You are here: Home > High level topics > Creating software demos
Creating software demos |  |  |
Screen recording: Camtasia
Camtasia
is a screen recording software product. It can output as SWF. With Flash MX compression the video files become fairly small, a lot smaller than QuickTime movies for instance. You can add speech during recording, or add it during editing.
The makers also offer controller components for playback.
Pros:
- Quick to create
- Easy to add sound, which is ideal for instructions
- Not easy to update. When a text changes, or the screen, either the speech or the screen recording has to be redone
- Design customization is limited
RoboDemo
http://www.ehelp.com/products/robodemo/ (haven't looked into yet)Scripted animation: Lost Boys
At Lost Boys we created a Flash demo for the KLM Connect website (view demo: http://www.klmconnect.info). The demo makes use of the Actions Queue?, with an intermediate controller that loads all instructions from an XML file (view used XML). The XML can be updated by the client.
The HTML screen is divided in parts that are loaded separately, making it fairly easy to update the images (this is not possible using the Camtasia approach, because you will need to redo the recording).
Instructions are presented with text labels (the Post-it kind). The mouse is animated over the screen. Pauses are added to let the user interact with the screen - useful because some screens are quite long and request a closer look. The user can scroll the page up and down.
Pros:
- Instruction texts are easy to update
- Multiple language versions are possible
- When the site changes layout (items are added for instance) the screen parts of the demo can be updated
- Can be totally customized to the client's design style
- Takes longer to produce: screen part images have to prepared, each screen change (f.i. a dropdown selection) requires a new screenshot. To get optimal PNG compression a set of actions have to be performed for each image.
- Speech is not supported
- The XML is fairly large (40K, which is large for XML, and all included instructions have to be parsed) so the startup time is quite long (the menu is also built using this file)
- Optimization is possible by using multiple smaller XML files.
Macromedia Breeze
http://www.macromedia.com/software/breeze/ Although Macromedia does not mention it on the front page, Breeze is actually a plugin of PowerPoint. Author in PowerPoint and export to Flash format. Breeze actually uses PowerPoint as the authoring environment. You simply download a plug-in to PowerPoint. I have to say, we are using Breeze for some interactive educational presentations, and it's great. Simple to use, can integrate audio, animations, flash, video, and it publishes it all into a slick flash-based presentation. Plus, there are some plug and play interactive elements such as survey tools. From the FAQ:- Who should use Macromedia Breeze?
- Anyone who needs to communicate with or train large groups of people online. This typically includes managers of training, marketing, corporate messaging, partner relations, and human resources.
- What are the differences between Macromedia Breeze, Breeze Training, and Breeze Live?
- Macromedia Breeze is a rapid online presentation system that makes critical business presentations available on-demand to a worldwide audience. Breeze Training and Breeze Live are modules that add significant functionality to the Breeze platform. Breeze Training adds course management, enrollment, deployment, and tracking features, so you can track and measure individual responses to quizzes and surveys. Breeze Live lets you easily add live collaboration and interactions to your Breeze presentations and classes, enhancing user experience for both presenters and attendees. Breeze Live may be purchased to be used with the Breeze Presentation platform or as a standalone product.
-- ArthurClemens - 17 Sep 2003