Tools for programming tutorials?

Question

I engage in lot of training sessions and I would like to create video tutorials of all my sessions so that I can distribute it. What are the best Windows-based tools to add my PowerPoint slides, notes, voice and video (tutorials of code I write) and compile them into one video?

Answer 1

Techsmith Camtasia. Supreme Screen/voice recorder with extensive deployment option (ie. as flash, avi, etc..)

Answer 2

We are using Camtasia (http://www.techsmith.com/camtasia.asp) but I've heard that Adobe's Captivate (http://www.adobe.com/products/captivate/) is way better. Both solutions are commercial.

If you are looking for a free alternative, Camstudio(http://camstudio.org/) is pretty good, although it lacks a lot of features.

Answer 3

CamTasia (TechSmith.com) integrates with PowerPoint, has an excellent editor and is very powerful. If you're spending more than a few hours on screencasts, get CamTasia. It can integrate a webcam too and export SCORM for e-learning.

CamStudio is gpl, fine for simple screencasts, lacks an editor and has problem with audio/video synchronisation after 10s of minutes of recording (CamTasia has no synch problems)

HyperCam is a no-frills shareware recorder, similar to CamStudio, no synch bugs, but no editor either. The author is responsive to bugs, I used it a few yrs back, it does fine for basic recordings.

VirtualDubMod is a gpl video editor, it is clunky but will give you some editing+merging power if you're using CamStudio

I'd suggest getting a reasonable mic (£40UK on a usb mic should do fine), avoid 3.5mm analogue jack mics as motherboard electrical noise will come through in your recording.

ShowMeDo.com (disclosure: I'm a co-founder) hosts 800 open-source tutorial screencasts made by >100 open source authors. If you want diverse examples of presenting presentation+programming material, you'll find many examples and a friendly community here.

I'm a professional screencaster with 4 yrs experience. I've been gathering various articles and interviews (disclosure: some interviews are with me) that should give you further background, they cover open-source tutorials, product demos, how-tos etc:

blog.procasts.co.uk/2009/01/screencaster-interviews-and-articles/