PowerPoint to Captivate

Captivate 6 can import all the original effects from the PowerPoint presentation.

When using Captivate on a PC, when you open the program make sure you right click on top of the application icon and select run as Administrator. This step allows the use of advanced features of Captivate otherwise not available.

This project was edited with Camtasia 8 using Windows 7; it was published directly from Captivate into Youtube.

This presentation has graphics, animations, voice over, close captions, and background music.

The file size for this presentation is 4Mb.

PowerPoint to Camtasia

There are two ways to add PowerPoint slides into Camtasia:

• Record the PowerPoint presentation using the screen recording option to create a video that is continuous. Using this method, if you want to change the length of individual slides you have to cut the entire video and edit the part that needs to be changed.

• Or, save the slides as pictures in PowerPoint and import them into Camtasia. Using this method brings separate clips to the media bin and you could resized them individually. 

In this presentation the slides are imported independently. By doing this, you will are able to modify, save, import and replace just the slide affected by changes.

This project was created using Camtasia 2 for Macintosh. 

It was published directly from Camtasia to Youtube.

This project has pictures, graphics, voice over, close caption, and background music. This file does not have any animation imported from PowerPoint.

The file size is 4Mb.

Captivate and Camtasia

Recording

Camtasia records continuously until the stop button is clicked. If you forget to stop recording, Camtasia will record for several hours creating a file that is several megabits in size.

Camtasia can record video and audio isolated, or audio and video at the same time. You can also activate the webcam and record yourself.

Record panel in Catmtasia

Countdown

Option to Stop Recording or Pause Recording

Option to Delete, Start Over, Resume or Complete the  recording

After the video is processed, it shows in the Media bin

Captivate records movements by saving snapshots based on the mouse movements and clicks. If you leave the computer idling and comeback a few hours later, Captivate will not record anything. This type of sequential slides saving is convenient when you edit because if you do not want any specific movement, all you have to do is delete the slide.

Recording button in Captivate

After you push record, Captivate asks where do you want the recording to be placed

In this window you get to decided the settings for the recording

in Macs, you may enable "Access for Assistive Devices" to enhance accessibility

When you stop recording, a bunch of slides show in the Filmstrip column

Editing

Captivate captures the mouse separately. Therefore, if you need to modify the position of the mouse, you can move it and the flow of the final video will not be affected.
Camtasia does not capture the mouse separately. If you edit a piece of the video, chances are that the mouse will end up jumping creating distraction for the viewer.

Captivate is an slide based editing. Each slide has its own timeline, and you can place elements on different layers within the slide. Each slide is independent and you can expand or shorten the slide as needed to accommodate written information, voice over, interactions, etc. 

Captivate Slide Layers

Camtasia uses a video based editing. The timeline contain every single element used on the presentation. The elements work as clips and can be cut as needed. If you need to elongate any part of the video, it is possible but time consuming (you may need to cut a few static frames and copy and duplicate them in sequence to cover the area). 

Camtasia Tracks