Importing Camtasia video into Storyline - Optimum settings?
Mar 23, 2013
Hi there
I have used Camtasia in the past for screen recordings and find it a great tool for really robust screen recording work. So far for my eLearning courses I have been using only Storyline but I've been missing some of the features from Camtasia so I'm trialling it to test out how it integrates with Storyline.
So far - it's great! I can do all the editing, callouts, zooms in Camtasia and it seems to be carrying them across beautifully to Storyline!
I was just wondering if anyone else has played around with Storyline/Camtasia integration and if you've found that there are optimum settings I should be using? Or any other useful tips with regards to this integration?
If anyone else is wanting to try Camtasia with Storyline, I'd highly recommend it so far. One of the things I like to do with my screen recordings is record the screen with no audio and then record the audio afterwards. I just find it is easier for me to edit it this way - lots of other people prefer doing audio and screen at the same time though - but I found this hard to do in Storyline (and in all the other authoring tools, so I thought I'd give the Camtasia a go). So if you also like doing your audio AFTER your screen recording, maybe give Camtasia a trial.
Thanks - any feedback will be great!
Anne
20 Replies
Hi Anna:
In Camtasia, save as custom settings and chose FLV/MP4 with no player (if you save with a player, the player is a seperate file from Camtasia Studio).
Best Regards,
Dennis Hall
I'd also suggest recording, editing and publishing Camtasia files at the same resolution (or at least the same ratio) as your Storyline's "Story Size".
I found it visually distracting when I didn't maintain identical ratios, and liked the results best when everything matched dimension wise.
Hello, Anne.
I was just about to try that exact same thing. My question: After the Camtasia files are imported into Storyline, can the final product be published as HMTL5 and have the Camtasia interactions preserved?
I'm wondering along the same lines - is it possible to import the Camtasia output, produced with their player (using 'Produce with controller' option), into a storyline slide? Inserting it as a web object perhaps (though there is no index.html file)?
It would be great to be able to have their searchable video / table of contents features for example. Right now I have just used the standard insert video feature in Storyline.
Matt,
I've also been looking into this. However, as Dennis replied, I believe you can only import Camtasia as an MP4, which removes the TOC, closed captions (which are much more user-friendly to insert in Camtasia), quizzes, and hotspots. If I'm correct, this is very unfortunate, because the ease of inserting and editing cc in Camtasia is highly preferable. Additionally, being able to set the markers in Camtasia and keep those with the TOC would also be valuable. Dennis may, however, be implying that the player can be included, but imported separately...
Can Articulate staff confirm this limitation, meaning, only the Camtasia MP4 can be imported to Storyline?
Thanks!
Hi Trace! Importing Camtasia videos are your best bet. Importing the interactive content is untested and unsupported. If you want to try a past solution for another product and see if you can get it to work for Storyline, then maybe this will help you.
Another possibility could be to incorporate your Camtasia output into your Storyline project via a web object.
I'm also looking to import a Camtasia video that I have already added the closed captions to. Is there another way other than the web object option? I really would prefer to embed the video directly into the file so my client doesn't have to worry about hosting video somehow.
Hi Gayla:
Publish your Camtasia project as mp4 or FLV and import it as an embedded video.
Best Regards,
Dennis Hall
I have found that Camtasia hotspots require a controller, so the output includes dependent files. I tried importing as a web object, but it seems Camtasia adds padding in the HTML, so I have to edit the .css and .html files to omit the extra spacing/padding. Even then the resulting size is not reliable.
@Dennis Hall. I do not believe that using the MP4 or FLV formats will keep the Closed Captioning. That is the issue. I would like to post the closed captioned Camtasia videos into my Storyline project. Does anyone know a good way to do this?
Hi Carrie Ann and welcome to E-Learning Heroes! I do believe the best bet would be to do as Mike mentioned above and add to your Storyline project as a web object. If you are trying to accomplish this another way, perhaps someone from the community will be able to assist you with your request.
Trying to import interactive Camtasia videos into Storyline. The video contains a series of instruction bubbles that ask the user to click on a specific part of the screen (Using these as knowledge checks for software training).
Problem: If I import the .mp4 video, Storyline obviously plays on without pausing for the required interactions. We potentially have hundreds of interactive videos that need to be created and published.
I have numerous SME's developing interactive content within Camtasia. We have multiple Storyline licenses (and publishing guru's). I can not afford to buy Storyline licenses for all of my SME's that create Camtasia video content. So using the Articulate Interactive feature is not an option. Storyline is our standard eLearning Interface for publishing and we love it... most of the time.
In the past we have inserted these videos into Presenter using an INDEX.HTML file (via Web Object) and it seemed to work most of the time. But does not seem to be the case with Storyline.
Any advice other then moving away from Articulate?
Frustrated - Please help.
After further testing, index file is not necessary. For those that need to add interactive Camtasia videos, point Storyline via Web Object to the folder that contains the published video along with the "videoname_player.html" file. Seems to work great once the course is published and uploaded to the LMS.
Make sure there are no other .html files in the same folder.
Thanks for the update Victor and I'm glad you were able to get everything working!
I know this an older post, but I'm curious if anyone has experience with importing the interactive Camtasia video into storyline?
I tried the tips from above - trying to insert the HTML file from the Camtasia export, but storyline doesn't actually find it.
Hi Lauren, it sounds like you want to import your interactive Captivate content as a web object.
Use Articulate's instructions for importing web objects into Storyline.
Hi Janet, yes, I am looking to import the an interactive Camtasia video as a web object. However, when I insert using the Web Object, Storyline isn't finding the html file. It's definitely there because I checked the folder after publishing the Camtasia.
Hi Lauren, just to verify, what is the html file called that you're trying to insert?
It should be called index.htm or index.html.
From Articulate's instructions:
Tip: There must be a file called index.htm or index.html in the folder you select, and all supporting files for the web content to function must be in the same folder. Storyline imports all files from the folder where the index file is located.
If your file has another name such as name.html, you must change it to index.html. Also, remember you'll be selecting the folder which contains the index.html file.
Does anyone have publishing (on Camtasia side) and importing (on Storyline side) recommendations for pulling in a Camtasia video successfully into Storyline but using Camtasia's video player with markers? I can't seem to achieve this successfully in Storyline and wondering what I might be doing wrong.