I tried out Screen Toaster which I thought was pretty easy to use. Everything was very self explanatory, well marked, and walked the user through the steps. I really liked the formating of the site, everything was easy to find and controls were organized in a way that made sense. Again, I thought it was very easy to use- what i think i liked most about it was that you didn't need to download a program, you just hit record and began the screen cast. I didn't really notice any limitations, for my purposes it worked just fine. One critique I do have, which is minor and obscure, but I just didn't like how the cursor flickered the whole time you were recording, I thought it was kind of distracting and made it look like something was malfunctioning (but again, minor). As for a grade, I dont know if we're looking for numbers or letters, but I thought it was great, mostly because of it's ease of use which is very important to me personally, so I'd give it an A.
I played around with Screen toaster, mainly because I didn't want to download anything. I like how everything is available on one page and you don't have go searching for any of the options. I also like how they ask you whether or not you want a mic/video etc. I looked at some other uses for screentoaster and what other people had done, and i found it really interesting how a lot of them were used to show who to download programs or install software for people who don't speak English. I would definitely use this in a classroom because the site was managable and easy to figure out and could be used for a wide variety of subjects.
I also used Screen Toaster. It was great! You don't have to download anything, which is great news for my poor laptop. It was very easy to use. The instructions were simple and easy to follow. I really liked using Screen Toaster. I think what I like most about it, though, is that it is kind of set up like youtube. If you go to your profile on Screen Toaster, it will show all your videos you've uploaded and each video has its own URL. I really like that. It makes it easy to share. I also liked that it had a pause feature. No fancy bells and whistles, just the basics. Anyone can use it and share their creations.
The only limitation is that it is very simple. I did see an output option where you could save it as a special file that is more keen to editing software, which was a nice feature. But, there it didn't seem like it was the best site for editing post-recording.
I also used ScreenToaster. I found it very simple and easy to use. It was set up similar to Screencast-o-matic that we looked at in class. This also made it easier to work with. You can immediately start recording your screencast just by clicking the link at the top of the site. Then, you can watch it when you are done to see if you are content with it or not. To save it, you simply need a ScreenToaster account and can then save it as a movie file. However, the movie file was too big to upload onto my submissions page. Luckily, screentoaster has a quality in which it allows you to simply give the video a url on either screentoaster or youtube. This made it very simple and easy to work with. One drawback was that it was very simple and had no fancy features. I would give it an overall grade of an A-
Description: Capture Fox is a straight-forward addon for Mozilla Firefox. It opens from the menu bar or with ctrl+shift+U. This brings up a dialogue box with options like the FPS, video/audio output type, voice recording, quality and screen capture size.
Ease of use: It's very straight forward, all the basic options are right there and easy to manipulate.
Pros: Very light-weight - it's a small addon on Firefox. It starts when you close the dialogue box and ends when you pull it back up - simple.
Cons: For the hotkey-challenged, it may be difficult to remember to use ctrl+shift+U to turn the app on and off. A gui portion to the addon would be nice just so you can click it on and off.
I have a Mac so I tried out Copernicus and it was very easy to use. All you have to do to record is to push the movie button and it starts right away and to stop all you have to push is F8. Same with a screen shot, just push the button. You can also capture a region that you get to chose, same, all you push is the button to select the region. This ease gives it an A. However, THERE IS NO AUDIO!!! So if I was to give directions I would have to say it while the movie was going during class or I would have to assume they would be able to follow without sound. I do not think that i would enjoy that at all as a student or as a teacher for that matter.
I tried out CamStudio. CamStudio is a screencasting tool that is good for modeling for students and training employees. It is a great way to engage learners. It is available for Macs and Windows. I am impressed that it is used by many Fortune 500 companies and elementary students alike. Although it has a free trial offer, it costs nearly $300 to purchase!! That's a lot for a cheap guy like me. However, it is very simple and the videos are high quality. Unlike Copernicus (as Keely notes) there is audio.
Capture Fox is an easy add-on to your Firefox browser. As a screencasting tool, Capture Fox records a video of your screen, as well as the audio you choose too.
It is very easy and quick to download, and even easier to use. It is probably the easiest one to use among those that I have tried. It is pretty straightforward, you can self-teach yourself in less than a minute, and my first test was a success –as opposed to some other programs.
I really like the fact that this is not an external program that needs to be loaded in order to use. It’s a simple add-on. I also like that the add-on is accessible from the Tools bookmarks as well as the bottom right hand side of your Firefox page, as this allows for a quick access. You can choose the quality of your video too before starting the screencast, as well as choose whether you want the sound to be recorded or not. I was amazed by the quality of the movie when ‘moderate quality’ was selected. You can also choose how your file will be saved. Another good thing is that it is free!
A limitation to the product is that you can either capture the whole screen or the Firefox Window. In other words, you can not capture a selected part of your screen if you are not using the Internet. If you don’t want your whole browser recorded, you should also use another program. Also, your mouse pointer does not show on the film and that can be annoying since people watching your screencast don’t necessarily know where you’ve clicked.
Like Keeley, I have a Mac and tried Copernicus and ended up extremely frustrated.
Description: It is a program just for Macs that allow users to take screenshots, make videos, and creating virtual photo galleries. It claims to be perfect for taking many screenshots.
Ease of Use: Using the program was not very intuitive. It took me a while to figure out how to actually capture a screenshot or create the screen that the movie would be recorded in. There weren't any controls for the video function of the program.
Pros: It's free and easy to download. The website says you can download your movies directly to your RAM. However, I never was able to make it that far with the program so I cannot collaborate this.
Cons: No audio. Not very intuitive to use. It took me a while to figure out how to capture the screen. No controls to work recordings. It froze and shut down every time I tried to record a video.
I was just writing a below-average review of Capture Fox while simultaneously exploring its limited features when the add-on caused my Firefox browser to crash. Once half-way done with my review, I have to start all over again. Not happy. (I'm drafting this on Word just in case).
Brief Description: Capture Fox is a below-par screencasting Firefox add-on which might cause your browser to crash.*
Ease of Use: Capture Fox is so simple, even a caveman could use it (Geico, please don’t file a lawsuit against me). Once you have installed it as a Firefox add-on, you can easily access it by an icon at the bottom right hand corner of your Firefox Browser. In the Capture Fox menu, you will see a small selection of basic options and an even smaller selection of advanced options. After entire seconds of debating, you will have chosen the perfect combination of options.
Good Things: Voice recording. Selection between low, moderate, and high quality videos. Caveman friendly.
Limitations and Irritations: Capture Fox does more than just crash your browser, but I don’t want to bring up any false hopes. In terms what you can capture, you have two options: Firefox Window and the Whole Screen. Nothing else. Want to just capture one section of your screen? Too bad, caveman. Also, the add-on does not include any editing features which you will most desperately need. You will need them since you can only capture individual files – there is no stop and capture some more option. So if your video consists of 7 or 8 segments, you’re looking at 7 or 8 files. Although you can choose between Low, Moderate, and High quality settings, Capture Fox never captures at above 5 frames per second (to see fluid motion, you need to have 25 fps). So we’re not looking at a possibility of recording a video you have on your computer screen.
Overall Grade: D+
*After further exploration, I have found that Mozilla will crash if you try to capture a new video under the same name and location of a previously recorded one.
Screencasting Review of ScreenToaster. This is a free online application, that does not require any download. It all happens on the web site. It has a pretty straight forward set of steps to get the recording done. There are basic instructions provided with each step that direct the user to the next step. On the plus side, it seems that anyone, no matter what their age and experience could use this program from any computer, as long as the user was registered. The microphone worked well, and the program had easily adjusted volume levels. Everything felt like the entire process was going to run smoothly, then I actually tried to record. I was going to highlight the most common formatting errors that students regularly make in APA style papers. I had adjusted a paper to contain font, letter size, spacing, and automatic extra spacing errors that I could then adjust to the proper format in the video. The problem was that after I started recording, the Word program became very slow to respond to my actions. I explained that the font was wrong and needed to be changed to Times New Roman. When I clicked the button, it took forever for the computer to catch up and give me the choice of changing the font. I found myself finished talking and just waiting for the computer to catch up. There were large amounts of dead space in between the instructions. This caused me to have to redo the screencast multiple times hoping it would work better the next time. I ended up doing the screencast by just pointing out where the buttons were, but not clicking any of them. The result was a less than adequate demonstration of how to fix the formatting problems. If the movie file was transferred to a video editing program then the gaps could be removed, but it seems like an unnecessary step. It could have also been the computer that I was working on, but no other programs have slowed the computers functionality down as much as Screentoaster. The overall grade for this program would be a C-. This is mostly due to the slow movement of the computer to process actions while recording. If this was fixed, or worked better on a different computer that grade would go way up.
Brief description: Copernicus runs in the background of whatever you're doing. You can call it up by pressing f8. It'll make screen captures and screencasts.
Ease of use: I didn't find this as intuitive as many computer programs (especially those for macs). When you choose to make a screencast a screen pops up to ask you some specific information about the video. Being a neanderthal, I had no idea what any of that meant, so I clicked through to "Choose Region" which is essentially choosing the window you want to record. But I found this a little confusing too and the preview window as not very helpful. From there I couldn't figure out how to make it stop recording (yeesh). Once I did figure this stuff out it wasn't so bad, but I'm used to be able to figure things out by doing, not by reading a long set of directions.
Good things: It did record as you would expect. You can adjust the number of frames it records per second. It runs in the background so that anytime you want to screencast you can call it up easily?
Limitations: No audio recording, not the easiest to use. I also had trouble with it crashing while recording in the background. Boo.
I tried out ScreenToaster because I was immediately attracted to the simple Record button on the first page. You could get started right away: free, no download, and no sign-up. I also liked that because no download is required, just internet access, both Mac and Window operating systems could use it. Biggest selling point for me was its simplicity. The upload options were clear and simple: upload to ScreenToaster's website or YouTube or save it to your computer as a .mov file. Editing options were also simple: after the video is made, subtitles and narration can be added. I suppose, some people might equate simplicity with limitation, but not me. I like that, unlike Jing, ScreenToaster could record for longer than 5 minutes, in fact, the only limitation on size is 20 megabytes per upload. Also, I liked that while watching the playback of the video you can pause it and see the timing. I did not like, however, that you cannot move the time bar(?) and jump ahead.
I tried using Screentoaster, which I thought was pretty decent. I took a video and audio commentary on my computer screen. I like that it was easy to use and that I didn't have to register to use it. I am tired of registering for things and giving out my name and email address because I get a lot of spam and other stuff via email that I don't want. The more I register, the more junk I get. So I appreciate being able to use/test the tool without having to register for it. The only thing I didn't like about Screentoaster was that the audio was a little strange, but I'm not sure if that was Screentoaster's fault or just a problem with my microphone.
For my screen cast I used Screentoaster, which automatically got points in my book because I didn't have to download any more stuff! Having it as a website makes it easier to access in classrooms AND easier to use. It's also incredibly straightforward and easy to use which would save a lot of time in a classroom because you aren't wasting time showing students how to use it before you can actually get started on a project.
The only thing I didnt like about Screentoaster was how LARGE the file produced is! I'm not sure what other programs are like, but it seems abnormal to have a 90mb file for one 2 minute screencast.
Brief description: CamStudio is a fairly simple screencasting tool. Although it must be downloaded (from http://camstudio.org/), installation was quick and painless—it took less than thirty seconds to install both the program and its complementing codec. This application can be used to record “all screen and audio activity” and creates AVI video files, which can be turned into SWFs (this was one aspect I did not appreciate about Jing—the fact that it only produced SWFs).
Comments on its ease of use: I found CamStudio very easy to use. The user can incorporate the use of different region selections (limited selection, fixed, or fullscreen) and add screen annotations (a variety of colorful shapes, including regular boxes, banners, and arrows). After recording, a dialog prompted me to save my recording as an .avi file, and immediately popped up on the screen after opening.
Any good things about it: I really liked the pause feature and the ease of adding annotations. The auto pan feature is useful when recording a small region over a wide range of space.
Any limitations or irritations: I found a few limitations with its use. Recording begins straight after selecting the region to be filmed, whereas other screencasting tools allow the user to decide when to start recording. When previewing the video, I was not able to skip forward to any point—I had to watch the whole thing over to get to the selected spot. The annotation shapes are a bit of a pain to deal with—they stay put on your computer until you manually delete them. Audio recording is difficult because the screen shows no visible indication that the user is recording. Also, the auto pan feature, although useful, is a bit tricky to use, especially because it is all over the place with the mouse.
An overall grade: B+ (very easy for beginners to use, but lacks any higher-function features other than very basic annotations, auto panning, and region selection)
I tried out Screen Toaster which I thought was pretty easy to use. Everything was very self explanatory, well marked, and walked the user through the steps. I really liked the formating of the site, everything was easy to find and controls were organized in a way that made sense. Again, I thought it was very easy to use- what i think i liked most about it was that you didn't need to download a program, you just hit record and began the screen cast. I didn't really notice any limitations, for my purposes it worked just fine. One critique I do have, which is minor and obscure, but I just didn't like how the cursor flickered the whole time you were recording, I thought it was kind of distracting and made it look like something was malfunctioning (but again, minor). As for a grade, I dont know if we're looking for numbers or letters, but I thought it was great, mostly because of it's ease of use which is very important to me personally, so I'd give it an A.
ReplyDeleteI played around with Screen toaster, mainly because I didn't want to download anything. I like how everything is available on one page and you don't have go searching for any of the options. I also like how they ask you whether or not you want a mic/video etc. I looked at some other uses for screentoaster and what other people had done, and i found it really interesting how a lot of them were used to show who to download programs or install software for people who don't speak English. I would definitely use this in a classroom because the site was managable and easy to figure out and could be used for a wide variety of subjects.
ReplyDeleteI also used Screen Toaster. It was great! You don't have to download anything, which is great news for my poor laptop. It was very easy to use. The instructions were simple and easy to follow. I really liked using Screen Toaster. I think what I like most about it, though, is that it is kind of set up like youtube. If you go to your profile on Screen Toaster, it will show all your videos you've uploaded and each video has its own URL. I really like that. It makes it easy to share. I also liked that it had a pause feature. No fancy bells and whistles, just the basics. Anyone can use it and share their creations.
ReplyDeleteThe only limitation is that it is very simple. I did see an output option where you could save it as a special file that is more keen to editing software, which was a nice feature. But, there it didn't seem like it was the best site for editing post-recording.
I would give Screen Toaster an A.
I also used ScreenToaster. I found it very simple and easy to use. It was set up similar to Screencast-o-matic that we looked at in class. This also made it easier to work with. You can immediately start recording your screencast just by clicking the link at the top of the site. Then, you can watch it when you are done to see if you are content with it or not. To save it, you simply need a ScreenToaster account and can then save it as a movie file. However, the movie file was too big to upload onto my submissions page. Luckily, screentoaster has a quality in which it allows you to simply give the video a url on either screentoaster or youtube. This made it very simple and easy to work with. One drawback was that it was very simple and had no fancy features.
ReplyDeleteI would give it an overall grade of an A-
Capture Fox.
ReplyDeleteDescription: Capture Fox is a straight-forward addon for Mozilla Firefox. It opens from the menu bar or with ctrl+shift+U. This brings up a dialogue box with options like the FPS, video/audio output type, voice recording, quality and screen capture size.
Ease of use: It's very straight forward, all the basic options are right there and easy to manipulate.
Pros: Very light-weight - it's a small addon on Firefox. It starts when you close the dialogue box and ends when you pull it back up - simple.
Cons: For the hotkey-challenged, it may be difficult to remember to use ctrl+shift+U to turn the app on and off. A gui portion to the addon would be nice just so you can click it on and off.
Overall grade: A-
Oh, forgot to mention...
ReplyDeleteCons: you have to start and end in Firefox even if you want to screencast some other program.
Drops overall grade to a B+
I have a Mac so I tried out Copernicus and it was very easy to use. All you have to do to record is to push the movie button and it starts right away and to stop all you have to push is F8. Same with a screen shot, just push the button. You can also capture a region that you get to chose, same, all you push is the button to select the region. This ease gives it an A. However, THERE IS NO AUDIO!!! So if I was to give directions I would have to say it while the movie was going during class or I would have to assume they would be able to follow without sound. I do not think that i would enjoy that at all as a student or as a teacher for that matter.
ReplyDeleteOverall grade: C
I tried out CamStudio. CamStudio is a screencasting tool that is good for modeling for students and training employees. It is a great way to engage learners. It is available for Macs and Windows. I am impressed that it is used by many Fortune 500 companies and elementary students alike. Although it has a free trial offer, it costs nearly $300 to purchase!! That's a lot for a cheap guy like me. However, it is very simple and the videos are high quality. Unlike Copernicus (as Keely notes) there is audio.
ReplyDeleteOverall grade: B (cost brings it down.)
Capture Fox is an easy add-on to your Firefox browser. As a screencasting tool, Capture Fox records a video of your screen, as well as the audio you choose too.
ReplyDeleteIt is very easy and quick to download, and even easier to use. It is probably the easiest one to use among those that I have tried. It is pretty straightforward, you can self-teach yourself in less than a minute, and my first test was a success –as opposed to some other programs.
I really like the fact that this is not an external program that needs to be loaded in order to use. It’s a simple add-on. I also like that the add-on is accessible from the Tools bookmarks as well as the bottom right hand side of your Firefox page, as this allows for a quick access. You can choose the quality of your video too before starting the screencast, as well as choose whether you want the sound to be recorded or not. I was amazed by the quality of the movie when ‘moderate quality’ was selected. You can also choose how your file will be saved. Another good thing is that it is free!
A limitation to the product is that you can either capture the whole screen or the Firefox Window. In other words, you can not capture a selected part of your screen if you are not using the Internet. If you don’t want your whole browser recorded, you should also use another program. Also, your mouse pointer does not show on the film and that can be annoying since people watching your screencast don’t necessarily know where you’ve clicked.
I would give it an overall grade of 7/10.
Like Keeley, I have a Mac and tried Copernicus and ended up extremely frustrated.
ReplyDeleteDescription:
It is a program just for Macs that allow users to take screenshots, make videos, and creating virtual photo galleries. It claims to be perfect for taking many screenshots.
Ease of Use:
Using the program was not very intuitive. It took me a while to figure out how to actually capture a screenshot or create the screen that the movie would be recorded in. There weren't any controls for the video function of the program.
Pros:
It's free and easy to download.
The website says you can download your movies directly to your RAM. However, I never was able to make it that far with the program so I cannot collaborate this.
Cons:
No audio.
Not very intuitive to use. It took me a while to figure out how to capture the screen.
No controls to work recordings.
It froze and shut down every time I tried to record a video.
Overall Grade:
D
Capture Fox: A Review
ReplyDeleteI was just writing a below-average review of Capture Fox while simultaneously exploring its limited features when the add-on caused my Firefox browser to crash. Once half-way done with my review, I have to start all over again. Not happy. (I'm drafting this on Word just in case).
Brief Description:
Capture Fox is a below-par screencasting Firefox add-on which might cause your browser to crash.*
Ease of Use:
Capture Fox is so simple, even a caveman could use it (Geico, please don’t file a lawsuit against me). Once you have installed it as a Firefox add-on, you can easily access it by an icon at the bottom right hand corner of your Firefox Browser. In the Capture Fox menu, you will see a small selection of basic options and an even smaller selection of advanced options. After entire seconds of debating, you will have chosen the perfect combination of options.
Good Things:
Voice recording. Selection between low, moderate, and high quality videos. Caveman friendly.
Limitations and Irritations:
Capture Fox does more than just crash your browser, but I don’t want to bring up any false hopes. In terms what you can capture, you have two options: Firefox Window and the Whole Screen. Nothing else. Want to just capture one section of your screen? Too bad, caveman. Also, the add-on does not include any editing features which you will most desperately need. You will need them since you can only capture individual files – there is no stop and capture some more option. So if your video consists of 7 or 8 segments, you’re looking at 7 or 8 files.
Although you can choose between Low, Moderate, and High quality settings, Capture Fox never captures at above 5 frames per second (to see fluid motion, you need to have 25 fps). So we’re not looking at a possibility of recording a video you have on your computer screen.
Overall Grade:
D+
*After further exploration, I have found that Mozilla will crash if you try to capture a new video under the same name and location of a previously recorded one.
Screencasting Review of ScreenToaster.
ReplyDeleteThis is a free online application, that does not require any download. It all happens on the web site. It has a pretty straight forward set of steps to get the recording done. There are basic instructions provided with each step that direct the user to the next step. On the plus side, it seems that anyone, no matter what their age and experience could use this program from any computer, as long as the user was registered. The microphone worked well, and the program had easily adjusted volume levels.
Everything felt like the entire process was going to run smoothly, then I actually tried to record. I was going to highlight the most common formatting errors that students regularly make in APA style papers. I had adjusted a paper to contain font, letter size, spacing, and automatic extra spacing errors that I could then adjust to the proper format in the video. The problem was that after I started recording, the Word program became very slow to respond to my actions. I explained that the font was wrong and needed to be changed to Times New Roman. When I clicked the button, it took forever for the computer to catch up and give me the choice of changing the font. I found myself finished talking and just waiting for the computer to catch up. There were large amounts of dead space in between the instructions. This caused me to have to redo the screencast multiple times hoping it would work better the next time. I ended up doing the screencast by just pointing out where the buttons were, but not clicking any of them. The result was a less than adequate demonstration of how to fix the formatting problems. If the movie file was transferred to a video editing program then the gaps could be removed, but it seems like an unnecessary step. It could have also been the computer that I was working on, but no other programs have slowed the computers functionality down as much as Screentoaster.
The overall grade for this program would be a C-. This is mostly due to the slow movement of the computer to process actions while recording. If this was fixed, or worked better on a different computer that grade would go way up.
I tried out Copernicus.
ReplyDeleteBrief description:
Copernicus runs in the background of whatever you're doing. You can call it up by pressing f8. It'll make screen captures and screencasts.
Ease of use:
I didn't find this as intuitive as many computer programs (especially those for macs). When you choose to make a screencast a screen pops up to ask you some specific information about the video. Being a neanderthal, I had no idea what any of that meant, so I clicked through to "Choose Region" which is essentially choosing the window you want to record. But I found this a little confusing too and the preview window as not very helpful. From there I couldn't figure out how to make it stop recording (yeesh). Once I did figure this stuff out it wasn't so bad, but I'm used to be able to figure things out by doing, not by reading a long set of directions.
Good things:
It did record as you would expect. You can adjust the number of frames it records per second. It runs in the background so that anytime you want to screencast you can call it up easily?
Limitations:
No audio recording, not the easiest to use. I also had trouble with it crashing while recording in the background. Boo.
Overall grade: C-.
I tried out ScreenToaster because I was immediately attracted to the simple Record button on the first page. You could get started right away: free, no download, and no sign-up. I also liked that because no download is required, just internet access, both Mac and Window operating systems could use it.
ReplyDeleteBiggest selling point for me was its simplicity. The upload options were clear and simple: upload to ScreenToaster's website or YouTube or save it to your computer as a .mov file. Editing options were also simple: after the video is made, subtitles and narration can be added. I suppose, some people might equate simplicity with limitation, but not me.
I like that, unlike Jing, ScreenToaster could record for longer than 5 minutes, in fact, the only limitation on size is 20 megabytes per upload. Also, I liked that while watching the playback of the video you can pause it and see the timing. I did not like, however, that you cannot move the time bar(?) and jump ahead.
I tried using Screentoaster, which I thought was pretty decent. I took a video and audio commentary on my computer screen. I like that it was easy to use and that I didn't have to register to use it. I am tired of registering for things and giving out my name and email address because I get a lot of spam and other stuff via email that I don't want. The more I register, the more junk I get. So I appreciate being able to use/test the tool without having to register for it. The only thing I didn't like about Screentoaster was that the audio was a little strange, but I'm not sure if that was Screentoaster's fault or just a problem with my microphone.
ReplyDeleteOverall grade: B+
For my screen cast I used Screentoaster, which automatically got points in my book because I didn't have to download any more stuff! Having it as a website makes it easier to access in classrooms AND easier to use. It's also incredibly straightforward and easy to use which would save a lot of time in a classroom because you aren't wasting time showing students how to use it before you can actually get started on a project.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I didnt like about Screentoaster was how LARGE the file produced is! I'm not sure what other programs are like, but it seems abnormal to have a 90mb file for one 2 minute screencast.
B+/A-
Brief description: CamStudio is a fairly simple screencasting tool. Although it must be downloaded (from http://camstudio.org/), installation was quick and painless—it took less than thirty seconds to install both the program and its complementing codec. This application can be used to record “all screen and audio activity” and creates AVI video files, which can be turned into SWFs (this was one aspect I did not appreciate about Jing—the fact that it only produced SWFs).
ReplyDeleteComments on its ease of use: I found CamStudio very easy to use. The user can incorporate the use of different region selections (limited selection, fixed, or fullscreen) and add screen annotations (a variety of colorful shapes, including regular boxes, banners, and arrows). After recording, a dialog prompted me to save my recording as an .avi file, and immediately popped up on the screen after opening.
Any good things about it: I really liked the pause feature and the ease of adding annotations. The auto pan feature is useful when recording a small region over a wide range of space.
Any limitations or irritations: I found a few limitations with its use. Recording begins straight after selecting the region to be filmed, whereas other screencasting tools allow the user to decide when to start recording. When previewing the video, I was not able to skip forward to any point—I had to watch the whole thing over to get to the selected spot. The annotation shapes are a bit of a pain to deal with—they stay put on your computer until you manually delete them. Audio recording is difficult because the screen shows no visible indication that the user is recording. Also, the auto pan feature, although useful, is a bit tricky to use, especially because it is all over the place with the mouse.
An overall grade: B+ (very easy for beginners to use, but lacks any higher-function features other than very basic annotations, auto panning, and region selection)