Camtasia is a software program that allows instructors to record audio lectures, provide voiceovers for PowerPoint lectures, edit such lectures, and even change audio and video files from one type and/or size to another. One of the most common uses of Camtasia is as course content capture equipment. That is, you can use Camtasia to take content an instructor might generally present in a traditional course and render it into electronic form so that the content can be made available to students electronically, for example, on GAView/Vista.
The tutorial presented in the following pages will show how to provide a voiceover for a PowerPoint lecture. To complete the tutorial you will need a computer that has the Camtasia software (you can download the free trial by clicking on the Camtasia Studio option at http://www.techsmith.com/download/trials.asp) and a microphone installed. Click the System Requirements link in the table below to verify that your system is able to operate the program efficiently or, if already installed, click the Getting Started link to move to the first page of the tutorial. Each page of the tutorial is in sequential order from left to right in the index table, and one index table is located at the bottom of each page to make navigation easier.
| Introduction | Getting Started | Setting Audio | Recording | Editing | Producing an SWF (Flash) File |
Loading onto GAView/Vista |
Perhaps the easiest way to get started with Camtasia is to create a PowerPoint lecture with voiceover. If you generally lecture with PowerPoint, then this activity makes sense. You'll record your voice lecture with the PowerPoint presentation. If you dislike PowerPoint and would rather create a video of yourself teaching, Camtasia can do that as well. There is a small consideration: the video of you teaching will be huge. It may be so large that your students can't download it. If you would still rather create a video of yourself teaching than create a PowerPoint, you may want to consider the following compromise. Snap a few seconds of video and then place a picture of yourself on a PowerPoint slide, and record an audio lecture. Your students will get to see you, and the file size will not be negatively impacted.
To begin the voiceover, open up PowerPoint. If you have recently installed Camtasia, you will get a screen alerting you about the Camtasia add-in. You will also get a short PowerPoint presentation helping you to get started recording. It may benefit you to read through these slides. Afterward, go to the appropriate heading below, depending on if you have PowerPoint 2003 or PowerPoint 2007.
PowerPoint 2003:
Once you close the welcome information (if you got any from Camtasia) and are looking at your PowerPoint program, you will notice that Camtasia is available, and you will see it in the upper left hand corner. Its presence is verified by the "Record" button, as seen in Figure GS.1 below:

Figure GS.1: Representation of the presence of Camtasia
in Microsoft PowerPoint 2003.
You should also notice that you can choose the microphone or camera. For this exercise, just choose the microphone. You are now ready to set up the audio. Click on the Setting Audio link at the bottom of the page to proceed to that section of the tutorial.
PowerPoint 2007:
If you are in Windows 2007, you will see "Add-Ins" in the upper right hand corner. Figure GS.2 below shows where this menu appears in PowerPoint 2007.

Figure GS.2: Representation of the location of the "Add-Ins" menu in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, which contains
the Camtasia software.
Choose "Add-Ins" and you will see the Camtasia software tools that you have to work with in PowerPoint. This toolbar is shown below in Figure GS.3.

Figure GS.3: Depiction of the Camtasia
toolbox in Microsoft PowerPoint 2007.
Notice the "Record" button in the above picture. You should also notice that you can choose the microphone or camera. For this exercise, just choose the microphone. You are now ready to set up the audio. Click on the Setting Audio link at the bottom of the page to proceed to that section of the tutorial.
Notice that you must have a microphone attachment or a microphone built into your computer to create the voice-overs.
| Introduction | Getting Started | Setting Audio | Recording | Editing | Producing an SWF (Flash) File |
Loading onto GAView/Vista |
If you have connected your microphone and set it up, but it is not working with Camtasia, Camtasia may need to be "reminded" of the microphone you wish to use. If the microphone is working, you may bypass this section and move to the recording section of the tutorial by clicking the Recording link in the table at the bottom of this page.
You can use the following steps to "remind" Camtasia which microphone you wish to use.
1. Choose "Voice Narration" out of the "Add" menu from the "Task List" located on the left side of the screen in Camtasia as depicted in Figure SA.1.
Figure SA.1: A representation of the opening screen of Camtasia which points out the "Voice Narration" link.
2. You will be taken to the voice narration panel, where you will see the green microphone bar and the "Audio Setup Wizard" Figure SA.2 below shows what you should be seeing.

Figure SA.2: A representation of the "Voice Narration" menu.
3. Choose the "Audio Setup Wizard" button that is located next to the input level controls. A dialog box, which is represented in Figure SA.3, will open and direct you to "Select the audio device and input source." If you do not see your microphone selected, then click on the scroll down button beside the audio device that is selected. You may see several options, and one should be your microphone, click on your microphone. However, if you do not see your microphone, that means your computer does not recognize it. You may need to reinstall your microphone. Once your microphone has been selected, choose "Next."
Figure SA.3: A representation of the audio setup wizard.
4. The next screen allows you to "Tune Volume Input Levels." Whether your voice is loud or soft, Camtasia can adjust its volume to accommodate you. Simply choose "Auto-Adjust Volume" and follow the directions. Camtasia will then adjust the microphone levels to best record your voice. Figure SA.4 below shows the screen that you should see while Camtasia is auto-adjusting the volume for your voice. When the auto-adjust has been completed, click "Finish" to complete the audio setup process.
Figure SA.4: A representation of the Auto-Adjust feature.
5. If you are still having problems, your audio may need to be adjusted
in PowerPoint. Within PowerPoint 2007, select the Add-Ins tab, or
simply select the hand over the list icon in 2003. After selecting the
hand over the list icon in either version, you will see a menu entitled
"Camtasia Studio Add-In Options." Make sure under Video and Audio, that
the Record audio box is checked.
Figure
SA.5: Adjusting the audio within PowerPoint.
Now that your audio is set up, you are
ready to proceed to the recording section of the tutorial. Click on the
Recording link in the table below to proceed to that section.
| Introduction | Getting Started | Setting Audio | Recording | Editing | Producing an SWF (Flash) File |
Loading onto GAView/Vista |
Use the following steps to successfully record your PowerPoint voiceover with the Camtasia software.

Figure R.1: A picture of what your Camtasia alert window
should look like after you have pressed the record button.
You may want to jot down the commands Ctrl + Shift + F9 to Pause and Ctrl + Shift + F10 or ESC to Stop. When you are ready to begin recording, press the "Click to begin recording" button.

Figure R.2: A Camtasia pop-up that appears once you click past your last slide.
TIP: Even though
it asks what action you would like to take, Camtasia automatically
stops recording when you click past your last slide. Therefore, it
is advisable that you finish your lecture before clicking past your
last slide in your PowerPoint. You may wish to make the last
slide a "Questions? Email your Instructor at xxxxxxx@kennesaw.edu" to
remind yourself that the presentation is about to end.
Figure R.3: The prompt in Camtasia that asks where you would like to save your new voiceover PowerPoint.
Figure R.4: The prompt in Camtasia that allows you to choose whether you
would like to edit your PowerPoint voiceover or produce it in its current state.
Click on the Editing link below to continue to the editing section of the tutorial. If you would like to bypass editing and go directly into production, click on the Producing link below to skip to that section.
TIP: Even if you don't think you need to edit anything, it may still be helpful to choose "Edit Your Recording" first. Sometimes the microphone doesn't work, or there is a glitch. Before spending time producing the recording, you may want to make sure that everything has gone okay.
| Introduction | Getting Started | Setting Audio | Recording | Editing | Producing an SWF (Flash) File |
Loading onto GAView/Vista |
Editing
Your Recording:
Take the following steps to successfully edit your presentation.
If you explore your options in the "Project Settings" box, you can see that in addition to "Web," Camtasia offers presets for many different types of output. Choose the dimensions that work best for you and click "Okay."
TIP: Something else to look for is the "SmartFocus" feature that Camtasia will offer. With "SmartFocus," the Camtasia program will narrow its view to the area around your mouse on the screen. For my teaching style, this feature renders the PowerPoint voiceover worthless to my students, so I am always careful to reject this feature when it is offered. You may wish to test it out to see if it will suit your teaching style. The option to accept or reject "SmartFocus" appears in the "Project Settings" box under the blue heading "Resizing Options." Click the second button, "Change the video dimensions," to ignore the option. Once again, the "Project Settings" box can be seen in Figure E.1 below. It is important to take note of these instructions because Camtasia sometimes automatically enables the option if you do not click the second choice. If you wish to change this feature even after you have already selected a choice, you can located it as "Project Settings" under the file tab at the top left of the page.

Figure E.1: "Project Settings" dialog box used to set the dimensions
of the PowerPoint and the "SmartFocus" option.

Figure E.2: A screenshot that includes the timeline in the bottom left corner and the view screen for testing the
recording in the top right corner.

Figure E.3: Timeline edit that shows the piece of the
recording to be cut out between the green triangles.
Now that the editing is complete, you can move on to production of your presentation. Click on the Producing link below to proceed.
| Introduction | Getting Started | Setting Audio | Recording | Editing | Producing an SWF (Flash) File |
Loading onto GAView/Vista |
Perhaps the most difficult part of creating a voiceover PowerPoint is producing it, but if you follow the steps below, it can make the process much easier.

Figure P.1: The opening panel to the Camtasia Studio Production
Wizard.
5. Select "Finish" at the bottom of
the panel, and
Camtasia will inform you that it is "Rendering Project."
Figure P.7: The panel of the Camtasia Production Wizard that lets you put the finishing
touches on your presentation, such as file name and location.
Now that production has been completed, the presentation can be uploaded to GAView/Vista. For instructions on how to do this, click the Loading onto GAView/Vista link in the table below.
| Introduction | Getting Started | Setting Audio | Recording | Editing | Producing an SWF (Flash) File |
Loading onto GAView/Vista |
To load your production onto GAView/Vista, first create a logical place on GAView/Vista to put it. If you use Learning Modules, for example, you can put a link to your production in the Learning Module. Once your destination folder is located or created, you can complete the following steps to load your presentation onto GAView/Vista.

Figure GAV.1: Image of the location of test.
Figure LB.2: Image of
the inside of the test folder. The type of file you have created is
called a Flash or swf file. It runs by "pulling" content from a saved
location into a much smaller and faster loading html file.
As you can
see in the image above, your html file, titled test, is only 5kb. When
you link to that file, it will run by pulling content from the larger
mpeg-4 movie file. Because of the way
these types of files work, you
will need to put the entire test folder into GAView/Vista and link only
to the html file.

Figure GAV.3: A view of
the GAView menu, with emphasis on the Build tab and File Manager button.
TIP:
Sometimes
students do not realize that the presentation contains audio and video.
It may be helpful to post on the announcements page or in an email
introducing the new course content a message such as, "This file contains audio
and video, and you must access both. Neither the audio nor the video
are optional. If you choose to view this lecture in a campus lab,
remember to bring headphones." You may also wish to let students
know when the content will become unavailable (if it will), and if
there are any assessments associated with the content.
4. You are now in the File Manager. You should see the "Create
Folder" button, as in Figure GAV.4. Click on the Create Folder button.

GAV.4.
A view of the File Manager, including
the Create Folder button.


Perhaps the most difficult part of creating a voiceover PowerPoint is producing it, but if you follow the steps below, it can make the process much easier.

Figure WMV.1: The opening panel to the Camtasia Studio Production
Wizard.

Figure WMV.2: The panel of the production wizard where you pick the file format.

Figure WMV.3: The "Windows Media Encoding Options" panel in the production wizard.

Figure WMV.4: The "Video Size" panel of the Camtasia Production Wizard.

Figure WMV.5: The "Video Options" panel in the Camtasia Production Wizard.

Figure WMV.6: The "Marker Options" panel of the Camtasia Production Wizard that allows
you to create a Table of Contents to your presentation.

Figure WMV.7: The panel of the Camtasia Production Wizard that lets you put the finishing
touches on your presentation, such as file name and location.
Now that production has been
completed, the presentation can be uploaded to GAView/Vista. There is a
known conflict with GAView/Vista and Windows Media Player. iTunes will
also play wmvs, and it is freely available at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/,
but students may have to reset their default settings. To assist
them in doing so, post this link: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~tpowel25/FacultyEResources/Changing_default_settings_demo/Changing_default_settings_demo.htm.
The quick tutorial will walk them through the process of resetting
their default settings. It contains no sound.
To load your wmv file onto GAView/Vista, follow the
directions below.
Loading Your WMV onto GAView/Vista:
To load your production onto GAView/Vista, first create a logical place on GAView/Vista to put it. If, on your syllabus, you have created reading assignments, quizzes, and course content for each class period, you may want to create a learning module for each class period on GAView/Vista so students know where content is located. Once your destination folder is created, you can complete the following steps to load your presentation onto GAView/Vista.

Figure WMVGAV.1: Image of the location of Raisin1.

Figure WMVGAV.2: Image of the location of the Raisin1_media folder that contains your
wmv and ipod files.
If you have an older version of Windows, your image might be a
multicolored circle with a blue triangle inside it.

Figure WMVGAV.3: A view of
the location of the different media file types that were created.
Keep in mind that if you have Windows Vista or 2007, the wmv icon will
be a square
instead of a circle, and it will look a little different.
4. To load the Raisin1.wmv file, open up your GAView/Vista
portal, and under the Build tab, select the File Manager in the left
hand menu. See Figure WMVGAV.4.

Figure WMVGAV.4: Open up the File Manager
to load the wmv file.
5. Under File Manager, choose Get Files. A window will
pop up, and on the left, your last option will be "My Computer." Choose
it, and a browser window opens. Find your media file, and open it.
Then, select your wmv file, and choose "Open." You may not see
anything, but your wmv file will begin to load. See Figure WMVGAV.5
below for a graphic representation of this step.

Figure WMVGAV.5: Graphic representation of
steps to move wmv file into GAView/Vista.
6. Your file will now be in the File Manager. Click on
the Course Content tab, and choose where to put your wmv file. Then
choose, "Add File," and "Browse for Files." A window will appear, and
you can look for your wmv file. The folders appear first, in
alphabetical order, and then the files. When you find your file, select
it by clicking the box to the left of it, as shown in Figure WMAVGAV.6,
below.

Figure WMVGAV.6: Select your file in the File Manager and
click "OK."
7. You will see your file appear where you placed it.
Again, if your default player is Windows Media Player, you will get an
error message when you attempt to open the file.
TIP: Because these files are so large, students may not be able to open them the usual way. To stave off emails informing you that your files are empty (when they are not), include instructions for students regarding how to open the files. An example might be, "The lecture today is in wmv format. If you do not have the free iTunes player, you can download it at http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/. Make sure your default settings have been changed so that your default media player is not Windows Media Player. If you don't know how to do that, click here: http://ksuweb.kennesaw.edu/~tpowel25/FacultyEResources/Changing_default_settings_demo/Changing_default_settings_demo.htm. This file contains audio and video, and you must access both. Neither the audio nor the video are optional. If you choose to view this lecture in a campus lab, remember to bring headphones."
Conclusion:
Congratulations! You have
successfully completed this Camtasia Software Tutorial. Your students
now have access to quality lectures from the convenience of GAView/Vista.
This tutorial was originally
created by Dr. Tamara Powell and updated and inproved by Christopher
Monceaux, Matthew Myers, Cole Napper, and Justin Gamble.
If you have any questions or comments about the tutorial, contact Tamara Powell at tpowel25@kennesaw.edu.
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