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Subject:Re: Tools for producing a Tutorial From:Sally Derrick <sjd1201 -at- gmail -dot- com> To:Chris Gooch <chris -dot- gooch -at- rocketmail -dot- com> Date:Wed, 9 Jun 2010 07:16:46 -0500
I've used TechSmith's Camtasia Studio for video tutorials in the past and
was very happy with the result. It's only about $300.
Sally
On Wed, Jun 9, 2010 at 4:11 AM, Chris Gooch <chris -dot- gooch -at- rocketmail -dot- com>wrote:
>
> Hi,
>
> I'm currently working on a short technical writing contract for a
> start-up company. We've already got some very brief 'quick start'
> pages done just in Word, plus some context help, and tooltips
> done as XML as part of the software itself. The client thinks that
> some tutorials on using certain aspects of the software would be
> a useful thing to provide next, but wer're not sure exactly how to
> produce these. Options range from a simple document, or a
> presentation style, to a video showing a task being done with the
> software (with or without voice over).
>
> My question is, do people have any recommendations for tools
> to use to produce such a thing?
>
> We have a free tool called CamStudio to record the software in action
> which allows you to add a voice over but we're not sure we want to go
> down the route of just providing videos on the web site. We also have
> SnagIt for annotated screen captures to add to a more traditional type
> document, but we thought something more dynamic than that would
> be best.
>
> Adobe Captivate (which used to be called RoboDemo back in the day
> I think) looks like it might be useful, but it's not cheap. So we thought
> another option might be to use Powerpoint to produce an animated
> presentation, but perhaps this would be second best and I should
> recommend them to invest in Captivate (although I have no experience
> of it myself).
>
> Any suggestions? As I say the client is a start up and they don't want
> to spend a lot of money on software if it's not going to be used much;
> on the other hand my contract is pretty short so it will be worth them
> paying for tools that enable a good job to be done in a short time (they
> will need to be able to update whatever I produce themselves after my
> contract finishes too).
>
> cheers,
> Chris.
>
> Christopher Gooch
> Technical Author and Software Developer
> Sheffield, UK.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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