Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation Introduction This guide suggests the best (most versatile) method for using Camtasia Studio to capture a PowerPoint presentation with an accompanying audio soundtrack. This is not the only way PowerPoint presentations may be captured by Camtasia Studio and it does require some specialist software, but it will allow presentations to be edited and updated more easily in the future. The Concept There are two ways to capture a PowerPoint presentation: 1) Run the PowerPoint presentation from start to finish in one go, recording the audio sound track as a oner at the same time. Pros – Provides a more natural feel to the presentation, ensures constant audio input levels. Cons – Entire presentation needs to be recorded in one go (although ‘errors’ in speech or clicks between slides may be edited out after the event), makes editing the presentation after the event (for example to update one slide) more fiddly. 2) Record the audio for each slide individually, make screen captures of the individual slides and then bring the two together on the timeline in Camtasia Studio. Pros – Makes updating the presentation later much easier as individual slides/sections of audio may be edited, removed or reordered. Cons – Requires the manipulation of multiple files, slide animation will not be captured. For presentations where the slides are mostly text (and are without animation) the advantages of the second method are considered to be such that this is the recommended approach. This document explores this method. The Process The steps to complete this process are as follows. 1. Create the PowerPoint presentation (this guide will assume this has been done already). 2. Write a script for the audio (again, this guide assumes this has been done). 3. Record the audio for slide 1, edit it and save it. 4. Record the audio for slide 2, edit it and save it. 5. Continue recording each audio clip for each slide until they are all completed. 6. Open PowerPoint and save the slides in the presentation as a series of screenshot images (this is one operation which creates multiple screenshots). Page 1 of 28 Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation 7. At the end of this process you should have two files for each slide: an audio clip and a screen shot. Thus if your presentation has 4 slides you will end up with 8 files. 8. Open Camtasia Studio and import all the files associated with the presentation (audio clips and screen shots) into the Clip Bin. 9. Drag the audio file for slide 1 onto the audio timeline. 10. Drag the screen shot for slide 1 onto the video timeline. 11. Stretch the length of the screen shot for slide 1 so it is equal to the length of audio track 1. 12. Drag the audio file for slide 2 onto the audio timeline and place it after the audio for slide 1. 13. Drag the screen shot for slide 2 onto the video timeline and place it after the video for slide 1. 14. Stretch the length of the screen shot for slide 2 so it is equal to the length of audio track 2. 15. Repeat until all the audio and screen shots are in place. 16. Output the presentation from Camtasia Studio in the required format. 17. Transfer the file to the Streaming Server and link to it. Required Software Many different software packages will do the trick for the audio and image editing and so if you have a licence for something not listed below and are comfortable using it then use that instead. Otherwise, the following are recommended and are used in this guide: Audacity A free audio recording and editing package available from: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ Camtasia Studio 7 The editing package to make the output file, licence required for use at the University of Stirling If you wish you could also create the screen shots using some free image editing software such as PhotoScape. Audacity and PhotoScape would need to be downloaded and installed. To do this you would need to make yourself an administrator on your own machine through the option in Run Advertised Programs. If you were to use PhotoScape then there is a bug to be aware of. Unfortunately, as you are admin on your machine when you run the install and PhotoScape remembers this, when it tries to reference files in the filestore associated with the username which performed the install you will see error messages on screen. These occur when switch between tabs to perform different tasks. These messages can be cleared and the application works fine. Page 2 of 28 Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation Writing a Script It is very helpful first to write a transcript of what you wish to say to accompany the PowerPoint presentation. This makes you think about all the steps involved and gives you an opportunity to think about the correct order in which to say things. Divide the script into sections, one for each slide of the PowerPoint presentation. Part 1 - Recording and Editing the Audio using Audacity Recording the Audio It is recommended that you record your audio using a good quality microphone in a suitably quiet environment with no interference or background noises. Quality audio recordings will lessen the need to use Audacity or Camtasia Studio as an audio editing tool. The latter is not designed for this, although from the Tools menu the Camtasia Audio Editor (not covered in this guide) can allow some basic sound file editing. Record a slide at a time and save each slide’s audio separately. To record the audio this follow these steps: 1. Plug in a suitable microphone. 2. Open Audacity (Figure 1). Figure 1 - The Audacity display on opening 3. Click the Record button (with the red circle on it) to start recording. 4. Speak in the microphone to make the recording for the first slide. Initially this will be a process of trial and error to ensure you are seated close enough to the microphone. The recorded audio appears on the timeline in a row referred to hereafter as the ‘audio track’. Page 3 of 28 Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation 5. Click the Stop button (with the yellow square on it) to stop recording. 6. Audacity displays the recording as an audio track on the timeline (Figure 2). Figure 2 - Recording shown in Audacity 7. Click the Play button (with the green triangle on it) to play back the recording. 8. If you are completely dissatisfied with the recording, click the X in the top left hand corner of the audio track to delete it. This removes the track without providing a warning so be careful not to click on it accidentally (although the undo shortcut in Windows, Ctrl+Z, will undo the deletion). Editing the Recording in Audacity The recording may be edited in Audacity. It is not imperative to do this in Audacity, sound may be edited later in Camtasia Studio, but Audacity gives a greater range of editing options and so it the recommended option. The following edits are the most common: Amplifying the Recording 1. Select the audio track by clicking on the area to the left of the timeline (Figure 3). The audio track on the timeline appears in darker grey to show it is selected. Page 4 of 28 Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation Figure 3 - The Audio Track selection area - click this to select the entire track 2. From the Effect menu select Amplify. The Amplify box appears (Figure 4). Figure 4 - The Amplify dialogue box 3. Choose the amount by which to amplify the sound (this can be done by using the slider or typing a value into the Amplification (dB) text field. 4. Click Preview to hear the sound at the new amplification (only the first few seconds are played). 5. Click OK when happy. The amplified sound is shown by increased sound waves on the audio track timeline (Figure 5). Page 5 of 28 Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation Figure 5 - The amplified sound shown on the audio track timeline Cutting away sections of the Recording This technique can be used to get rid of sections at the start and end of the recording where there is no speech. 1. Click and drag the mouse on the audio track timeline to select a portion of it to be cut away. Figure 6 shows an example with the section at the end of the audio track highlighted. Figure 6 - A portion of the audio track selected Page 6 of 28 Converting a PowerPoint presentation into a Camtasia Studio Audio and Video presentation 2. From the Edit menu select Cut. The highlighted section is removed from the audio track timeline (as shown in Figure 7). Figure 7 - The audio track timeline with a section cut away 3. The undo shortcut in Windows, Ctrl+Z, will undo the cut if you make an error. Replacing sound with silence This technique can be used to remove sound from sections of the audio track timeline if the wrong words were spoken. Such sections may also be ‘cut; out as well. You may wish to make the start and end of each audio track, either side of the speech, into silence to remove the noise generated by any rustling of papers etc.