I downloaded the Camtasia Studio trial version a few weeks back and figured I better do something with it before the 30 days expired. So I decided to give you an inside look at how I create my show and get it ready for podcasting. If you are so inclined, take a look at my first (and probably only) screencast.

The file is quite big. My eight minute movie weighs in at nearly 40 MB. I’m sure that there are ways to compress the file and I probably could have done some editing, but I’ll save exploration of those avenues for future efforts. Consider this a test (with apologies for those who subscribe to the podcast feed, who will receive this whether they want to or not).

Camtasia provides a number of options for what actually gets recorded: a fixed area of the screen, a specific window or the full screen. Because I was switching between applications, I recorded the full screen. This leaves you with a cluttered and unattractive web page sitting next to Audacity the entire time I was recording. Too bad, as there’s a beautiful picture I took of jellyfish at the Monterey Aquarium on my desktop. Oh well, next time.