Vikki Olds
July 2005
DemoCharge 2005 Professional is an awesome tool for creating screen captures, tutorials and training, video presentations (avi,gif,swf,java), demos, animations and executables.
Once you capture your image you have many options for editing and adding things like balloons, images and highlights to your presentation. It's very quick and very easy. In the screenshot below, on the left side of the interface is a thumbnail viewer. You can load each frame by double clicking on an image in the thumbnail viewer. From there you can add images, text, highlights and balloons very simply. They are place in the correct place on the timeline and you can then stretch them to show as long as you'd like.
When you are ready you can save (with the Professional version) to gif, avi, java, flash and exe.
You can capture the whole screen, a window, a region that you choose by simply using drag handles on a rectangle.
The files sizes are not out of line for finished projects as shown below. The image below is a screenshot from Windows Explorer giving the details of just a few of the different file types you can create with DemoCharge Professional.
40 frames
The next three screenshots show the actual demos running in order - gif format, exe format and swf format.
Using the toolbar shown below you can add balloons, text, images and highlights. You can move them around and size them.
Once you add an object you have even more customization options.
After adding objects you can use drag handles to stretch them over the timeline so they are visible just as long or little as you want.
Below is the first animation with balloons, text, highlights and an image added. Even after adding all that the file size is a just 57k. That is amazing!
DemoCharge Professional is a very powerful tool that would seem to me to be almost a necessity in your toolbox. Create presentations, demos, tutorials, and more quickly and easily. DemoCharge Professional did not bog down my system as it was capturing and worked very smoothly throughout. I didn't have a single problem and the learning curve is so small as to almost not be there. On the DemoCharge web site they say you can be up and running with a finish project in 5 minutes. It took less than 5 minutes to create the animation above. Simply amazing!
You really should head on over to YesSoftware and download the demo.
There is a difference in pricing and features available in DemoCharge Standard and DemoCharge Professional. There is also a lighter version that is Co-promoted. Below is a listing (from the DemoCharge web site) that gives a comparison between the standard and professional version.
Version Comparison
| Capturing/Recording |
| |
Standard |
Professional |
| Smart auto-capturing by detecting screen changes, menu actions, and mouse clicks and movements |
v |
v |
| Manual recording |
v |
v |
| Capture full screen, window, or region |
v |
v |
| Background mode |
v |
v |
| Full-motion recording, including mouse cursor movement |
v |
v |
| Action-based recording |
v |
v |
| Ability to capture and append additional frames to existing demos |
v |
v |
| Audio |
v |
v |
| Output |
| Animated GIF output (DemoGIF) with optimal compression, suitable for emails |
v |
v |
| Flash (SWF) output |
X |
v |
| Executable (.exe) application output |
X |
v |
| AVI output |
v |
v |
| Java Applet output |
X |
v |
| High output compression (small file sizes) without loss of original quality |
v |
v |
| Resizable output - create demos in multiple resolutions |
v |
v |
| Generated demos can be viewed on any computer independent of the Operating System |
v |
v |
| Audio |
AVI output only |
AVI, Flash, Java, Exe |
| Editing |
| Intuitive and easy to use GUI |
v |
v |
| Thumbnail view |
v |
v |
| Timeline view for time-based frame and effect manipulation |
v |
v |
| Properties panel |
v |
v |
| Preview mode via internal demo player |
v |
v |
| Customizable workspace |
v |
v |
| Masterframe |
v |
v |
| Cut, copy, paste, and duplicate frames and effects |
v |
v |
| Hide frame |
v |
v |
| Customizable mouse cursors and tracks |
v |
v |
| Full undo/redo management |
v |
v |
| Effects & Captions |
v |
v |
| Balloon, caption, image, and highlight effects |
v |
v |
| Effects can be extended across multiple frames |
v |
v |
| Effects can fade-in and fade-out |
v |
v |
| Many predefined balloon shapes |
v |
v |
| Other |
| Import, export and print individual frames |
v |
v |
| Customizable user interface |
v |
v |
| No technical or programming skills required |
v |
v |
| Multi-lingual interface |
v |
v |
| "Created with DemoCharge" logo |
(co-promoted version only) |
X |
DemoCharge is awesome software! Check them out on the web, download the demo and start creating professional animations, demos, tutorials and more today!
Pricing: Professional version $199.95 (US) Standard version $99.95 Co-promoted version $49.95
http://www.yessoftware.com/
Requirements:
Windows
-
Intel Pentium processor, AMD or equivalent
-
128 MB available RAM
-
10 MB available disk space
-
16 bit color monitor capable of 800 X 600 resolution
-
Windows 98, ME, NT4, 2000 or XP
Copyright (c) 2005, Vikki Olds, All Rights Reserved
