I attended my first tradeshow as a TechSmith employee a couple of weeks ago. Building Learning Communities is for K-12 educators who are looking to harness all the cool, useful technology out there for learning and collaboration. As with all the best conferences, there was a good mix of learn-from-an-expert and learn-from-each-other sessions.

I had a minor epiphany when I realized that our newsletters (like this one) take the same kind of approach. So you could think of this newsletter as a mini-conference in your inbox every month.

Keep you your tips and ideas coming...

Everyone finds it helpful to swap ideas and build on what others are doing. So if you're doing something with Camtasia Studio that you think others might want to know about, please send me a few details via email. You can also jump on our user-to-user forum any time to ask questions and share ideas directly with other Camtasia users.

Celtx: free software for screenwriting/scripting

While we're on the subject of user tips...here's one sent to me by reader (and fellow writer) Joe Large. Joe pointed me to Celtx, which is software you may find useful for planning, storyboarding, and scripting out your videos. Since I still prefer to do my early planning on paper, the most useful features of Celtx are being able to switch a script in and out of 2-column mode...and being able to attach assets such as still images. And of course I'm a fan of their Camtasia Studio-produced feature tour...

Please vote in my poll: What do you record first?

Ever wonder whether you're using an optimal process to produce videos? Let's compare notes...

When you produce a Camtasia Studio screencast do you record the narration first, screen first, or both at the same time? Are there certain styles of videos where you find it best to do it one way or the other? Do you see advantages to either approach?

If you're as curious as I am to know what others are doing, vote in the poll. There's an area for comments, too, so you can include details about when and why you choose to do it one way or the other.

Daniel Foster
Newsletter Editor

Many customers have told us, "I love using Camtasia Studio for my own projects. But I'd also like an enterprise-wide system so every person in the organization can capture and post meetings, presentations, and demos...without having to know a thing. "I want something easy enough for the CEO to use...and ubiquitous enough that we'll all use it all the time."

Explore Camtasia Relay

Well, they don't normally say ubiquitous. But that's the essence of the brand new Camtasia Relay. It's lecture capture and presentation recording on auto-pilot. And it runs on a server.

Camtasia Relay gives students, co-workers, and even customers access to the information they need, when they need it. Use it to...

• Record in-class lectures and discussions so students can access later for review.
• Make a video of your product training presentation and post on your website for customers to view.
• Get meetings recorded so employees who are out of the office don’t miss anything.

And with Camtasia Relay, it's easy!

Just install the recorder on your computer, Mac or PC. When you give your presentation, click to start recording, click to stop recording, and click to submit the file to the server.

Once at the server, your recording will be automatically produced, making it ready for the web and other media devices. Your audience will have the ability to access your content on an iPod, a website, or you can even use XML to make your information available via RSS feed.

You get the idea. Your knowledge...anytime, anywhere.

The people who develop Camtasia Studio need to hear from you!

It's super helpful for us to know which features and formats you use most in Camtasia Studio...what types of projects you use it for...and how satisfied you are with the overall experience. All of this gets stirred in with the other feedback we receive, and guides our efforts to make tomorrow's Camtasia Studio even better than today's.

So please complete the survey (it should take less than 15 minutes) and we'll know how to serve you better.

When you create a product that promises to manage and beautify the desktop of PC users...there's no better way to show off the benefits than with a video! Of course, the video has to be crystal clear—no fuzziness or chunky compression.

Spencer Scott, technology evangelist for Stardock, uses Camtasia Studio together with Screencast.com to produce and share videos that show off his company's desktop theming software.

Watch a sample Stardock video

"Screenshots of the desktop are one thing, but being able to produce quality video demos that actually show the products 'in action' have resulted in a tremendous amount of positive feedback from users," he says.

Get the details in our interview...

Can we put your photo on the TechSmith holiday card?

Betsy Weber, our chief evangelist, recently posted this appeal on her blog...

"Please send me a pic, starring you, with something that represents or is meaningful to you from your favorite holiday. Maybe it's a picture of you holding a homemade Valentine or you with that homemade pie for Pi Day! We're looking for holidays throughout the year that are celebrated around the world."

I want to make sure Camtasia Studio customers are well represented on the holiday card...so be sure to send in a photo! (Here's hoping we've got some fans of "International Talk Like a Pirate Day" out there...)

Visit Betsy's blog post for details on what format she needs and where to send your photo... Thanks!