So you want to be a blog star? In the past, being an insightful thinker and good writer (or being willing to show some skin once in a while) were enough. These days, however, your presentation is nearly as important as your material. Camtasia Studio 4 can help you shine. At its most basic level, the application creates screencasts—recordings of the action on your computer screen. That gives you a great way to demonstrate cool features of a software product and create presentations for students, businesspeople, sales teams, and others. Competing products such as Qarbon Viewlet Builder and Adobe Captivate let you do this, too, but Camtasia takes it to the next level: It works with Microsoft PowerPoint.

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For example, you can add a Camtasia toolbar to PowerPoint that allows you to record a presentation with the click of a button. You can also import slide-show content from PowerPoint into Camtasia project files. The app also lets you use a webcam and microphone connected to your PC, giving you the ability to narrate your presentations. For Microsoft Windows, Camtasia Studio 4 is an impressive, comprehensive screencasting utility. Well-known tech bloggers and writers such as David Pogue, Robert Scoble, and Jon Udell make good use of Camtasia for demos of new hardware and software.—Next: Hands On

Hands On

Before buying the software, be sure to compare the