Camtasia 9 and Camtasia 3, What's the Difference?
Hi everyone!
First, I'd like to thank you for your continued support and to let you know we love hearing from you! That said, I did want to get out to the community a really high level, basic breakdown of some of the basic differences between Camtasia 9 (Windows) and Camtasia 3 (Mac). Below you will find a quick bulleted list so feel free to ask any questions in the comments below, but please remember, if you have any technical issues / problems please open a Technical Support ticket so our dedicated Technical Support team can get you squared away.
While the Windows and Mac versions are very close, there are some differences.
Here are some things to consider when taking projects between platforms:
Thanks again and remember, any technical questions should be directed towards our Technical Support team!
-Team TechSmith
First, I'd like to thank you for your continued support and to let you know we love hearing from you! That said, I did want to get out to the community a really high level, basic breakdown of some of the basic differences between Camtasia 9 (Windows) and Camtasia 3 (Mac). Below you will find a quick bulleted list so feel free to ask any questions in the comments below, but please remember, if you have any technical issues / problems please open a Technical Support ticket so our dedicated Technical Support team can get you squared away.
While the Windows and Mac versions are very close, there are some differences.
Here are some things to consider when taking projects between platforms:
- While both platforms can add captions, once added, you cannot edit then in the other platform
- WMV, AVI, SWF, and MTS files will not work on Mac
- Sketch Motion Callouts render but cannot be edited cross-platform
- Keystroke Callouts render but cannot be edited cross-platform
- When bringing projects from Mac (Camtasia 3) to Windows (Camtasia 9), the following will not be available
Device Frame - Freeze Region - Glow - Keystroke Callouts - Mask - Reflection - Sepia - Window Spotlight - Clicking Reduction - Clipping Reduction - Dynamics Processor - Pitch - Gesture Effects - SpotlightAs mentioned this is a high level view of some of the cross-platform functions of Camtasia 9 and Camtasia 3, if you would like to see how things work out make sure you pick up our fully functional trial today!
Thanks again and remember, any technical questions should be directed towards our Technical Support team!
-Team TechSmith
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I thought the whole point was for functionality to be aligned? Those listed above, will they be aligned in a near future update? 0 -
Hi Steve,
Thank you for your comment.
I am curious if there is something in the list above that you must have/need/desire in particular to work successfully cross platform on Mac and Windows?
For instance, neither version of Camtasia creates SWF files and this is not a real popular file format right now with the advent of MP4. So, that is something we will most likely not ever have on the Mac side.
Overall, the parity between Camtasia on the two platforms is very, very close with the few exceptions noted above. With that said, we are hoping to continue to align the programs in subsequent releases when and where that makes sense to do so.
If you could take a few minutes and tell us what you need to be successful working with Camtasia across platforms, we would appreciate it very much.
Also, have you installed and tried the new Camtasia that came out yesterday? If so, I would welcome your review of how well it does work across platforms. I'm sure others would as well who come to this forum looking for information.
Thanks in advance for any information you care to share!
Kelly
User Assistance
TechSmith0 -
Camtasia 9 is great and easy to use, however, I would appreciate having a textbook manual for a deeper familiarization with the software in a spare time. Do you have such a manual? 0 -
There is a brilliant book available, just updated to Version 9:
https://www.dappertext.com/camtasia-definitive-guide/0 -
Is there such a guide for Camtasia 3? 0 -
Contact the author, he's quite responsive. 0 -
in addition to my comment below, can there be a warning when you add a legacy callout to the timeline that that callout won't be cross platform supported? I accidentally used some legacy callouts without knowing and only found out when i opened in the other platform. 0 -
I ́m the only one with the mac-version C3 and my colleagues have C9 on Windows. I exported my data for windows. First of all it says: "classic callouts not supported" (in german, so maybe it ́s not the right translation). I think it ́s funny, that not even the classic callouts are supported. And different colleagues from different countries tried to open the "exported for windows" zip. No one could. As we don ́t have time for this, my company decided to buy me a windows computer. Is it possible to exchange my camtasia3 to camtasia9 (to give back the license and get the windows one?). We need to finish this project soon.
cheers
Claudia0 -
I think its the same license... 0 -
Hi Kelly,
I'm more the IT admin for the company so just need to get my fact straight. I use the Mac version myself at home and dabble in the Windows version. Let me tell you how happy I am you can now select application windows on a Mac and it will work out the sizes for you!
Anyway, for the pros at work.
We are looking to purchase / upgrade this for our business environment which has Macs and PCs. It has been a problem to manage previously for users to work on and share projects between platforms. We were holding out for the new versions which will no doubt help. I was just a little concerned seeing the above, (I don't really fully understand the details) as have been preparing users mainly Mac who want the same features as Windows based on a previous posts which stated that you can edit on one platform and then carry on working another and the feature set will be aligned with these new releases. I just wondered if projects are not fully portable as you described above between systems feature wise due to getting the product out, or something that will be brought in alignment in future releases.
PS, it would be so much easier to have aligned the version numbers if they are the 'same'...
Edit: Just seen that you are continuing to work towards further alignment in future releases. Like I said, I am not a pro, I leave that to the guys at work, but for me to say that the will become aligned (as best as possible) will go a long way when making a case for continuing with Camtasia.
Thanks
Steve0 -
Hi,
Thank you so much for getting back to us with this information.
I feel your team will be delighted very much with the ability to now share their Camtasia video projects across platforms!
While there are the small caveats listed here, this should not interfere with their ability to work collaboratively .
Here is a topic you might want to read to gather a bit more information:
https://support.techsmith.com/hc/en-us/articles/222415728
Overall, if you caption your videos, the best plan is to caption on the platform you will be sharing/producing from. Camtasia Windows has more caption options for making use of Speech-to-Text so that might be the best way to go. However, there is captioning on the Mac side as well.
As a safeguard for working collaboratively, we have an export option for sharing. You can find that under the File menu. This workflow allows you to see ahead of time what will not work, if anything, on the other platform before you output your project file.
This list is quite small overall and has a lot to do with Mac specific effects or legacy content from previous versions of Camtasia.
I think it might be a great idea to have a Mac and Windows person download and install the new versions on their computers. Then, create a project and pass it back and forth a couple of times to see how their intended workflow goes. Afterward, have a bit of a debrief/retro on that to see if it works for your team's situation.
Thanks again for your helpful information.
Kelly0 -
PLEASE make sketch motion call outs fully compatible cross platform. These are my most used annotations and I routinely need to work on one platform at work and one platform at home. It's not that they will render but won't edit, sketch motion callouts won't even render for me cross platforms (in either direction.) 0 -
Dear TechSmith--
OUCH!!!! Big issues switching from Windows Camtasia 9 to Mac Camtasia 3.0.4!
Product Management -- please listen to your users and get feature parity between the platforms and make it transparent to move a project between the two.
Here is a list of issues I have seen with just the first project I am migrating:
-- First, when I opened the Camtasia project it complained that it could not find the files -- totally understandable as they are now on my Mac in a different directory.
-- Next, I got a pop-up warning that my project file contains unsupported features. Ok....so there is the list showing the Delta between the Win and Mac versions (ouch but Ok).
-- Next, the Media Bin showed two issues: one file shows "File Unsupported" and the other states "File Missing". For the "File Missing" message I clicked "update media" and got an error that the file must be the same format and duration as the original file -- it is the original file. I had to delete the file out of the media bin and re-add it right back in. I had to do the same operation for the file with the "File Unsupported" message.
-- Next, I had an Annotation on the timeline (highlight with the Fade behavior layered on top). With the Mac version it seems that you cannot add Behaviors on top of the "Blur & Highlight" Annotations so the Annotation was hashed out and I had to re-do it.
-- Next, I use the Highlight annotation extensively. By default it appears on screen too abruptly. So, in the Windows version, I would layer the Fade Behavior on top of it. I used this extensively. It seems that this is not supported in the Mac version -- bad.
-- Next, I use the Sketch Motion box extensively. In Windows it was super easy to size the box to fit my needs. In the Mac version I have yet to figure out how to size it easily -- I have to keep toggling between the arrow and crop symbols at the top of the screen. Further, when you use the crop button to help size the Sketch Motion it breaks the sketch animation such that it only draws 3 of the 4 sides.
-- Next, the zooms I had in the original Windows project were on the timeline but since I had to delete the file and re-import it I also had to re-apply the zoom.
-- Next, the "Extend Frame" feature was super easy to use in the Windows version -- just click on the timeline, right-click, extend frame, specify the time -- done. Why the difference and why does it have to be so difficult in the Mac version.
This was just with the first project I re-opened on my new Mac -- I'm terrified what I will find with other projects with even more annotations, zooms, behaviors, etc.
I, essentially, had to rebuild my project from scratch. This is going to be a HUGE issue as I have almost 200 of these short videos embedded in my companies product. With each software update of our product some part of the UI may change meaning I have to go back to the original Camtasia project and do some touch up work. Because of the issues I outlined above what could have been a 5 minute project in my original Windows is going to be an hour in my new Mac installation.
Ok, so rant over. Product Management team these are really serious issues for your users. I really hope you come up with solutions fast. Unfortunately, these issues are going to force me back to Windows to go back to Camtasia 9.0 -
Did you export your projects from the Windows machine to the Mac first? or did you just open the same project that you created in Windows in Mac directly? (I'm also considering moving to Mac from a Windows machine, so I'm getting the info before deciding) 0 -
adia-
Unfortunately, my PC had a HW failure so I did not export the projects into the self-contained .zip file. Had I done that it would have likely prevented the 1st and 3rd bullet points. All other issues I had are due to cross-compatibility issues between the Windows version and Mac version.
Right at the beginning of this article there is a section labeled "Here are some things to consider when taking projects between platforms:". Review that section carefully. Unfortunately for me, there were a bunch of items in that list that I use extensively in the Windows version that I could not use in the Mac version.
My advise is to stay with the Windows version if you can. It looks and feels like more of the development effort is spent on the Windows version.0 -
Thank you for your advice! 0 -
I need help me for training 0 -
I currently have Camtasia 9.0.4 (Build 1948) Apr 11 2017 (64-bit) AND Camtasia 3.0.6 (98750)
using both Win 10 and MacOS Sierra.
Unless there is an option I am missing, below is a snapshot showing the difference between Mac and Win in regards to the presence of a recording box or not.
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UPDATE: The post above shows the Windows 10 Camtasia 9 Recording Setup Box (Before Recording).
Below is a snapshot of the During Recording Info Box that can be Minimized and Maximized in Windows 10 version. Both Setup Box and During Recording Info Box is MISSING in the Mac version.
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I did my first Windows to Mac port yesterday. Exported it to a zip from the PC for the mac. Well, about 80% of the "enhancements", call outs, sketch functions, etc. simply did not work. Now I see this and I question just how "inter-operable" this setup is. I finally had to just go back to my PC to avoid a ton of rework on the mac side and then re-re-working when I go back to the PC at the office.
This is a serious disappointment from a company I rely on as much as I do TechSmith.
I think the end user definition of "inter-operable" varies greatly from your definition.
When I think inter-operable, I think "open the files in either program, edit away, and reopen them in the other and the edits are still there and working". Until you get the software to that point, you probably should put a "partially" in front of "inter-operable".0 -
I agree that these are not quite inter-operable. I just experienced the differences between the Windows version and the one for MAC . If I have to redo the entire project on MAC and then scrub that version because whatever I do on my MAC will not work on my Windows version. Just curious, what kind of testing does Techsmith conduct? How did their collaboration and sharing between the two so-called inter-operable versions work for them? Captions, Call-outs, Sketches, etc are some of the most widely used components. I hope this changes in the near future. Looking forward for any future improvements and developments. 0 -
I have changed my mind on this and need to make an update to my earlier post. Great job for getting both MAC and Windows versions to work together even if totally different operating systems. That is a feat in itself.
By necessity I had to create a windows project at work and then zip it for MAC so I could work on it at home. Once done at home, I then zipped that project for Windows and brought it back to work. I had to do this for four days. I was pleasantly surprised how well it worked. The last day I added something to an object; I was warned upon zipping for MAC that I had used a legacy item. This was one item out of so many. Also, My Sketch motion callouts in Windows (which I use heavily) did not work on my MAC. But no problem, the MAC had theirs. So I created one layer for MAC stuff and one layer for Windows stuff. I would toggle between the layers for windows when working in windows and the MAC layer when working on the MAC.
It worked for me on this project. I am very pleased and great job to the teams!
Sue0 -
That is an interesting way to handle the differences. Thanks 0 -
I'm the lone Mac Camtasia user at work, although I also have a personal license I use on Windows 10 at home. All latest versions.
At work, I also have to deal with some editors being on Camtasia 8, which they swear they prefer to 9!
While the issues are slight, perhaps the largest one has been the horrible UI of the captions tool on the Mac version, and the inability to cross-edit. We struggle with the animated call outs as well, which just seem to be more effectively applied on the Windows version.
While it is not the perfect cross-platform environment, they are buying a high end Windows workstation just for Camtasia, and we will all rigidly adhere to using that. This is a very technical, product marketing group for a $20B+ company. Happy I have them loving adding videos to older, somewhat stagnant Poweroints and white papers. But, I also sure do wish, the products were as identical as the Mac OS/Windows architectures allow. Realize underlying audio/video formats and options will always have some variance, but we have wasted hours, in many cases forcing me to wait until 9PM or later to re-edit on home machines.
Final takeaway? GREAT product, especially as an editor! Screenflow is great at capture, nowhere near the editor, and not cross-platform, so we will be customers for life.0 -
Camtasia 9 is great and easy to use, however, I would appreciate having a textbook manual for a deeper familiarization with the software in a spare time. I just love it <3 I use this tool to edit videos for bathroom scan
Really enjoying the work, very easy to use.
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Jenifer Daisal Camtasia 9 is already pretty old. But the best source of training materials for anything Camtasia is Dappertext. He has produced awesome interactive training for every version for like 20 years, so he probably has a version for Camtasia 9. You probably want to upgrade though.
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