FAQ – How do you link a YouTube video annotation to your own website?

Posted on by Mel

Despite the gawd-awful lighting quality that’s evident in the video below, it surprisingly remains one of the more popular videos on my YouTube channel.

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In a future post I’ll have more to say about why I think the video does relatively well viewership-wise, but suffice to say that the topic of YouTube annotations seems to be of keen interest to a lot of folks.  And, lately, one of the frequently asked questions has been how I’m able to make annotations inside my YouTube videos link out to my personal website?

The quick answer is the YouTube Partner program.

The YouTube Partner Program Isn’t Just For Demigods Anymore

It used to be the case that in order to be a YouTube partner, you first had to have a crap-load of videos and video-views.  It was the stuff of celebrities, businesses, publishing houses and demigods.  But no longer.

To be sure, there are a few hoops to jump through.  But, they’re pretty light hoops that don’t really require a lot of technical skills and, once hurdled, allows you a host of useful YouTube partner features, including:

  • Custom thumbnails
  • Live streaming Google+ hangouts
  • Monetization
  • and, yes, linking YouTube video annotations to your own website

associated-websiteOnce in the YouTube Partner program, one of the options you’ll see in the Add Annotations window is a picklist item for Associated Website.  While the video above doesn’t show the Associated Website option (since the video pre-dates this feature in YouTube), the snapshot on the right shows the option to choose as a modification to the steps I show at about the 3:50 point in the video above.

The snapshot on the right also shows some of the other redirect options you have available, as well, when you associate a URL to one of your YouTube video annotations.

Should You Activate Your YouTube Channel For the YouTube Partner Program?

Umm… yes!

If you haven’t activated your YouTube channel yet for the YouTube Partner program, then I highly recommend you do it as soon as possible.  YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world and it’ll do you well to leverage that engine for genuinely compelling video “hooks” that can redirect some of that search activity to your personal website.

Posted in How to, Popular Articles, Tips and Tricks, YouTube and Beyond | Tagged | Leave a comment

[Screenflow video] How to fix video recording errors when editing your screencast video

Posted on by Mel

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You may be surprised how often I have to apply the technique above in my screencasting and eLearning projects.  It’s the rare thing when I can record an extemporaneous screencast tutorial perfectly with no blemishes or touches that need to be applied in the editing stage.

In fact (again!), there’s a 3-second snippet beginning at 3:57 in the video above where I had to use exactly the technique I show in the video to cover up a blemish.

See if you can spot this in the video

how to fix text errors in screencast video BEFORE

Before

how to fix text errors in screencast video AFTER

After

Screenflow, Camtasia Studio, Camtasia for Macintosh: It’s all good

Although I used Telestream’s Screenflow (Macintosh only) to demo this technique in the video above (hmmm… come to think of it: I seem to find myself using Screenflow more and more these days…), in fact the same technique can be applied using similar features in Camtasia Studio and Camtasia Macintosh.

Can you find the video artifact?

So, take a look.  Let me know if you can tell what the issue was that caused the artifact at 3:57 that I then had to cover up using the very technique we talk about in this video.

Posted in Camtasia, Digital-Know-How, How to, screencasts, Tips and Tricks | 2 Comments

How to Update Obsolete Graphics In Your Published Screencast Video Without Having to Recapture the Whole Project

Posted on by Mel

Ready for a “deep dive” screencasting course?
Visit my online course at Digital-Know-How.com

Can you replace a video segment from a published screencast video?

Maybe.

If you have the original Camtasia (or Screenflow) project file this wouldn’t be a problem.  You would simply open up either the Camtasia Studio .camproj, the Camtasia Macintosh .cmproj or the Screenflow .screenflow project file, replace the appropriate image or video segment, then re-publish a new video MP4 file.

The problem comes when your client tells you that they no longer have the original project files and only have the published (MP4) output file on YouTube, say.

download-mp4Well, in most cases, this is an opportunity to update the whole video and re-capture a fresh/new screencast.  But, if you’re in a crunch, then you can download the MP4 from YouTube and then import the MP4 into a new Camtasia Studio, Camtasia Mac or Screenflow project file.

Once imported, you can then use the “separate video and audio” feature (or its equivalent in any of the other two software packages) and simply overlay new graphics to replace the old.

“Separate Video and Audio” Technique Saved About 200 Hours Of Re-Work On One Project

The video above shows how I used the separate video and audio feature in our screencasting software (Camtasia Studio in this case) to replace an outdated video segment containing information about a company’s product pricing.

In this case we had about 24 of these demo videos where only the pricing graphic needed to be replaced.  As you can imagine, it would’ve been a huge project to otherwise have to re-capture, -edit and -publish all of them.  At a 10:1 development ratio, that would’ve otherwise have easily summed to over 200 hours of re-work.

But Wait. There’s a Quality Downside.

The obvious downside here is that you’re working with an already compressed video file (i.e., the published MP4) as your source video in the new project.

In this case, we published a couple of test files and saw that the degradation was acceptable relative to the rework effort.  But, you’ll definitely want to be aware of this downside and publish a test file before you go full bore with a similarly large project.

So, this is clearly just one practical application of the “separate video and audio” feature.  Were you aware this existed in Camtasia and Screenflow?  If so, how have you used that feature on your projects?

Posted in How to, screencasts, Tips and Tricks | Leave a comment

Camtasia Macintosh Doesn’t Have a Media Library – But Here’s a Workaround

Posted on by Mel

Camtasia Studio (Windows) has a robust library, but…

cs-libraryOne of the reasons Camtasia Studio (for Windows) costs three times more than Camtasia For Macintosh is because it has so many more features.  One of these is the media assets library.

In addition to having a huge set of preloaded callouts, audio, video, images, titles, lower-thirds, and so on for you to choose from straight out of the box, you can also add your own custom media assets.

If you produce web video and screencasts regularly, then you know the value a library has for streamlining your workflow.  A library helps you quickly grab those often used custom media assets like custom title slides, video bumpers, custom lower-thirds, custom callouts, branded music tracks and often used audio effects into any project.  The ability to just drop ‘em in to your projects without having to re-create them each time you need them is a HUGE time saver.

*Sigh…* If only Camtasia for Macintosh had a media assets library.

Well, it’s not as bad as all that.  There’s a workaround for creating your own media library in Camtasia for Macintosh.  It’s as easy as creating a special cmproj file that holds ONLY re-usable media assets, and then saving it with a name like, “assets library.”

The video above is an excerpt from a larger course in the Digital-Know-How.com course.  The excerpt above gives the low-down on the utility of a media library in Camtasia Mac, but also with a few additional helpful tips thrown in.  It’s a short video, take a look.

Got any more tips like that you want to share?  Let us know in the comments below.

Posted in Camtasia, Digital-Know-How | Leave a comment

The never ending quest for quality audio: What microphones do you recommend?

Posted on by Mel

What microphone(s) do you recommend?

microphonesWell…?  Yes! That’s a question for you.  What microphones do you use when you create your screencast, web video or e-Learning projects?  And, would you recommend it?

Quality audio is a never ending quest isn’t it?  The topic of recommended microphones comes up fairly regularly.  It came up again recently in this LinkedIn thread. (Note: Login might be required.)

For my part, I often switch-off between…

  • Blue Microphone’s Yeti (desktop USB condenser microphone)
  • Samson CO1U (also a desktop USB condenser mic)
  • Audio-Technica ATR3350 (a wired lapel mic which you see me using in a lot of my “picture-in-picture” + screencast videos)
  • A $35 Plantronics headset with boom mic (I can’t even find a link to it anymore because they’ve probably stopped making whatever model this is that I have)

And now I’m waiting for a Shure FP Wireless pack.  (FP5 is the receiver. FP1 is the transmitter.  And it comes with a WL 183 Lavalier microphone.)

Why all the different microphones? Continue reading →

Posted in audio | 6 Comments

How to record video of your iPad screen and synchronize it with other screencasts

Posted on by Mel

I just posted a new training video in the members area at the Digital-Know-How learning library; it answers the question about how I recorded the iPad screencast from the “sneak peek” video I posted the other day.

About the digital-know-how learning library

That training video, along with the Picture-in-Picture training video series (fyi: login required), lays out how I go about synchronizing media clips like the iPad screencast with other media elements like the video window you see above.  The same synchronization technique can be applied again to synchronize yet another screencast, or potentially yet more media elements, into the same presentation.

While the step-wise details are sorta locked down behind the member wall, I can tell you about the software I used to pull it all off.  While some of us may still be learning about it, the utility itself isn’t a secret.  It’s been out since about last summer.

Mirroring Utility To Display the iPad On Your Desktop Continue reading →

Posted in Digital-Know-How, New Tools, reviews | Leave a comment

Learn How To Screencast Like a Wizard: “Digital-Know-How” Is Live

Posted on by Mel

Here’s a Sneak Peek Inside the Digital-Know-How Online Learning Library

What’s This About?

Remember?  Early  this year I mentioned that I was working feverishly to put the polish on an online course I had been working on since last year.  This is that.  The video above is a sneak peek inside that course.  Digital-Know-How gives a structured sequence to the “how” part of making video screen recordings (a.k.a., screencast videos).

But, it’s also more than simply learning how to screencast.   My goal in creating the course wasn’t to simply make a series of tutorials about how to use screencasting software like Camtasia or Screenflow.  I mean, sure, we do that in the course, but I also wanted to go beyond the fundamentals and teach learners all the techniques I use for transforming classroom or meeting room type presentations for online delivery.

What’s the Target Audience? Who Will Benefit?

digital-know-how target audienceThink about it, after years of professional experiences in the corporate world, you’ve accumulated a personal knowledge repository of unique expertise and a ton of professional know-how.  You’ve likely transformed a lot of that for innovations that rightfully served the organizations and companies you’ve worked for.  But still.  There may have been that itch where you may have thought:  “One day… I’ll write a book or create a workshop about what I know…(and maybe monetize it somehow…?)”

If you know someone who sorta fits that description, then that’s the gal or guy.

Remember what I typically say at the beginning of my videos?

“Hey! Mel Aclaro here with the ScreencastingWizard, helping you digitize your knowledge, to get it online, and web ready.”

Well, it’s exactly like that.  It helps our friends with expertise they want to share with an online audience to get that know-how digitized and presented online.

Take It For a Spin With a Free Preview Pass

The video above gives a sneak peek at the structure of the Digital-Know-How learning library.  But, it also serves double-duty:  the video itself shows the look/feel/tone of each training video inside the Digital-Know-How learning library.

And, before you ask: the answer is yes.  As a matter of fact, there does happen to be a module with a series of topics that’ll show you how to apply the same type of “picture-in-picture” feature you’ve seen me use; you can learn to apply either a similar technique — or alternate formats — for your own training videos.

Help Me Spread the Word?

click for the digital-know-how learning library sneak peekIf you’ve enjoyed all the how-to videos and articles I’ve shared with you on this blog over the years, then I hope I’m not out of line to ask for your help.  I’d really appreciate your help in spreading the word.  Share this blog post in your social networks.  And, forward it to a friend whom you think would benefit from this course.

But, before you do, you might want to check out the free preview first.  In that way, you’ll have an idea of the quality of what it is I’m asking you to help me share with our friends.

Just click here (or the moustached-guy on the right) and sign up for the Digital-Know-How Limited Free Preview.

Thanks in advance.

Posted in Announcements, Digital-Know-How | Leave a comment