In this video i'm gonna show you everything you need to make your first tutorial video right away.
Hi, I'm Andy from TechSmith where we help you show what you know. We know there's a lot that
goes into making a tutorial video but today we'll walk you through the software, templates,
graphics, and music you need so you can create your own custom tutorial videos
and help more users successfully learn your product. Everything is available in
the description below, so download the software and templates and let's get started. To start you
want to ask three questions which you'll find at the top of the script template -
Number one: Who's my audience? Number two: What specific problem will this tutorial solve?
And Number three: What will the audience be able to do after watching? You want to develop an
understanding of your audience's general skills and get a sense for their comfort level with
the content you're teaching. Tou don't want to make a tutorial full of advanced instructions
and long-winded explanations if your viewers are just getting started. Keep it simple. After you
have a clear sense of your audience focus on the specific problem the tutorial will help them solve.
Each video should help solve one problem and only one problem. For example, showing users how to add
a follower in our project management software - I'm not giving an entire overview of the project
management software, I'm just showing how to add a new follower. This allows you to keep the video
focused and ensure the audience gets exactly what they came for. If you have more subjects to cover
consider making more than one video to keep each tutorial well focused. Lastly, define the goals
for the video. Think about what you want a person to be able to do when they're finished watching
and then write it down. An example might sound something like this: "After watching this video
a user will be able to add a new team member to a project management board." It's clear and the goal
is simple. This goal statement will provide the foundation for the rest of your content.
When you're finished with your goals it's time to move on to the next key step in making a tutorial:
Scripting. Scripting is an opportunity to test out what you plan to say so that you can revise and
improve the narration before you record. This might sound like a lot of work up front - because it is...
if you start with a blank screen. We've eliminated that pain and included a fill-in-the-blank script
that you can use to quickly get it written. This is just a starting guide. After you fill in the
blanks read it out loud and if it doesn't sound like something you'd say feel free to go back and
make it your own. In our template there are two columns you'll use to write the script. The left
side is for visual cues, what will be on screen? In the template we've made it so that you can see
the narrator at the beginning and at the end of the video, but the rest is mostly screen recorded
content. Adjust that as you like. Maybe you prefer being very specific about what you're showing?
This would be a great place to include those notes. The right side of the script is for your narration.
Starting with the obvious, your introduction. We cut past a lot of fluff to just immediately let your
viewer know they're watching the right video. No long backstory or autobiography is needed.
A quick hello from you with your name and company should seem familiar, "Hi I'm Andy from TechSmith,"
...remember that? After that you're going to empathize with their pain point by knowing what specific
problem they have and explain to them how you're going to help. And then? Help them! Go through each
step of the process one at a time writing down any pertinent details you want to include. At the end
wrap it up quickly with a link to get the product you're referring to. Or maybe additional resources
that'll help them achieve their goals. And a strong call to action. What is their next step?
Don't make them guess. Lines like, "I put a link in the description for you to download
the product to get started now," or maybe, "That was course number one click the link
below to watch course number two." Viewers appreciate direct guidance on next steps
so if there's more for them to do or learn spell it out clearly for them at the end of your script.
With your script ready it's time to record. At TechSmith we find the most success recording your
narration first, so if you've listed your steps as having screen recording as the visual element
on screen we'd recommend you record those bits of audio first. You can leave the camera off and
even use Audiate our software that makes editing your audio as easy as editing a text document.
It transcribes your narration as you speak. If you hesitate or say, "um," too many times it marks
those for you to easily remove all at once when you're finished. Once you've cleaned up your audio,
export it into Camtasia where you'll record your intro and outro on camera for that
personal touch. Speaking of recording narration we highly recommend that you buy a microphone
if you don't have one. An external mic, like a USB microphone, will get you a much higher level of
audio quality and will provide a better experience for your viewers. Our Video Viewer Survey research
at TechSmith shows that viewers are more willing to suffer through blurry video than poor quality
audio. That said if all you've got available is your built-in microphone don't let that stop you
from making a tutorial. When the time is right to upgrade your mic a few options to consider
might include the Blue Yeti, which is what I use in my home office, the Shure MV7, or the Rode NT-USB.
There are plenty of other great mics as well. If you have one you love leave it in the comments.
Once you've completed recording on all of your audio the next step is recording your screen.
Start by minimizing distractions. Clean up your desktop screen by hiding your icons, choosing
a neutral-colored background or a branded wallpaper, close any applications you don't
need and turn off any notifications that might pop up (including on your phone next to you). Then
open the application that will be the subject of your tutorial and practice walking through
the steps you've listed in your script. Practice a few times until you can comfortably make it
through the entire workflow with minimal mistakes. This will make for less editing in the end and
better recordings when you're comfortable with your walkthrough open the Camtasia Recorder,
select the region or window you want to record turn on system audio if your demo has sound,
otherwise you can leave that off, and hit the red "Start Recording" button. Keep in mind you can edit
the recording when you're finished so if you make a mistake simply pause and then start at the place
in your script right before the mistake happened. Removing mistakes is simple and quick with
Camtasia which leads us to the next key step in making a tutorial: Editing the video. Whoa! Editing a
video? If that sounds intimidating don't worry. It's a skill anyone can build with a little practice.
But to get you started we have a free template pre-built with almost everything you need to
start your video immediately. Best of all, it will match up with the script you just completed so all
you need to do is fill in the blanks - no staring at a blank screen and wondering what to do next.
We've built in placeholders for your footage, title cards, lower thirds, and more. Everything in this
template is totally customizable from the duration of each section to the colors and fonts used .
Don't like the music? Right-click and convert it to a placeholder and you can bring in
your own royalty-free song that will retain all of the properties for fading in and out
that we've included, which again are still totally customizable themselves. When you drop a clip in a
placeholder, click "Ripple Replace" to let your clip fit naturally without being slowed down or sped up
it will move some other placeholders and graphics around just adjust them as needed.
To change the colors, you can click the group that contains the graphics and the Properties
panel gives you the option to change one color at a time, or you can apply your own pre-saved theme
to replace all of the colors at once. See those blue tick marks at the top of your timeline?
We've included those markers to indicate when you move on to the next step or topic.
When you export your video to YouTube you can check the box that says, "[sic] Create Chapter Index
From Markers," and your viewers will be able to navigate to the section of your video they want
at their leisure. If the template itself is a little overwhelming to look at don't worry,
I've linked to a tutorial here that you can watch when you're ready to learn more about editing in a
template. But for now let's move on to editing your video. When I say "editing" I mean a few different
things. One, remove mistakes and extra footage from the screen recording. Two, sync the narration with
the video so that what you're saying lines up with what you're showing. Three use animations and call
viewers attention to on-screen elements that are important. Four, customize those graphics. The intro
and outro, lower thirds and any other finishing touches you want to make your own. Let's start
with removing mistakes. Once you've added your screen recording to the placeholder line of the
template it belongs in, if you want to remove a mistake from the middle of a recording hover over
the front of that mistake with the playhead and click cut. Move to the end of the mistake and again
cut. You can do this as many times as you need and if you make a mistake while editing simply click
undo. To remove mistakes or trim off extra footage from the beginning or end of your recording
click and drag the end of the clip in. Cutting and trimming this clip probably will adjust the other
assets in your template leaving gaps. But that's okay, just make sure to tighten everything back
up when you're finished cutting. Now, let's focus on syncing your audio and video. Start by clicking
and dragging your audio narration to the timeline lower placeholder cleverly labeled, "audio narration"
and drop. Once there, use clip speed and extend frame to sync the video to your audio. What I mean
is, if the narration takes more time to explain the concept than the screen recording takes showing it
split the video clip and use extend frame (which is option click on mac or alt click on windows) and
drag it out to essentially pause the video as you continue your narration. Or if you want to speed
up a part of your recording, maybe you're showing a longer process that you want to sum up quickly,
from the Visual Effects bin add Clip Speed to a piece of media then drag the handles of the
effect in to speed it up. Once you have your audio and video synced up let's work on focusing your
viewers attention. To do this, use animations to zoom in on your screen and annotations to point
out or highlight important information. For example, here I show some information that's a little
hard to read so I'll add an animation, then make sure the playhead is after the animation arrow
and then scale up in the properties essentially zooming in to show detail.
Next I'll add a highlight annotation to feature just the setting I want to highlight.
Do this throughout your video when you need your viewer to focus on something important.
When you're done with that it's time to edit those finishing touches. As I said before all of the
graphics in this template are totally customizable. If you start with the intro transition just click
on the group and the Properties panel show you that all of the colors can be changed. In fact,
if you're a regular Camtasia user and have your brand color saved as a theme just click the drop-down
to choose your colors and - bam! - custom branded intro transition. It even has a place for your logo
simply click the x in the properties panel to remove our placeholder then click the import
file button that's there now and find your image. Click the group next to it, "intro title card," and
you'll see similar properties appear. If you used a theme to replace your colors you can do that again
or hover over the last graphics you chose and use the eyedropper tool to match them up. Change the
text to actually have your video topic and your subtopic. Don't have a subtopic? Leave it blank!
Do this for the lower third steps and your name and company card, again changing the colors as
needed. You'll quickly see why having a theme makes this so much easier. Here's a link to a
tutorial for how to easily create your own themes in Camtasia. At this point your tutorial should
be looking pretty good. That said I know that editing is no easy task and to help you along
we have tons of free tutorials like the ones I've already linked to on both our website and here on
YouTube. Make sure to check out those playlists if you really want to level up your editing. The last
step in creating a tutorial is to save your video. Think about where you want this video to live and
either choose a share destination like YouTube, Vimeo or Google Drive or choose to save the video
as a local file on your computer. As an extra last step we recommend you save your Camtasia
project so if you need to go back and make some edits it's quickly on hand. And please remember
not to call it "Untitled." Give it a name specific to this project so it doesn't get lost over time.
Making tutorials is a process when you start from scratch so hopefully you'll use these templates
to make your life easier. Like with anything, you won't be an expert after the first video you make,
but with a little time and practice you may find that you don't need our template anymore and are
creating your own. Until then, we hope this helps. Remember to download any of the free assets from
this video in the description below and, if you're not already, make sure to subscribe to our channel