Camtasia

Pros

• Very easy to learn interface
• Above average screen capture functionality
• Easy to implement post-production effects

Cons

• Not the most fully featured video editing tool
• Limited selection of built-in special effects

Aspiring creatives looking to get a feel for the process of film production will find a lot to like in video editing software Camtasia, but more seasoned pros will likely want to move along to more serious platforms. That's not to say that it's not an impressive piece of software, as it comes with some utilities that will make it a reliably valuable backup tool even for video editors who have been in the business for years.

You can get up and going quickly with Camtasia even if you don't have an iota of experience working with video editi. The interface is cleanly designed and positions the menus and tools in a manner that touches on the sublime. All of the icons make use of large and descriptive icons and print to identify them, and effects make use of a convenient drag and drop interface that significantly simplifies a process most professionals will be using with regularity.

A lot of the features here are designed to make the experience of learning easier for amateurs, but a lot of them provide a substantive quality of life experience even to seasoned studio professionals. That's the case with the automatic audio leveling which can allow for denser sound layering without having to worry about any particular track getting drowned out. Professionals working with the day-to-day drudgery of corporate editing or looking to get their brand name out there will love the support for customized themes. With the ability to add your own logo and images, this feature offers a huge benefit for personal and corporate branding.

It's easy to learn the fundamentals of Camtasia, but there's a decent amount of depth once you start digging into the various menus. But Camtasia is focused on helping users customize an experience that's streamlined to their experience. Templates can be created and shared throughout your company with the export process, regularly used tools can be highlighted using the Favorites feature, and the new Track Matte mode provides expanded possibilities for video editing pros. There's even a magnetic track you can use to remove gaps in your video clips and better manipulate clips on that track.

Camtasia may lag behind software giants like Adobe Premiere Pro when it comes to deeper layer editing features, but this is easily some of the best screen capture software on the market today. That screen capture transforms Camtasia from a bog standard video editing app into some of the best software for making video tutorials. For simple videos intended to be played over video casting software or as a part of Powerpoint presentations, the focus

and accessibility of Camtasia is perfect.

The Camtasia platform can be broken down into two components parts: Camtasia Recorder and Camtasia Editor. Each has its own valuable role to play in the process of producing video. In fact, Camtasia started off as a simple screen screen capture tool, and you can see that reflected in the features and sensibilities that are centered around the Camtasia experience.

The recorder is built with simplicity in mind. Simple hotkeys can be used to start and stop the editing process, and they can then be saved as local files in a variety of different formats or imported directly to the editor. There's little in the way of advanced controls here, but there doesn't need to be. In addition to recording video, Camtasia can be configured for separate audio tracks.

What's especially cool about the Camtasia editor is that it breaks up all of the objects you import as "clips". These clips are combined with the standardized timeline approach prevalent in video editing, and the results are pretty satisfying. While this approach might not offer the same level of precision in video editing, it does allow you to essentially slot these clips into place and not worry about having to splice them together. After editing, you can convert it into whatever file type you need. Camtasia's compatibility covers practically every video format in use today.

As far as post-production is concerned, Camtasia offers some convenient quality of life features that can polish up your work without requiring a great deal of extra effort. A wide variety of different overlays are available, and you can also achieve relatively complicated techniques like panning and zooming with little difficulty. There's a decent amount of flexibility for plugging in music or sound effects as well, and you can even add automated captions with ease.

If you need video editing software for your professional needs, strong support is going to be a functional necessity. After all, if you're taking the time to learn how this set of tools works, that investment needs to be able to pay off in the long-term. Fortunately, it doesn't seem like Camtasia is falling behind anytime soon. It sees consistent upgrades, and the developers are laser-focused on the bugs and features that matter to the community. Recent updates have seen the addition of mouse smoothing for better reading the cursor while video editing and a dramatic expansion of the customizable shortcuts available to the user. Based on the developer's reputation, you can definitely expect the features here to remain relevant for quite some time.

Camtasia is a better screen sharing tool than it is a full blown video editor, but it also excels as a teaching tool for users with a budding interest in video production. At the very least, it can help you spruce up your board room or sales presentations and have your clients on the edge of their seats.

Pros

• Very easy to learn interface
• Above average screen capture functionality
• Easy to implement post-production effects

Cons

• Not the most fully featured video editing tool
• Limited selection of built-in special effects