[Athen] Camtasia Studio 4 and Captions

[Terry Thompson]

Hi All, 

I'm currently participating in a discussion with TechSmith, makers of
Camtasia 4, about their method for delivering closed captions in Flash. For
those who haven't seen it, here's a sample: 
http://www.brooksandrus.com/screenca...flashcaptions/

My position is that displaying captions in a semi-transparent overlay, with
stuff happening underneath, makes the captions difficult to read. Their
position (truncated and paraphrased) is that it's an efficient use of
valuable screen real estate, "designed to allow the text to stand out while
still allowing you to see what's going on underneath the overlay"

What do you all think? If you agree with my position, I'd appreciate some
convincing arguments that I can pass on to TechSmith. (Or if you disagree
with me, that's ok too)  

Or if you'd rather participate directly the discussion, it's here: 
http://forums.techsmith.com/showthread.php?p=15656#post15656

(note that it's currently 2 pages and growing - see both pages for the full
thread)

Thanks!
Terry

Terry Thompson
Technology Specialist, DO-IT
University of Washington
tft at u.washington.edu
206/221-4168 
http://www.washington.edu/doit