MacDirectory Magazine

COMPANY PROFILE TECHSMITH POINTS THE WAY TO BETTER CONTENT FOR MAC WORDS BY JONE DEVLIN impressive market share numbers for Mac, Hamilton and his team quickly came to the conclusion that building their products for the Mac platform was a win-win. TechSmith (www.techsmith.com) has long been recognized as a leader in screen capture and recording software. Whether you are a Technical Writer, a Content Developer, or just someone that wants to be able to give your presentations some added punch, chances are you’ve experienced one (or more) of TechSmith’s product offerings – unless you were a Mac user. Happily, that has changed, as TechSmith’s release of Camtasia for Mac was launched successfully several months ago to much joy and fanfare. MacDirectoryrecently had an opportunity to talk to Bill Hamilton, President of TechSmith, about his company, his products, and his plans for the future regarding Mac platforms. Per Hamilton, “TechSmith has always been interested in Mac as a platform.” But because TechSmith is a small company, Hamilton added, they had to be very sure that “ (we would) see a return for ramping up a new product.” Fortunately, TechSmith has long used a business model of actively communicating with their customers in order to determine what direction users would like to see their products go. Based on these conversations, as well as some pretty The next step was to make sure that that the right team was in place, and then work to ensure that when TechSmith finally did step into the Mac market, they did it in a way that kept their reputation for high quality products intact. Said Hamilton, “There are two parts to making a software company like ours successful; One has to do with our conversations with customers…and translating them into features and products that are needed. (Secondly) We work at having a more agile development effort.” This two tier process resulted in not only a tremendously successful Camtasia for Mac launch, but has convinced the company to move forward with both Camtasia Relay for Mac (currently available lecture capture solution), and a Mac Version of Snagit (currently available in public beta). Camtasia Relay for Mac is a product the company is very proud of, Global Public Relations Manager Natalie Ebig Scott noted, with lots of new updates including, “searchable video, smoother workflow, and support for more third party applications.” Snagit for Mac, though still under development, is currently being researched with the intention that it be “less about adding features and more about how can you make (users) more effective and efficient with your tool.” According to their website, TechSmith boasts a distribution network of resellers in more than 30 countries. Their products, which include Snagit, Camtasia Studio, Camtasia for Mac, Jing, Morae and Screencast.com, are available in five languages. But it is not only in their product offerings that TechSmith specializes in diversity. Their products are and have always been designed so that everyone from the high- level corporate user to a student working on a class project can get the most from what TechSmith has to offer; and that is no accident. According to Bill Hamilton, one of the main goals of TechSmith is make sure that intermittent users are not forgotten. Hamilton, like the rest of us, has experienced the frustration of having to re-learn a complicated tool after not having used it for a while. He does not want that to happen with any of his products, and thus is always careful to consider “how can we make it easier and more obvious and intuitive.” So whether you’re interested in screen captures for a presentation or something a little (or a lot) more high-tech, fear not. TechSmith has the product for you – even if you’re a Mac user. TechSmith William Hamilton 110 MacDirectory

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