lots of improved audio control to your videos. If you’re shooting with the iPhone, I still recommend using a microphone with the kVConnection cable for the best possible audio. But if you need to make adjustments to your raw audio, the new iMovie ’11 definitely does the trick.

Camtasia Table of Contents

Scott Skibell — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 19:48:31 +0000

TechSmith has introduced a great new feature to Camtasia:Mac version 1.2. It’s a table of contents feature that makes it super easy to navigate to various points in your video. If you create longer screencasts, this tool is invaluable.

[View iPhone version]

This feature is great for longer tutorials or e-learning. You could also record Skype or Google Talk interviews and add markers for each question. This way your listeners can jump right to the question. And I really like the way the table of contents appears when you mouse over the video and disappears when you mouse off of it. Oh, and did I mention the search feature?

The only downside I see to the tool is that the output has to be Flash. In other words, it won’t work with iPhone or iPad video playback. Now I know for some, that’s not a big deal, but for those of us who create content primarily for a mobile audience, it really doesn’t help us that much. I’m playing with a few different options for that though. Look for a new post on that soon.

In the meantime, Camtasia:Mac has upped it’s game with this release.

Improve iPhone 4 audio with kVConnection cable

Scott Skibell — Wed, 06 Oct 2010 19:25:37 +0000

On my previous posts regarding an iPhone 4 microphone, I wasn’t able to test out the kVConnection audio cable because I didn’t have one. Well I ordered one and here are the results.

[View iPhone version]

This simple adapter plugs into the headphone jack of your iPhone 4. You can then add one of your microphones to the other end. For this test I used one of my favorites, the Audio Technica ATR-3350 [aff].

I’m very pleased with the results. It makes iPhone 4 video sound as good as it looks. I highly recommend it.

Using Multiple Cameras in Your Screencasts

Scott Skibell — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:03:02 +0000

Earlier this week I did a video over at SkillCasting.com about using video for your job search. It was about creating videos to share your knowledge and to position yourself as an expert while you’re looking for a job. It was part video and part screencast. What’s key is that I used 2 cameras to shoot it and only ScreenFlow to edit it.

When I saw Lynn Elliot’s post over at the ScreenFlow blog, I thought this might make a good tutorial. And if nothing else, perhaps it’ll plant some ideas as we take screencasting to the next level.

[View iPhone version]

I think incorporating two (or more) cameras into a single screencast keeps it interesting. What do you think? Let me know in the comments.

iPhone 4 Video Microphone Comparison Update

Scott Skibell — Wed, 11 Aug 2010 20:04:49 +0000

Well, in the video I shot the other day, I made 2 mistakes. I wanted to correct them and give you a better opportunity to really hear the difference between the microphones.

Nick from VeriCorder let me know that the “fart” feedback was RF interference. If you place your iPhone in Airplane mode, you won’t have that problem. He also let me know that I’m lucky because the current VeriCorder Mini Mic isn’t compatible with the iPhone 4. Apple changed their electronics on the new device and VeriCorder is having to design a new one. So if you have an iPhone 4 and want the Mini Mic, hold off until their new one gets released.

I also forgot to bring my stereo adapter for my Audio Technica microphones. Both of these mics are mono mics. I couldn’t turn the audio track into stereo in ScreenFlow which I used to edit the video. (Using ScreenFlow to edit video is a future topic so watch for that one.) Back in this video, I have the stereo adapter plugged in so you can better hear the difference between the mics. It’s not fair to compare the Kodak video with a mono audio track to the iPhone 4 in stereo.

Anyway, watch and listen to the new video and let me know your audio preferences.

[View iPhone version]

iPhone Video Microphone Comparison

Scott Skibell — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:37:24 +0000

In my previous post about iPhone 4 iMovie exports, a few people have asked about the audio from the iPhone videos. I originally said that I recommend keeping a pocket digital camcorder like the Kodak Zi8 because it has a mic-in jack.

But it made me think. What if I used an external mic on my iPhone. Would the audio significantly improve?

In this video, I compare 2 solutions I have at home. First is the Griffen SmartTalk Headphone Adapter. It’s really designed for conducting phone calls while using your headphones. The second is the VeriCorder Mini-mic which is a directional microphone.

They’re both pretty inexpensive at less than $20 each. So neither will break the bank. In the post, Peter suggested a kV Connection adapter that would allow you to plugin your existing 3.5mm microphones. I don’t have that so I can’t test it.

I also throw in the Kodak Zi8 with the Audio Technica lav mic (but it’s in mono) so you can sort of get a comparison.

As you watch the video, which audio do you prefer? Do you prefer the iPhone by itself, the SmartTalk lapel, or the VeriCorder? Have you discovered in better iPhone audio solutions? Would you use the Kodak Zi8 with mic-in jack over the iPhone? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to hear your opinions.

[View iPhone version]

Upload iPhone iMovies to Dropbox

Scott Skibell — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:22:07 +0000

While shooting our family July 4th video at the Kansas City T-Bones game, I got an error message when I tried to upload it wirelessly to YouTube. Yes, I kept my unlimited data plan so I wasn’t too concerned about the MB’s. But even with the compression and Medium 640 x 360p output, it crapped out on me.

Not to worry though. Where there’s a will, there’s got to be a geeky way.

I uploaded the video to Dropbox instead.

Dropbox is a cloud based storage area. I use it to transfer large business files to clients. I can create a directory, place files in it, and share the directory only with that client. It’s a great service and you get 2 GB’s free to try it out. What was great though was that I could upload a video from my Camera Roll to it. It compressed the file and uploaded it to my Public Dropbox file.

I tried using Box.net too but their app didn’t recognize movies on my iPhone.

Once uploaded to Dropbox, I could quickly share the link via email so I could let the grandparents know that night’s video was available. I also liked the added security knowing that this video wasn’t available on YouTube for the whole world to see. There’s a place for that (like this video!) but sometimes you don’t want everyone to see it. I could have just as easily created a shared directory on Dropbox and uploaded the video there where only they could access the directory. For ease, I just placed it in the Public folder.

Uploaded business, client, and training videos to your Dropbox account can be a great way to immediately share your iPhone videos. And you may find it a little more reliable too.

iPhone iMovie Export Settings and Quality

Scott Skibell — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:07:41 +0000

A lot of people have commented that iMovie on the iPhone won’t wirelessly export HD movies. And at first, I too was disappointed. However, it’s not that bad. Here’s why.

This video shows the differences between the HD, Large, and Medium export settings in iMovie. Yes, the HD version looks bad, but if you’re doing mobile video editing, you’re not going to be able to upload it anyway. The files are way too big. I exported the exact same video all 3 ways into iPhoto. Here are the sizes for the exact same 1:49 minute movie:

1280 x 720 HD 138 MB
960 x 540 Large 70 MB
640 x 360 Medium 47 MB

There is no way AT&T or any other carrier would let you upload those types of file sizes. But for web video, I don’t think this is a problem. That’s because most websites and blogs do best with 640 x 360 video anyway. The HD and Large videos are just too big for most web pages. Therefore, I think you’ll be surprised with the quality of the Medium 360p output setting.

The other thing I noticed was that YouTube degraded the quality further. It wasn’t much, but it was noticeable.

This video wasn’t shot with my iPhone obviously. But the video I’ve seen and knowing that I embed 640 x 360 into my blog page anyway, I think the Medium 640 x360 iPhone output is acceptable. Can you live with your 640 x 360 output for now?

[View iPhone version]