Screen recording software CamStudio

One: Basic software operation

The CamStudio main window is very concise and the usual function buttons are here at a glance, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 CamStudio Main interface

Click the menu "region" to see four types of snapping:

Region: Manually select the area you want to record.

Fixed region: Select to enter the Settings dialog box, by entering the exact size to determine the selection area, generally set width (width), height (high), as shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 Fixed Region dialog box

Note: You can click the "Select" button to select the specified program window to get the dimensions.

window: When the mode is selected, a confirmation dialog box pops up when the recording is officially started, as shown in Figure 3.

Figure 3 CamStudio Confirmation dialog box

When you click OK, the first time the mouse clicks the window is the selected recording area.

Full screen: Fully screen mode, which is more suitable for recording software teaching.

The following can be formally started recording, as shown in Figure 1 The main window toolbar from left to right button: Record (F8), pause (F8), End (F9). For ease of operation, we recommend that you use shortcut keys to control the recording process.

When the recording is complete, the system will pop up the Save dialog box, and the software will automatically call the built-in player to view the video recording, as shown in Figure 4.

Second, the system parameter setting

CamStudio basic operation is simple, click on the menu "Options" to see the software built-in options, below we have some important settings are described:

1. Video options

This is directly related to the quality of the final output video, which can be seen in the Figure 5 dialog box after clicking into it.

Figure 5 camstudio Video option settings

Compressor (compression), all installed AVI encoders in the system can be found in the drop-down list. If you have a video encoder with a high compression ratio, for example: XviD MPEG-4 Codec, Microsoft MPEG-4 video Codec, then congratulations, the choice of these encodings will eventually generate a smaller AVI file and will not occupy hard disk space.

Quality (mass), set the video quality by dragging the slider left and right. The basic principle is: Recording software demonstration and other computer-operated video using the default 70% quality, recording video content, such as in the QQ video chat recording, you can choose 100% quality.

2. Cursor options (cursors option)

When making instructional videos, you need to enhance the display of the current cursor so that the learner can see the operation process, the following settings, as shown in Figure 6.

Figure 6 camstudio cursor option settings

When the Highlight cursor (highlight cursor) is checked, the location of the cursor is automatically highlighted with a yellow dot in the resulting video.

If you don't want the cursor to appear in the recording, select Hide cursor.

3. Audio (sound options)

There are two mutually exclusive menu options by default here. The system defaults to do not record audio (does not record), and if you need to record sound, select Record audio from microphone (record microphone audio).

4, Keyboard shortcuts (keyboard shortcuts)

Here you can redefine the shortcut keys for the built-in keyboard shortcuts.

Third, add the presentation comments

In order to facilitate the user to make instructional presentation video, CamStudio has built in some intimate settings, click on the menu "Tools" to see the two Options menu to add comments:

1. Screen Annotations (onscreen comment), click on the menu, the system will pop up a new window. You can insert various styles of annotations here, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7 CamStudio built-in annotation tool

Tips: In the middle of a video recording, you can press "F8" to pause the recording, then easily open the note, insert the desired graphics and text, and then press the F8 key again to continue recording the video.

2. Video Annotations (note)

is actually a call camera program, so in the video teaching not only include the teaching content, as well as the teacher himself video, how to be professional enough.

3.ADD Watermark (add watermark)

Click the menu "Effects" → "Annotations (note)" → "add Watermark" to add a watermark effect to the final video. The specific settings for the watermark can be set in effects (effects) → options, as shown in Figure 8.

Figure 8 CamStudio Effects Options settings

In the "Image Path" to fill in the need to load the image address, the system supports BMP, GIF, JPG, PNG format picture. Click the Options button in the dialog box to set the location of the watermark in the video.

Iv. Flash Video Settings

CamStudio The default recorded video is AVI format, we said before that it also support export video as SWF format, and also can automatically generate a companion HTML file, how to do it.

The option to save as SWF is not found in the Software menu, and the rightmost button on the main window toolbar is the call button, as shown in Figure 9.

Figure 9 CamStudio settings Save video format

Note: After the setting is successful, you can see the black-bottom white-key in the main window: Record to SWF.

In addition, the system also has a built-in AVI to SWF gadget, you can click the menu "Tools" → "SWF Producer" call, as shown in Figure 10.

Figure SWF Producer Tool

When the player loads AVI video, you can easily convert the video to SWF format by clicking the menu "File" → "Convert to swf".

　　Summary : There are a lot of screen video tools, but most of them are paid software, CamStudio function is not the most powerful, but the program open source, free features let it become our first choice, definitely worth a use.