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Tools of the Trade: Snagit 10
Posted by amasiewicz VIP 0 Comment(s) Add a Comment 
10/24/2011 10:04 PM
One of the tools that I use most often is a screen capture program. I recently upgraded to Snagit 10 from Techsmith. This tool allows you to save images of whatever you can display on your computer screen. You can then edit the image, apply annotations, delete sections you don't want, and add drop shadows and torn-page effects. It makes the job aids and other documents I produce look more professional. Often someone will comment and say "wow, how'd you do that? Photoshop?".
Snagit 10 offers some new features and enhances some existing ones. I won't go into great detail, but one of the new features is called "All-in-One" capture which allows you to capture the entire window, or any portion of it on the fly. You can even use the autoscroll feature to capture long pages that extend off the screen.
Here's an example of the new page curl effect. You can add it to any image to make it look like the image is curling right off the page.
Another new feature is transparent backgrounds. That may not sound like much, but if you've ever had to insert an image into a PowerPoint presentation with a colored background, you know how annoying it can be when you're stuck with a boxy white background on your slide. The image above would look just a good on a colored background as it does on white thanks to the transparency.
Along with Snagit's screen capture is the Snagit editor. This allows you to edit your image, remove unwanted parts, add additional text, annotations, arrows, and a variety of other effects.
I use the editor a lot to modify screen captures and remove any private or proprietary information before publication. It's my go-to tool for simple image editing such as cropping or resizing images, or adding callouts and other annotations.
Click the image below to see a demonstration of editing images with Snagit's editor.
Techsmith offers a 30-day free trial of Snagit and their other products on their website. If you haven't used it before I suggest you give it a try. There are similar tools available (some freeware), but this is one of the best.
In a future Tools of the Trade article I'll discuss Camtasia Studio, another Techsmith product that allows you to record everything you do on your screen instead of just creating static images. Great for tutorials.
Blog Archive
10/24/2011 10:04 PM — Tools of the Trade: Snagit 10
10/15/2011 01:25 PM — Articulate Training in Southern California
