The Record Button in the Camtasia Editor Window
The Record Button is where you can start your recording. You can find this button usually on the top left-hand side of the Camtasia Editor Window. Once the record is pressed, the Editor Window will drop away and reveal the Recording Window. You will still need to set up your preferences in the Recording Window before you can begin a recording.
The Recording Window
The Recording Window is where you set up what kind of recording you will be doing. There are four separate parameters that can be chosen by clicking on the Grey or Green Toggle Switches at the bottom of each section (green means that this parameter will be captured for the recording, grey means it will be inactive and not captured). Let’s go through each of the parameters from left to right as they appear:
1. Screen Recorder:
The Screen Recorder is where you can choose if you want to record your computer screen or not. You can press the arrow icon to the right of the Screen Recorder Toggle Switch to access the region selection dropdown menu. This menu will allow you to switch between which computer screen you wish to record off of and allow you to set up custom recording regions if you want to record only a select portion of your screen.
A Note on Custom Areas:
The editor’s default video size is 1920×1080 pixels (Standard HD format) so if you record in a custom recording region for only part of your video, you may have to scale up the size of the video to fit the rest of the project timeline.
2. Webcam Recorder:
The Webcam Recorder is where you can choose if you want to record a video feed from a webcam. You can press the arrow icon to the right of the Webcam Recorder Toggle Switch to access the webcam section dropdown menu. This menu will allow you to switch between webcams that you have hooked into your computer or select your computer’s built in webcam if it has one.
3. Microphone Recorder:
The Microphone Recorder is where you can choose if you want to record audio of you speaking over your recording. You can press the arrow icon to the right of the Microphone Recorder Toggle Switch to access the microphone section dropdown menu. This menu will allow you to switch between microphones that you have hooked into your computer or select your computer’s built-in microphone if it has one.
A Note on Checking Your Microphone Volume:
If you look at your Microphone Recorder closely you can see that it has an audiometer and a volume adjustment bar in the middle of the preview window. You can check your audio levels in this window by looking at your volume levels going up and down as you speak into your microphone and adjust your volume by using the adjustment bar. Keep in mind that good audio recording levels for maximum volume are between -6 and -3 decibels, so make sure the volume level never reads above -3 dB when you are testing audio.
4. System Audio Recorder:
The System Audio Recorder is where you can choose if you want to record the sound that is being played on your computer when you are recording. System audio is any piece of media or application/website sound effect that would normal play through your headphones or speakers during normal computer usage. For example, if you plan on playing something like a video during you recording, make sure to have System Audio checked for recording.
For Camtasia 2 on Mac, you will need to install a custom component from the recorder window. Click on the “?” icon next to the “Need System Audio?” prompt to install.
5. Start Recording Button:
Once you have set all of the parameters for your recording, press the Start Recording Button at the bottom right-hand side of the Recording Window to start the recording session. Once the button is pressed you will get a three-second count down before the recording begins. Don’t stress about this too much if you still need to set up things on your screen after the recording starts. You can always edit out parts of the recording after you complete the recording.
Ending a Recording
Once you have completed your recording, there are multiple different ways to stop and save in order to get back to your editor depending on which operating system you are using.
To End a Recording For Mac:
Right-click the Camtasia icon in the Application Dock at the bottom of the screen, and select “Stop Recording” from the drop-down menu. If you need to delete the recording and re-record, choose “Start Over” from the menu. The keyboard shortcut to stop a recording on Mac is “CMD+OPTION+2”.
To End a Recording For Windows:
Open the Camtasia Recorder Window by selecting its icon in the taskbar, then press the Stop Button. If you need to re-record, delete the recording and start over. The keyboard shortcut to stop a recording on Windows is “F10”.
