Confirmed users
32
edits
Evangelism Reps Training Program/How to prepare a screencast: Difference between revisions
Evangelism Reps Training Program/How to prepare a screencast (view source)
Revision as of 04:01, 14 September 2014
, 14 September 2014→Windows tools
No edit summary |
|||
| (8 intermediate revisions by 4 users not shown) | |||
| Line 16: | Line 16: | ||
* Speak clearly and at a moderate pace: There is nothing more frustrating than a screencast where the presenter mumbles or is too fast to follow. | * Speak clearly and at a moderate pace: There is nothing more frustrating than a screencast where the presenter mumbles or is too fast to follow. | ||
* You can record the screencast and then record your audio: in a lot of cases this will have better results. | * You can record the screencast and then record your audio: in a lot of cases this will have better results. | ||
* Don't wave the mouse around. It's natural to gesture with the mouse while you talk, but it's very distracting to watch. Only move the mouse when you need to do something with it. | |||
* Plan your screencast and show only what is needed. Screencasts should follow a few rules: | * Plan your screencast and show only what is needed. Screencasts should follow a few rules: | ||
** Be short: nobody wants to listen to hours of talk. If you can keep it under 3 minutes — win. You can also cut up longer topics into several screencasts | ** Be short: nobody wants to listen to hours of talk. If you can keep it under 3 minutes — win. You can also cut up longer topics into several screencasts | ||
| Line 25: | Line 26: | ||
There are a few tools to do screencasts. Many are free, but it makes sense to spend some money as you avoid hosting issues and watermarking or limited features. | There are a few tools to do screencasts. Many are free, but it makes sense to spend some money as you avoid hosting issues and watermarking or limited features. | ||
See Wikipedia's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software Comparison of screencasting software] to help you pick a tool. | |||
===Screenr=== | ===Screenr=== | ||
| Line 38: | Line 41: | ||
===Screenflow (recommended)=== | ===Screenflow (recommended)=== | ||
[http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/ Screenflow] is very much worth the $99 it costs. As you can see in the [http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/demos.htm demos on how to use it] it records the whole screen and you can then crop to what you need. You have several tracks to edit and shift and you can annotate your screencast and have effects to transition in between sections of it. Screenflow exports to YouTube or various local formats. I really got to like screenflow as it also allows you to edit other video and images into your screencasts easily. | [http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/ Screenflow] (Mac only) is very much worth the $99 it costs. As you can see in the [http://www.telestream.net/screen-flow/demos.htm demos on how to use it] it records the whole screen and you can then crop to what you need. You have several tracks to edit and shift and you can annotate your screencast and have effects to transition in between sections of it. Screenflow exports to YouTube or various local formats. I really got to like screenflow as it also allows you to edit other video and images into your screencasts easily. | ||
External Links: | External Links: | ||
| Line 46: | Line 49: | ||
If you are on Linux, [http://www.linuxhaxor.net/5-ways-to-screencast-your-linux-desktop/ here is a good article introducing various tools] you can use. | If you are on Linux, [http://www.linuxhaxor.net/5-ways-to-screencast-your-linux-desktop/ here is a good article introducing various tools] you can use. | ||
===Windows tools=== | |||
* [http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html Snagit], ~$50, for Windows and Mac. | |||
* See [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_screencasting_software here] for a comparison of screencast software on all platforms. | |||
==Typing== | ==Typing== | ||
| Line 55: | Line 62: | ||
# bind these scripts to keyboard shortcuts so you can quickly and accurately "type" with a single keypress | # bind these scripts to keyboard shortcuts so you can quickly and accurately "type" with a single keypress | ||
The exact tools to do this are platform-specific, but on Mac OS X you can send keystrokes to applications using [https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/AppleScriptX.html AppleScript] scripts. Here's a script that switches to the TextMate editor and sends it "the string you want to write": | The exact tools to do this are platform-specific, but on Mac OS X you can send keystrokes to applications using [https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/AppleScript/Conceptual/AppleScriptX/AppleScriptX.html AppleScript] scripts. Here's a script that switches to the TextMate editor and sends it "the string you want to write", followed by a carriage return: | ||
write_string("the string you want to write") | write_string("the string you want to write") | ||
carriage_return(1) | |||
on write_string(the_string) | on write_string(the_string) | ||
| Line 68: | Line 76: | ||
end tell | end tell | ||
end write_string | end write_string | ||
on carriage_return(how_many) | |||
tell application "System Events" | |||
tell application "TextMate" to activate | |||
repeat how_many times | |||
key code 36 | |||
delay 0.1 | |||
end repeat | |||
end tell | |||
end carriage_return | |||
To assign a keyboard shortcut to the script, so it runs when you press the shortcut, you can use a tool like [http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/ FastScripts]. | To assign a keyboard shortcut to the script, so it runs when you press the shortcut, you can use a tool like [http://www.red-sweater.com/fastscripts/ FastScripts]. | ||
You can also automate reading a file and printing it out to the editor. Sublime Text/Textmate is a bit too clever with auto-indenting and closing of curly braces, so I am using Brackets for that. The script is: | |||
set fileContents to read POSIX file "/your/script/location/script.js" as «class utf8» | |||
set the text item delimiters to (ASCII character 10) | |||
set mylines to text items in fileContents | |||
repeat with currentline in mylines | |||
write_string(currentline) | |||
end repeat | |||
on write_string(the_string) | |||
tell application "System Events" | |||
tell application "Brackets Sprint 15" to activate | |||
repeat with the_character in the_string | |||
keystroke the_character | |||
delay 0.05 | |||
end repeat | |||
key code 36 | |||
key code 123 using command down | |||
end tell | |||
end write_string | |||
You can see this in action here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XTkZug-6hPY | |||
==Publishing== | ==Publishing== | ||