How to Make a Video Guide

Oliva Eve
2023-08-25 21:06:27 • Filed to: Customer Service Tips

Videos are becoming an integral part of marketing strategies across the world. You can make a video to educate your users about the product you are dealing with. Also, you can promote your services and product through videos by showing the right demonstrations.

According to a survey, about 53 percent of users love to watch instructional videos every week. Regardless of the industry that you are dealing with, tutorial videos are the best approach. You can use these to educate your users.

Along with this, it helps you in expanding your business in the world of the internet. Also, it will build your online course materials efficiently. Here is an in-depth guide on how to make a video guide. It will help you in making a tutorial video attractive and informative:

Step-by-step Process to Create a User Guide Video

Plan the Tutorial

1. Make a Storyboard

Creating a storyboard helps with half the process and hence, start building a storyboard by picking the topic you are going to discuss. Since you have your plan laid down on the paper, you will be addressing frequently asked questions by your customers, or an onboarding experience.

You must make a plan before you initiate the video recording. At the starting of the video, you should address what the video is trying to teach the viewers, the kinds of tools or devices you will be assisting by.

Once done with that, opt for setting timeline mentioning the steps needed to achieve the target. Moreover, do not expect the immediate and automatic flow of the video as soon as you start presenting.

2. Make a script

Well, scripting down the content of the video is important if you look forward to the process of how to make a video user guide. Once you have a draft of the script, try practising so that the words you write will be better than how you speak normally.

Also, to make your video effective, focus on the speech part. If you are not clear with the words you are speaking, or you are getting a problem in presenting your tutorial in logical steps, then, the viewers might not resort to your tutorials for long.

A tutorial video's objective is to explain something in a clear, concise, and easy manner. This way, the viewers can not only easily understand but also implement the tutorial.

3. Decide which scenes are to be shot with you on camera

This is the very next step of planning a tutorial to understand how to create a video guide. Opt to create a structural script with a beginning, middle, and ending. You can save up on a lot of time and hard work. It can be done by properly planning on when your face will be visible on the screen vs. when it will not be.

Setting up the Equipment

1. Microphone

When it comes to using a microphone, a simple lavalier microphone is preferred. However, otherwise, you can use headphones with a mic attached to them like Airpods or Bluetooth headset. For any video to be of good-enough quality, the sound is significant in any video. Now, the same things apply to tutorial videos as well. Moreover, it is also recommended for the creators to use an external microphone.

Also, instead of using the one built in your PC or camera, an external option can have better audio effects than in-built one for many reasons. Apart from that, try to film the video in a quiet place. This is because it will help you in avoiding external noise as much as possible.

2. Lighting

Investing in lighting equipment that is costly isn't really that crucial. You may start with basic ones in the beginning or opt for natural lighting as well. All that you must take care of is your positioning when filming something in the preferred lighting option. Make sure the light falls properly on the subject or you if you are using artificial light. If you are facing the light, you can opt for diffusing the natural sunlight.

You can do that with the use of a prop such as a cloth or paper. Similarly, in the case of windows behind you, you can opt for covering them up, so the light from there isn't disturbing the overall video output quality by too much brightness in the back.

3. The positioning of your webcam

The positioning of your webcam is as crucial as any lighting equipment. When putting a laptop in front of you, make sure the webcam is good enough for your eye level. You may opt to place it a little above using an object underneath to increase its overall height.

Now, this will help you to look slightly up for a better face feature and expressions. This will prevent looking downwards with a bad angle and can even work at hiding that double chin of yours (only if you have). Moreover, try to put the webcam in a way that it captures enough light and showcases your best facial features.

4. Recording your Video content

You can opt to use Wondershare DemoCreator to record audio voiceovers, and for screen recording as well. Moreover, the various features of DemoCreator along with some settings may be used for making tutorial video as per your liking. Here is how:

How to Record Video Guide

Step 1: Setting Up the Screen

In this step, you can customize the screen according to your convenience. To customize the screen, you will have to choose the tab that reads “Screen.” From there, you can choose whether you wish to record the whole screen or a specific area that you wish to demonstrate in your streaming. However, if you wish to record a game streaming, you will have to indicate your choice. After that, you will have to choose a frame rate from a range lying between 15 fps and 120 fps.

screen capture frame rate

By default, the software records the full screen. If you want to customize the area of recording, adjust the recording area by dragging the border. Click and drag to reposition the region of recording. For making minute size adjustments, use a magnifier. Again, if you want to undo all changes and go back to full screen, press Shift+F.

Step 2: Setting Up the Audio

The Wondershare DemoCreator allows you the provision to choose whether you wish to record the audio from either your computer or from your microphone or both. By default, the setting is fixed to the audio recording from both the sources, but the setting is subject to alteration. You have to select the option that reads “Don’t capture” from the box next to the one you do not wish to record.

setup audio

If you are recording audio through your microphone, you can adjust the volume by dragging the slider that will be available on the recording screen.

Step 3: Adjusting the Camera Settings

Alongside the recording that will be done through your screen, you can also choose to record through the webcam. After you have enabled the webcam recording, you can customize the settings according to your convenience. Choose the camera, resolution, and frame rate, and you are good to go!

setup camera

Some More Advanced Settings

Apart from these basic settings, some other advanced settings allow you to choose features like where you want your files to be saved after the recording is over, whether to hide the controls at the time of recording. Once you are satisfied with the changes that you have made, click on the button that reads “Capture,” and the recording will start.

One can also customize the settings on the recorder screen if you wish to. To start the recording process, press F10. Again, if you want to stop the recording procedure, press F10. To pause the recording and resume it again, press F9.

Edit Your Guide Video with Effects

The first and foremost step of editing a tutorial or any video using DemoCreator is importing the media files. To import the media files, you will have to click on the File option and then choose the option that reads “Import Media Files.” After you are done choosing the media files that you want to include in the video, add them.

After that, sort and filter the media files according to your convenience. Once you are done adding the media files, you can follow the steps that are mentioned below:

Step 1: Add the Media Files to the Preview Window

Once you have added your desired media files to the “Media Library,” drag them and bring them to the preview window. However, the cursor over a thumbnail to preview the video contained in that particular clip.

If you later find out that some part of your video is not required in the final.

Step 2: Editing the Audio

After adding the media files to the media library, you can take care of the audio settings. You can edit the clips separately and detach or mute the audio for each one of them. If you want to mute the audio for any clip, simply right-click on the clip and choose the option that reads “Mute Audio.”

Similarly, there is an option with the help of which you can detach the audio clip from a video.

Step 3: Trim and Resize the Videos

You cannot expect your videos to be perfect in one go. It is important to make the necessary changes so that the videos become refined before they are made available to the people. You can trim the video clips to omit the unnecessary parts. You can also adjust the visual property of the videos. If you want to resize a clip, choose “Visual Property” and change the percentage while keeping in mind that the video's resolution is not distorted.

Under Visual Property, you will also find options that will allow you to crop the videos or rotate them. Preview them before applying the final changes to the video clip.

Step 4: Adding Effects

You can add many effects into your video, such as text, stickers, annotations, captions and cursor effects. More surprising thing is, you are now allowed to use transitions and green screen effects with this video editor.

cursor effects

Conclusion

Screen recording has never been easier than this. Moreover, the software allows you to customize the settings such as the layout of the screen, audio, webcam, etc., according to your convenience. So your query on how to make a video user guide ends with this in-depth guide with all the required instructions. Furthermore, with the help of Wondershare DemoCreator, you can easily record your desktop screen by following the steps mentioned above.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has led to the rapid emergence of online modes of teaching. Therefore, the internet is flooded with tutorial videos. More and more online tutors are searching for the best software to edit their videos and make it appealing to the students. Therefore, your search for the best video editing software ends here.