I recently completed training and supporting a large amount of users for my current project and found a neat, free little tool that can really improve the training and support materials mix. I normally use a combination of presentations, user guides, quick one page crib sheets and still users ask for more help! The fact is many of them don't read the materials in the first place or they find it hard to follow for certain activities, so if a picture is worth a thousand words, how many is a video worth!?
The Jing Project (www.jingproject.com) is a lightweight, quick n' easy screen capture facility for taking short 'video postcards' that you can either host for free on the web or in my case output to a file to host on my projects intranet site. The standard FAQ pages can then be supplemented by short videos showing the user what to do rather than telling them how, the result is a much better understanding in a short time period.
| When loaded it sits at the top of your screen looking like a sun, it's operation is easy, you simply select capture video and then select the size of the screen you want to capture. |  |
 | It supports voice as well and in seconds you can complete your short demo.
Finally you watch a preview of what you have recorded and select the output method and your done. |
It's certainly worth investigating as I have found it a real time saver.