Dictate in any app · Media

Voice typing in Camtasia

Camtasia produces training video, and training video needs a script and a description. Typally puts your words into Camtasia the moment you release the key, in whichever field you left the cursor.

Disclosure: Typally is our product. We have tried to describe what Camtasia already does without talking you out of using it.
Dictate into Camtasia 100 free minutes every month. No card, and nothing to cancel if you stop.
Try Typally free

In short

  • Camtasia's own dictation: Captioning and text-to-speech features.
  • What Typally does instead: behaves like a keyboard, so it reaches parts of Camtasia a built-in feature would not.
  • Best used for: video scripts

Does Camtasia have built-in dictation?

Captioning and text-to-speech features. Neither writes your script.

Why dictate in Camtasia at all?

Instructional video is made by subject experts rather than presenters. They know the material and freeze when asked to write a script, then improvise on camera and re-record four times.

In practice people use it for: Video scripts, callout and annotation text, video descriptions, and course module summaries.

How to dictate in Camtasia

You do not configure anything in Camtasia. The hotkey works wherever your cursor happens to be:

1

Set Typally up once

One install, one sign-in. Nothing else to configure.

2

In Camtasia, click the field before you speak

Text goes wherever Camtasia has focus. One click first saves undoing a paragraph in the wrong box.

3

Press and speak

Hold, talk, release. Long passages are fine.

4

Read it before you move on

Camtasia's captions transcribe the audio you recorded, which does not help you write what to say.

What Typally adds in Camtasia

Typally types the script into whatever document you draft in, so scripting stops being the barrier between knowing the material and recording it. Hearing your explanation before filming is what turns four takes into one.

What this looks like in practice

A trainer speaks the script for a software walkthrough and plays it back once. Two steps are obviously out of order, which would have surfaced only after recording the whole thing.

One habit that makes it work better

Speak the script first and listen back. Hearing your own explanation is the fastest way to notice the step you skipped, and it is cheaper than four takes.

What to watch out for in Camtasia

Camtasia's captions transcribe the audio you recorded, which does not help you write what to say.

Frequently asked questions

Does Camtasia have captions?

Yes, for your recorded audio. That is different from writing the script.

Why script an instructional video?

Because improvising means re-recording. A spoken script costs minutes and saves takes.

Can I dictate callout text?

Yes — annotation fields are ordinary text inputs.

Try it in Camtasia

The free plan gives you 100 minutes a month without a card — enough to find out whether talking beats typing for you.

Try Typally free

Also dictate in: Loom · CapCut · Canvas · OBS Studio · Final Cut Pro · see all apps