hi and welcome to the how to make a
tutorial tutorial I'm Doug
I'm going and I'm Andrea we're the
instructional designers responsible for
making the TechSmith tutorial videos
you've probably never seen us before but
you might find yourself going wait a
second that voice sounds familiar
usually we hide behind screen video but
we thought we'd change things up a bit
and today we're here to teach you how to
create a tutorial video great tutorials
start with great planning start by
spending some time getting to know your
audience
learn how to use your product and find
out where they struggle then use that
information to choose a tutorial topic
that will help the most amount of people
once you have your topic we recommend
creating a storyboard to outline and
visualize what you plan to show some
people get really creative and draw
amazing pictures like this honestly
though mine usually look more like this
I usually create a simple list with some
notes on the side I usually create quick
sketches and you'll probably see some
stick figures I do a series of simple
screenshots showing roughly what I plan
to display with the narration usually
anyway when you're finished
storyboarding and you have your plan in
hand you're ready to record right No
stop what you're doing before going any
further write a script please save us
from the ramblings extra details
backstory and meandering topics write a
script we swear it's not as bad as it
sounds and here are a few tips to get
you started 1 use words you'd use in
everyday conversations and try not to
make yourself sound too sophisticated by
leveraging convoluted statements to
augment your dialogue yeah to show don't
just tell instead of giving a
play-by-play of your on-screen actions
first I click this then click that let
those actions speak for themselves and
you
this time to communicate the more
important things like why you're using
that effect or making a decision three
practice practice and then practice
again read your script aloud and see how
it flows if you find yourself getting
tripped up go back and make sure you're
using natural language finally get some
feedback find someone who's not afraid
to tell you what they really think and
send them your script this might seem
scary at first but once you get used to
receiving feedback it becomes an
essential part of the scripting process
when you're comfortable with your script
it's time to record the narration start
by getting your hands on the best
microphone you can find even the
middle-of-the-road mic will provide much
better sound quality than the one built
into your computer then find a quiet
place to record we have a recording
studio with sound dampening foam which
is great however we realize this isn't
feasible for everyone and if you're
looking for a lower cost solution a
broom closet can sometimes get you a
pretty similar sound when you're ready
record your script and make sure to
speak slowly and clearly if you make
mistakes don't start over simply pause
then start again
right before you made the mistake you
can always remove the mistakes when
you're finished
we recommend using audacity or Adobe
Audition
to remove mistakes and any extra noise
from your audio with your audio recorded
the next step is recording your video
start by cleaning up your desktop and
closing any applications you don't need
this is also a good time to turn off any
notifications that might pop up like
this one oops I should probably close
that open the application you want to
record and walk through exactly what you
want to show your viewers as we said
before practice practice and then
practice again this will help you get
those smooth cursor motions and in the
end you'll have less editing to do when
you're ready open the Camtasia recorder
and record your street remember if you
make a mistake simply pause and then
start right before the mistake you can
always edit them out in the end when
you're finished recording your screen
it's time to get all hack and slash with
editing to start cut out mistakes by
selecting them with the playhead then
clicking cut to trim extra footage from
the ends of your recording drag the end
of the clip in when finished bring in
your audio narration and any other media
you need for your project with your
audio narration on the timeline use clip
speed and extend frame to sync the pace
of your video with your narration for
example if you need more time to explain
a concept split the clip and use extend
frame to essentially freeze the video or
if you want to speed up a boring part of
your recording add clip speed then drag
the handles to speed it up to focus your
viewers attention use animations to zoom
in on the important parts for example
here I show a really important setting
that's a little hard to read so I'll add
an animation make sure the playhead is
after the animation arrow then zoom in
to show detail next add that finishing
touch by adding a title slide to the
beginning of your video move the
playhead to the beginning of the
timeline then hold shift and drag this
creates a blank space in the timeline
next add a title and bring it to life
with an animated behavior or my favorite
add a premade intro from the Camtasia
library
if you want to learn more about editing
video with Camtasia check out our
tutorials the last step in creating a
tutorial is to save the video think
about where you want this video to live
and either choose a share destination or
choose to save the video as a local file
as an extra last step we recommend
sharing your video with a few people to
get some feedback this is a great way to
make sure your message is clear and your
video is accomplishing your goals well
that's it for now thanks for watching
and get out there and create some
awesome tutorials later Gator
chow