How To Organize Your Camtasia Projects

Camtasia Studio video projects can contain a LOT of assets like graphics, TREC or CAMREC recordings, PowerPoint slide video content, audio narration tracks…

Not to mention all the other kinds of useful resources for completing a project successfully like planning documents, mind maps, scripts, and references that a more complex project will require.

Oh…then there’s all the files that Camtasia spits out during the Production process!

Here are some tips for maintaining your sanity by staying organized:

This isn’t a new concept or process for me by any stretch…we’ve talked about it in-depth before but I have made a few revisions to my previous standard practices:

1. I now structure my directories more along the lines of the video workflow process. You’ll notice that I also number the main workflow blocks in the order they are performed. This keeps them in order in the directory structure.

2. You could create a Editing directory to store the CAMPROJ files and keep the workflow thing going but frankly I find that having them in the main project directory let’s me launch them quickly without having to navigate to a folder…your call.

The bottom line is for you to create a structure that makes sense to YOU or you won’t use it! The beauty of having a master “template” directory structure is that you only have to create it ONCE and then copy it to new project directories and it will be consistent.

Create your own according to your preferences and SHARE your ideas and tweaks with us in the comments below or (better yet) on our Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/LearnCamtasia

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Thanks!

– Lon Naylor

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Doug Reply

Hey Lon … great tip. I use a directory system too, but it’s not quite as thorough as yours.

I have a high level directory that goes something like:

> SampleProjectDirectory

Then under that I’ll have:

>> Renders
>> Media

I’ll save my project files directly in the SampleProjectDirectory file.

All my renders will go into the “Renders” subdirectory.

And my “Media” subdirectory has 3 or 4 more subdirectories including:

>>> Audio
>>> PPT
>>> Videos
>>> Images

I’ll save various files as “intro-01”, “intro-02”, “outro-01”, etc.

I tend to use Google Docs for my planning , so I don’t have those files in the same directory. But I am starting to experiment with a mindmapping software, and – if I use it more – I’ll definitely be creating a “Planning Folder” for those.

Also, I find I’m tending to keep any video files I create with a directory called “MyVideos” at the root directory. Reason for this is I’m starting to jump back and forth between two video editing programs, so it makes sense to keep the videos in a “neutral” directory. And I’ll even create 3 or 4 subdirectories so I can split the film up by camera (DSLR, webcam, camcorder, and point-and-shoot Canon 310HS).

Anyway, thanks for your tips on staying organized!

~Doug

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