Business Software On the Go: Web Access

Do you feel tied down to your business? You shouldn’t; try taking it with you! Many of NCH Software’s business solutions have a web access feature that lets you check your business info and run your business no matter where you are. You can check sales data, create invoices, manage stock and keep your business running smoothly whether you are in your office, at any of your business locations, or on the road with these cost-effective business programs:

Express Invoice

Create and send invoices, print receipts for “quick sales,” and view client contact info and statements while you travel. Download Express Invoice and watch this tutorial about setting up the web access feature.

Express Accounts

Manage every financial aspect of your business, including sales and purchases, accounts receivable and accounts payable, access reports, and reconcile your accounts. Download Express Accounts and set up the web access feature. Also be sure to check out our essential guide to bookkeeping.

Inventoria

A great solution for a single or multiple locations, Inventoria’s web access feature lets you order stock, receive stock, manage stock, and view reports. Download Inventoria and watch this tutorial about setting up the web access feature.

And for those days you are in the office, check out our other Business Software for everything from customer relationship management to employee time management software.

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Easy Chroma Key Video Overlays

Often during editing you will want to remove the background from a video. This is commonly seen with television newscasts or interviews where the video of the person is overlaid onto a different video backdrop, or a logo animation is overlaid on a background. Chroma Key is also commonly referred to as green screen. Sometimes videos will have a transparency or alpha channel that you can adjust to remove the background, but more often than not, you will have to utilize Chroma Key tools in video editing software to remove the backgrounds.

Proper lighting makes using Chroma Keys far easier. Ensure the subject(s) and background are both well-lit. Solid color backdrops work the best. You can buy professional blue or green fabric backdrops or special Chroma Key paint. Avoid having shadows or hot spots on the background or unnecessary detail in the background as it will make it harder to “pull a key” later. Natural sunlight can often make the foreground subject bleed into the background when trying to key a color, so it’s best to use artificial lighting.

NCH Software’s VideoPad Video Editor has the ability to select a Chroma Key color with its Overlay feature. Add the video as an overlay track, and select the Use Chroma Key checkbox to bring up the Chroma Key preview window.

Select the Chroma Key color by clicking on the color you want to key out in the preview image. Then, using the preview image as a reference, adjust the Background and Foreground sliders until the desired transparency is achieved. Note you can click different positions on the timeline to see how the video will look. Click OK to apply changes.

If you would like to make changes later, first select the overlay in the list on the Overlay tab, and then click the Change button next to the Use Chroma Key checkbox.

Below is an example video we made using the Videopad Chroma Key feature. Download VideoPad for yourself to try this and the other easy video editing features for yourself.

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Editing Video from a Cell Phone

With the majority of cell phones today coming with not only a built-in camera but also video recording capabilities, the amount of video the average home user takes is skyrocketing. It's just one of the many reasons there are so many videos being posted to YouTube every day. But not every video you record is going to be ready for the big time right away, so if you need to do a little bit of editing here are two extremely useful tools you should using try to clean up your cell phone videos.

Rotate Video

With the variety of flip phones, slide phones, and other shapes of phones, keeping track of which way is up while filming could be a challenge. You may quickly find out all your video needs to be rotated so that you don't have to watch it with your head tilted to the side. Prism Video Converter offers an easy solution. Not only can you convert your video from 3gp, a common video format recorded on phones, to something more computer friendly like avi you can also choose to rotate the video by going into "Effects" before hitting Convert.

Stabilize Video

Another common problem you might have—that you might not have even known you can fix—is with video clips that are shaky from an unsteady hand. If your video reminds you a little too much of The Blair Witch Project, you can stabilize your video with the stabilization feature in VideoPad Video Editor to eliminate jitter. See an example of video stabilization in action in our post A Quick Fix for Shaky Video Clips.

If you are really feeling your inner movie director come to life there are a lot more video editing transitions and effects available in VideoPad, but I think you will be surprised how big a difference even just a few adjustments like these can make to your videos.

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VideoPad Video Editing Tips & Tricks

One of the blog entries that is consistently getting a lot of traffic is our post announcing the speed changing feature to VideoPad. Not surprising since that was such a long-awaited feature to be added to our popular video editing software. Since it has been a popular post, I decided to expand on the topic with several Tips and Tricks for editing video with VideoPad. If you have any tips of your own please comment and add them to our list. And for those of you new to video editing you may want to get started by checking out the VideoPad video tutorials.

Title Screen and Ending Credits

Add a blank slide to the beginning or end of the timeline. Add text to the slideslide by clicking the green plus button on the Overlay Track, and a fade transition to create a dramatic opening or closing effect to your movie. For ending credits, select the vertical scrolling option and adjust the clip duration to control the scrolling speed.

Text Overlays

Adding captions, title screens and credits is a cinch. See our post on Adding text to your videos for some tips to help you get started using the Overlay Track to add text to video clips.

Video Subtitles

Subtitles are another way of adding text to your video projects. See our post on adding subtitles to your video for a quick overview on importing or creating an .ssa subtitle file in VideoPad, or for more detailed instructions go to our video subtitles tutorial.

Image Overlays

To create a watermark effect or add images to your video for presentations, use image overlays. Click the green plus button on the Overlay Track, select the Image or Video radio button, browse for a file and apply it to the sequence. Once it’s on the sequence, you can select it and edit its size, opacity, positioning and more.

Control Effect Duration

To apply an effect to only part of a clip, try slicing the clip in two. Apply an effect to only one slice, and place a cross-fade between the slices for a seamless transition.

Change Video Speed

Speed up or slow down video clips by selecting a clip and selecting the Speed effect from the Effects tab, then use the slider to select the new speed for the video clip, (i.e. 50% for half speed, 200% for double). You can also choose to play the clip backward.

Video Stabilization

One possible problem you may have with videos you have recorded on your camcorder is video clips that are shaky or unsteady. This is a common problem when you film without a tripod to keep the camcorder still no matter how steady you think your hands are. The video stabilization feature is an easy solution to eliminating camera jitter in your videos, giving you a final video that won't make you seasick to watch.

Upload Videos to YouTube

VideoPad has a wide range of output options for saving your final video, and if you are creating your video for YouTube you can even skip a step and upload to YouTube from VideoPad by entering your YouTube account information and other details, which is just one of the many choices available when saving your finished movie. VideoPad also has automated upload options for Facebook and Flickr.

Sound Effects

VideoPad comes with a Sound Effect Library. You can preview and download sounds from the Sound Effects Library by going to Edit → Sound → NCH Sound Effect Library. And since VideoPad has unlimited audio tracks, you have plenty of room to add and mix in the sound effect to your movie soundtrack.

Greenscreen Video Editing

For shooting those scenes you can’t do on location, use the chroma-key feature to transport yourself to another locale. To use chroma-key, click the green plus button on the Overlay Track, select the Image or Video radio button, click the Record button, click the Remove Background button, and follow the onscreen instructions.

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Do More with Audio - Blog Carnival February 7, 2011

Here are this edition's entries to Do More with Audio:

Florine Church presents 20 Incredible TED Talks for Both Music Students and Lovers posted at Bachelor's Degree.

Jennifer Lynch presents 20 Soulful Blogs for Vinyl Fans and Collectors posted at Top Online Colleges.

Bobby Owsinski presents Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Production Blog: 5 Steps To Prep For Mixing posted at Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Production Blog.

Jena Ellis presents 11 Greatest TV Theme Songs of All-Time posted at Online Certificate Programs.

Katie Tellefson presents 40 Blogs for the Cajun Enthusiast posted at Accredited MBA, saying, "With Cajun culture and history comes amazing music and even more amazing food. It isn’t every day that you get to nosh on gumbo or dance to the sounds of a fast-paced accordion, but with these Cajun enthusiast blogs, you’ll gain a better understanding of the culture and appreciate its quirks."

Steve Guttenberg presents Does lossless audio guarantee good sound? posted at The Audiophiliac.

Nathan Madsen presents Tips for Creating Audio for the iPhone posted at The Sonic Spread.

You might also be interested in:

• Put a DJ in the house
  
• Solving A Musicians Tuning Stress
  
• Streaming Audio Recorder Saves Time for Radio Producers
  
• MIDI Support Coming to NCH Software
  

That concludes this edition of "Do more with audio." Be sure to Submit your audio article, story or success to the next edition.

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