01. Democreator
- Price: £62 ($99)
- Supplier: Wondershare Software Co Ltd
- Web:
www.sameshow.com
System Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista/Windows 7 with Microsoft DirectX 9
or later; 30MB Free Hard Disk Space for program installation
(512MB or above for flash movies); 128MB RAM (256 recommended);
Windows compatible display with a minimum 800 x 600
resolution; Windows compatible sound card; Microphone and speakers
(recommended) for recording narration; Macromedia Flash Player 8.0
or above (A necessity for previewing Flash movies).
If you ever thought creating a video tutorial was a difficult
task, then think again. DemoCreator, by Wondershare Software,
enables the user to quickly and easily create interactive flash
presentations, software simulations, tutorials and product
demonstrations without requiring any skills in either programming
or professional multimedia. The procedure is so simple even a
beginner can do it.
Capture the facts
A graphical demonstration will hold a person’s concentration
far longer than a numbered set of instructions and, because
DemoCreator is capturing everything that is happening on your
computer screen there is less chance of missing out a valuable
instruction.
DemoCreator gives you two options to create a new project;
either by capturing screens, which is recommended, or, for the
more advanced user from blank slides.
Fig : 1-1 Creating a New project
Once you have clicked on the Capturing Screens options you are
then presented with another menu giving you the options to select
the capture area you want to use; this can be an area of an
application, a specific, custom sized area, or full screen.
Fig: 1-2 Selecting the capture area
While attempting to capture full screen and custom size
appeared relatively easy I did find the Application capture a
little frustrating in the sense that you have to select the
application you want to capture from a drop down box. This,
inevitably, means that you must first be running the application
prior to invoking DemoCreator to capture the application. By
default the first application (which actually isn’t an application
as such) is the Start menu and this is cordoned off with a series
of red lines. If you happen to forget to select the relevant
application and simply click record all you will actually record
is the Start button and nothing more. This, I feel can be a little
confusing for the beginner; however, once you actually realise
what is happening you soon get used to making the right selection.
Record Events
Prior to clicking the record button you have to make a few
decisions regarding the recording mode. For this you have two main
options: Take screen shots or Full motion recording.
Fig: 1-3 Selecting recording mode
If you select the Take Screen shot option whenever or wherever
you click the mouse a call out balloon will appear with the word
‘Click’ showing your audience exactly what you are doing.
Fig: 1-4 Screen shot caption callouts
So, for example, if you click to change, say, a font (if you
were using a Word processing application for instance) DemoCreator
would insert a ‘visual’ prompt to say that you clicked on the font
button and then will display the font sizes and would then record
the font selected etc.
Previewing your handy work
Once you have recorded your demonstration/tutorial you will
want to see how it looks. The first thing needed is to stop the
current recording and this is easily achieved by double clicking
on the DemoCreator icon in the notification area. Once you have
stopped the recording your creation is saved ready for you to
preview.
Fig: 1-5 Post recording options menu
The post recording options menu then appears and you can select
whether to Preview, Edit or Produce the video in a shareable
format. If you select the default ‘preview my recording.’
Fig: 1-6 Previewing your demonstration/tutorial
the recording is processed and converted ready for you to view.
All you need do then is click the Play button to see just what
your handy work looks like.
Get to work with the Editor
With DemoCreator you can easily edit each screen shot to make
your demonstration even more clear. By using the edit menu toolbar
it is easy to insert callouts, add buttons to activate
presentation and insert other images to make your presentation
even clearer.
Fig: 1-7 Editing menu
Adding the sound bytes
As well as visually displaying your presentation DemoCreator
will also allow you to add sound to the presentation. In preview
mode just click the Audio button followed by Record and starting
chatting away into your microphone.
Fig: 1-8 Adding Audio
Time is of the essence
DemoCreator comes equipped with its own Timeline editor which
allow the user to specify when and for how long an object is
displayed for. From within the Timeline editor you can drag blocks
to different position on the timeline, alter the duration of the
block and export the current frame as an image.
Fig: 1-9 DemoCreator’s Timeline
Ready to Publish
Once you have edited your presentation and everything is to
your satisfaction the only thing that remains is for you to
publish your project to a suitable delivery application.
Fig: 1-10 DemoCreator has a number of publishing options
Publishing is really simply and takes only a click of the
Publish button and selecting which format you wish to publish your
presentation to. From here you have the choice of publishing to
Flash, Video, LMS, .EXE or E-mail.
Verdict
Anyone interested in creating presentations or software
tutorials will find DemoCreator of immense help. Creating, editing
and publishing your created presentation is simply a breeze with
presentations being able to be published in Flash, AVI CD/EXE,
E-mail or even published as AICC/SCORM complaint LMS (Learning
Management System) formats.
Creating a presentation is not always the easiest of jobs to
do, let alone get right first time. With DemoCreator you really
can create a professional looking presentation in just a few
simple clicks. Every part of the DemoCreator application is self
explanatory, it is easy to use and you certainly don’t need a
degree in professional multimedia skills to use it. DemoCreator is
certainly worth taking a look at.
- Ease of Use: 9
- Features: 9
- Value for Money: 9
- Overall: 9