Discovering Camtasia Studio’s SmartFocus

It's been a number of years since I used Camtasia Studio 3 to create a cool recording of a virtual classroom learning session.

I was concerned that perhaps I had forgotten how to use it or maybe there were so many features they added since 2001 that maybe, just maybe I'd not be able to use it and I'd look a fool for having said, "ooooh – Camtasia Studio ROCKS".

The reality is, it does still rock, only this time, it rocks WAY MORE!

The one cool feature I found that I just love, especially since one of the projects I'm working on is a project to demo a new area of a company "portal", I needed to find a way to zoom in to areas on the screen capture so that I could show a close-up of the screen options.

SmartFocus is a new tool in Camtasia Studio that does just that. While you mouse is resting in an area on the screen, SmartFocus adds code to the record to zoom in to an area, then when the mouse is moved, it zooms back out. The cool thing is that you can edit the SmartFocus points if you want some but not all of the preselected, Camtasia assigned focus points. Unfortunately I was not able to attain permission from my company to use the item I created for this session, but maybe if I can find some time in my busy schedule I'll post the example.

I highly recommend that you try it! You get a 30 day trial – no restrictions on use like some programs. (My new big beef these days are those companies that let you try their stuff but you can't save what you spent hours working on!!!! It makes me not want to purchase their products for the frustration. But I do understand it is a business preservation act so … enough said! J)