Camtasia, Captivate, and other commercial or freebies

[Rob Hudson]

Hi all,

A few months ago I inquired about the tool of choice for tech writers
to create presentations that demonstrate software functionality. I
received quite a few responses that were split between Captivate and
Camtasia.

I'm wondering what today's tool of choice is for producing short five
to ten-minute tutorials on using software packages. I'm documenting a
web-based system and am trying to decide between Captivate and
Camtasia. The boss has a pretty strong inclination towards Captivate
and I don't know whether to switch to that in its current version or
stay with Techsmith's tools.

Any opinions based on current versions of either? As I recall,
Camtasia used to have trouble mixing more than two audio tracks
without Audacity tomfoolery.

Thanks,

Rob

-- 
Rob Hudson
PhD Student, Technical Comm. and Rhetoric
Composition Assessment Software Developer
Texas Tech University
www.iteachwriting.com