How to record video demos, training videos, presentations, video tutorials?

[any ANONYMOUS forum user]

I am looking for software that I can use to record office training videos, video demos, presentations, video tutorials. They will be used for training our office employees. I need to record my computer screen as I go through the steps and I would like to be able to use annotations (text and pictures) and zoom whenever needed. I will also need to remove parts of the videos with pauses, mistakes, ... What screen recorder software can accomplish that?

You can use powerful screen recorder like BB FlashBack (Windows) to record video from screen, add annotations, zoom, crop and cut videos.

If you need to add simple text annotations only, you can record with any screen recorder and then add text using a video editor like AVS Video Editor (Windows).

If you want to create tutorials and presentations in SWF, PDF, HTML, EXE formats, you can do that with freeware Wink (Windows and Linux).
It allows to capture screenshots automatically as you use your PC, based on mouse and keyboard input. And it allows to record your voice as you create the tutorial.

ZoomIt (Windows) is a freeware screen zoom and annotation tool for technical presentations that include application demonstrations. ZoomIt runs in the tray and activates with customizable hotkeys to zoom in on an area of the screen, move around while zoomed, and draw on the zoomed image.

Adobe Captivate (Shareware - $799 / Windows) is very expensive, but is worth mentioning.

It allows to create software demonstrations, software simulations, scenario-based training, and quizzes without programming knowledge or multimedia skills.

Adobe Captivate uses .swf format, but you can also use it to convert .SWF to .AVI which can be uploaded to video sharing websites like YouTube. Alternatively you can host published or in-progress eLearning projects on Acrobat.com, an Adobe CS Live online service.

For software simulations, Captivate can use left or right mouse clicks, key presses and rollover images. Also Captivate can be used for screencasts, podcasts, and the conversion of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to the Adobe Flash format.