Uncategorized – Page 3 – The Logical Blog

June 24, 2025

TechSmith’s Free Online Screen Recorder

Looking for a quick and easy way to record your screen, without opening Camtasia or paying for a subscription? In this video, I’ll show you how to use TechSmith’s brand-new free screen recording tool to capture screen activity, voice narration, and even webcam footage.

Whether you're creating tutorials, demos, or training content, this recorder is a game-changer.

✅ No download required

✅ No Camtasia license needed

✅ 100% Free to use

You'll learn how to:

Access the TechSmith screen recorder
Choose what to record: full screen or window
Include webcam and mic audio
Save and use your recordings anywhere

🛠️ Ideal for educators, trainers, and content creators seeking a fast and flexible recording solution.

Learn more about Camtasia training here: https://www.iconlogic.com/techsmith-camtasia-certificate-live-online-course.html

#TechSmith #Camtasia #ScreenRecording #FreeTools #Tutorial #EdTech #eLearning

February 21, 2025

QuarkXPress Training Now Available on Udemy

Whether you're a beginner or an experienced user looking to refine your skills, this course is designed to take you to the next level. You'll discover how to streamline your workflow, ensure design consistency, and troubleshoot common issues with confidence. With hands-on exercises and real-world applications, you'll gain the expertise needed to produce high-quality layouts for print and digital media.

Throughout the course, you'll master essential QuarkXPress features, including creating new projects, working with master pages, managing text flow, formatting paragraphs, using style sheets, importing and editing images, and applying advanced typography techniques like tracking, kerning, and drop caps. You'll also dive into tables, color management, item styles, and best practices for exporting PDFs and preparing files for print.

Click here to get started.

February 14, 2025

TechSmith and Subscriptions

I'm seeing plenty of chatter about TechSmith's recent subscription model and how it relates to perpetual licenses (if you have Camtasia 2024 installed) and access to subscription software should the subscription lapse. Here's what TechSmith says about this issue on their FAQ page:

"A perpetual license allows you to use the software version for as long as the device's operating system remains compatible with the software after a one-time purchase but only includes updates and support for a limited time.

"A subscription license, on the other hand, provides access to the software for a specific period. With a subscription license, you pay a recurring fee to continue using the software and receive all new versions, updates, and support. If you stop paying the subscription fee, you lose access to the software. All 2025 and later versions will be subscription licenses.

"This transition does not mean Camtasia and Snagit will become cloud-based software. Both products will remain desktop clients and can be downloaded the same as before. We do not require sign-in (login) to access our software. The subscription model provides a more continuous delivery of updates and new features. However, this transition does enable us to offer optional AI and cloud-based workflows, which complement your use of Camtasia and Snagit."

"While internet access is not required continuously, it is necessary for initial activation and then once every 90 days to maintain product functionality.

"Customers will always have access to previously purchased perpetual versions, with continued support per our support policy."

February 14, 2025February 16, 2026

Adobe Captivate: Auto-Advance Slides

In older versions of Adobe Captivate, slides automatically advanced from one to the next. If you wanted a slide to pause for learner engagement, you had to add an interactive component, such as a button or click box. This version of Captivate is as different from Captivate Classic as night is from day.

To make a Captivate 12 slide auto-advance, add a bookmark to the Timeline and set its action to go to the next slide.

This short video demonstrates the process.

If you need Adobe Captivate training, mentoring, or development support, we can help.

February 12, 2025

TechSmith Camtasia 2025: AI Noise Removal

Until today, the ability to remove static throughout a Camtasia project was a pipe dream. With the release of Camtasia 2025, knocking out static is as simple as using the AI Noise Removal tool on Timeline media.

For training on TechSmith Camtasia or Audiate, check out my training options.

August 21, 2024

Adobe RoboHelp: Consistent Image Sizes

I recently had a student from one of my vILT RoboHelp classes ask how they could quickly control the size of multiple images for an entire project. Her supervisor wanted several images displayed at 50% of their original height and width.

This is a reasonably simple task via CSS.

To begin, open the assets folder and open your project CSS. In the example below, I opened the default css that comes with every new RoboHelp project.

Create a New Style.

In the Class area, type a name. In the example below, I've named my new style Images. Note that the same name will automatically be added to the Selector area.

Click the Done button.

With the new style open, open the Layout category. Because my student wanted the images 50% smaller than the original, I set the Height and Width to 50%.

Save the project.

Open a topic with an image or import an image into a topic.

At the far right of the RoboHelp window, click Styles.

Select the image in the topic and click your Images style from the list of styles.

Use the style on as many images throughout the project as appropriate.

To change the size of the images using the Images style, go back to the CSS file and edit the Images styles. After saving the CSS file, all images using the Images style will instantly update.

June 4, 2024

TechSmith Camtasia: 2024 Version Now Available

TechSmith rolled out Camtasia 2024 today, and our step-by-step book, "TechSmith Camtasia 2024: The Essentials" is not far behind.

New in Camtasia 2024:

A new recording engine for higher frame rate and resolution screen captures
AI-powered dynamic captions. (I saw a demonstration of this, and it's a very cool feature. Powered by AI, every word onscreen can automatically be highlighted as spoken. Meaning, no manually creating closed captions… no importing SRT files.)
New effects
New filters
New transitions
More integrated assets featuring more than 100 million royalty-free images, videos, and audio files

TechSmith also announced three product plans: Camtasia Essentials, Camtasia Create, and Camtasia Pro. The product plans include Camtasia’s AI-assisted Rev, simplifying and speeding up video creation through quick layout and design choices.

“The updates to Camtasia 2024 are focused on further reducing the friction of the editing process and empowering users to unleash their creativity and go beyond what they thought possible with a video editor,” said Tony Lambert, CTO of TechSmith. “As we continue incorporating advanced AI into Camtasia to achieve this, our new product plans are designed to provide customers with the most cost-effective way to select our breadth of new features based on their unique creative needs.”

If you need Camtasia support, training, or mentoring, we've got you covered.

May 30, 2024

Articulate Storyline 360: May 2024 Update Makes 64-Bit Storyline the Default

With the May 2024 Storyline 360 update (Build 3.88.32474.0), the 64-bit version of Storyline 360 is now the default.

According to Jesse Taber, engineering manager for Storyline 360, "Storyline has traditionally been a 32-bit application. The primary difference between 32-bit and 64-bit applications is the amount of system memory they can use. In Windows, 32-bit applications can access, at most, 4GB of memory, while 64-bit applications can access far more memory than any modern consumer-grade PC can accommodate."

Taber went on to state that "The primary benefit of targeting 64-bit processor architecture is the ability to use more system memory. When Storyline 360 opens a project file, it loads it all into memory. Very large projects, particularly those with many rich media assets, can experience issues opening, saving, and publishing in the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. Projects like this should be much more stable in Storyline 360 x64."

"Aside from memory usage, most authors will likely see performance on par with the 32-bit version of Storyline 360. While performance improvements were not a primary driver for creating Storyline 360 x64, we plan to invest more directly in performance improvements going forward," said Taber.

To install the update, start the Articulate 360 app, click the drop-down menu to the right of Storyline 360, and choose Install Update.

If the 64-bit version isn't working, you can easily restore access to the 32-bit version via the Articulate 360 preferences. Open the Articulate 360 desktop app, click the drop-down arrow in the upper right corner, and choose Preferences.

From the Legacy Access area, select Restore 32-bit Storyline 360 and then click the Save button.

May 16, 2024

Articulate Storyline 360: Cloud Backups

Back up. Seriously, back up!

Sorry, I mean backup… as in, back up your projects.

During my Articulate Storyline 360 training vILT classes, I stressed the importance of backup projects. While I love Storyline, projects can get corrupt like any other program. You'll breathe a bit easier if you have a recent project backup. The problem with backups is remembering to create them and/or ensuring the backup is on an external or network drive (it does not do you much good if your backup project is on your hard drive and that drive goes bad… say goodbye to your project and your backup).

Articulate Storyline 360 now offers you free cloud project backups.

To begin, Publish the project and select Review 360.

From the bottom of the Publish dialog box, select Upload project file to Review 360.

Click the Publish button to upload a backup copy of the project to the cloud.

Once the project has been published, click the View Project button.

You can download the cloud copy by selecting Current Version > Download Project File.

Looking for training or mentoring? I'm just an email away if you need help using Storyline 360 or Rise support.

April 25, 2024

Adobe Captivate 12.3: Hip hip hooray for Closed Caption Imports!

Closed captions support hearing-impaired learners by displaying text synchronized with the slide and/or video audio onscreen. Once the closed captions have been added to the Captivate project, learners click a CC button on the Playbar to display them.

On the first day of my two-day Adobe Captivate training class, I teach how to add closed captions to a project manually. This ability has existed in Captivate for years. What wasn't possible was importing the closed captions. I'm happy to report that in Captivate 12.3, you can now import caption files (SRT files). This awesome feature will save you hours of labor.

An SRT is a raw closed caption file containing the text from an audio or video file and the audio timing. Websites like REV (rev.com) allow you to upload audio and video files and receive downloadable SRT files for as little as $1.50 per minute of audio. You import the SRTs into Captivate, and, like magic, your captioning work is done.

Here is an example of an SRT that I added to a video in my project. Notice the time stamps that have been added to the file. You do not need to know how to add these time stamps; they are added automatically when the SRT file is created.

To import the SRT file, select a slide video, or if the audio has been added to the slide, click the Audio icon at the right of the Captivate window.

Click the Import Captions button, open the SRT file, and… you're done!

If you need Captivate support, help is just an email away.