Camtasia Studio Learning Center

Camtasia Studio 6 Tutorial:

Can I See What My Video Will Look Like Without Having to Produce the Whole Thing? (Preview Production Settings)

The Preview feature in the Production Wizard renders the first 30 seconds of your video. You can then use the Preview Manager to compare how tweaking various settings may impact the produced video.

The Preview Window in Camtasia Studio gives you a pretty good idea about what the final content of your video will look like, but you have to produce the video to really see the true quality, audio results, About Box content (Flash format option), and more. The trouble is that producing a whole video can be a very time-consuming endeavor. Enter Preview Production.

Preview the Production Settings

1. In the Task List, select the Produce video as option.

2. The Production Wizard appears. Select the Custom production settings option and click Next. (The other production presets do not have a preview option.)

3. Select a file format and click Next.
4. Select the desired production settings.
5. Click the Preview dropdown and select the Preview Current Settings option. The first 30 seconds of the video begins rendering. Note: 30 seconds is the default. You can change it to just about anything you’d like in Camtasia Studio > Tools > Options… > Program (tab).

The Preview Manager

Compare and manage your 30-second video previews. You can compare within your current project or all videos that you’ve ever previewed.

In the Production Wizard, click the Preview dropdown and select the Preview Manager option. A window similar to the example below appears. There are at least four areas of particular interest.

Preview Manager Area	Description
	Choose between a list of previewed videos associated with your current project or all previewed videos.
	Play the selected video. Press and hold the <SHIFT> key or <CTRL> key and click multiple Previews. This will activate the Compare Setting Details button which provides a nice option for side-by-side comparison.
	Production setting details are displayed in this area. Note that all file size estimates are based on the first 30 seconds of your video. The estimates can be drastically off base—for example take the case where the first 30 seconds of video is fairly static and later the video contains many zoom and pan effects, transitions, and PiP video.
	Click Use These Settings to apply the production settings and then produce your video in its entirety.