Importing .wmv or .avi

[robhovey]

Can video files other than .mimov be imported? I want to import a .wmv file, edit in Mimic, and then re-publish.

Possible?

[doc_guy]

I don't have Mimic installed at this moment, but a quick search of the help (http://webhelp.madcapsoftware.com/mimic ... Movies.htm) seems to indicate that this is not possible.

[RamonS]

Mimic is not a non-linear video editing application. There are plenty of those available who can work with wmv and avi files. Movie Maker comes with Win7 and can do simple cuts. What do you want to do with the videos and what is your budget? Based on that I may give some better recommendations.

[robhovey]

I have Camtasia Studio, but I was hoping to replace that with Mimic, since I'm already using Flare and Capture. I record training videos using GoToTraining. Those trainings are recorded as .wmv files. Before posting them to my company portal for end users to view, I need to do some minor edits (clip dead space at the beginning, add a clickable link at certain points during the recording, etc).

[RamonS]

The cuts can be done with Movie Maker, the rest is not that easy. Clickable links cannot be inserted into a wmv or avi, you need a format that is 'click aware' such as Flash. Mimic generally does not record full frame video, but takes screen shots and binds them together with transitions and movable objects. The reason for that is to make much smaller media files that look like videos.

I found online a discussion about the same topic and it supports what I assume:
http://www.webmasterworld.com/video/3468811.htm
That said, I also found this:
http://www.squidoo.com/embed
You can apparently do that using QuickTime, but that most likely will require to publish the videos in the QuickTime format and use the QuickTime player which needs to be installed separately on every client.

My suggestion is to evaluate the use case for the clickable links in video. Will it be sufficient to show the links next to the video player in a web page and make references as needed such as "If you want more information click on the links to the right of the video player..."

Lastly, submit a feature request to MadCap to be able to import full frame video into Mimic for the sake of putting layers on top and exporting all of that to a common format that retains the clickable links. That would be neat because those links could branch out to other videos. MadCap has a web form for feature requests here: https://www.madcapsoftware.com/feedback ... quest.aspx