Over time I've had the opportunity to write a pretty significant number of blog entries. Some of those are technical in nature and try to describe how to do something specific on your computer. But truth be told, there have been many times when I wanted to do a weblog post but didn't because quite frankly it would have been too much work (for both of us) to explain how to do whatever it was in text form.

I've often considered doing screencasts in those cases, and I've even jumped in and done a couple here and there, but until recently it has not been something I have really tackled in most cases. I've used them at work (with substantial success), but not on the blog.

Just last week I wrote a post about the Windows Internet Time servers that Microsoft uses for its defaults being inoperable. I considered making a video screencast showing how to change your Internet time settings, but since I was not set up with the proper software and I have not been very happy with much of the software I have used for that purpose in the past, I just typed it up. Shortly after that post, I saw and entered a little online contest to win a copy of some screen capturing software called ALLCapture. Turns out I was one of the winners of the contest. So, this morning I downloaded the software and decided to put it to a real-world test.

I've updated the original post about the Windows time server settings to include the Flash version of the screencast, which I think turned out technically pretty well. My narration and organization left a bit to be desired, but hey what the heck. I left in the uhhh, verbal umm... bumps and didn't edit the video, and I also didn't use the full drawing and annotating capabilities of the software for this one. So, it's truly a quick and basic example of how you can capture and narrate a screencast. Note that you can edit after recording as well. That includes adding and removing audio, adding labels and pointers to help highlight items on the screen, etc. The included help file is useful in understanding how to do some of the more advanced work.

You can check out the simple video I made here. Also, here is a link to a basic Windows Media version for comparison. The Windows Media file is quite a bit smaller than the Flash version. Both use out of the box, default settings. I recorded the audio with my USB studio mic.

I also tried creating a screencast to accompany my post today about DreamScene and it turned out nicely, but the file size was pretty huge so I haven't posted it. The reason for the huge size is obvious if you've seen Windows DreamScene in action - it's a full screen capture of fully animated desktops, so everything is constantly changing in the scene. Needless to say, I need to figure out how to trim things down for screencasts like that one, so you can reasonably download them.

All in all, it's cool software and I think it will be quite useful.

Full disclosure: I won my copy of the ALLCapture software in a friendly online contest. I've tried it and found it to be pretty darn useful - enough so to write about it here - but be aware that I didn't purchase the software with my own cash. That said, it's good stuff and I think it's worth checking out.