| OR |
« Web Marketing For Small Business – What’s Hot? | Using Free Slideshow Makers To Embed Easily In Any Website »
|
Using screen capture software is one of the ways to make educative videos. You may either use a screen recorder to capture the dynamic change of the computer screen with cursor movements, or use static screen images to create your video.
In this article we will discuss about some free screen recorders that you can use to create screen capture video. Before that let me draw your attention to a couple of points that I feel is important to understand.
- How to make screen capture video attractive
A video made with a screen recorder needs polishing by using special effects like zoom-n-pan, callouts, transitions, etc. in order to make it attractive and easily understandable. Simply using voice narration to describe the events on the video without special effects will be boring, and may not serve the purpose of your effort.
- Where to host the video
If your video is for online use, chance is you will either (a) accommodate it in your hosted web server to put it up in your website, or (b) upload to a video sharing site like YouTube from where you can use the embed code for embedding it in your website. In both cases your video needs to be (i) lightweight and (ii) available in formats that make it easy to use.
Free screen recorders do not usually satisfy these conditions. So, if you are planning to do things like e-learning course where capture screen video will play a major part, I’d suggest that you buy a good screen recording software like Camtasia Studio. The video below for example is made with Camtasia Studio.
With that as a backdrop, let us now look at the 6 free screen recorders. The video below describes them; you may watch it on YouTube.
Windows Media Encoder 9
Microsoft’s Windows Media Encoder 9 is available free. It is no longer available in the Microsoft download index because it is replaced by a new product called Microsoft Expression Encoder. So you need to get it from other sites like Soft32.Com.
Strangely though Microsoft still maintains the help file that teaches you screen capture using Windows Media Encoder. The output is usually in WMV format which is acceptable for upload to YouTube.
Capture Fox
CaptureFOX is a Firefox add-on. It is made by Advancity, and is available for free. To use the software you need to first install Firefox (if you don’t have already). The output is in AVI format. Get the details of help for download and install here. You may also like to see this YouTube video that describes how to use CaptureFOX.
CamStudio
CamStudio is yet another open-source screen recording software. Some people have issues with it (given in their website) but it’s free, so no harm in trying it out! CamStudio records in AVI, and then converts it into SWF flash movie. You can download CamStudio 2.0 from their website, or from SourceForge.
BB FlashBack Express
FlashBack Express is a product of Blueberry Software. This version is free, and there are 2 more paid versions of the screen recorder with more options. Like CamStudio, the BB Flash Express too produces the videos in AVI or Flash files. The various editions of the software are compared in the website, so you know which one may be the right choice for you.
Jing Project
Jing is a screen recording tool from TechSmith, the makers of Camtasia. The free version has the punches you need to create a hassle-free screen video. But with Jing Pro, the paid version, you have the advantages like MP4 output and uploading to YouTube. Jing needs dot net version 3 to work. Take a look at the comparison between the free and the Pro versions of Jing.
screenr
Screenr is from the stables of the makers of Articulate. It’s a cute tool, free, and very easy to use. There is no software to download. Simply click the Record button. A rectangular area with handles for adjustment appears to select the portion on your desktop that you want recorded. The recording begins upon clicking the red circle. When over, just click Done, and it’s done!
You can preview your screen recording video. If okay, you will be required to login to a popular social media account of yours, including Twitter and Facebook before publishing.
Conclusion
There are many other screen capture tools not covered here. It all depends on what your objective is. As noted in the beginning of the article, if you want to make an attractive screen capture video (necessary for e-learning courses), you may like to settle for high-end software like Camtasia Studio that has so many options to choose from apart from making top-class screen video.
In the end what matters is your judgment of how best to serve your need. Not all free tools can offer the best solution. It’s your call to weigh the pros and cons and decide the ideal course of action.
This article of April 23rd, 2011 is authored by Partha Bhattacharya, who runs this website. Partha also creates video-based e-learning course for clients, and when time permits, writes guest articles for selected sites.
