Camtasia – Keystroke Callout

The Keystroke Callout feature is really cool because it lets you show your learners what keys you’re pressing to achieve a specific goal in your software with the use of keyboard shortcuts.

I’m a huge proponent of learning your keyboard shortcuts for whatever software you’re using, so this one is definitely one of my favorites.

It helps your audience to follow along with your actions and makes it easier for them to understand what you are doing.

Once you have the video ready to edit — whether you recorded it yourself or someone else did — you can edit your video and add the Keystroke Callout feature to specific parts of your video via annotations.

Simply drag the style of callout you prefer to the timeline and treat it like any other media element. Don’t worry too mucha bout which one you drag onto the timeline — you can change the style from the properties window later if needed.

Under style, the entry field is where you press your key combination. Just click in, press your keys, and like magic, your onscreen annotation changes.

You can move it, resize it, the works. Pro tip — if you’re creating a video series for either yourself, a client, or are staying consistent with branding, choose how these will be placed ahead of time. Some folks like to keep the positioning consistent regardless of where the action happens — other like to keep their keystroke callouts closer to the action.
There isn’t a wrong way in my opinion — but whatever you pick, stay consistent.

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