There are many free screen recorders on Windows, all of them have their own merits, and the one I want to recommend to you today, ActivePresenter, also has its own characteristics.
Maybe I won’t say that ActivePresenter is the best or the best desktop recording tool, but ActivePresenter is definitely the “most powerful” free screen recording software, what does that mean? Because the interface of ActivePresenter may not be that easy to use, but the rich features can meet the needs of those who really want to “make professional teaching videos” and “edit various digital teaching materials”! So it deserves to be the most powerful.
If you are a teacher, trainer, product customer service, or in any case you want to make a complete teaching video including short video, including presentation, including voice, including all kinds of operating instructions effects, and you find that the general screen recording software can not meet your advanced needs, the free ActivePresenter may be able to help you.
1. the fastest way to get started! Record videos with click effects
“ActivePresenter is a bit complicated and has a unique interface, so you may be a bit confused after installing it.
It doesn’t matter, we can use ActivePresenter as a simple desktop video recording software before we know all its advanced functions.Just click [New Capture] and select the first item “Record Software Demo”, that is, to record a video of the desktop software operation.We can decide whether we want to record the whole screen or a part of it, choose high quality, and record the system sound or the sound of an external microphone.What’s more, every click we make during the recording process will automatically add effects to the video!Press the red record button to start recording the desktop operation video.Press the red record button to start recording the desktop video, and press [Ctrl] + [End] to end the recording.You will see that ActivePresenter is also a complete video editor, where we can cut the video, remove unwanted paragraphs from the video, or continue to record other clips, and finally merge them into a complete video.
2. advanced needs! Smart Capture function automatically creates segmented video teaching materials for each operation
After we start to get familiar with ActivePresenter, let’s take a look at its more powerful teaching materials production function.What are the features of this “Smart Capture” mode? It will automatically split the teaching video into short clips according to each click we make during the recording process.And in each action of the video briefing, in the correct position to automatically add instructional illustrations.Does this make it easier to create an instructional video that can be automatically reorganized and modified? We can start editing these segmented clips as if we were creating a presentation to produce a decent instructional video.
3.A more comprehensive free version: no watermark, no time limit, personal and non-commercial use
All of the ActivePresenter recording and editing features mentioned in this article are available for free for personal, non-commercial use! This is very helpful for school teachers.The free version of ActivePresenter does not have a watermark and there is no time limit for video production.
4. Video presentation editing with motion and stillness
“Since ActivePresenter is a software created for creating educational videos and digital teaching materials, it has a lot of additional annotated interactive effects in addition to the previous video recording and editing.
For example, you can really insert other presentations and pictures into the video, and quickly create moving (action clips) and still (explanatory presentations) instructional videos in the editing screen of ActivePresenter’s presentation-like software.
5. Rich teaching effects elements for recording teaching videos
“ActivePresenter also has a wealth of teaching effects that we can use to put on presentations or videos!
For example, you can use spotlight effect to focus on an important action in the video, or add a new mouse cursor to illustrate the trajectory, etc. You can take your time to study them during the production of the teaching video.
6. Support for outputting various video formats
Finally, the tutorials edited by ActivePresenter can be exported to many formats, and the free version supports exporting to various formats.
“ActivePresenter may not be the easiest-to-use screen recording software, but it is the most powerful tool for teaching video production. Teachers, trainers, and product customers who want to create digital teaching materials should make good use of it.