Skip to main content
July 7, 2009
Answered

Panning during recording and editing

  • July 7, 2009
  • 3 replies
  • 685 views

Good Day,

I want my video to have sections similar to Camtasia's pan and zoom option. I have tried insert --> standard objects --> zoom area, but it seems a bit cumbersome. I want the whole screen to focus on a section of a screen following the mouse. I am recording a demonstration type video.

1) During recording, there is a drop down box for panning following the mouse, but the drop down arrow is faded out and cannot be selected. How can I select this option? I attempted to use hotkeys, but that did not work. Why might that be? It was not a key used for anything else in the program I was capturing.

2) During editing, is there a way to ask it to pan according to the mouse location?

3) Is zoom area my only option after recording? If I use it, everything is very pixellated. Is there any way to avoid the distortion of the image?

Thanks for your help!

    This topic has been closed for replies.
    Correct answer Captiv8r

    Hi there

    Sounds like you are using Full Motion capture. While Captivate has made improvements in this area it comes nowhere close to Camtasia. So if you really want full motion, Camtasia is your better bet.

    Captivate works best with the slide-by-slide capture. In this mode you can pan, but it's far from graceful.

    Personally, I blend Camtasia output with Captivate. Camtasia doesn't offer the ability to automatically create Text Captions as Captivate does. Building Simulations ins't nearly as easy in that tool either.

    As I said, I see room in anyone's toolbox for both. You may wish to also try Jing. Perhaps even blend Jing output with Captivate. Jing is similar to Camtasia but limited to total time of five minutes I believe.

    Hopefully this helps... Rick

    Helpful and Handy Links

    3 replies

    Inspiring
    July 9, 2009

    You can use Camstudio to do that. It's free.

    July 8, 2009

    Ah, I see.

    Thanks so much for all of your help!! You rock

    July 8, 2009

    Hi, would anyone assist me on this? I am trying to decide whether or not to purchase Captivate, and I have to decide by tomorrow if possible.

    Thanks.

    Captiv8r
    Captiv8rCorrect answer
    Legend
    July 8, 2009

    Hi there

    Sounds like you are using Full Motion capture. While Captivate has made improvements in this area it comes nowhere close to Camtasia. So if you really want full motion, Camtasia is your better bet.

    Captivate works best with the slide-by-slide capture. In this mode you can pan, but it's far from graceful.

    Personally, I blend Camtasia output with Captivate. Camtasia doesn't offer the ability to automatically create Text Captions as Captivate does. Building Simulations ins't nearly as easy in that tool either.

    As I said, I see room in anyone's toolbox for both. You may wish to also try Jing. Perhaps even blend Jing output with Captivate. Jing is similar to Camtasia but limited to total time of five minutes I believe.

    Hopefully this helps... Rick

    Helpful and Handy Links