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My Screen Recorder
v2.65
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How to
Make Good Screen Recordings
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If you are trying to
create a presentation
and need to show what's
happening on your
screen, why not capture
your entire screen with
complete motion and add your own voice narration? My Screen
Recorder is the perfect tool for making videos of your desktop activity
for demos, presentations and tutorials. It allows you to capture your desktop
screen activity while you narrate and create AVI files. |
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There is a professional version,
My Screen Recorder Pro, which offers more features for easy conversion
to different file formats and additional distribution options. |
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With My Screen Recorder
Pro, you can save your
screen recordings in the
popular Macromedia Flash
format for distribution
on the web. To
enable your viewers to
see your presentations
without the help of any
media players or
software, My Screen
Recorder Pro can create
executable files from
your recordings.
You can also distribute your screen
recording in
standard AVI format; or
the small sized and high
quality Windows Media
format, perfect for
distribution through
email or from a Web
server. |
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Use our
comparison chart
to decide which
application is best for
your requirements. |
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This article provides a step-by-step explanation of how to make a good screen recording, using My Screen Recorder,
from planning to actual recording. |
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Planning your presentation |
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The first step is to
have a plan for your
screen recording
session. To start
with, you need to decide
whether you want to add
voice narration while
recording or to record
the sound played by the
application. |
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If you're going to
record a voice-over
narration, it is always
a good idea to have some sort of script,
so that you can maintain a steady voice and pace while you record. This script can
also contain a list of actions (like opening particular windows), so
you don't miss recording something important. You can pause and resume
the recording at anytime by using the F8 shortcut key. It is a good idea to use a
friendly tone of
voice, even for corporate presentations. |
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When you want to record the audio
from the application itself, set up the audio in the
following manner: |
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| 1. |
In My Screen Recorder, on the
toolbar
click on
Settings
and select
Audio. |
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| 2. |
Click on the
Configure
button. |
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3. |
To record the application's audio, select
Record from
speakers. Click on
Auto
Select
to let My Screen Recorder choose the best line for you. While using Auto
Select,
we recommended that you disconnect the microphone. To choose manually, select the
Let
me select the line
option.
Click OK
when you
have done
this, and
then OK
again to
close the
Options
window. |
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It is especially
important to adjust the
audio settings when you
are recording media
players or other
interactive software. |
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Preparing to record |
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To get high quality screen recordings,
you need to optimize the settings of My Screen Recorder: |
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| 1. |
You first need to decide
what
screen resolution to
record
at. High resolution recordings played back at lower
screen resolutions result
in image distortion. It is generally best to determine the lowest screen
resolution that your recording will be played back
at, and record at
slightly less than that resolution. You can change your PC's
screen resolution by right-clicking on the
Windows desktop and then selecting
Properties
>
Settings. Under the
Settings tab, you can lower the resolution by moving the
'Screen
resolution'
slider
to the
left. If you
want to
increase the
resolution,
move
the slider
to the
right. |
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The next
step is to
decide the
recording
size.
If you want
to capture
only
specific
parts of
your screen,
click on the
Region
button on
the tool
bar, then choose
either the
Fixed
Dimensions or
Rectangle
option. This
reduces the
file size of
the recorded
video. |
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| 3. |
My Screen Recorder records the video in AVI format, which can be
edited easily. However,
uncompressed AVI files are
very large
so your
recordings need to be
compressed. Go to
Tools
menu >
Settings
> Video
tab and
select a
Compressor.
(Generally
the default
compression
settings are
fine.)
Frame
rate and
Key Frame
rate
values also
affect the
file size
and can be
changed. If you are using
My Screen Recorder Pro,
you can also convert your AVI file to Windows Media Format.
Windows
Media files
are much
smaller,
and can be streamed from a
specialized web
server (such
as
Video Desk). |
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Frame
Rate is
the number
of frames to
record per second. You can make it higher if you
want smoother playback, especially for videos containing a lot of motion. However, higher frame rates also result in bigger files.
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Key
Frame Rate
controls how often
"full frames"
are stored
in an AVI
file.
A higher key
frame rate
can make it
easier to
"seek"
within a
video file,
but it also
increases
the file
size.
The default
settings of
the frame
rate and the
key frame
rate are
optimum for
most types
of
recordings,
but you may
try
experimenting
with these
settings for
better
results. |
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For smoother
recordings,
especially
of
applications
having fast
action
motion or
media
players,
disable hardware acceleration by clicking
on the
Performance
tab in the
Settings
window and then checking the option "Disable
hardware acceleration during recording". |
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Start Recording your Screen Activity |
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| 1. |
In My Screen Recorder, click the
Record
button
on the
toolbar to
launch the
Recording
Options
window. Please note
the
keyboard
shortcuts
for record
(F8, by
default),
stop (F9 by
default) and
cancel (F10
by default). Check the
option
Pause before
recording
starts. Uncheck the
Record
audio while
recording
video
box if you
don't want
to record
audio. Click on
OK. |
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| 2. |
Launch the application you would like to record. To start recording, press
F8
on your
keyboard.
Now, perform
the actions
you want to
document.
My Screen
Recorder
will record
them in the
background.
To stop the
recording,
press the
F9
key. |
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Adding that Professional Touch to your
recordings |
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You can truly make your screen recordings a visual
treat by editing them using
Video Edit Magic. You can adjust your
audio narration or add
new narration to your
screen recording. Title
text and annotations can
be placed anywhere in
the video to make your
recording easier to
understand. Video Edit
Magic can save your
edited recordings in a
format that best suits your distribution needs. |
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To edit using Video Edit Magic: |
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| 1. |
Launch Video Edit Magic and open a new project by clicking on
New Project under
the File menu (CTRL + N). Import your screen recording from your hard drive by
clicking on
Open File in the
File Menu (CTRL + I). |
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| 2. |
Drag the screen recording clip from the
Collections
window to the
Timeline. |
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If you
don't want
to retain
the
recording's
original
audio track,
and want to
add
narration of
your own in
Video Edit
Magic, then
click on the
audio part
of the
recording
and press the
Del
key. Connect a microphone to your PC. |
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Click on
Tools
menu >
Options
> Narration.
Position the
Seek Slider on
the Timeline where
you want to
start
narrating
and click
Record.
Click on
Options
to change the Audio Device and the Audio Compressor used for recording. |
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Click
the
Record
button, and
start
narrating
into the
microphone.
When you're done
narrating,
press
Stop.
You will be
asked for a
file name,
and the
narration
will be
saved as a
file, and
added to the
Timeline and
the Media
File
Collection.
You can
record more
narration by
clicking
Record
again.
When you're
finished
narrating,
click
Close. |
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You can also add effects and transitions to your video. You may need to line up
the audio and Video on the timeline to synchronize them before saving the
Project. |
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Now, your screen recording is ready to be converted
into the appropriate video format for distribution. Video Edit Magic
can save these edited videos in MPEG formats (for burning to VCD and DVD),
QuickTime, and
many other formats. |
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