Understanding Camtasia Recorder

- [Instructor] Camtasia is essentially two applications in one. It's both a media recorder and an editor. Throughout this chapter, we'll take a deep dive into the recorder, so that you can learn to fully capture your story. There are three primary ways to access the recorder any time Camtasia is running. If you're starting from the editor, then you can press the red record button here in the main toolbar. Camtasia also installs a menu bar widget located here in the upper right that you can use to select start recording, to once again summon the recorder.

Finally, you can use what I like to call the ultimate recorder keyboard shortcut of command shift two. You may remember that when we made our test recording to calibrate our microphone, we pressed the red record button, we got our countdown to let us know when recording was going to begin, and then we pressed command shift two to stop the recording. If you notice in the save window, at the top it lets us know that we can press command shift two to resume recording. I press that, we're once again recording.

I can now once again press command shift two to pause the recording again. If I want to complete the recording, I can press complete and it'll save the file. For now, I'll go ahead and delete this one by pressing the delete button, and then confirm it and I'm once again brought right back to my Camtasia recorder. So with only one keyboard command, you can summon the recorder, pause a recording, resume a recording, and stop a recording. The Camtasia recorder window allows you to select what type of media or inputs that you want to record.

The left buttons allow you to record video while the central buttons allow you to record audio. An input will be recorded if it's button is green, allowing you to see at a glance what you're going to capture. Clicking an input toggles that input on and off. Starting from the left, you select what screen or portion of your screen that you'd like to record. This can be from your computer or any connected iOS device running iOS eight or newer. Next, you can choose to record a camera that's connected to your Mac, including your Mac's built-in FaceTime camera, or a third-party webcam.

I have an external third-party webcam in my booth, so when I select that, I get a preview of what's going to be recorded. If I don't want to record my webcam, I can simply click the camera button again to turn off that input. Next, you can select what sound input that you want to record. There's a small levels indicator here that should react to your voice, letting you know that your microphone is connected and working. To record other sounds generated by your computer, you'll need to install a system extension.

Click here to start that process. Click the install button, and then a standard system installer will appear. Click the continue button, and then click install. You'll need to authenticate with your administrator password. Then click install software. When installation is complete, close the window. Now you can choose to record system audio just like any other input, by toggling the button on and off. Since all of these inputs work independently of each other, you can record any combination of them that you want.

This is incredibly powerful, and you will likely find yourself using many different combinations of inputs depending on the needs of the story that you're trying to tell. When you're all set, take a deep breath, press the record button, and you'll get a countdown for when your recording is going to begin. After the countdown completes, count to three again in your head before you begin talking. This will ensure that when you begin speaking, your voice will be fully captured from the very first syllable.

When you're done, again count to three in your head, and then press command shift two to stop the recording, or go up to the menu bar and click the drop down, and then select stop recording. The welcome screen may automatically appear. If you don't want to see this, go head and uncheck the box, and then click the close button. Since we used the menu bar widget, our recording was automatically saved for us using a default name, and it was added to our editor. We can now preview the file by pressing the play button.

After the countdown completes. If you make additional recordings once your project is open, those new recordings will appear here in your menu bin, and you'll need to drag them down to the timeline.