Create, Publish and Export Screencasts

Screencasts are an efficient way of showing someone else how you are performing tasks in your operating system. They are mainly used for educational purposes such as recording step by step instructions on how to use a certain program by capturing a certain region of your screen and commenting the actions using a microphone.

The service Screencast-O-Matic offers a free and reliable way of creating screencasts using just your browser and Java. It is not necessary to register an account to create a screencast. This is only necessary if you want to publish the screencast later on the website of the developer.

It is furthermore possible to export the screencast into Apple Quicktime format without registration as well. You probably would like to know more about the process of screencasting itself.

Just click on the Create button on the Screencast-O-Matic and select a resolution for the screencast. You currently can choose between 640×480, 800×600 and 1024×768 plus the option to screencast full size if you have a maximum resolution of 1024×768.

You may then choose a way of recording the audio or select to not use audio recording. Last but not least you may select to use a red square that displays mouse movement in the screencast because the mouse pointer itself is not shown.

Only the frame of the window that you have selected is shown unless you select to screencast in full size. The frame can be moved around and all applications, not only the contents of your browser, can be moved into and shown during the screencast.

The screencast can be started and stopped at anytime but the maximum recording time is 15 minutes at this time. After finishing the screencast you get the option to export the screencast to .mov or upload it as a public or private screencast to the Screencast-O-Matic website which requires a registration.

I recorded a 15 minute screencast and exported it. The file that was created was 120 Megabytes in size and it took only a few minutes to create.