A Step-by-step Guide to Screencasting a Software Demo

1. An Introduction to the Course: Hello there. My name is David James a lot, and I would like to welcome you to this skill share class, which provides you with a step by step guide to screen. Casting a software demo class is actually the eighth in the right to teacher Siri's here on Skill Share, which shows self published daughters how to repurpose content they have already written and turn it into courses to sell online. In this particular class, you will learn the things to consider when creating a software demo. My process for recording a software demo, how to write to script for the software demo and then recalled the audio and how to sink the screen cast with the audio and then edit the video. So go ahead and enroll in my class, and I look forward to seeing you on the inside. 2. The Things to Consider When Creating a Software Demo: in this video, we're going to take a look at some of the different things you should take into consideration when recording a software demo. The first thing that you should be aware off and avoid at all costs is copyright infringement. It should be perfectly fine to screen. Cast how you use a particular application. But be careful when you are screen casting websites and blocks that you are not infringing copyright by recording texts from an article. Even if your intentions are good in that you are trying to educate your audience. Likewise, you should be careful of possible trademark infringement again. It should be fine if you happen to screen, cast a company's logo or icon. As part of the software demonstration itself. However, do not presume that you can use the company's logo or icon for any promotional material toe . Advertise your class or course including the cover image. For example, if in doubt always get written permission from the company involved. Another tip, if you're doing a demonstration of a Web based application, is to be prepared, especially with regards to the Internet Speed. Try and load up Web pages before you begin recording so that they are in the cash and should load up far more quickly when you come to do your screen cast. Another important thing to remember is that you should always record a lesson as a teacher , first and foremost and not as an affiliate. Education should be your primary concern, and your primary revenue should be from selling your high quality content in the form of a class or a course. If you are then also able to make supplementary income as an affiliate, then that is fine. But you should be upfront about this, and at the end of the day, you should be educating, not selling. And last but not least, do not be tempted to chase a trend with your software demonstrations just because you see a particular application selling well or even online classes or courses that are teaching the application doing well. My advice is toe only. Give software demonstrations for those applications that you use regularly as part of your daily work on which you are totally proficient in. I use Kem Tasia content samurai, scrivener, Pixar, Mehta and keynotes each and every day, and I truly believe that I'm proficient enough in these applications to teach entire courses about each of them at some level or other, depending on the application. However, I also use audacity every day. And although I feel comfortable teaching a single lesson on audacity as part of this writer teacher course, I do not feel I have the necessary expertise to teach an entire course about this application and the same applies toe hand brake, which will actually be used as the example in this class for how I go about recording a software demo, but in which I shall only demonstrate how I used the application for a specific purpose that is to say, to reduce the file size of my video lessons. Although I feel perfectly comfortable teaching a short class about ham breakers part of my right to teach a Siri's. I certainly would not attempt to create a whole course about tan, break and go into detail about all of ham breaks, video codex and encoding options, etcetera, etcetera. Okay, so those are some of the things you should consider when demonstrating a particular software application, and in the next video, I shall discuss my five step process for actually recording a software demo 3. My process for Recording a Software Demo: in this video, I'm going to outline my process for recording a software demo, and you will soon discover it is quite a bit different to my process for recording an aerated presentation, which we covered in the previous class. Okay, so my process for a software demo begins with Step one, which is where I outlined the demonstration and basically give myself directions as to what , exactly, I intend to demonstrate and in what order? Once I have these directions set out, I move on to Step two, where I actually record the screen cast of the software demonstration. And although I usually given ex temporary presentation of what I am doing, this is more for my own benefit with regards to the timing of what happens when and for how long. And it's not the actual audio that will be used in the final video. Another thing to remember is that mistakes are often made when recording the screen cast off the cuff in this way, but it doesn't matter. Just soldier on, because little mistakes can almost always be edited out in step five of the process. Once I have finished green casting the software demo in Step three, I write the actual script for the software demo based on the screen cast that I've just recorded. Then, in Step four, I recalled the audio off the script, and timing is very much key here. But again, it does not have to be perfect, because there are some tricks and tips that I have learned. If the audio happens to run too short or too long, which I shall show you in the lesson for Step five, which is the final step of my process, where I sink the screen cast with the audio and then edits the video before exporting it as an MP four file. So that is my step by step process for recording a software demo. And in the following videos, I am going to give you a short example of how I complete each of these steps for a quick demonstration of how to use hand brake to reduce the file size of your video lessons before you upload them as part of your class or course 4. Outlining the Demonstration on My iPhone: Okay, so here I am on my iPhone, and this is step one of my process where I just quickly sketch out the areas I'm going to cover when demonstrating how to reduce the file size of a video using handbrake. And the reason I am writing this on my iPhone is just so that I have it on another viewable screen right next to me when I am screen casting the software demo. So first of all, I am going to introduce ham Break. Tell my students that it is free and quickly explain why I'm using the application. Next, I shall explain how to open the source file, which is obviously the far we're looking to reduce the file size off. Then I shall quickly take a look at the picture settings to ensure the dimensions of the video are correct. Then I shall mention the destination folder and how this needs to be a different folder to the source folder. Then I shall quickly explain about the output settings, namely that I keep everything at the default settings, ensuring the time exporting as an MP four file. Okay, so then it's just a question of clicking on the big green start button. And this is basically our short software demo complete. Okay, so now that I have an outline of the demo on my iPhone, I can go onto my computer and guided by this outline screen, cast a software demonstration of ham break, which is exactly what I shall do in the next video. 5. Screencasting an Extempore Presentation: hello and welcome to Step two of my process, the screen casting a software demo. And this is basically going to be an extemporize presentation stroke common tree on this process. I hope it doesn't get too confusing, but basically I'm going to shoot the video presently. And although the video itself will be used in the final version, the audio certainly won't be. The audio's only a guideline so that I can pace myself correctly, Um, and that audio with them be the basis for a script that I write for the video, which I will then record with my microphone and probably noticed the audio quality at the moment is very poor. I'm actually just using the earbuds for my iPhone the microphone on that. But it doesn't matter. The audio is not important too tall. It's just merely a guideline. What's important is the video, so I'm going to go ahead and recall that video now, Um so, as they say in Hollywood action, Hello here we are in hand. Brake hand brake is a tool that I use practically every day. It's a free tool, but it's very effective, and what I use it for is basically to reduce the file size off my videos lessons that I use within my classes and courses. I've recently recorded such a video, which has got a far size of 375 on behalf megabytes. So quite a hefty file. And basically, I'm going to use hand brake to reduce that far size considerably, but without any noticeable video quality loss. So we begin by clicking on source and finding the source video, which is this one here. Profile overview Don't MP four and like it would be voice 375 and 1/2 megabytes in size. So click on open and one of the reasons I love handbrake so much is because it's so simple to use. I basically just keep the defaults for everything, certainly in terms of the output that helped put settings as you'll see shortly, Um, because it basically does what it's supposed to do out of the box. The first settings that I do change are the picture settings all certainly the settings that I check are the picture settings. Now you can see that the the dimensions of our video of the moment of 1280 by 720 on they are actually the dimensions that I want to keep. I reduced three dimensions within Kim Tae Zia to 1200 by 720 going forward, I might actually change this. I'm thinking that I might start, um, keeping the dimensions of the original video in and out, putting it as an MP for in the original size, and then saving that to a hard drive, which I'll keep for use in the future and then actually reduce the dimensions of the video in hand brake along with the actual foil size. On my reasoning behind this is at the moment. At the present time, it's important that we would keep our file sizes as low as we can without reducing quality . Of course, because we're teaching students from all around the world's and the Internet speeds very considerate considerably around the world. I'm actually based in Slovakia. I got reasonably fast Internet speeds, but they're not going to be on average, is fasters in the U. K. Or in the States, for example, on there'll be other countries in the world that have even slower Internet rates. So I think it's good practice to reduce your file size assed much as you can without losing any noticeable video quality. But in the future, the likes of you to me and skill ship, they might demand, ah, higher standard or video of the moment. The standard is 1 to 80 by 7 20 but in the future that might increase. So I think we should maybe get into the habit off if we want to keep her videos evergreen and not have to reshoot the middle late today off, um, keeping them at the at the highest quality, putting on a hard drive somewhere and then using handbrake to reduce both the video dimensions and, of course, the video size. So, for example, if I wanted to do if I wanted to reduce this further the dimensions, because that has a big bearing on the file size, the dimensions. So this might be for a YouTube video. So I click in 800 there, and the automatically reduces the height because we got to keep aspect ratio ticked. But this is for skill share and for you, to me, So I'm going to use 121,280 by 720. Okay, so then I can click off picture settings, and the next step is the destination file Destination folder, I should say, And it's very important that the Destination folder is a different folder than the source folder. If you want to keep the file name the same, which I do. No, I've made this mistake in the past where I show clicked on browse and I chose the destination folder with Sames the source folder, and it basically overrode the file. But he didn't override the file with the new reduced file side. He actually overrode it with a zero kilobyte file. So basically everything was lost, and I had to go back to tempt easier and export the MP four file again. So try not to make that mistake. If you're gonna keep the same full name, then always choose a different folder for your destination folder and I'll just click on rails and make sure that I've done that. Yep, that's fine. So I click on Save, and then we come to the output output settings, and as I said before, I literally do not change anything here. I keep everything at the default. Nothing I do is I click on Web optimized and I click on. I polled five g support. Now you might want to check that is an MP four file and that the video Koda is h 40.26 We'll just spend the safe side. But that is the default, So just leave everything to the default. And as for all of this, I literally do no even going to these. I don't go into the audio. The subtitles, the chapters Because I don't need them. One of the reasons why I use hand brake. It's not just cause it's free. It's because it's so easy to use and so quick to use, which is obviously very important as well. So the last stage is basically just a click on the big green start button and hand brake starts. Encoding the new file here at the bottom here, and it's reasonably quick. I'll probably keep quiet now. Probably cut this in the final version, but it's not, too. It's not to slice practice quite quick. Remember, the key here is not only are we considerably reducing the far size and I think you'll be surprised just how much of a reduction we can get in the first size. It's important that there is not any noticeable loss of quality. Of course, there is going to be a loss of quality. But the key here is that it's not noticeable to the human eye. So I would always encourage you to to play the original video so you can see what the the original video looks like. And then after you have used hand brake to reduce the follow size toe once more, play the video and just to check that there hasn't been any visible loss of quality, I have never had any occasion in the past. But always always check just to be on the safe side. Okay, When hand brake complete the encoding, it always comes up The same Put down that Cocteau, your handbrake que is done. So we just press on, okay. And now we can go and find our destination folder and we can see this is the new fall that we have now. It was 375 megabytes before 375 and 1/2 megabytes, actually, and has managed to reduce it down to 45.7 megabytes. That is a considerable decrease in the far side, so that's excellent. But we need to double click on the video. And actually, well, okay, I thought I would begin the class by showing an overview of my profile. And your skill share profile is very important. It actually appears into profile. There is actually quite a lot going on in his animated, so my students are able to link through without having to click on Read more a couple of calls to action if the student is interested in okay, I'm happy with that. So no visible loss of quality. But as you can see, it's reduced the far size from 375.5 down to an incredible 45.7 megabytes. So his hand brake I highly recommend it is a free tool. It's a very effective tool, and it just works, and it's very simple and very quick to use. Okay, thank you for watching. Hopefully, that's the end of the video presentation. Now carry on the commentary a little bit, um, for your benefit. So Okay, so that's basically how I do Step two of the process? Um, extemporize presentation. I'm not worry too much about what I say. How many rooms and ours there are. I'm not worried at all about the audio quality. What I want to make sure is that I'm doing things in the right old at the right pace so that I can then write a script based on this audio and then re record the correct audio, which will be used in the final version. Okay, that step to the process. I'll see you in the next video, which will look at step three off the process, which is writing the script and recording the audio. Thank you for watching. 6. Transcribing the Script for the Software Demo and then Record the Audio: Okay, so here I am in Kim Tae Zia. And as you can see, I've actually split the screen of my laptop between kempt easier down here and texted it up here because I'm actually going to transcribe the rough and ready audio I made during my ex temporary presentation. And I'm going to write the text here in, Texted it before then, copying it over to Scrivener, where I will then use the four screen composition mode and finally record the audio in audacity using my I rig ht microphone. Okay, so I'm going to start by pressing on play and begin transcribing the text. Hello? Here we are in hand brake, so I shall write that word for word. Hand brake is a tool that I use practically every day. It's a I'll change this sentence slightly free tool, but it's very effective. Okay, here I shall emphasize the word free. And instead of repeating the words tall, I shall change this toe application. So hello. Here we are in hand brake, which is an application that I use practically every day. It is a free tool, but it is still very effective and want to use it for is basically to reduce the file size off my videos. Lessons that are you. That's fine. Actually, I shall leave out the word basically use within my classes and courses. That sounds okay. So and I use hand brake to reduce the file size of the video lessons, let by use within my I'm going to put skill share classes and you do any courses. Okay. So far, I have transcribed approximately 20 seconds of audio. And as you can see, I am trying to improve the text as I go along. I think I'll stop the video here and off camera. I will transcribe the remainder of this nine minute video as I think you get the idea. I'm not just transcribing word for word. I will change the text where I see fit in order to try and improve the script where I can and I shall start the cameras rolling again once I approach the end of the transcription. Okay, so here I am back again. And as you can see, I'm towards the end of the transcription. Now I'm going to press play and transcribe this last little bit. But as you can see, it's reduced the file size. So it's okay to write that sentence word for word. 375.5 down to. But I'll change this slightly credible 45.7 megabytes. That's fine. So his hand brake, I highly recommend it is a free tool, I think. Oh, she'll expand this part a little bit. It's a very effective tool. That's okay, and it just works. And it's very simple and very quick to use again. Word for word. But I shall add an extra line here at the end. Okay, so you can see I have completed the entire transcript. So I'm now going to copy this text and then going to Scrivener and paste the text in there . So the text is actually 1219 words long on the next stage is to basically go through the script, read it through the hole, correct any typos or grammatical mistakes, make sure it flows well and ensure that no important details have bean omitted. And then once I'm totally satisfied with the script, I enter the full screen composition mode in preparation for recording the audio. Then it is just a case of me setting up my microphone in audacity and reading the script allowed. Now I'm not going to do this on camera, as I have already covered recording audio in some detail in an earlier class. But that is basically steps three and four of my process for screen casting a software demo . And in the next lesson, I shall take you through the final stage of the process, where I shall sink the video and audio that I've created, edit the screen cast when necessary and finally export it as an MP four video. 7. Synching the Video and Audio (Part One): Okay, here we are in Kim Tae Zia, and we're looking at the presentation that I did for handbrake. Now, as you can see here on the timeline, we have the video track and we also have the audio track. It is actually the rough and ready audio that I made toe act as a guideline. We'll have a quick listen. Hello? Here we are in hand. Brake hand brake is a tool that I use practically every day. It's a free tool, but it so if you remember what I actually did in an earlier class was take that extemporize audio And I wrote a script from it before recording a new audio track using my I rig HT microphone. And what I'm going to do now is insert the new audio track within the timeline. So we just need to go to file import media and then select the MP three file of the audio like so. And if I then right click on it can add it to the timeline at the play head. And as you can see, our audio track is actually quite a bit longer than our video track, which means we might need to cut out some of the audio, or at least some of the unnecessary pauses. For example, if I zoom in on the timeline, it might be the case that I remove a pause like this one here. That is one way of getting out tracks to sink another way is to extend the video track. We can do that by adding an extra frame onto the timeline and then expanding it to the size we require. And I will walk you through exactly how I do this later on in the lesson. So it really is not a problem that the audio track is currently longer than the video track , as we should be able to sort that out in due course, either by reducing the audio track or increasing the video track. Okay, so the first thing we need to do is get rid of the X temporary audio track, and it has actually been cut up into different parts. So we'll need to delete all of the parts. That should be everything, just to make sure we can zoom out on the timeline so that everything now fits on the screen and you just need to use the magnifying glass slider to zoom in and out. I usually keep it in the middle, but I shall zoom right in later on if and when I need to remove some of the unnecessary pauses. Most of the time, I like to keep it zoomed and around about the halfway point. I'll just put the two tracks next to each other, and then it's just a case of sinking the audio and the video, so I shall press play and we'll see what needs to be done. Hello. So here we are in hand brake, which is an application that I use practically every day. It is a free tool, but it is OK, so I probably need to drag the audio a little bit forward. They start again. Hello. So here we are in hand brake, which is an application that I use practically every day. It is a free tool, but it is still a very effective one, and I use hand brake to reduce the file size off the video lessons that I use within my skill share classes and my you Timmy courses. That's OK, and I've recently recorded one such video that has actually got a file size of 375 and 1/2 megabytes. So quite a large file, and I'm going to use hand brake to considerably reduce the file size of the video. But without any visible loss in quality, everything's fine so far. So we begin the process by clicking on source and locating the source file, which is this one here profile overview dot mp four. And like I said before it is 375 and 1/2 megabytes. And like I said before, it is 375. Okay, so this is the first thing that needs to be worked on. So I'm going to split the audio here, and we want to sink that with this part of the video. Now, the way we conduce, that is by adding a still frame from the video. So I need to line up the frame we want to capture and then save it is a ping while export it into the asset folder, and I shall call it handbrake one. Now we need to split the video track here, and they move it over slightly. Uh huh. The problem is the video track has been split, so I shall need to highlight them all and then move them over together. Okay, so we move it over like so and then we're going to import our PNG and then drag it down onto the timeline. I'll zoom in a bit so we can see what we're doing. Okay, let's play that again before. And like I said before, it is 375 and 1/2 profile overview dot mp four. And like I said before it is 375 and 1/2 megabytes in size. Then we just need to click on. So I shall stretch the gift to this point and drank the video back so that it joins the ping. Let's see how that looks now. Good bytes in size. Then we just need to click on open one of the reasons that I love handbrake so much. Okay, so this is the point where I click on open. Then we just need to click on. So I'm going to split that file there, and I shall move the play head to the point in the video where I click on open, so I'm pretty much there. Let's see what it looks like now dot mp four. And, like I said before, it is 375 and 1/2 megabytes in size. Then we just need to click on open. It's all I need to do is drag this section of the audio track over a bit on our plate again , just to make sure overview dot mp four. And, like I said before, it is 375 and 1/2 megabytes in size. Then we just need to click on open one of the reasons that our love handbrake so much okay , that looks perfect. So you have seen two different ways to sink the audio and video together. The cutting up of the audio track on dragging a certain section of the audio toe where we need to place it as what is increasing the length of the video track by using export frame ass. So there's two different techniques that you can employ, and as you can see, it results in a seamless video. And as far as the person watching the video is concerned, it just looks like it was recorded in that way. to begin with. Okay, So I'm now going to go off camera and sink the rest of this 8.5 minute video, and I shall start the cameras rolling again as I approach the end of the video, and you will be able to watch that in the next lesson. 8. Synching the Video and Audio (Part Two): Okay, so here we are, backing Kim Tae Zia. And as you can see, I am coming towards the end of the video presentation. There is still a bit of a difference between the two tracks. Now we have less audio than video, but we're just approaching a tricky bit, which will certainly require a great deal of editing. So this is a great place to rejoin the video. Okay, I shall begin by clicking the play button. That really is a considerable reduction. So I'm pleased with that. But we now need to check that there is no visible loss in quality. I'll start today. I thought I would begin. So obviously I need to reduce the audio track a little here. So this doesn't Capt'n. And I can do that by cutting out this pause. So I shall leave a little bit of space here and then click on edit, split, and then do the same here and then finally delete the unnecessary pause and then drag the audio track back here to fill in the space. Let's see how that sounds visible. Loss in quality. I'll start the video. Okay. I thought I would run it on A this time I need to split the audio track like so and dragged this section to this point here after I finish speaking. Okay, I shall make this a little bit bigger and then press play. What? I would begin the class by showing an overview of my profile. Run it on a bit and your skill share profile, and it is very important. And then it's just a case of doing the same. Splitting the audio and moving my comment tree to the correct gap in the audio. If I run it on a bit and your skill share profile is very important, it actually appears into and a bit more his profile. So we need to split the audio track here and drag it to the correct position again. We need to split it here on drag it over. And the last one split here and hopefully that will be all right. I'll start the video. Okay. I thought I would begin the class by showing an overview of my profile. Run it on a bit. And your skill share profile is very important. OK, So as you can see, I have actually made a mistake that part of the audio isn't supposed to go here. It is actually supposed to go over there. So basically, we need to drag each of these audio sections over one place. Like so. Okay, so let's try that again. Visible loss in quality. I'll start the video. Okay, I thought I would begin the class by showing an overview of my profile. And your skill share profile is very important. It actually appears into run it on a bit profile. There's actually quite a lot going on in his animated and a bit more so my students are able to link through without having to click on Read more. One last look, a couple of calls to action if the student is interested in okay, I'm happy with that. So there's no visible, so that's fine now, but obviously this section of the audio track needs to be dragged back here. Okay, I'm happy with that, so there's no visible loss in quality, but as you can see, it has reduced the file size from 375 and 1/2 megabytes to an incredible 45.7 megabytes. Okay, so we need to remove another pause here. We just need to split the audio track in two places and then delete the unnecessary pause. So let's have a look at it now, then, from 375 and 1/2 megabytes to an incredible 45.7 megabytes. So there you go. That was a quick look at how I use hand brake to reduce the file size of my videos. It is a free tool. It is a very effective tool, and it is very easy. Okay, that's all fine. But we now need to increase the length of the video track, and we can do that by adding a ping of the final frame. So we click on share export frame as. And as you can see, I've already added a number of these pings. So this is now the 6th 1 overall. The game We need to go to file import and media and then choose number six, drank the ping onto the timeline and then expand it to fit with the audio track. So we'll have a look and see if that's okay. Now it is a free tool. It is a very effective tool, and it is very easy and quick to use. And that is why I highly recommend it. Okay, that looks fine. But I shall increase the size of the video track a little bit more. Now all we need to do is save the Camp Tasia file and then finally share the video as an MP four file. And that's it. We have successfully sink the video and audio tracks together and you'll be able to see the final version of this software demonstration on hand brake in the next class off the writer teacher. 9. So What Next?: Hello there. This is just a quick video toe. Thank you for taking this class. I hope you've enjoyed it. And if so, please consider leaving a thumbs up as it really means a lot to me. It would also be great if you would complete the class project, which is, quite simply to state your own process for screen casting a software demo and how it differs from mine. Thanks again for completing the class. I hope to see you in one of my other classes very soon. And if you haven't taken the earlier classes in the right to teacher Siri's, make sure you check them out today. You can actually find a direct link to each class in the Siri's. Within this class is about section