If you’ve ever tried to explain how to do something on the computer to someone on the phone or via IM, you know how difficult it can be – especially if that person is not very tech-savvy. In those cases, the best option is probably creating a video that explains the whole thing step by step. The only problem is that recording a screencast takes a long time and can be quite difficult … unless you use Capture Fox.
Capture Fox is a handy Firefox add-on that lets you record any activity on the screen to video in a couple of clicks. Despite being a browser add-on, you can use it to create all sorts of screencasts, even beyond the borders of the Firefox interface. It’s definitely one of the easiest ways to capture screen activity, and if you don’t need a high-quality output, a really handy and quick way to create video tutorials.
To create a screencast with Capture Fox, open Firefox and go to Tools > Capture Fox > Settings. This will open up a window where you can configure different options for your video recording: area to record, video quality, frames per second, audio and video codec, etc. You can also choose to record your own voice with a mic, and set the Firefox window to minimize automatically when the recording starts.
When you finish recording the video (by clicking the icon in the bottom right corner), Capture Fox will display a new message window from which you can choose to play the video right away, save it to a selected folder or delete it and start all over again.
As you can see, creating a screencast with Capture Fox hardly takes any time and doesn’t require any extensive video editing skills. The add-on definitely lacks some features – like the ability to zoom in and out, and support for keyboard shortcuts – but it makes computer tips and tricks much easier to explain.
