DebugMode Wink^TM is an easy-to-use freeware program for creating presentation video in the Flash^TM.swf and executable .exe formats. That's why it was my first choice when I decided to write this article about what is involved in creating a training video. The first step to creating your video is to decide how you will capture the screenshots. The Wink software, as well as most screen recording software, gives you a wizard to set up the recording process. We have three methods for recording our video. These are screen snapshot, input-driven capture and timed capture. The first two will give you individual screenshots. The third will capture the entire process as you work through your demonstration. You can think of it as "looking over your shoulder". Let’s set up the wizard for this type of screen capture.

The next step is to decide the size of the area that you wish to capture or record. For our example, we will want to capture the entire application workspace (or window). However, because this training video is to be viewed on the web, we also need to keep the size of the recording area to a minimum. This will help us to keep the size and download time of the Flash file to a minimum. So we need to open the target application (the application that is the subject of your video) and resize the workspace to a smaller size. When you do this for your own training video, try to find a nice balance between a small window size and a viewing area large enough to demonstrate what you wish to teach your viewers. Now, we are ready to begin setting up our project. Although I am using the Wink software as my example, most of these steps are the same for other screen recording software.

1. New Project. To start a new project in Wink, click File > New from the Menubar. This will open the New Project Wizard. Let’s work through the wizard from top to bottom.
   
   
2. Start Capture. The first decision you need to make is whether you want to start your project by capturing screenshots. Usually, this will be the case. However, another option is to begin the project by importing screenshots that you have already created with another screen capture application. In this case, you would want to remove the checkmark from the first box. This will open the Wink workspace to a blank project. For our example, we want to begin with the screen capture so we will leave the check in the box.
   
   

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Screen shots used by permission of Satish Kumar. S. DebugMode Wink is a trademark, or registered trademark of Satish Kumar. S. Visit www.debugmode.com for more information.