Small Business

Screencast for Free with ScreenToaster

By Dave Johnson

Updated on: March 11, 2009 / 10:41 AM EDT / MoneyWatch

A video is worth 2.7 million words, assuming 15 frames per second for three minutes and the traditional exchange rate of 1000 words per picture. That's why video has become an important part of daily life at work, from product demos to training documents. If you're operating on a shoestring, though, $300 is a lot to ask for commercial screencasting software. Now you can use ScreenToaster, a free online tool that makes high quality recordings of your screen.

ScreenToaster allows you to record the whole desktop or an arbitrary rectangular area, lets you add captions, and has surprisingly excellent playback quality. Of course, its features can't match a heavy hitter like Techsmith Camtasia. It won't smartly change the cropping to the active window as you record, and there are no editing tools to trim the fat out of your video "in post." Currently, your completed video is uploaded to ScreenToaster's server, but a YouTube option is apparently coming.

If your screencasting needs are modest, ScreenToaster might be all you ever need. Don't believe me? Check out my very own ScreenToaster masterpiece, above.