Episode 69: An Interview with Daniel Park (Part 2)

July 17, 2008

STOP —- If you haven’t listened to Part 1 yet, go back and do it NOW.

During the first part of our interview with Daniel, Kim and I pretty much bombarded him with Camtasia Studio questions. In the second part, we talked more about his book, Camtasia Studio 5: The Definitive Guide and also about what he’s been up to with dappertext LLC. After he gave us a bit of a scare by keeping silent when we assured our audience that we had NOT chased him away during Part 1 and had returned for Part 2, he answered some of the following questions:

What prompted you to leave Tech Smith and start dappertext LLC?
When did you write the first version of The Definitive Guide and how many have you written?
What audience did you write the book for?
What type of services does dappertext offer?

Daniel and his wife, Maria, moved to Maria’s native country of Spain. Since employment in Spain generally depends on the process of training for a trade or field of endeavor at an early age, the most appealing employment prospect for him was starting his own business. Can you imagine not wanting to flip burgers at Mickie D’s?????? After taking the plunge, he never looked back and has been extremely satisfied with his decision. Being a small (and I do mean small) business owner myself, I agree with him 100%. I’ve never gotten so much satisfaction and earned so little money for so much work. Hey, it’s gotta be worth it….right?

Daniel wrote his first Definitive Guide to go along with Camtasia Studio, version 3, during a visit to the U.S. to explore treatment for his young son, Ruben, who began exhibiting symptoms similar to those of autism. While he was in the U.S., Wordware Publishing approached him about doing a tutorial type book on Camtasia, which he decided to do. He has since updated the book twice to cover versions 4 and now version 5. Since Tech Smith has been putting out a whole number version of Camtasia Studio on a yearly basis, he has been pretty busy with updates.

Wordware gave Daniel a lot of freedom in choosing the format and audience. He wanted the book to be a reference guide; a working tutorial with exercises; a tip guide; and a classroom manual. Having used the book myself, I can tell you that he succeeded on all accounts! The book also contains a companion CD with all the software a reader needs to complete the exercises in the book.

Other than services surrounding Camtasia, dappertext also does copywriting, technical writing, translation, voiceovers, videography. Daniel considers anything that falls under the umbrella of corporate communications to be part of the services he offers. Aside from the services he offers through dappertext, Daniel the the most prolific contributor to Tech Smith’s Camtasia forum and has also just begun production of a newsletter called The Screencaster which is filled with tips, tricks and information for anyone who is exploring the use of screencasting (creating digital recordings of computer screen outputs) in their business or personal endeavors. As a subscriber and new user of Camtasia, I highly recommend The Screencaster.

Daniel and his family will be moving back to the United States in the near future where educational options for children with special needs are more numerous. If anyone here in the U.S. has or has had a satisfying personal experience with a school district that provides those services, Daniel would really appreciate hearing from you. If you’re in need of any of the services he offers through dappertext LLC, he’d like to hear from you also. An advantage of having a business like dappertext is that he is able to operate it successfully from anywhere in the world. You can visit Daniel online at www.dappertext.com or you can send him an e-mail if you have school district information you can share, or if you’d like to learn more about his services.

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Category Posted in Interviews, Views From The Coop