When you use screen capture software for rapid video creation and record Camtasia videos with PowerPoints or MindMaps, the presentation process becomes super simple.

A video presentation reduces the reading time of a blog post from 5 to 10 minutes, to three minutes or less. That means you get a wider audience, more comments and more exposure.

To get more mileage out of an article, convert into a video using this very easy method that requires less than one minute of preparation per article. It relies on PowerPoint’s ability to import text files.

In just a few seconds, you can take your article, apply a couple of simple search-and-replace actions, import the individual sentences as individual slides, record, and dictate. Here’s the exact procedure:

Step 1: Copy and paste your article (INCLUDING the title on the first line) into a text editor like EditPlus that allows for a multi-line search and replace.

Also copy your article title as the LAST line of the article so people will remember what you just told them.

Step 2: Search and replace the end of each sentence to force a new line so that every sentence appears on its own line. Replace “.” (a period) with a period, and a newline.

In EditPlus, go to Search -> Replace, then click the “More” button to show the multi-line search and replace boxes. In the “search” box, type that period. In the “replace” box at the bottom, you can simply type a period, hit Enter, and it will add the newline for you.

Now you should have an article where every sentence is on its own line.

Step 3: Save this list of sentences as a text file. Then open PowerPoint and choose File -> Open. You won’t see the file you need at first.

Go to the dropdown that says “All PowerPoint Presentations” and change it to “All Outlines.” Browse to the folder containing the text file you saved, and double click it. This will set each sentence as one slide.

Step 4: Select all slides by hitting Ctrl+A, right click and change the slide layout to “Title Slide.”

Want to change the layout of the slides easily? Go to View -> Slide Master to change the appearance of all the slides in that presentation. Then click “Close Master View” to switch back to the presentation.

If you want to knock out a bunch of article videos at a time, simply place seven of your articles (with each article title at the beginning and end) in one big text file.

Start the PowerPoint presentation, record your presentation in Camtasia. Stop, save, and start a new presentation once you’ve reached the end of the article.

Don’t have the article written? That’s no problem, just use my mindmap technique to create the presentation. But if you only want to convert a text article into a Camtasia video, this is the fastest way to do it.

Whether you are creating blog content, a sales pitch, or a product, the fastest way to create content is with video — no writing required!

If you want to create a fancy-shmancy video like Michel and Sylvie, create a PowerPoint slide and record your screen as you talk. This is my preferred way of recording video, but if I’m in a hurry, I can whip up a mindmap presentation in one-third of the time as a PowerPoint.

The easiest kind of video to create is screen capture video. This is where a program records your desktop and you talk into a microphone. Use Camtasia if you’re working in Windows, or ScreenFlow if you’re on a Mac.

Both come with 30-day trials and there is a free version called Jing which is limited to five-minute recordings, so nothing is standing in the way of you creating screen capture videos.

Size your resolution down to the smallest possible (I reduce to 640×480), start a PowerPoint slide show, record the screen, and start talking. (If you can’t afford $79 for Microsoft Office, use OpenOffice.) That’s all there is to it.

Pretend you’re recording live at a seminar in front of a crowd and explain what you have to say in one take. No one says it has to be anything near perfect.

The only problem with recording those presentations is it sometimes takes a while to make them. For a 20-minute presentation, I have to make about 15 slides with a headline on each slide and three bullet points. That can take a while! So when I want to whip up an interview quickly, I create what’s called a “mindmap.”

What’s a mindmap? It’s basically a brainstorm with thought bubbles, like you use to draw in grade school when you took notes or outlined essays. You have the root “node”… or thought bubble, which is the title of your presentation, and other children “nodes” (thought bubbles) under them, thought bubbles under those, and so on.

Because it’s on a computer, you can expand or contract mindmaps to only show the one subject you’re talking about. It’s a perfect way to quickly organize your thoughts, and makes it perfect for audio interviews, webinars, or standalone videos.

Unlike a PowerPoint presentation, you can present items in any order and skip over items if you run out of time. You can also export your mindmaps into PDF or HTML form so your attendees get the exact notes you used to present.

Here’s how to get started:

1. Grab a mindmapping tool. I prefer FreeMind because it’s free and works on both Windows and Mac. (Go to that link and find the “Download” area.)
2. Get an idea for your 10 to 90 minute presentation, rename the root node to the title of your presentation.
3. Right click and choose “New child” to create a child node under the root node. Use this as your subpoint and create other children under the root node for additional subpoints.
4. For each subpoint, create a child node under that to provide details… usually a couple of keywords or some VERY concise sentences.

It’s not rocket science. Once you’ve created your nodes, you can drag them above or below other nodes to rearrange them in the map. You can drag nodes into other nodes, and so on.

I recommend you move all nodes to the RIGHT side of the root so they all appear as a “list”… and limit yourself to 2 to 5 children per node to keep the map from getting messy. Never go more than three levels deep.

I can whip up a mindmap presentation in just a couple of minutes this way. Using mindmaps, I use several keyboard shortcuts like the Insert key to add new child nodes, the Enter key to add a bunch of “sibling” nodes at once, the F2 key to rename nodes and the arrow keys and spacebar to navigate between nodes.

For a well thought out but easy to create presentation for videos, webinars and interviews… create a mindmap and expand on each point you’re trying to make one at a time as you present. Combine this with desktop recording software or built-in webinar screen capture software… and you’ve got yourself an instant product, blog post, or interview.