Screencasts

   Screencasts

This page containst notes and guidelines for creating a Screencast, Webcast or Webinar using Mac OSX.

Pick of the Bunch

 * iShowU — software for realtime capture and record video into a Quicktime movie. Commercial $20.
 * Simple and easy to use but won't deal with full screen size on my Mac. Good simple PDF manual and Mac Help. Only outputs movies. Excellent.


 * ScreenMimic — screen recorder to create screencasts saved as SWF, FLV, MOV files. Demo. Full version $64.95.
 * Pretty good user interface and can export to different formats so no need for other editor. Rather slow at exporting but as it's a finished product might be ok.


 * Paparazzi — utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of webpages. Freeware.
 * Very useful. Just paste in the URL and it grabs the whole page. Excellent.


 * ScreenSteps — capture any video on your computer screen to a QuickTime movie. Mac & PC. Commercial $39.99 or £20.99.
 * Allows step by step capture of screens with inserts and edits for export to PDF or HTML. Interesting approach. Very simple for screengrab guides. Really like this one. Shame it doesn't export to Movie. Good help docs Online Manual] plus Creating a Template guide.

Mac Test Drives

 * Copernicus — perfect for taking many screenshots. Freeware.
 * Fairly straightforward and can save to many formats. Captures very slow frame rate, probably due to my slow Mac. Would need to edit movies as have bit of junk around the edges. No manual or help. Could defo use and it's free!


 * ScreenoGraphy — capture your screen to various image, movie and Flash formats. Demo. Commercial Full $39.99, Lite $9.99.
 * Yuk. Just something about this one I don't like. Very stuttery in action and couldn't get it to output a file that worked. Defo no.


 * Snapper — capture a movie of your screen while you are working. Basic is free, advanced costs €14.95!
 * Very nice screen interface. Let's see how it does...


 * Snapz Pro X — record anything on your screen and save as a QuickTime movie or screenshot. Snapz Pro X 2.x costs $69. MacWorld 5 Mice.
 * Nice interface and looks easy to use. Only saves to QuickTime format. Let's see.


 * Mousepose — dims the screen around everything but the mouse for better screencasts. Shareware $14.95. MacWorld 4+1/2 Mice.
 * Excellent and very easy to use. Bit ropey on my old Mac so will have to await a hardware upgrade before I can use this one.


 * OmniDazzle — add on-screen effects. Commercial $14.95.
 * My lovely old Mac wouldn't even give this one a go.

Screen Grab

 * Capture — screen-capturing Widget for image capture. Freeware.
 * Nice widget, but bit poorly designed with too-small text. No video capture, so really doesn't do much more than the Finder's capture facility.

Other Stuff I Found

 * Backdrop — fill screen with a blank window of solid color or custom image. Great for formatting screenshots.
 * GrabberRaster — screen grabs with auto resize. Freeware.
 * AsSceneOnTV — screen grabs from DVDs. Freeware.

Other Screencast Software
Open source software:
 * Camstudio — open source PC screen capture. CamStudio is able to record all screen and audio activity on your computer and create industry-standard AVI video files and using its built-in SWF Producer can turn those AVIs into lean, mean, bandwidth-friendly Streaming Flash videos (SWFs).

Commercial screencast or screen capture software:
 * All Capture — pc only screen capture software.
 * Adobe Captivate — pc only screen capture software. $699!

See Also
 * VoteWatch — VoteWatch is a widget for OS X Dashboard (10.3 and later), showing recent votes in the United States Senate and House of Representatives. Enter your ZIP code to see how your senators and representative voted!

Tutorials

 * How to make a Screencast — guide for Mac OSX.
 * Show Me Do — screencast tutorials on a wide range of subjects.
 * Show Me Do Wiki — all the help you'll ever need.
 * Mac Screencast Capturing — good tutorial on process and software.
 * ScreenCasts Online — video tutorials for Mac, PC and iPod