Summary: Update on previous post on how to insert Camtasia Studio 7 movies into Articulate Studio ’09 Pro.
Difficulty: Easy

Screen capture is one of those features that you might need and find that Articulate Studio cannot help you with. If you haven’t yet checked out Articulate Screenr, then you should, as it offers a simple and free way of creating up to 5 minutes video captures of what is happening on your screen which you can easily insert in mp4 format to your presentations.

If you need something a little more sophisticated than Screenr, then many of our users look to Camtasia Studio. In 2008, I looked at how you could insert Camtasia into Articulate Presenter but since then, both Articulate and Camtasia have released new versions, so this article brings things up to date.

One of the biggest changes to the video scene over the last few years has been the adoption of MP4 as the preferred Flash video format over FLV. The latest versions of Presenter ’09, Quizmaker ’09 and Engage ’09 all allow you to import mp4 video and Camtasia now exports to MP4. Since Camtasia essentially creates mostly non-interactive video, it is actually very simple to integrate the output with any of the Articulate products.

First, let’s see an example of a video created with Camtasia Studio inserted into Presenter ’09:

View Demo
Notice how call-outs from Camtasia are also included in the video which can be played and paused using the Articulate player.

How do you do it?

With the latest updates to both Articulate and Camtasia, the process is simpler than before although some of the basic recommendations about setting up the video size still apply. These instuctions apply to Articulate Studio ’09 Pro and Camtasia Studio 7.

Setting the size of your video.

If it can be helped:

AVOID ANY RESIZING

Resizing a video reduces the quality of the finished product, so it is BEST to do your screen capture AT THE SAME SIZE as you wish to show it in Articulate Presenter.

Decide how big your video will be in Articulate Presenter. If you are playing in the slide in “Standard” view, your video can be no wider than 720 pixels and no higher than 540 pixels. If you are viewing your video in “No sidebar” view, then you can push the width of your video to about 980 pixels and the height to 580 pixels.

Preparing your recording screen

Next, try to recreate what you are trying to capture in your chosen video window size. Open Camtasia, and choose “Record the screen” and then select an area to record. Prepare the subject that you want to record to make it appear in your box, either by reducing the size of the application window or by concentrating on just one part of the application.

Record your video

Record your video, and when you have finished click “Stop” and your video should appear in a preview window.

if you wish to add callouts and other effects to your video, choose “Save and Edit”, type a name for your video. You’ll be prompted to choose a size for you video. Click on the drop down menu and choose “Recording dimensions”. This will ensure that you encode your video without any resizing. After applying any edits, select “Produce and share” from the File menu.

If you don’t wish to edit the video in any way after recording, just click on the “Produce” button and save the file under a chosen name.

Produce your video

You’ll find yourself in a Production Wizard.

From the drop down menu, select “Custom production settings”.

 

Choose MP4/FLV/SWF – Flash outputs

 

In the Flash Controllers dialogue box, choose the “No Controls” Controller. This will ensure that you just produce a simple video to insert into Articulate.

 

Make sure that the file format is MP4 (better quality, smaller file size). You can vary some settings by clicking on the Flash Options button or just leave these as default.

Click Next and decide if you want a add copyright information or a watermark to your video. SCORM options will be managed by Articulate.

Click Next again and choose a name for your output file name. Have the files organized into sub-folders and show production results.

Click Finish to launch the conversion.

 

When production is complete, click on the “Open production folder” and note the MP4 video file. This is what you need to import into Articulate Presenter, Quizmaker or Engage. The demo at the top of the page shows you how to insert the video into Articulate Presenter.

 

Notes:

• The above instructions are for Camtasia Studio 7 and Articulate Studio ’09 Pro. If you are using a different version, then the program interface may look different from that shown in the screenshots above.
• It is possible to create a production preset in Camtasia so that you don’t have to edit settings each time you produce a video for Articulate.
• To avoid all resizing, you may want to publish your Articulate Presentation at a locked optimal size. In PowerPoint, go to the Articulate menu and select Player Templates. Go to the Other tab and in the Browser Window Settings, set the “Presentation size to Lock presentation at optimal size”.

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