Desktop video capturing including mouse clicks and making notes

[MackemX]

Are there any good ones people can recommend?

basically I want a recording of what I'm doing on the screen. I've seen some videos that show the mouse movements along with highlights when the mouse button is pressed. I'd also like to add annotations to the video afterwards using the same program but maybe I can do that with another video editing software afterwards

I've tried CamStudio but it doesn't allow notes or show when the mouse buttons are pressed

any suggestions welcomed 8)

[Baldrick]

WINK! but it creates flash video...

[MackemX]

yeah I've used Wink previously in some old guides 8) but I was hoping there was something else as Wink can be time consuming sometimes . I'm not sure if Wink shows when a button is clicked either which is what I'm really looking for

I've just noticed Camstudio allows annotations but you can only add them while recording using Pause and not afterwards . If I'm recording something moving (like a gif) then pause it, add the note and start recording again then it won't look that good

I've also come across DemoStudio which seems to be another version of CamStudio but still doesn't have the mouse click feature I'm looking for

I'm sure there's something out there somewhere

[ZAPPER]

http://www.turbodemo.com/eng/index.htm


Not an endorsement, just a quick search result



Good luck


EDIT and another
http://www.hyperionics.com/

[MackemX]

thanks ZAPPER

as you wrote that reply I've just downloaded the demo program of Demo Builder which looks interesting . At first look this looks the same

I played around with the Adobe Captivate demo last night after downloading it from Adobe but it's $100's for a start! and it still isn't what I'm wanting

[ZAPPER]

I am gonna try to get a guys phone number to see what program he used to make a cool as hell demo at our office.


He made a demo movie (I don't think it was interactive though, I never used it, only saw parts) for the accounting software that our company uses.

I think that he just started to record the screen movie as he opened the accounting software and he recorded his voice as he worked through the software as the narative (SP) The cool thing that I did like, was that he even made a mistake or two and then showed how to fix them, on purpose or on accident, I think that it helps the end user feel less stressed about using the software.

[MackemX]

I did like the way you could create interactive stuff with Adobe Captivate but the price puts me off straight away . It's like driving a Ferrari to the corner shop in a way as I wouldn't even use it to it's full ability anyway

it also didn't snapshot at the right times when recording so it missed certain parts. I suppose you could add the snapshots manually and then edit afterwards but I want something simple and fast

it simply records the screen (or part of it) and then lets me add notes throughout the video. I'm playing around with Demo Builder at the moment and it's decent enough but only takes snapshot and therefore stuff like animated gifs don't show properly

Demo Builder only outputs to SWF but I suppose I could convert it to a video file. I prefer video files as it allows easier time seeking etc but SWF is OK sometimes

I'll check out the 2 progs you linked to earlier now

[ZAPPER]

Gulp!

I guess I should have looked at the prices first! $100 bucks is about my throw away cash limit and $10 would be better

So.... this takes me to the hillbilly way of doing things.

Output the monitor to the old camcorder while doing the tutorial (ATI AIW (analog)>SonyTRV)
(Actually I haven't tried this yet, but don't see why it wouldn't work)
Send the cam captured vid back to the PC (Sony TRV > DV>WMM)
Edit in your favorite program and add voice over from the sound recorder(WMM or whatever freebie happens to be the one I click on)
Save and distribute in the most appropiate format (CDs there cheap! like me!)


Where there is a will, there is a way!

[thecoalman]

Not sure if it will do what you want but FRAPS is another desktop capture utility.

[MackemX]

thanks Coalman . I've heard of FRAPS from a while back when doing something else but I don't think it will do what I hoping to do

this is an similar video of something I'm wanting to do

example video link (RAR of 13mb extracts to 100mb)

notice how it highlights the mouse clicks, zooms in and out to certain parts and also speeds up in parts when doing many clicks

anyone got any idea of what software is doing this or which software can do it?