Camtasia Studio Learning Center

Learn how to use Screen Recording effects to enhance videos. Effects covered include highlight cursor, adjust the cursor speed, insert markers during recording, and hot keys to pause and resume recording.

Camtasia Studio Video Tutorial

This tutorial will address ways to help the cursor be more visible in your recording as well as how to make the recording process go a little smoother for you.

Cursor Highlights

Often the location of the mouse cursor is one of the most important elements of a screen recording, yet the pointer may be hard to see.  You can highlight the cursor in your video to make your mouse movements stand out.
Camtasia Recorder offers two main types of highlights: cursor highlights and click highlights. 
                            
Highlight cursor                                                        Highlighted click
The default highlighted cursor shows a translucent yellow circle around the cursor, while the highlighted click shows a growing red circle only when the mouse clicks.

Turn on cursor highlights:

In Camtasia Recorder, you can turn on highlights in two ways:

• Via the menu
• Go to the Effects menu.
• Choose Cursor.
• Choose the highlight you want.

• Via the cursor toolbar
• Turn on the cursor toolbar in Camtasia Recorder by going to the View menu.
• Select Cursor Toolbar.

• In the cursor toolbar, you can now select the highlighting you want.

NOTE: The highlights will not appear while you are screen recording but will show up when you preview your recording.
To customize what the highlights look like:

• From the menu choose Effects > Options…

• Select the Cursor tab.

• Adjust the appearance of the cursor, the cursor highlight, and/or the mouse clicks highlight.

Cursor Smoothing

Another practice you can use to make the pointer easier to follow in your recordings is to slow down how fast you move your mouse.  While it’s possible to focus on moving slow throughout your entire recording, it’s much easier to let your computer restrict how fast your pointer can go.
You can make this change in the Mouse Settings in the Windows Control Panel.  To get there:

• Select Control Panel from the Windows Explorer.

• Choose Printers and Other Hardware.

• Click on Mouse.

• Click on the Pointer Options tab and move the Select a pointer speed: slider to the left.

• Click OK.

You may need to experiment with different speeds to find one that works well for you.

 “Take 2” Markers

Markers are places on the timeline that you can flag as reference points for you, as titles for use in an index, etc.  Normally, you’ll insert markers while editing a screen recording in Camtasia Studio. However, you can also create markers while recording.
One reason to create markers during a screen recording is to signify places where you’ve started over after making a mistake.  These markers make editing much easier since you won’t have to manually find these points in the Timeline.
To make a marker while recording:

• Press the marker hotkey: Ctrl+Shift+M.

 
Once you are finished with the recording and open it up in Camtasia Studio to edit, the marker(s) look like this:

If you want to get rid of everything before the marker:

• Click on the diamond-shaped marker.

• Press Ctrl+D to cut the clip.

• Click on the unwanted segment.
• Press the Delete button.

Using F9 to Pause and Resume

Preparing well will make your recording session go much smoother and reduce the time you need to invest in editing afterwards.  Even so, you may find that during your recording things don’t go as planned.
Rather than fumble around while recording and/or have to edit out a section of video afterwards:

• While recording with Camtasia Recorder, press the F9 key to pause
• Mark your cursor position with a sticky note.
• Make what ever adjustments you need to before continuing.
• Return your cursor to its original position
• Press the F9 key again to resume the recording