OpenOffice v3 for the Mac: Alternative to Apple Pages June 27, 2010
Posted by jimintriglia in Apple Mac, Freeware, Open Source, Personal Computing.Tags: Open Office v3
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I do a fair amount of writing each week, so I’ve come to appreciate the power of a capable word processing application like WordPerfect or Microsoft Word. Since switching over to my MacBook Pro a little more that a year ago, I’ve been enjoying Apple’s Pages Word processing program.
Unfortunately, Pages does not offer some of the features that I need to publish the kind of articles that my readers expect. For one thing, the inability to add a caption to a inserted image still has me wondering what the marketing folks at Cupertino believe about the needs of their users.
Before heading off to search for a better Mac word processing application from a third-party provider, I decided to look-in on Open Office. Much to my surprise, OO Suite has a release for the Mac, and it appears to rock. Did I mention the cost is free?
Yes, I will still be using Pages for assignments that require a “light” word processing application. I also will make good use of Microsoft Word 2010, which was just released as part of the 2010 Office Suite package.
I’m still partial to using Open Office v3, since my other computing platform is Linux. No shortage of word processing applications in my home, to be sure.
Camtasia vs Screenflow: Battle of the Screencasting Platforms June 11, 2010
Posted by jimintriglia in Apple Mac, Communications, Education, Screencasting.4 comments
After sorting through a dozen or so screencasting applications for the Apple Mac platform, I’ve settled on Camtasia for the Mac, with Telestream’s ScreenFlow running a close second. My principal goal was to find a screencasting application that would enable me to create scripted screencasts, in addition to “quick and dirty” narratives that I could embed in various media.
After working with ScreenFlow for several days, I found myself growing frustrated with the lack of basic tools, such as being able to add simple pointer graphics to my screencast during post-production editing. I also had difficulty editing audio tracks, and resigned myself to the fact that I would likely have to record audio separately via applications like Apple’s GarageBand or Audacity if I decided to go with ScreenFlow as my screencasting tool.
Camtasia for the Mac seemed to be a more polished application as compared to ScreenFlow, which I would expect, as the Microsoft Windows versions of Camtasia products have been in development for years. ScreenFlow appears to have a better community of users willing to help each other, even to the point of developing free add-on tools and providing feedback on community members screencasts. Camtasia for the Mac crashed several times on my MacBook Pro, something I do not expect Mac applications to do. On the positive side, my recent work was saved, so the only time I lost was in rebooting the application.
There is much discussion on the web and on Youtube as to whether Camtasia for the Mac or Screenflow is best for professional and business screencasting. Here’s one review of Camtasia from a user that uses Screenflow:
Don McAllister‘s Screencastonline is a great example of the power of educational screencasts. I’ve used several of Don’s screencasts to preview applications that are of interest to me. Last year, I previewed Don’s screencast of OmniFocus, and decided to purchase the software for my Mac and iPhone. Not only did his screencast review of OmniFocus provide enough information for me to make a purchase decision, I learned enough from the screencast to begin using the application as soon as I downloaded and installed the package. (Don uses ScreenFlow for capture and assembly edit; Final Cut Studio for final production editing.)
I’ve still got 25 days left in my Camtasia free trial evaluation, which I’ll put to good use in testing other applications that I have in mind. Screenflow offers a free trial download, but I the heavy watermarking gets in the way of evaluating finished screencasts. Telestream should consider eliminating the watermarking to better compete with Techsmith’s Camtasia, or at least make the watermark more transparent, so prospective customers can better evaluate the video capture quality.
Next month, I’ll share with you whether I decided to purchase Camtasia for the Mac or Screenflow. Please post your experience with either application, especially if you have evaluated both products.
