The Visual Lounge lets you find out about TechSmith behind-the-scenes. Watch screencasts and videos from other customers, meet up with your fellow TechSmith users and staff, and get more tips and tricks!

What are a pirate's favorite kind of socks?

Arrrrrrgyle!

Yo ho ho! Listen up, matey! 'Talk like a Pirate' Day is coming up on Saturday, September. 19. What are you going to do to celebrate?

Over the years, we've had some fun at TechSmith celebrating Pirates and this holiday. On the left of this blog post is a pic of Kate Sumbler from our Tech Support team dressed up as a Software Pirate a few years ago for Halloween. :-) As the holiday apporaches, you'll hear many bad Pirate jokes shared throughout the office.

And, at TechSmith, we believe that Pirates need their own Snagit training. Arrrrr, how else are they going to learn?

When Chris McQueen, from our Training department, isn't swashbucklin' and sailing the high seas, he's making Screencasts. He made an Intro to Snagit training video with Camtasia Studio just for Snagit Pirates! Check out the screencast below. It runs 2:10 minutes.

Arrrrrrrr! Not a Pirate? No need to walk the plank! You can see the original Intro to Snagit screencast here. Pirates need screencasts too!

What are you going to do to celebrate Talk Like a Pirate day?

One request I hear is to add OCR (Optical Character Recognition) functionality to Snagit. There is a work-around if you'd like to do this with Snagit.

Why would someone want OCR functionality? Well, say you need a list of all the file names you have in a directory (song list, photo names, expense reports, etc). You could manually type them out one by one, but that takes too long. Or, sometimes you might want to convert a picture or PDF that has text into editable text.

If you have Microsoft Office, there is an easy way you can utilize OCR with Snagit. You can use Snagit with Microsoft Office's built-in OCR software. It's called Microsoft Office Document Imaging (MODI). Chris McQueen recently made a great tutorial for the Snagit Newsletter showing exactly how to do this. Check it out here.

Try it out! It's a great time saver...

What other tasks would you like to do with Snagit?

I'm in France this week for LeWeb and they have these wonderful Christkindlmarket's set up all over the city. I've had fun shopping at them for holiday gifts and other small presents to bring back to the office. The Snagit team has been working on some surprises - Snagit 9.1 was released today and it is full of some nice 'presents' for you!

Mini Toolbar - You can save time and extra clicks with Snagit's new Mini Toolbar. Instead of having to flip back and forth between tabs in SnagIt's Editor, you now have access to the most frequently used editing features from the Draw tab. When you select a vector object on the canvas, or when you right-click a vector object, the Mini toolbar appears. See the little menu in the yellow box in the screenshot to the left? That's an example of the Mini Toolbar in action.

Live Preview - I love this new feature! Curious to see what that torn edge or drop shadow might look like on your screencapture before you make the change? With live preview, you can see what a variety of different options look like before committing to the change. I made a quick 30 second Jingcast showing off Live Preview which you can see below. There is no audio.

Auto-store Export - I just switched computers recently. It was so much work to move everything over and get the new computer up and running. We've added a new auto-store export to Snagit so you can now take all your unsaved captures with you quickly and easily.

Stamps - Now you can find your favorite stamps easier with categories and visual search. You can download additional stamps from here.

You'll also notice that Snagit has a new look too. In addition to a new logo, the user interface has a new look and feel to it. Now if we could only figure out a way to incorporate that 'new car' smell into Snagit! Smell-o-vision anyone? :-)

You can see the entire list of what's new in Snagit 9 here. Or, if you prefer video, watch the 'What's New' video here.

And, this is a FREE upgrade for anyone who has purchased 9.0. Learn how to upgrade to Snagit 9.1 here. Or, try out the free 30 day eval here.

Enjoy and send us your feedback! I'd love to hear what you think of this new release and what you'd like to see in future releases.

Our good friends over at Fog Creek Software worked with us to develop a new SnagIt output for their project management software, FogBugz. With this new output, you can quickly send your SnagIt screencaptures directly to FogBugz.

You can learn more and download the output here. Fog Creek also has a great blog post walking through the steps to use the output here.

Why do you need this? Well, let me share how we use it. At TechSmith, we use Fogbugz to submit, manage and track projects in several different departments. For instance, I might need to make a change to this blog. In the past, I'd submit a project in FogBugz with tons of text. Now, I can simply take a screencapture with SnagIt and use the FogBugz output to quickly attach the screenshot to a new case in FogBugz. My task for the webstaff is clear and concise with a screenshot showing exactly what I need changed. In the end, it saves the team time and avoids any confusion. Everyone is happy!

Big thanks go to Joel Spolsky, Michael Pryor and Fog Creek Software for their help developing the SnagIt FogBugz Output.

You can see all of the SnagIt outputs here. What other programs would you like to see a SnagIt output for?

It's that time again! Every four years in the United States, we have a political circus for the Presidential Election. I have been in Europe for quite a bit this fall (and am in Spain now) and it has been interesting to get a different perspective watching the campaigning and debates from the other side of the pond.

While I generally stick to the rule of not talking about politics, I recently talked with Joey Infortuno (that's him in the pic on the left) who does marketing for JibJab. I found out they were using SnagIt at JibJab. So, with the election fast approaching tomorrow, I thought this was the perfect time to share how JibJab is using SnagIt. I'm not here to pick sides and JibJab makes fun of both political parties. So, we should be on neutral ground here, right?

Here's a little Q&A that I (BW) had with Joey Infortuno (JI) about JibJab's use of SnagIt.

BW: How have images and screenshots changed your own communication for the better?
JI: Conveying more with the right pictures helps us move forward faster. SnagIt has made it all too easy to share everything.

BW: Are your images and screenshots used internally or externally? What is the viewer response to them?
JI:We use SnagIt for internal and external communications. Sharing high impact screen shots can mean less text, less text means less reading, we think people like that.

BW: What do you use SnagIt for primarily?
JI: From high-level mockups, product flows, capturing web-press, conveying support issues to sharing laughs by capturing and editing funny images, we use SnagIt whenever we can find an excuse to.

BW: What are the last three captures in your Open Captures Tray?
JI: ... Obama, Palin and Mario Lopez

BW: Is there one feature of SnagIt that has flat-out delighted you? Tell me about it...
JI: The editorial tools are a lot of fun but I love how fast it is... capture, edit and share quickly.

BW: Anything else we should know?
JI: A new JibJab user demo produced with Camtasia Studio 5 is on the way, stay tuned!

About JibJab: Brothers Gregg and Evan Spiridellis founded JibJab in 1999 with a few thousand dollars worth of computer equipment, a dial-up Internet connection and a dream of building a global entertainment brand. In 2004, their election parody "This Land" spark an international sensation and was viewed more than 80 million times online. NASA even contacted the brothers to send a copy to the International Space Station! Since then, JibJab has premiered ten original productions on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and received coverage on every major news outlet. In 2004, Peter Jennings named the brothers "People of the Year."

I'm still in Berlin this week for Berlin Web Week. Yesterday I attended PowerPoint Anwendertage (that's PowerPoint User Days for those of you who do not speak German). I attended a session about video and PowerPoint conducted by Axel Becker. That's Axel and I to the left at a Berlin Eisbären hockey game tonight (Eisbären won, if you're interested!).

This reminded me to share with you some resources to using SnagIt and Camtasia Studio with PowerPoint. One way to set yourself apart from boring PowerPoints is to spice them up with some great visuals and video.

I've seen many presentations completely derailed because the presenter ended up not having an internet connection that they were promised. I always liked to 'safety proof' my PowerPoint presentations with some Camtasia Studio videos. I'd simply use Camtasia Studio to record the website I wanted to show off, save the video, and add it to my PowerPoint slide deck. That way, it did not matter if I had an internet connection for my presentation.

Also, ever done a presentation and have someone ask for your slides? I don't about you, but my slides don't usually have a lot of text and I'm too lazy to write in-depth speakers notes. And, I often leave PowerPoint to show off software and websites. So, my slides are only one part of the story. Next time you present, hook yourself up on a microphone and use Camtasia Studio to record all elements of your presentation. That way you can share your entire presentation with anyone who'd like to review it.

I compiled a few links about using SnagIt and Camtasia Studio with PowerPoint, but there are many more out there. Check out:

• A tutorial about how to record a PowerPoint Presentation with Camtasia Studio here.

• A SnagIt Output accessory for PowerPoint. Use this Output accessory to send your SnagIt screencaptures directly to PowerPoint... and its free.

• An example about how to add interactive images to your PowerPoint presentation with PowerPoint.

So, let's hear from you! How are you using SnagIt and Camtasia Studio with PowerPoint? Any tips and tricks you can share with the group?

Remember Maria Andersen from Muskegon Community College? She wrote a jingle about Jing Well, she's been at it again and creating lots of cool content!

Maria wanted to show what a year of blogging about math and technology looked like in video form. She discovered Animoto and it seemed like a good way to make promotional videos for courses and clubs at her college. Maria wanted a fast way to explain (in presentations and workshops) what it is that she has been doing for the last year with her Math & Technology blog.

How did Maria make this video? Maria has a math blog on Blogger. She discovered that Animoto can scrape your images from Picasa (and other services). And, since Blogger automatically creates a Picasa account and stores all your blog images for you, Animoto was able to pick up the images automatically. Then, Maria only had to order the images, spotlight the ones she want featured more prominently, and choose her music. Then Animoto does all the work so you can sit back and relax.

I like Maria's video because in addition to her photos, it shows off a lot of SnagIt screenshots from her blog! Check out her video below. This is a great way to visually off her year of blogging. It is like a blog scrapbook!

In Munich, Germany, they are celebrating Oktoberfest right now. If you were looking for another reason to celebrate, I have one for you. SnagIt 9 was just released today in German!

You can see what is new in the SnagIt 9 release here. If you're new to SnagIt, you might want to check out this new overview video in German. And, download a free trial of SnagIt 9 in German here.

We also have a full set of SnagIt German training videos that can be found here in the newly designed German Learning Center.

I am headed over to Europe next week for a couple events. If you'd like to see SnagIt 9 in German in action, I'd love to meet-up. Drop me an e-mail if you'd like to get together. Up first is VizThink Europe in Berlin, followed by VlogEurope in Budapest, and then back to Berlin for O'Reilly Web 2.0 Expo. And, I am very much looking forward to seeing Dieter Schiecke (that's him pictured above with SnagIt). He will be conducting his annual PowerPoint Conference in Berlin while I am in Germany!

Today's guest blogger is Daniel Foster, who writes for our website, marketing materials, and email newsletters.

When we asked SnagIt users here on the blog and in our email newsletter "What's missing in SnagIt 9?" we got more than 180 responses totalling nearly 18,000 words. The image at left graphically displays the most common words from your comments (image created with wordle.net).

Along with a ton of really specific and helpful suggestions were numerous requests for features already in SnagIt 9!

Chris McQueen, our SnagIt tutorial maestro, read through all the comments and put together a 5-minute video showing where to find some of the most-often-requested-but-already-in-SnagIt9 features.

Watch the video here!

Oh, and to keep the conversation going, please let Chris know whether and how the video was helpful by leaving comments below the video. (Powered by the brand new commenting feature on Screencast.com!) That kind of feedback is extraordinarily useful.

And what about all your suggestions for features not already in SnagIt 9?

SnagIt product manager Tony Dunckel had this to say after reading everything you wrote...

"I'm honestly at a loss for words. I'm absolutely humbled by the outpouring of feedback, gracious comments, and great ideas. Making SnagIt a great product is clearly not only the responsibility of TechSmith, but something its users take ownership for. I can't thank everyone enough for each and every word and can assure everyone that our entire team is reading each of these comments and together will determine when and how we can leverage these in a future release of SnagIt." -Tony Dunckel, SnagIt Product Manager

Thanks, folks. Your input and ideas help make SnagIt rock.

As you know, at TechSmith, we are passionate about visual communication. Earlier this year, Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt Product Manager, and I attended a community event called VizThink. The VizThink community is "devoted to the use of visualization in all forms of learning and communication". It's perfect for visual thinkers like you and me. Recently the folks at VizThink did a video with Tony showing off SnagIt and Jing and how you can use them in your visual communication. You can watch the video here.

And, in interest of transparency, we are sponsors of VizThink. I will be attending their upcoming European event in Berlin, Germany in October. You can find details about VizThink Europe here. If you'd like to meet up, drop me an e-mail.

Also, VizThink gave me a special discount code, SCT01 (that's S-C-T-Zero-One), which you can use to receive €50 off the registration fee at checkout.

Hope to see you there!

Have you ever thought about using SnagIt for more than just screencapture? I wanted to share with you a new resource that's been added to our Learning Center. There's a great new creative tutorial series which you can find here. There are 12 tutorials that will walk you through projects ranging from creating a water color painting to making Comic Book Graphics. Take your SnagIt skills beyond screencapture!

What other types of projects would you like to see added to the tutorials?

I live on the internet, but I still like to read magazines and books in the good, old fashioned paper format! I was digging around on Twitter to see what questions there were about SnagIt and I came across one about capturing from a scanner.

That question reminded me of a little known feature in SnagIt that I thought I'd share with you. Did you know that you can use SnagIt to capture from a Scanner or Camera? I often come across articles in magazines that I'd like to archive, share and save as a PDF. I can do that easily with SnagIt and a scanner! There is a tutorial on our Learning Center here. Or, if video is your thing, I did a quick Jing screencast to show you how to set up your capture (sorry, no audio. I did not have a microphone at home and the built in microphone just sounded way too bad). It's a short Jingcast that runs under a minute.

One of our forum moderators and PowerPoint MVP from Germany, Ute Simon, also shared, via Twitter, her tutorial about how to capture from a scanner. Her tutorial is in German, but the screenshots are in English. You can see Ute's tutorial here.

And, if you're on Twitter, feel free to jump in the conversation and add me as a friend! You can find my Twitter feed here.

One of the nice things about living in mid-Michigan is not having a long commute time. But the time I do spend in my car is usually spent listening to talk radio. And, one segment that I always enjoy is the 'listener mail' and questions. I thought, why can't we do something similar here, but with screencasts?! So, I'm teaming up with Training to answer your questions about SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, Morae, UserVue, EnSharpen, Screencast.com and Jing!

Matt Pierce, our Training Manager at TechSmith, picked this first topic about something the training team is commonly asked about. Matt made a screencast about creating a text box, in SnagIt, with a colored background. Matt also gives a tour of the Learning Center. The screencast runs a little over 3 minutes.

Here's where I need your help! In order to do these screencasts, we need your questions! So, post your 'viewer questions' in the comments and we'll create screencasts to answer a couple of your questions.

I try to have a pic or video in every blog post. We've talked in the past here about how the combination of words plus a visual is much more powerful than words alone.

So, it is no surprise that I use SnagIt or Jing for a graphic for every blog post. And, consequently, there are a few features I routinely use in the SnagIt Editor to create the screenshot for my posts - I almost always resize the screenshot to scale it down and I use the 'Save As' feature.

There's a little known feature in SnagIt Editor called the 'Quick Access Toolbar' that makes it really quick and easy to have access to your most frequently used tools and options. I used the Quick Access Toolbar to make buttons for the 'Save As' and 'Resize' options. Now I always have access to the options I use most often and it saves me time from having to go to different menu options in the ribbon.

It occurred to me that many of you might not know about the Quick Access Toolbar so I wanted to share it with you. You can find out more about the Quick Access Toolbar here complete with a screencast.

Do you have any SnagIt tips or tricks to share?

PowerPoint expert Geetesh Bajaj of Indezine and Scrapbook Presentations has been at it again! I just got word that he's added more free SnagIt stamps for you! He has stamps for Birthdays, Christmas, July 4th and Memorial Day that you can find here. I can't wait to see what stamps Geetesh adds next!

Wow! Simply wow! You are the best! I cannot thank you enough for all the comments and feedback about SnagIt 9 that was left on the blog post here.

I wanted to let you know that Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt Product Manager, and the SnagIt team are reviewing all the comments you have left. We'll have a follow-up post shortly. But until then, keep the feedback coming! We're listening...

Today we're celebrating the Fourth of July in the United States. After a long day of celebrating with friends and family, I'm sitting on my porch watching some fireworks while my dog hides inside.

I snapped a few pics today and wanted to share them with others at the party. But, I wanted to 'dress' them up a little before sending. I figured I'd use some SnagIt stamps on them! I needed some SnagIt stamps that were holiday themed like flags and fireworks!

Lucky for me, I recently heard from author and PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj. I've blogged about him before, remember? And, Geetesh had exactly what I was looking for! Geetesh has started creating SnagIt stamps and is sharing them with everyone. You can find them here. And, he even has some stamps for the Fourth of July which you can find here. Perfect for what I was looking to add to my pics from today!

Need to know how to install stamps on SnagIt? Geetesh also has a great tutorial here that will help you.

And, Geetesh hopes to have hundreds more of these sets of SnagIt stamps available to you over time. So, be sure to bookmark Geetesh's website and keep checking it. If you like the SnagIt stamps, make sure you thank Geetesh and spread the word! I think it's very nice of him to share them!

See Tony Dunckel? He's the SnagIt Product Manager and is pictured to the left. Next to him is "Mouseman" - one of the old logos of SnagIt. As Product Manager, Tony gets to guide SnagIt's roadmap and part of his direction comes directly from you, the SnagIt users! Many of our best feature ideas come from you. And, our products are better because of the feedback you give us.

Now with that in mind, you've had a chance to play with SnagIt for a little while. If you had Tony's job as Product Manager, what would you do next? Any features you would like added?

Our last post about how we got to SnagIt 9 is from Chris McQueen, from the Training Department. I love visiting the training department! They have lots of fun equipment (microphones, cameras, sound booth, etc) and they make lots of waffles for breakfast! And, on a side note, if you're ever in the Lansing area, I'm always happy to give you a tour of TechSmith and you're invited for waffles with Training! Doesn't get much better than that! Here's what Chris had to say about working on SnagIt 9...

The Training team is here to make you rock. We want you to be very successful with every product that TechSmith creates and understand all the great features the developers, user experience, and product managers come up with. Honestly, it's about the coolest job ever; I work with awesome software and determined individuals.

When I started working with the SnagIt team, version 9 was about half way done. The user interface was 80% complete and the primary features for release were already in place. My job, with the information developer Kelly Mullins, was to convey the vision TechSmith had for SnagIt 9 and pass it along to you. But, since I came on late in the development cycle, I had to work within the existing structure and development time frame. For me, this meant being creative and flexible, something I'm sure you're all familiar with. My first project was the 30-day tips, also known as the "Tip of the Day", that appear during the trial period. In SnagIt 8, these were static graphics that highlighted a feature and had a link to a video. I wanted the SnagIt 9 tips to give customers a bit more guidance. Ideally, I wanted customers to look at this tip and be able to perform the steps after viewing it once. To do that, I knew I needed something more than just static images and text. I wanted something more dynamic. So, I decided to create animations that could convey the procedure or process.

Of course, the first thing I looked into using was Adobe Flash for the animations, but that requires each user to have the plug-in installed on their computer. Unfortunately, we have a lot of users that use SnagIt in corporate environments that may not allow Flash to run on their system. So, I applied a careful dose of Occam's razor and decided on using animated GIFs for the tips. Animated GIFs have been around for a long time and they ensured 99.9% of our customer could view the animations. It also gave us a lot of control, with the fewest restrictions.

Using SnagIt and Photoshop we created 22 animations, 7 static graphics, and 1 graphic with a JavaScript mouse over effect. Of course, I didn't do this all by myself; I had help from Anton Bollen (Instructional Specialist), Sylvania Dye, and Paul Middlin to get all the pieces to work together. I mentioned determined people above--these are the people I was talking about.

The other half of the SnagIt release was instructional videos. We created 15 videos for release, all of which you can find in the TechSmith Learning Center here. All of these are designed to introduce new customers to SnagIt and direct existing customers to their favorite features. These were a lot of fun to develop and I think are some of the best instructional videos ever released with SnagIt (post a comment if you disagree, I really appreciate the feedback.)

What's nice is this isn't the end to the training material for SnagIt 9. We got stuff already in the works and have plans for some exciting new ways to learn SnagIt and achieve that ever impressive status of "SnagIt Ninja". As always, let us know what you enjoy and what doesn't work for you. And, we'll see you next time.

Chris McQueen is working on his degree in Instructional and Performance Technology from Boise State University.

Previous to TechSmith, Chris was a Technical Writer for a software company in Idaho and worked with the faculty at Brigham Young University-Idaho to help them integrate technology into their curriculum.

Currently he works with the SnagIt and Jing team. He loves his new Michigan home and doesn't mind taking care of his kids when they're sick. :-)

One of my favorite places to visit at work is our Shipping Department. That's where all the 'magic' happens! I'm always amazed at where our products are being shipped! Jason Hatch heads up our Shipping and Receiving Department. He's pictured above in the green shirt. I thought you'd like to hear some inside info from Shipping! Here's what Jason had to say...

Even new employees ask, "Does TechSmith have boxed software?" Believe it or not, we do and between 20-25% of our customers request a box.

These requests create a fair amount of work for the shipping department at TechSmith under normal circumstances, but during a product release, the workload can quadruple. It all starts with a large inventory influx of the new boxes about two days before release. Shipping boxes are pre-made to get a head start on the orders that will follow. The day of the release is always the most active: a continuous surge of orders are packed/sealed/labeled. With each release, the shipping department faces about 2-3 weeks of heavy shipping days. Once the release activity settles down, the overall volume plateaus at a higher point than before the release.

From large stocking orders for resellers to a single upgrade box to an avid customer, TechSmith will ship to every state in the U.S. and a majority of countries in the rest of the world.

Thanks for the insight, Jason! And, on a side note, you'll notice that the SnagIt box has gotten smaller. It's now in a DVD size box. Lucas Anthony from Shipping mentioned that with the release of SnagIt 9, our product box is now made from 100% Post-Consumer-Waste material! Also, the SnagIt 'Getting Started Guide' is manufactured with 100% recyclable "tree-free" synthetic paper. Our goal is to slowly transition the rest of the physical product components to more eco-friendly materials within the year; this will take place as the products release. And, you can always order the electronic download and bypass the boxed product entirely if you want to be really green.

Today's guest blog post is from Brian Lesperance, our Sales Manager. Sales has a lot of resources to share with you and they're here to help! Take it away, Brian!

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of the Sales, Customer Service, and Technical Support teams, customers are still getting the quality of service they have come to expect despite the dramatic influx of interest surrounding the release of SnagIt 9.

Specific to Sales, everyone is very excited to be a part of such a significant release. We are busy answering all sorts of questions regarding pricing, capabilities, upgrade options and much more. We have people calling, emailing, submitting a web form, chatting, and even the occasional in person visit! It's a lot of multi-tasking, something this team does naturally.

We love it when customers contact us directly. But we understand lots of people would prefer to upgrade on their own time. Lucky for them we have a wealth of resources online to help customers upgrade. Here are just a few...

• What's New
• Upgrade Center
• Learning Center

If you do want to get a hold of us the very best way is our web form, located here. We promise this form is not long! It only asks the questions we need in order to help as fast and accurately as possible. And we're here 8-8 eastern standard time (OK, so a little longer right now) so we generally get back to folks the same day.

Keep the requests coming, we look forward to upgrading each and every customer to SnagIt 9!

Favorite Feature

I'm a huge fan of the multi-image capabilities. I tend to bounce back and forth between multiple tasks all day, making the new version extremely useful in my workflow.

Brian Lesperance is the Sales Manager. He's a graduate of Michigan State University and has been with TechSmith since 2002.

At TechSmith, we're constantly looking for ways to improve your experience - whether you're interacting with our website, using our software, calling in for tech support or to sales... and, SnagIt 9 is no different. We observed, studied, tested prototypes, and interviewed many different users about their experiences with SnagIt 9 before we released it. Your experience matters to us and we want it to be a great one! And, on that note, I'll let Sylvania Dye of the User Experience group explain their role in the development of Snagit 9. Enjoy and comment away!

The User Experience group works hand-in-hand with the development team from minute one of each new SnagIt release. The most important part of SnagIt for all of us is our customers, and our goal for SnagIt 9 was to mold SnagIt to the customer's natural workflow, creating a flexible, worry-free environment where the customer can focus on being productive and creative. All of our decisions from very early on were born of this philosophy.

We started by conducting user studies even before version 8 was released. Using Morae, we watched people use SnagIt to learn not only what they did with our software, but what they didn't do and why. Throughout the design process for SnagIt 9, we continually presented our ideas to customers using techniques ranging from traditional usability testing to exploratory methods in which we watched people do things they would want to do in SnagIt - combine images, mark them up, find images, etc. - using paper, pens, and physical tools rather than software. This research, combined with all of the feedback we've received over the years from our customers and the largest beta testing program in SnagIt's history, informed our designs, which we repeatedly updated, retested, and updated again.

Several of our new features, including multi-image editing and the integration of the Catalog Browser functionality into the new Editor, had the potential to make SnagIt more complicated and harder to use. It was crucial to all of us that using SnagIt was easier and more flexible than ever before, and that presented some unique design challenges. Through team brainstorming, techniques such as root cause analysis and cognitive walkthroughs, and many types of customer research, the design for SnagIt 9 gradually evolved through paper-and-pencil mockups through rough interactive prototypes to the final design, with many sanity- and reality-checks along the way.

After exploring several ways of arranging tools in Editor, Microsoft's new ribbon system stood out for several reasons: it's highly visual, it's compact and flexible, and, in our own usability tests, we were amazed at how easy it was for people to learn and use. And, of course, since many of our customers use SnagIt in tandem with Microsoft Office, our ribbon makes it easier to switch between them.

Do you know why SnagIt 9 is black? I'll let you in on a little secret - it's not because black is cool and trendy, but because the black interface makes content stand out. Since the point of SnagIt is to make and share great creative content, we felt that the interface shouldn't be competing for attention, but should fade away and allow people to focus on their content. A dark interface and subdued colours in the Editor UI do just that, and your content "pops."

The process of designing SnagIt 9 was very involved and challenging, but loads of fun. Our developers are the most talented and creative I've ever met, and the loyalty and enthusiasm of our customers is both inspiring and humbling. I'm truly proud of what we've done with SnagIt 9 and I hope you love it, too!

Favourite New Feature:

It's gotta be the open captures tray... being able to just capture-capture-capture and not worry about saving. It's fabulous.

Sylvania Dye is User Experience Designer for SnagIt. She has been designing graphics and software since the mid 1990s, and has been with TechSmith for 4½ years.

Today's guest blogger is Kelly Mullins from our Information Development department. I hope you gain some insight into how we created SnagIt 9 and how we work inside of TechSmith. Enjoy!

Here at TechSmith, the Information Development team is the customer's voice of TechSmith products. We strive to give information where and when our customers need guidance and provide feedback as customer advocates during the entire development process. An Information Developer is a member of the software product team from the very beginning of the software development lifecycle. We are at all times during development the active voice of the customer. The scope of our work is quite exciting and diverse and our role spans several different product teams.

The development of SnagIt 9 was a great opportunity for the Information Development team to create new and exciting user assistance collaterals that would accurately reflect the spirit, look, and feel of SnagIt 9 and it customers.

We began our user assistance journey by doing lots and lots of research. The big questions we wanted answered were: What do people need or want to know and what delivery method is preferred? We reached outward to our loyal customer base and inward to fellow TechSmith employees in each of our support services departments. To gather data, we used surveys, beta groups, questionnaires, and the monthly newsletters.

As a result of our research, we arrived at four overall goals that would guide every aspect of the creation of the User Assistance deliverables. These were:

• Be really, really helpful.
• Make the help fun and interesting to look at and explore.
• Make it graphical and only use SnagIt as an example of how others can use SnagIt.
• Use controlled English for easy readability and better localization.

To help us further define these goals, we made use of a theory called Create Problem Solving (CPS). Creative Problem Solving is the mental process of creating a solution to a problem. To qualify as CPS, the solution must either have value, clearly solve the stated problem, or be appreciated by someone for whom the situation improves. All situations do not need to be labeled as a problem. Other labels include a challenge, an opportunity, an improvable situation, or a situation where there's room for improvement. SnagIt's help file and online tutorials use CPS Diagrams to visually help solve customer situations by standing in place of a text-based table or a paragraph of text. For an image to work like a sentence, it has to have clearly defined, separate objects and some other parts indicating the relations of the objects. SnagIt's callouts, arrows, and stamps were a perfect solution for creating CPS diagrams.

Enhanced Screen Tips were also developed for both main SnagIt and the new Editor to provide consistency between the two interfaces. These tips are larger windows that display more descriptive text than a regular tooltip. Enhanced Screen Tips can include an image and an F1 link to a help topic.

When the mouse pointer rests on a command on the ribbon tabs or anywhere on the UI where a tip resides, a ScreenTip is displayed to give you information about what that command does. At that time, if a customer presses F1 on the keyboard the help file will open to a tip specific topic.

Additionally, creating a help file that was optimized for localization was continually forefront in our development process. Since a large part of the cost of localizing a product comes from translating the written documentation, the cost of translating a largely text-based document versus a graphic-based document is significant. As a result of incorporating CPS diagrams that don't have to be translated while implementing controlled English, the overall text in the help file was reduced by over 50% while the number of graphics that won't need translation work increased by 90%.

Overall, the development of the SnagIt User Assistance deliverables was one of the biggest, yet most enjoyable challenges that I have had while working at TechSmith. In the end, we created a help file that we hope is not only a pleasure to read and peruse but is truly helpful for learning SnagIt. We also gave the 16 different Output and Add-in help files a makeover, uploaded over 50 new tutorials to the SnagIt Learning Center, created a unique and exciting poster for the boxed product, wrote helpful in-product help via the Enhanced Screen tips with context sensitive links, lowered localization costs, improved readability and understandability, and faithfully stood in as the voice of our customers during every part of the develop process. However, perhaps my very favorite accomplishment was at long last being able to kiss the help file's boring text-based tables and instructions goodbye and replacing them with lots and lots of colorful SnagIt-made graphics.

Kelly Mullins is a long time resident of Flint, Michigan where she began her career in software development seventeen years ago. While a student at the University of Michigan, she helped pioneer a technical communications program focused on the emerging technology industry and became the first to graduate with that degree. The last six years have been spent at TechSmith where she has been a lead on the Information Development team working with the SnagIt and Camtasia Studio product teams.

I thought you might like a glimpse into what happens behind the scenes at TechSmith and how we created SnagIt 9. I asked several teams to do a guest blog post to share their role in the release of SnagIt 9. Up first is SnagIt Lead Developer, Paul Middlin. Enjoy!

SnagIt 9 was a huge release for us; we've been working on it for a long time. The team has had its nose hard to the grindstone for nearly 18 months. We work in an "agile" environment, to use the buzzwords of the day. This means that we regularly reassess our progress, try to take on small iterations of work, and generally make sure we're always working on what's most important for our users. Despite that, it was awfully hard to estimate how long this release was going to take; we were surprised at how "big" it was! That's what happens when you have a strong dedication to doing it right- sometimes it takes a while.

We spent a lot of time exploring and brainstorming ways to really make "multi image" happen. We could have just said "hey, let's throw some tabs in there." We could have just introduced the "Open Captures Tray" and left it at that... but then you'd have a toolbar on the top, a pane on the right, a pane on the left, a tray on the bottom... and a pain in your...well, you get the gist. There would be no room left! I full rehaul of the Editor was in order. And while we were at it, we might as well finally converge all the many functions- the Editor, the Preview, the Catalog Browser. All for one and one for all.

There was a lot longer stretch between the "pretty UI complete" milestone and final shipping. That's because between the early paper prototypes, workflow testing, UI testing, advisory groups and 750 person beta testing, we put this thing through the ringer. We wanted to make sure that if we were going to up and change our most beloved features that we did it well. You can't just change how the arrow tool works and hope for the best!

We also spent a very long time in our 'testing' phase with this release. Yeah, we're shipping with some known issues- but that's because we tested it so much. Anybody who tells you there are no known bugs in their software at shipping time isn't testing it hard enough. So, our team spent almost 5 months fixing, testing, refixing, retesting, polishing, scrubbing, rinsing and repeating. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.

It might have been a lot of work, but it was also a lot of fun. It's very rewarding working so closely with our users and trying to really solve their problems in ways they might never have dreamed of. We've really created something here, and I hope you all like it!

FAVORITE FEATURE:

My favorite feature is the open captures tray; being able to capture away and work with multiple images saves me a lot of time and headaches.

Paul Middlin is the SnagIt Lead Developer. He graduated with a BS and MA from MSU and has been working at TechSmith for 5½ years, mostly on SnagIt.

We're having a fine time at Microsoft TechEd this week! I have to tell you about a proposal I'll never forget - I had to share this quick story!

Thomas Lee (pictured on the left) stopped by our booth today. And, he actually had a marriage proposal for SnagIt! You can read his blog post here that reiterates his marriage proposal! Thomas is a Microsoft MVP for PowerShell. And, uses SnagIt for articles he writes for magazines. I have to say that this is a first!

I will be posting my pics throughout the week on Flickr here. Enjoy!

I asked Thomas for a tip to share with you. His tip? "Install SnagIt!" I have to say I agree! ;-) What kind of gift do you bring to a wedding like this?!

I have exciting news today! We've been working hard on a new version of SnagIt v9 for you and it is available today! You can download it here.

Now, on to what's new! Click the screenshot below to view the 'What's New' video. And, you can read about all the new features here.

Here are some of my new favorite features. I'd love to hear what yours are.

Multi-image Capability - Now it's easy to combine images easily. I always found myself taking multiple screen captures and then wanting to edit and combine them. In the past, I would fight with SnagIt to do this. Not anymore! SnagIt 9 makes it easy to combine two or more images into one and recent captures are always visible in SnagIt's new Open Captures Tray. This makes it easy to drag-and-drop images onto the canvas to create a composite image.

Media Library - Often I want to take multiple screen captures but do not want to be bogged down to name the files or figure out where I want to save the files. SnagIt's new media library stores all of your captures automatically. And, you can view and sort your images however you like. It's easy to print or share multiple images via email or FTP.

Visual Search Pane - I'm always losing stuff - keys, files, papers... you name it. At least with SnagIt's new Visual Search Pane, I can find my screen captures later by date or website I captured it from. Now if SnagIt could just help me find my keys...

Custom Tagging options - SnagIt 9 helps me stay organized. As I capture images for projects, I can tag them with a keyword of "blog" or set the "Important" flag. I don't need to save anything in folders. I can view all the files I tagged "blog" with a click!

Nitty gritty details:

SnagIt 9 supports Microsoft Windows XP, XP x64, and Vista.

We also made a decision to update the price of SnagIt 9 from $39.95 to $49.95. We've made investments into SnagIt 9 to make it a more valuable tool for you and we hope you'll agree that SnagIt 9 is a better, richer, more versatile version of the software you love.

For the next 60 days, you can upgrade your existing copy of SnagIt for the upgrade price of $19.95. After 60 days, the upgrade price is $24.95.

Everyone at TechSmith would like to extend a big thank you to you - SnagIt would not be the product it is today without your loyal support. And, we know how much we owe you for SnagIt's success. We are better because of you.

And for a little trip down memory lane... Check out this screenshot of SnagIt v1.6! 17 years later, who could have guessed this "little" program, would become what it is today?! I can't wait to see what the next 17 years bring!

What's next? You tell me! I'd love to hear your feedback about SnagIt 9. Comment away!

PowerPoint and OneNote MVP Kathy Jacobs has a great sneaky SnagIt trick on her blog. You can check it out here.

When Kathy has a computer process that she needs repeated screenshots of, she uses the Capture Timer option in SnagIt for timed shots. Or, another great use of timed captures is to document things that happen too fast to capture by hand. Kathy gave a great example of a time she got an error on software she was testing. She kept getting an error that disappeared before she could read it, let alone capture it. That's where automatic screenshots came in - run the software, captured the error with SnagIt's timed capture, and document the bug! Simple!

Read more ways that Kathy uses this feature here. She also shows you how to set up timed captures too.

Thanks for the inspiration, Kathy! There is also a tutorial on our website here. Have you used the Capture Timer in SnagIt before?

Cap and gown, sheet cake, senior prank, diploma, Open House party, and SnagIt ...These are all things I associate with High School Graduation. And, of course, every Open House party needs an invitation, right? That's where SnagIt comes in!

Ryan Everett, a Sales Intern at TechSmith, created the invitation for his brother's graduation party. Several people asked who the "professional" was that created his brother's invites. Ryan answered, "SnagIt all the way!".

How did Ryan make the invites? Basically he captured two old photos of his brother with the "Ellipse" option. Then in SnagIt Editor, he added text and faded the background. I made a quick Jing screencast to show you how to make a similiar invitation. It runs just over a minute long.

What will you make with SnagIt?

I think you already know that I love SnagIt. But, I want to know if you do. Actually, I want to see if you do! We're including some photos of SnagIt users in an upcoming marketing piece and we need your help! If you have a few minutes to spare, please send us a photo with yourself holding a sign as shown below.

Details:

• You can stand in front of a plain wall or something more interesting. We'll crop out most of the background.

• Leave your photo at full size when you send it. We'll scale it down. If it must be reduced, shrink it to 800 × 600.

• Email your pics and photo release form (download PDF here) to our Newsletter Editor, Daniel Foster at newsletter@techsmith.com.

• Deadline for pics is Wednesday, May 14, 2008.

• Smile, smile, smile!

Need some inspiration? Check out the video below! Kate Sumbler, from Tech Support, was our roving photographer at TechSmith today and snapped some sample pics to inspire you. I included Kate's pictures from TechSmith along with some pics we received from SnagIt fans in the video. I had a lot of fun making video - I hope you enjoy it!

You can see the pics we have so far here.

Note about the photo release file: If you have the full Adobe Acrobat, you can fill in the boxes, save the PDF, and attach it to an email. If you have Acrobat Reader, you can fill in the boxes, Snag the whole page (scrolling window capture works great for this) and send me the image.

I'm having a great time in Paris this week! When I'm not stuck inside at a conference, I've been a tourist and snapping lots of pics.

I also have a habit of changing my laptop's wallpaper frequently. I'd like to use a few of my photos from Paris for wallpaper so I can remember my trip long after I've returned home to Michigan. TabletPC MVP Craig Pringle recently wrote an article about how he creates wallpaper that works in both portrait and landscape mode and he used SnagIt as part of the process. Craig used SnagIt to change one of his pictures to grayscale which looked great! So, I thought I'd try the same thing! Here's Craig's article on GottaBeMobile.

I also made a quick Jing screencast that runs less than 20 seconds to show you how to change your pic to grayscale. Click on the video below to watch.

Note: TechSmith is one of GottaBeMobile's sponsors.

As much as I love the computer, sometimes I need to step away from it. You know, to do things like go outside, read a book, go photowalking, hang out with my dog and family, sleep...

There's a little known feature in SnagIt that enables you to do screen captures whether you're at your computer or not! Set the capture timer on SnagIt and walk away - SnagIt will do the work for you capturing things like stock tickers, websites, software...whatever you like. You'll never miss the action on your computer again. There's a tutorial about it here. You can see some of the settings in the screenshot below.

Want to see this feature in action? Amit Agarwal from Digital Inspiration made a time-lapse video, made with SnagIt screen captures, showing how the website Techmeme homepage changed over 50 hours! His screencast is 50 seconds long. Check out the video and his blog write-up here. Amit also has a nice write-up about how he created the screencast here.

Do you think you'll try this feature? What will you capture?

We've been laughing a lot at work lately about Lolcat pictures. If you haven't heard of Lolcats before, they are usually pictures of cats that have been captioned with internet slang and poor grammar. You can see a whole collection of the pictures at a website called 'I Can Has Cheezburger'. The Wall Street Journal even wrote an article which will tell you the history and background of Lolcats which you can read here.

The Lolcat photos always have great captions which brings me to SnagIt. SnagIt is perfect to make these types of images since it has tool that allows you to type text on an image. With SnagIt's Text Tool, you can add text and you can set the font, size, alignment and color of the text. SnagIt's Text Tool is useful to not only write captions, but also to add things like your copyright to an image, instructions, fill in content on a PDF form, and more. You can see in screenhots of the SnagIt Editor below where the Text Tool button is located (it looks like the letter 'A' on the left hand side).

I also made a quick little Jing screencast showing how I used SnagIt's Text Tool to create a Lolcat with my dog, Mutton, since I don't have a cat. (Would that then be a Loldog instead of a Lolcat?!). The screencast runs less than a minute long. And, no animals were harmed in the making of this screencast. Well, maybe Mutton's dignity was hurt, but she got lots of treats after the pic was taken. :-)

And, on a side note, do you have any suggestions for better captions for the Loldog pics of Mutton?!?

Often many of my e-mails and blog posts have emoticons like this :-) posted all through them. It's hard to convey the same emotion in printed words that comes through easily in a conversation with facial expression and in the tone of your voice. That's where a smiley :-) a frown :-( or a wink ;-) can prove to be useful in showing your emotion in writing. Same goes for graphics.

Recently, the SnagIt team added some new, free stamps for you to use with your screenshots. Check out the smiley sets here. Now it's easy to add emoticons to your screenshots. There's a nice spring set in there that will hopefully be useful soon! You can find all of the free stamps here.

What stamp sets would you like us to add next? Add your requests in the comments below. And, don't forget to :-)

Who doesn't need some extra time in the day? I thought I'd try out a new series on the blog and give you some time saving tips. I hope you like them!

First up, saving time with SnagIt. Did you know SnagIt has a batch processing feature? This can save you lots of time. Say you have several images you'd like to resize or maybe you'd like to apply a special effect (like a torn edge). Instead of selecting each file, one by one, and altering them individually, you could use SnagIt's Batch Converter to change them all at once!

Simply highlight all the images you'd like to change and then right click. Select 'SnagIt>Batch Convert Images' from the menu. Then follow the four step wizard! You can read the tutorial here

That's your time saver tip for this week. Do you have any time savers to share? What are you going to do with your newly found free time?! :-)

I'm sad to say that this is the last video in the series from the Training department. What a great way to start out 2008! I hope you found them as helpful as I have.

This video was made by Ryan Eash and it's a "behind-the-scenes" or "How we do it" type tutorial. Ryan will show you how he uses the 'Save Frame as'... feature to save a frame of his Camtasia project as an image file, and then import that image into SnagIt Editor to darken it. Then he imports it back into Camtasia Studio as a Custom Callout to add a cool little effect to his videos. He mainly uses it when he is trying to place a text callout, or maybe a PIP, on his screen and the background image is too bright or distracting with what he want his viewers to focus on. It's easier to just watch the screencast and you'll see what Ryan does. :-)

And, I have to note that Ryan got me the video on Friday, but I lost it in my bottomless pit of email. Sorry this was not posted sooner.

Did you know you could make your SnagIt captures interactive? You can add a hotspot to your SnagIt screen capture and specify parts of the image that, when moused over, will display text or images, or when clicked upon, will open a Web page. Why would you want to create these types of screen captures? Well, you can add a hotspot on an image so a helpful hint or explanatory illustration pops up when you mouse over the hotspot. You can read more about this feature here.

And, if you can save your SnagIt screen capture with a hotspot in three different file formats - SWF, PDF and MHT. Chris McQueen will take you through each of the file formats and show you their strengths and weaknesses so you know what you'll get with each choice. Enjoy!

Up next in our video series from the Training Department is a screencast from Anton Bollen. In this video, he'll give you a look behind the scenes of the Training Department to show how they use SnagIt create some of the arrow callouts that they use in their Camtasia Studio videos. It runs just under 4 minutes. Enjoy!

I love to get holiday cards and letters, don't you? But, I'm not always the best at sending them every year. I always end up scrambling at the last minute to get them out on time and it adds a lot of undue stress.

I got an email this week from Jason Moore over at bigWebApps with his holiday card. I was happy to hear it was made with SnagIt!

Outside of his camera for the pics, the whole card was created in SnagIt!

Bypass the lines at the post office, skip printing and sealing envelopes (avoid paper cuts!), and save money on postage...This is my kind of holiday card! I think you know how I'll be creating and sending those family holiday cards next year!

And, isn't this a more environment friendly way of sending cards? Saves paper and doesn't add to the landfills. Have a greener and stress free holiday with SnagIt!

...What would you say?

We're working on some new SnagIt t-shirts and I thought who bettter to ask about what they should say or look like than you! When you talk about SnagIt, what do you say?

Post in the comments or e-mail me.

I love MindManager. I use it often - sometimes I use it to help me plan blog posts (yes, believe it or not, I do plan and organize these things), presentations and I'm using it to plan for 2008 right now. Mind mapping helps me be creative and stay focused on my projects.

And, you all know how much I love SnagIt. No surprise there. But, did you know that we have a SnagIt output for MindManager? You can easily use SnagIt to add graphics and images to your MindManager maps. A perfect match! Check out the SnagIt output here.

Dr. Brian Friedlander did a blog post recently about the SnagIt MindManager Output. You can read his blog post here. He made a quick screencast showing SnagIt and MindManager working together. Check it out here. I heard from Gaelen O'Connell at MindJet (makers of MindManager) that Dr. Friedlander will be doing an education webinar for them later this month. Check here for the schedule.

And, in the interest in being transparent, I will let you know that I did get a comp copy MindManager 7 for review and testing the SnagIt output. I have paid my hard earned money for prior versions of MindManager.

What other programs do you use that you'd like SnagIt to output directly to? Comment away...we're listening.

Did you know that Camtasia Studio will allow you to add your own graphics (BMP, GIF, PNG and JPG) as Custom Callouts?

Sometimes when making screencasts you want to graphically show the key being pressed especially when audio isn't an option. Showing the key can really help illustrate or reinforce your instructions.

And, you're in luck. AlanWho has created 104 standard PC Keyboard key icons that you can use in your Camtasia Studio screencasts. You can download and read more about them on AlanWho's blog here. No need to create your own Keyboard Callouts thanks to AlanWho.

Click here for a quick tutorial on how to create your own custom Callouts to Camtasia Studio.

Same thing goes for SnagIt. You can make any PNG, JPG, GIF, TIF or BMP your own custom SnagIt stamp. For more information about how to do that, click here. Don't feel like making your own SnagIt stamps? We have lots of SnagIt Stamps which you can download for free here.

Thanks AlanWho for not only creating the Keyboard Keys, but also sharing them with everyone! Now we just need AlanWho to create the 'Any' key icon for us to use. ;-)

Guess what? Your feedback helps to shape the future of SnagIt. Want to give your feedback and opinions about SnagIt directly to the SnagIt development team? We're looking to grow the team of beta testers. And, you're invited to apply! Sign up here!

What's in it for you? You get to be apart of an elite group who help impact and test the latest and greatest SnagIt technology. And, you have direct access to the SnagIt development team. There is no pay involved, but you will have fun.

Keep up the good work and continue to send us feedback. SnagIt is better because of you! I hope you'll join us on the beta team.

I have a problem...and I'm not alone. I'm addicted to screenshots. I imagine you might be too if you're reading this blog. I was happy to see Bryan Eisenberg's (that's him in the pic on the right) blog post, Confessions of a Screenshot Addict. Check out his blog post - Bryan talks about where his obsession came from, what he does with the screenshots and what you can do with screenshots.

Bryan also started a FaceBook group for all of you screenshot addicts. Join the Facebook group, I am a screen shot addict here. Hope to see you in there!

If a picture is worth a thousand words, what's a blog post worth with a picture? A lot more than a blog post without images! Remember when Kathy Sierra talked about the value of words + pictures Movable Type, TypePad, LiveJournal and WordPress.com.

What does that mean for you? It means with one click, you can easily add images to your blog! Illustrate your ideas and thoughts, spice up your words, show off your personality…

Want to see the new Blogging Outputs in action?

Check out this quick Screencast... Bet you didn't know I was a fashion blogger in my spare time. Just kidding…

Blog away. Add images! I'd love to see how you're using the new Outputs…post links to your blog posts using the new SnagIt Blogging Outputs in the comments here.

There are two programs I use everyday - SnagIt and OneNote. I live by them. So, I can't tell you how excited I was that the SnagIt team has created a SnagIt Output for OneNote 2007!

Just like SnagIt's other outputs, you can send your screen captures right from SnagIt's Preview Window directly to OneNote! I love this because I often annotate my screen captures with arrows, highlights or other effects. If I add these effects and annotations in OneNote, I can't move the image and have the annotation follow the image. They are separate and I have to re-align each annotation. This is where the SnagIt Output for OneNote is useful for me. I just add my arrows, highlights, edge effects in SnagIt. Then I can send the screen capture from SnagIt to OneNote and there I can move the image around all I want. The annotations and special effects stay in the right spot with the image!

You can read all about SnagIt's Output to OneNote here.

Kathy Jacobs has a great write-up about it on her blog here. She details how and why she uses it. Kathy is a OneNote Microsoft MVP so she's an expert at all things OneNote.

And, this is just one of SnagIt's Output Accessories. Check here to see them all.

What other applications would you like SnagIt to send screen captures directly to?

If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a blog post with a screenshot worth?

I was happy to find on Dan York's blog, the Disruptive Conversations, a discussion about what to use for adding images and logos to your blog.  On that post, there was a link to a SnagIt plugin for Windows Live Writer.  So, if you're using Windows Live Writer for blogging, you can take your SnagIt captures and easily embed them right into your post.

You can download the Windows Live Writer plugin here.  Note: TechSmith did not create this plugin.  I am looking for the creator, so drop me an email if you made it.

This is a great use of SnagIt's COM Server!  Did you know that you can add SnagIt’s screen capture functionality into your organization’s proprietary applications?  

Here's a list of the SnagIt outputs that TechSmith has created.  I'm a big fan of the Flickr, MindManager and PowerPoint output.  I keep bugging the SnagIt team for an output for OneNote.  What other programs would you like to see SnagIt output for? 

PowerPoint and OneNote MVP, Kathy Jacobs, recently wrote a blog post with a great SnagIt trick that I just had to share!

Ever need to fill in fields on a PDF? I have to do this periodically for contracts or sign-up sheets. And, if you're me, you can't fill out the form online because you don't own Adobe Acrobat. So, you know the drill...then you have to print it, write in your name, contact info, sign away your life, and fax it back. Too many steps for me. What to do? Well, Kathy saves the day and will show you how to use SnagIt to fill out those fields on a PDF form using SnagIt!

You can read Kathy's SnagIt and PDF trick here.

Got any SnagIt tips you'd like to share?

Remember when I wrote about SnagIt's new output for Microsoft Visual Team System? Well, I went to TechEd with one of our Screencast.com developers, Justin Welsch. He made a quick screencast showing the new SnagIt output for Microsoft Visual Team System in action. Much better than a write-up about it.

Click the screenshot below to watch the quick screencast. There is no audio, just a demo of output in action. It runs less than 2 minutes

And, on a side note, here's a pic of where the TechSmith team gathered every night to discuss the events at TechEd - at the fountain in the Lobby with the ducks at the Peabody Hotel! We had a lot of fun staying at the Peabody Hotel. Not a bad place to debrief the day! Here is the history of the Peabody ducks.

Photo by the Peabody

I've had a few questions lately about creating custom stamps with SnagIt. Yes, it's possible and it's quick. We ship several different stamps with SnagIt, but perhaps there are a few different stamps you'd like to add of your own such as a your company logo to brand or watermark your screen captures.

You can make any PNG, JPG, GIF, TIF or BMP your own custom SnagIt stamp.

To add a stamp, open SnagIt's Editor. In the Paint Tools pane, select the Stamp Tool icon. Click the 'Organize Stamps' button.

Select the Add Stamp button, browse to the folder containing the stamp to add, select a stamp, and click OK. Done!

Want to learn more? Geetesh Bajaj has a great article on creating SnagIt stamps in Photoshop. You can read it here. Or visit his article on how he uses Stamps in SnagIt here.

And, if you don't want to create your own stamps, we have created several sets for you. Download additional stamps here.

When I was a kid, I loved to collect stickers. I'd save up my money and go buy new ones just about every week. Then, I'd carefully place them in a box and put them away. Never really using them. Well, some things haven't changed. I still love stickers, but now I actually use them!

We recently had some SnagIt stickers made. You can see them below.

Here's an 'action shot' of the SnagIt stickers on my laptop.

What are the benefits of laptop stickers outside of self expression and some SnagIt fun? Well, I can easily and quickly find my laptop amid a sea of generic Dell laptops at airport security! :-)

Would you like your own SnagIt stickers? Drop me an e-mail with your mailing address and we'll get a couple out to you shortly.

Maybe the next set of SnagIt stickers we make will be scratch and sniff stickers! Hmmm, but what would SnagIt smell like?!

I've enjoyed Andy Beard's blog for sometime. He has great tips on blogging and interesting info on social media. Both are things I'm interested in. Plus, I like what his tagline says, '...Social Media with Original Opinion and Loads of Attitude'!

Andy recently had a blog post about the benefit of screenshots in your communication. Alright, that got my attention. I'm listening now. Check it out - it's a quick read. You can read it here.

Andy also writes about a gentleman, Michel Fortin, who used eye tracking software to test and prove how graphic icons with each post help with clickthroughs! You can read Michel's blog post about iconize your sight with graphics here.

Toward the end of his post, Andy points out how he was able to fix a problem he was having by communicating with a picture. And, Andy point's out he uses SnagIt! That made my day!

That got me thinking...most of my favorite blogs often have pics - Tech Crunch, GrokDotCom, I Started Something, Joel on Software, Creating Customer Evangelists, Guy Kawasaki's How to Change the World, GottaBeMobile.com...and the list goes on.

Sometimes when I'm on the road, I have problems uploading pictures for this blog. And, I always think the posts are lacking something without meaningful graphics. They just don't look or feel right.

As the old saying goes, 'A picture is worth a thousand words'...Isn't it?

A new SnagIt output was recently released! The latest SnagIt output is for Microsoft Visual Studio Team System. The screenshot below shows how the new button looks in SnagIt.

Use this new SnagIt output to quickly create images to describe and show tasks, bugs or design ideas. It's a quick way to add screenshots to bug reports with the click of a button. And, it eliminates the hassle of attaching an image.

You can download and learn more about the SnagIt output for Microsoft Visual Studio Team System here.

This new SnagIt output for Microsoft Visual Studio Team Systems is just one of several SnagIt output accessories. There are outputs for Word, PowerPoint, Flickr, MindManager, and more. You can download additional SnagIt outputs here.

Any suggestions for other SnagIt outputs you'd like to see? Microsoft OneNote is on my wishlist. What programs are you using daily?

Are you like me and wait until the last minute to get gifts? Well, this year is no different for Mother's Day. I just couldn't find the right gift. I didn't want to get my mom another pair of shoes, CD, plant or similar gift. I could not find a gift that carried the sentiment I wanted to express.

I was happy to hear from Dave Schappell about Unitus. He told me about how I could create tribute page for the important women in my life and help empower other women in the process. Perfect! I'm able to express myself and create something personal for my mother. And, since I could include a picture and video on my tribute page, I could use SnagIt and Camtasia in the process! So, I did just that!

With Kathy Jacob's help, I made a simple PowerPoint Presentation which I recorded with Camtasia Studio. I produced the Camtasia Studio video as a WMV sized at 320 x 240. Then, I uploaded it to YouTube since that is how I could add a video to my tribute page. I also used SnagIt to crop a photograph for the page. You can see my tribute page here and you can view the YouTube video below.

I originally had planned to make a more grandiose Camtasia Studio video filled with pictures like this video by Kathy Jacobs (click the screenshot below).

But I just ran out of time to assemble the photos and scan some in (remember? I'm a procrastinator).

If you'd like to make your own Camtasia Studio video like Kathy's, simply select 'Import Media' in Camtasia Studio. Import any BMP, JPG, GIF or PNG. Then drag the pics to Camtasia Studio's timeline, add transitions, change your timing, add a title clip and audio...then produce your video! There's a nice tutorial here about creating a Camtasia Studio picture slideshow.

Anyone else making electronic Mother's Day or holiday gifts with SnagIt and Camtasia Studio?

I was happy to see Tom's recent article about how he uses SnagIt for IT Training and how he uses SnagIt for graphics in his books and other content.

Check out Tom's article here. I'm sure you'll learn something new!

Do you have any SnagIt tips to share? E-mail me or post them in the comments.

Well, I finally did it. I broke down and created a MySpace page and I have SnagIt to blame!

You may remember that we celebrated SnagIt's anniversary last year. SnagIt turned 16 this year! And, just like any other teenager, SnagIt now has a MySpace page! You can view it here. Be sure to add SnagIt to your list of friends for periodic updates.

Even though SnagIt turned 16 this year, thankfully SnagIt is not getting a driver's license anytime soon... :-)

How many of you have used MindJet's MindManager software for mind mapping? For me, it is indispensable. I use MindManager when I need to visualize my thoughts, think creatively, or plan a project or strategy. Mind mapping with MindManager really gets you thinking in new ways. I've even MindManager for presentations in place of PowerPoint (works great with a Tablet PC). Writing your mind map out for a presentation makes for an interesting and engaging presentation.

I saw this great MindMananger screencast made with Camtasia Studio on MindJet's site that I wanted to share with you. The screencast is about using Microsoft Office Visio 2007 to create custom topic shapes for MindManager. Click the screenshot below to watch the video.

You can see the blog post about the video here.

There's also a handy SnagIt Output for MindManager so you can easily add screencaptures to your maps with a single click. You can learn more and download the free SnagIt output here.

There is an eval of MindManager so you can give it a test drive. Download it here.

And, in the interest of disclosure, I was given the latest version of MindManager, but I used MindManager long before I was given a comp copy.

If you look at my desk, you'll find lots of sticky notes. Stuck to the monitor, stuck to the desk, stuck to each other...you get the idea. It's not pretty or effective.

The clever SnagIt team has come out with new outputs for SnagIt - SnagIt Notes and Skype Output.

SnagIt Notes are similar to the sticky notes all over my desk but they're sticky notes saved on my computer's desktop. They're are a cleaner, more efficient way for me to capture web pages or articles that I want to remember to read later. And, they're an easy way remind myself of keyboard shortcuts, tasks, appointments, passwords, or even my shopping list...

What I like about SnagIt Notes is that they can stay open even when SnagIt is not running or after you reboot. You can learn more about them here.

You can find out more about the Skype Output here. If you need someone to try the Skype Output with, feel free to send them to me. My Skype contact is: betsyweber

You can download the new Outputs here. What other programs would you like to see SnagIt Outputs for?

You may have noticed that almost every blog post I write includes a picture, screenshot or some sort of graphic. And, I've used SnagIt in some way for just about every one of those images for the blog. Blog posts with images are more interesting and enable better communication. One of my favorite bloggers, Kathy Sierra, talks here about the value and science of why words plus pictures help with effective communication. And, Kathy talks here about why you should add graphics to your blog, book or presentation plus why people pay attention and respond to graphics.

I think we're all in agreement about how valuable visual communication is. On those lines, I was so happy to see that Rick Strahl (that's his pic below) has built a SnagIt Screen Capture Plugin for Windows Live Writer (Windows Live Writer is an app for composing blog posts)! He even makes the plugin and code available on his blog. He's done all the work so you don't have to!

Here's a pic from Rick's blog showing what the SnagIt plugin looks like inside of Windows Live Writer.

Rick used SnagIt's COM Server which makes it easy to incorporate SnagIt functionality into your application. You can out more about it here.

You can read more from Rick on his blog here. Looks like he's out in Hawaii. I think I need to head out there to do a screencast with him! :-)

Has anyone else used SnagIt's COM Server to add SnagIt's screen capture functionality in your app?

There are so many great screencasts cropping up out there its hard to decide on just one 'Screencast of the Week'.

This week's honors go to CAD guru, Robin Capper. He did a screencast about an app I can't live without, MindManager by MindJet. He made the video to share with IT about how he documents the design related applications. You can read more here. Check out the video below.

I love to use MindManager to plan big projects and brainstorming. Plus it works well with Tablet PCs and Wacom Tablets. It helps me communicate more clearly and visually. Plus, it works great with SnagIt. There is a SnagIt Output accessory for MindManager which lets you add your screencaptures to your maps in a single click. You can download and learn more about the SnagIt Output here.

And, I had the honor of meeting Robin at Autodesk University last year. Remember? He used Camtasia Studio to win a free trip from New Zealand to attend the conference!

In interest of full disclosure, I was given the latest version of MindManager, but in the past I have purchased my copies.

I just read a great quote about SnagIt over on the wync blog. Matt says this about SnagIt on his post about essential software for MBA students:

"PrintScreen is to SnagIt what pre-made sandwiches are to In-n-Out burgers."

Ah, Matt, you made my day!

I got Dian Chapman's TechTrax newsletter this week and was happy to see a SnagIt article with video included. The video is free to view - you just need to subscribe to her newsletter (also free).

In this video, Dian will show you how she uses SnagIt to save time capturing, editing and sharing photos.

Click here to read the article and watch the video.

Remember when you were 15 years old and it was fun to pull an all nighter? Well, it's still fun to stay up all night...even when you're twice that age! :-)

Back in December, in celebration of SnagIt's 15th anniversary, we decided to act like we were 15 again and pull an all nighter at TechSmith...for you! We shot 24 SnagIt videos in 24 hours.

And, rather than do 24 separate posts for each video on the blog, we thought we'd combine all the videos into one project. Otherwise I would have clogged up your RSS readers!

Click the screenshot below to watch all 24 videos.

Here's a summary of each hour (we started at 9am):

1. Intro
2. SnagIt on Vista
3. Scrolling Windows - horizontal, vertical and custom scroll
4. Edit Scrolling Windows - remove portions and add special effects
5. Menu Capture with special guest, Tiffany Wood, Manager of Tech Writing
6. Timed Capture, Fixed Region, Fixed Starting Point
7. Printing with SnagIt with special guest, Paul Middlin, Lead SnagIt Developer
8. Fun with crayons and file formats with special guest, Nick Gorsline, Senior Web Designer.
9. Output extensions with special guest Bryce Hauptman, SnagIt Developer
10. FTP and SnagIt
11. Editing, Special Effects and Tools in SnagIt
12. Profiles and pajamas
13. Late night confessions about SnagIt - Text Capture
14. Record a video with SnagIt
15. Web Capture
16. SnagIt Printer - a virtual printer
17. Top three tech support tips - Move your copy of SnagIt to a new computer. Look up your software key. Add or remove Add-ins. With special guest, AJ Morris, Tech Support
18. Blue Moon ice cream and batch conversion
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19. Stamps and callouts!
20. Work with multiple images in SnagIt
21. Add interactivity and links to your screencaptures
22. Add interactive images with hotspots to PowerPoint (download sample presentation here)
23. Add interactive screenshots to your blog (HTML from video here)

I hope you enjoy the videos as much as we enjoyed making them! Now I need to catch up on my sleep!

SnagIt 8.2.1 was released on Tuesday. If you have SnagIt 8.0 or later, it's a free update. You can get the update right from SnagIt's Help menu (see the 'Check for Upgrade' option?) or grab it here on our website.

You'll want to pick up the update if you are using the English or German version of SnagIt. That will give you version 8.2 in those languages. Also there were some problems fixed like the text being cut off in callouts and more. You can read all about the update here.

I have to admit, I had a SnagIt 'nightmare' last night. I dreamt that I had a large SnagIt tattoo on my forearm that I could not hide. Not only did the tattoo have the old logo (how embarrassing!), but it also had upgrade info with it. I had to wake myself up to make sure I didn't actually have the tattoo! Anyone do dream analysis?! What does that mean?! I definitely have SnagIt on mind (and thankfully not forever emblazoned on my arm)!

Get the update...save yourself from any nightmares...

Microsoft Word MVP and all around nice person, Dian Chapman has a great article in her newsletter, TechTrax, this month all about how to protect your web images using SnagIt.

See this cute picture of Dian's dog?

I can post this pic on my blog and you know where it came from since she watermarked the picture using SnagIt. In addition to images, you might want to watermark your PowerPoint slides, illustrations or other content. That way, others can view and share your content and you get the credit.

You can read Dian's article about using SnagIt to protect your web images here. And, if you'd like to sign up Dian's great Ezine, TechTrax, visit here.

I ran into Kathy Jacobs at the APCUG Conference yesterday. You might remember her from this recent OneNote screencast. She sat down with me to do a quick screencast on how she uses SnagIt. She'll teach you new tricks and give you ideas on how to use SnagIt differently than you normally do.

The video is just over 11 minutes. Click the pic below to start the video. In my tests, the screencast ran fine on Internet Explorer, but I had problems with FireFox. I'll try to get this fixed on Monday. For now, please use IE.

To make the screencast, here's what we used:

Hardware:

• Dell Laptop - Latitude D820
• Panasonic MiniDV Camcorder
• 2 Lapel Microphones with a Y-cable/splitter

Software:

• SnagIt
• Internet Explorer
• Camtasia Studio

Plus, one dark and cold conference room at the Riviera Hotel

Does this count toward my new years resolution of a screencast a week?

With the latest release of SnagIt version 8.2, we changed the way we draw our callouts in order to make them look nicer. What's the trade-off for better looking callouts? Now, when you open a .snag file created in older versions of SnagIt, the new callouts in SnagIt 8.2 will not match.

We had intended to put out a zip file with the stamps that would match the SnagIt 8.1 callouts so you could at least replace your callouts with stamps and text to have it match up. But...with all the release activities, it slipped our minds to put the zip file out for download.

You can download the stamps here.

You can open the "organize stamps" dialog from the stamps tool and add these PNG files to your custom stamps. Then, you can replace the callouts you have with the stamps in the zip file and add the text boxes on top of them.

I'm told that a tutorial will be posted shortly. I will link to it here on the blog and on del.icio.us.

Not the ideal process and we should have prepared you for the issues. Please accept our apologies...

The SnagIt Product Manager, Tony Dunckel, and the Lead SnagIt Developer, Paul Middlin, geek out over SnagIt v8.2 in this new screencast.

They'll walked you through all the new features and enhancements of SnagIt v8.2.

Click the screenshot below. The screencast runs about 15 minutes. The video is also available for the iPod or MP3 so you can take them to go. Enjoy!

Put on your party hats, SnagIt Users...SnagIt 8.2 has been released today! What are you going to do to celebrate?!

My favorite feature? The print enhancements. It would never fail, I'd print my SnagIt captures and they'd be about the size of my thumbnail and usually unreadable. SnagIt 8.2 makes it easier to print your screen captures the same way you see them on the screen. Thank you, SnagIt team! You have no idea how many trees this will save...

I also like the new Callout styles. The callouts were updated with new styles - plain and glassy (I like glassy - so pretty and shiny!). The glassy ones are nice because they're transparent and don't cover up the words or images behind them. Also, you can create and save custom callouts with characteristics like size, shape, color and angle of rotation. This is useful if you want to reuse your custom callouts over and over again.

Planning to run Vista and Office 2007? SnagIt is compatible and ready to capture anything on Vista and Office 12.

And, I love this new feature...we have new SnagIt accessories so I can send my screen captures directly to Word, PowerPoint, Excel, MindManager, or Flickr with one click! I will be putting those to good use, especially the Flickr one (Have I told you lately how much I love Flickr?!)! Check out the accessories page here.

You can find out more information about what's new in SnagIt 8.2 here and download it here. Screencast should be coming later this week I'm told.

What's your favorite new feature or enhancement? What's on your wishlist for future releases?

At TechSmith, we're always interested in what you want and need in a product. Our products are better because of your input and feedback.

With that in mind, we're curious to see if you'd like a Mac version of SnagIt?

I need you help. Please do me a favor and take a quick 6 question survey here.

Please share that survey with any contacts you have that would have an interest in SnagIt for the Mac. Here's the URL. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=493032743512

And, as always, feel free to post your thoughts in the comments. The SnagIt team is listening. Thanks for the help!

I was reading a recent SnagIt newsletter and saw that there were some new free SnagIt stamps out for Fall!

If you don't know what stamps are, they're images that we offer, free, to help you enhance your SnagIt captures. (And did I mention they're free?)

Download the Fall Stamps and more here.

If you weren't paying attention, you probably didn't notice the just-released SnagIt profiles for Skype. If you're a Skype user, you'll find this particularly useful. Now, you can save time and send your SnagIt screen captures directly from SnagIt to the person you're chatting with on Skype. It's so much easier to do than it was before we had profiles. If you're not a Skype user, you might want to check it out - first, it's free. Second, you can talk to me - from across the country or the world - again, for free!

Want to practice? Download Skype from here if you don't already have it, grab the SnagIt profiles for Skype here and then Skype me at: betsyweber. Start snagging away!

Who likes SnagIt? Raise your hands!

Keep your hands up if you want to make SnagIt better.

Okay - you, with your hands still up. I want to hear from you! We're always looking for ways to improve SnagIt. With that in mind, we're forming a SnagIt Advisory Board for the next release.

So, now the big questions...What do you have to do? And, what's in it for you?

What do you have to do?

Give us your honest opinion and feedback. We'll have webinars, surveys, phone calls, and other activities that require two-way communication. We'll get you alpha and beta versions of SnagIt. Basically, everything will be done online or remotely - no travel involved. No, I won't make you come to Michigan in the winter.

What's in it for you?

In return for talking our ears off, you'll have a stake in the software, features and functionality. You get to help direct the future of SnagIt and help make it into software that truly meets your needs. And, who knows? Maybe we'll name a feature after you!

E-mail me to get the ball rolling.

I neglected to post links to the new SnagIt 8.1 tutorials in my blog post about SnagIt 8.1 last week. So, here they are!

Click the screenshot below to view. Be sure to check out the Interactivity Into PowerPoint, Vector Callout and Multiple Selections sections to see the new features in action.

Screencast with Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt product manager, is being wrapped up so that should get posted soon.

What other features would you like to see tutorials on?

Our developers have worked their fingers to the bone coding away for you. SnagIt 8.1 has been released on Tuesday! Depending on your version, you may even have a free upgrade!

So, what's in this release? Lots of good stuff. Remember how you can make those interactive screenshots with SnagIt? The ones where you add the Flash hotspots to your screen captures so text or images pop up when you click or mouse over the hotspot on the image? Well, we took it a step further.

Now, you can add those interactive images right on your PowerPoint slides. You'll have the edge over other people's PowerPoint slides - you can display pop-ups of detailed chart information, click on links to go directly online, and make your presentation an interactive experience.

Be sure to check out PowerPoint MVP Geetesh Bajaj's Hotspot tutorial here, as he's more eloquent than I am...

And another PowerPoint feature - with SnagIt's PowerPoint add-in, you can embed and play any .swf (Flash) files from your slides. If you've ever tried to add a video to your PowerPoint slides before, you know it wasn't easy - but now it is.

Let's talk about callouts. We've made them more flexible - you can resize, reshape, change the color and rotate them. You can also save your custom callouts so you can use them over and over again.

There are also more options for the SnagIt add-in toolbars in PowerPoint and Internet Explorer - you can now choose to keep the links in your captures intact and also save captures as PDF. And for SnagIt COM users - Web page (keep links) and Save to PDF options are now available in the custom development environment.

And, last, SnagIt is now completely compatible with the new 64-bit operating system and Internet Explorer 7.

Read more about the release here. Or, click on the screenshot below to see the marketing video about what's new in SnagIt 8.1.

I had the SnagIt Product Manager, Tony Dunckel, walk me through the new release and all the new features today. As soon as the screencast is edited, we'll post it here. Hopefully later this week.

Are there other SnagIt features would you like to see more in-depth screencasts about?

As many of you know, I love Flickr and use it a lot! I have almost 2,000 photos posted on their site here. Since SnagIt's Flickr profiles were released, I've seen a few places around the internet suggesting that TechSmith is violating Flickr's user guidelines by allowing users to post screenshots. Not true. I wanted to make sure you know that TechSmith is not violating Flickr's user guidelines.

Flickr has a policy stating any account (free or paid) that has more than half of their images as non-photographic content (screenshots, etc.) will be turned from public to private.

Basically this means that once a user has over half of his images as non-photographic content, his images on Flickr will no longer be made searchable by the greater Flickr community or viewable in the public area. If Flickr finds your account having more than half of your content as non-photographic content, they may mark you as NIPSA - 'Not in Public Site Areas'. Users that reach this state will still be able to upload and share images on Flickr.

We created the Flickr add-in to give users an easy way to upload and share their SnagIt images. Flickr's screenshot policy was in place before our relationship began with them and was acknowledged when we made our agreement. We are abiding by all current policies of Flickr. And, we will continue abide by Flickr's policies even if that means that one day we may have to discontinue our integration if they ask us to.

To refer to Flickr's community guidelines, click here.

If you have any additional questions or concerns, feel free to add them to the comments or e-mail me.

When I was at the STC show a few weeks ago, I met Monika Duvinage. She knows all things screenshots. I just heard that she uploaded her presentation, so I thought you all might be interested in it too.

This is why you'll want to check out her presentation - she takes you through topics like taking effective screenshots, editing, optimizing your screenshots, and even picking an efficient screen capture tool. (You know what screen capture tool I'd recommend, but check out Monika's recommendations. She's not as biased as I am. :-)

You can view all these topics and more of her presentation here. Note - the link goes directly to a zip file to download the presentation.

Monika also has an online course about taking effective screen captures. You can check out the course here.

At STC, I also attended Seneca College's Beth Agnew Podcasting and Vidcasting presentation, which was one of the most entertaining and informative sessions I saw! You can download it here. Note - the link goes directly to a zip file to download the presentation. If you're thinking about getting started podcasting, vlogging and vidcasting (or screencasting!), you'll want to use this as a great resource.

Many of the presenters at STC have uploaded their materials from the sessions which you can see here.

Has anyone run across any good resources for screen captures, screencasting or usability lately? Share 'em with us.

On Friday in shipping we receieved a box that was returned by a shipping carrier.

When we opened it up, we saw the box was pretty destroyed. After investigating further, we found out that the box was sent seven or eight months ago...to Louisiana. It was diverted by Hurricane Katrina.

Sure, the box is damaged, but the CD inside still works fine. That's what we're hoping for the entire region as the clean-up continues - even though the outside is damaged, we know the heart and soul are still intact!

Want to be the first on the block to try the new features in upcoming releases before they're released to the public?

Of course you do! You're in luck...there are 25 beta tester spots open for upcoming releases of SnagIt and Camtasia Studio.

What's required of you? We need your feedback. We need you to report on issues you encounter during the various beta releases, and give us product criticism that helps us make YOU happy.

If you're interested, please send me an e-mail and tell me which product you want to test.

Depending on which you choose, you'll be working with Jack Brown, SnagIt Project Manager or Kari Bulkley, Camtasia Studio Product Manager, pictured below.

I'm completely addicted to Flickr. If you're not familiar with Flickr, it's an easy place to upload and share photos and screenshots with others.

I use Flickr and SnagIt all the time at work. I use SnagIt to crop and rotate photos and then upload the pics to Flickr. Sometimes it's fun to add captions to pics with SnagIt too.

So, the developers have been working hard on a new extension for SnagIt and Flickr, which you will love! Basically, you can capture a screenshot or pic with SnagIt, and then immediately upload your capture to Flickr and share it with anyone. The SnagIt to Flickr Profiles makes it easy to share images because it will automatically upload your capture and copy the URL of that image in Flickr to your clipboard. Then, you can quickly e-mail or IM that link to others. It's easier - and more universal - than sharing image files as attachments. Who wants to open a file when they can just look on the Internet? You can read more about the SnagIt and Flickr extension here.

I had only a few minutes to make a screencast with the SnagIt Product Manager, Tony Dunckel, yesterday. It's quick video that runs just under 5 minutes. Click the screenshot below to watch. There's even a surprise guest in the screencast...a blast from the past.

The screenshot we made in the screencast can be found here.

And, if you know of a Flickr Support Group, send me their way...

Will you use this SnagIt to Flickr Profiles? Why or why not? What other programs would you like to see SnagIt extensions for?

Who collected (or still collects) stamps as a kid? I know I'm not the only one. I love stamps! I have many sets of framed ones, like a set of Jamaican Bob Marley stamps, as well as James Dean and, of course, Elvis stamps. All right, make fun of me because I'm a geek...

So, let's talk stamps. No, not the kind of stamps hanging on my walls, but rather SnagIt stamps. Geetesh Bajaj over at Indezine has a great article about using stamps in SnagIt. If you've never used SnagIt's stamps, give them a try. I use them when I really need to make something in my screenshot stand out. I use the arrows and callouts all the time to annotate my screen captures.

Read more about SnagIt stamps here in Geetesh's article.

And, as an added bonus, here are additional stamps you can download from our site.

If you can't find the right stamp, you can make your own! Add your own stamps by selecting the Custom category and specify a folder of images (BMP, GIF, PNG, and JPEG files). Maybe I can use that Bob Marley stamp in SnagIt too!

Are you using stamps? Do you like the choices we give you?

We're having a great time in Las Vegas this week at the STC Conference. I'm still on the lookout for an Elvis impersonator. No luck yet, but you can see some pics from our trip here on Flickr.

We've met a lot of people who use our software, and Camtasia user and technical writer Chris McQueen even took the time to do a screencast with me. Watch the screencast to find out how he's using Camtasia Studio...I bet it's a way you haven't thought about using it! The screencast is a quick one - less than 2 minutes. Click the picture below to launch the screencast.

We also met up with Rachel Eichen, a tech writer at Lockheed Martin. Her love of SnagIt is infectious. Certainly one of the most animated SnagIt users! This screencast is a little longer - just over 8 minutes. Click the screenshot below to start the video.

Keep in mind these screencasts were made on the show floor so the lighting and sound aren't perfect - but the spontaneity makes up for it.

One of the best parts of exhibiting at a show is hearing about new feature ideas and feedback from users. But you don't have to meet us at a show to share what you'd like to see in SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, and Morae. Post it in the comments here and I'll share with the product teams, or use our handy online form to let us know what you think today.

Or, send me a video sharing your thoughts and ideas. I'll share it with the product teams and on the blog!

Before the tradeshow floor opened at STC, I got the lead SnagIt developer, Paul Middlin, to do a quick screencast to show how to use a couple of SnagIt 8's innovative new features.

First, he'll show you how to capture a Web page and keep the links intact. What does this mean? The links will be embedded in the image and clickable, just as they were on the original Web page.

Then, he'll show how to add a Flash hotspot to an image. (With this option, you can create images that, when clicked or moused over, cause additional text or images to pop up.) He'll show off a great user example from the Christine Ahlsten at Dakota State College of Science. To read more about her and see the interactive floorplan, click here.

Click the picture below to start the screencast. The video runs just under 4 minutes.

What feature or topic would you like our next screencast to be about? Maybe I can get Paul to make another screencast with me at the show - if he's not too busy listening to compliments about SnagIt's latest release...

When I talked to Professor Ed Doering at Rose-Hulman about screencasting, I told him: Don't fear the webcam. And he didn't! Ed made a great video about how he uses Camtasia Studio and SnagIt for his students and in the classroom. For that reason, he's our screencast of the week!

I really like his use of the webcam - he even does a neat trick where he turns the webcam around to show his Wacom Cintiq 17SX interactive pen display. So, you can see him writing and then you can see what's going on the screen at the same time.

Also, I recently heard about another event - Higher Ed Blog Con - which is a fully Web-based event. Dan Karleen made a fascinating screencast showing some resources for those interested in new media.

Want to learn more? Check out his blog post and watch his screencast.

Check out Dan's blog here too.

Don't you wish you had all this when you were in school?

Edited May 10th, 2006

One of my favorite tech journalists over at PC World is Steve Bass. He writes great columns and has an interesting blog where he talks weekly about how to tackle tech problems. He also wrote a book, "PC Annoyances" which I have been known to give as a gift to people who want me to fix their computers many times over.

I was excited to see he had made a video for a recent blog post using SnagIt. Check it out here.

How many of you knew that SnagIt can make a video? In 1997, we added video capture to SnagIt, but many computers at the time could not actually capture video because of hardware limitations. A few years later in 1999, hardware limitations were not as much of an issue so TechSmith created Camtasia Studio spun off of SnagIt's video capture.

OK, back to Steve...Steve also uses SnagIt for graphics in his books and for all the screencaptures he uses in his columns.

So, if you don't know Steve yet, drop by his blog, start reading his columns. You'll learn a lot and your computer will be happy.

I'm a huge fan of DIY projects so this is one of my favorite uses of SnagIt. Last year, Max Rottersman e-mailed us to tell us about how he uses SnagIt in a way we've never seen before. He uses SnagIt to create teleprompter scripts for video blogging!

Max lost a bid on eBay for a $1,600 teleprompter (they cost that much?!) and wondered if he could make one himself.

So, with just a clear CD-ROM case cover, 6 CD-ROM cases, scotch tape, plus SnagIt, he made a teleprompter! By setting up the CD cases to serve as a mirror for the screen, Max was able to look directly at the webcam and read the script through the mirror-like plastic.

For more how-to information, visit Max's article, Video blogger Plasti-Prompter.

This will help everyone move one step closer to professional video blogging results.

We had a SnagIt party on Friday at TechSmith. We're celebrating the perfect 5-Star rating PC Magazine awarded SnagIt 8. SnagIt was the only program to receive a perfect rating out of the 11 utilities included in the Incredibly Useful Utilities category. We are in great company - two of my other favorite apps were also in the same category...Google Earth and Trillian.

To read more about SnagIt's 5-Star rating, visit PC Magazine here.

See SnagIt's other awards here.

And, if you want to learn some new SnagIt tips and tricks, I found this great SnagIt 8 tutorial over at the Homemade Tutorials Blog.

Pics from our party are here on Flickr.

Join in the celebration! I'm sending out SnagIt care packages to the first ten people who comment here on what they like about SnagIt and how it helps them. If you're one of the first ten people to comment, make sure you e-mail me your mailing address and t-shirt size. Ready, set, post!

Often I do the same screen capture over and over...Region capture, torn edge effect, saved to a file in .jpg format. Ever do routine screen captures like me? I got really tired of manually setting up that same screen capture over and over. Did you know you can save your favorite or most commonly used screen captures with your own custom SnagIt Profiles? And, even share those profiles with others?

Microsoft Word MVP, Dian Chapman has a great SnagIt tutorial this month about Custom Profiles in her newsletter, TechTrax. Check it out - She's a lot more articulate than I am, so I'll let her walk you through it step by step. Click here to read the tutorial.

If you're looking for more great tips and tricks about using computers, sign up for Dian's newsletter here.

On my last trip to Chicago I was lucky enough to meet up with Dian and Greg Chapman. She gave me a great insider's tour of the Windy City in her convertible! Here's a pic from our visit...Greg Chapman (far right) is pretending to shoot me at the site of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre in North Chicago!

PowerPoint MVP Troy Chollar, of TLC Creative Services, recently blogged about his office, and I was excited to see that he used SnagIt's new interactive screenshot option to take a picture of his office setup. Plus, he added hotspots to his screen capture to further explain the different stations.

Check out Troy's interactive screenshot of his office here: http://www.tlccreative.com/techtable.htm

I love this type of visual communication - if a picture is worth a thousand words, but what's a picture with hotspots worth? I'm guessing a lot more! If Troy had not added the hotspots, the picture would not have been as valuable to me. I understood better after he added the text. Besides, it saved him from me asking him a million questions because he illustrated it so nicely.

To learn how to add interactive Flash hotspots to your captures, visit this tutorial here.

Is anyone else using this new feature? What do you like about it? What would you like changed?

I love a good story. Who doesn't? So, I was excited to see this video that Barry Downes at Music Research Consultants e-mailed me.

This is a Camtasia Studio video made with a photomontage - that's where SnagIt comes in. Barry used Camtasia to add in a single voice narration that segues into the performance piece by Itzhak Perlman. How cool...and educational!

I asked Barry how he made the video, and he said, "It started with the original television audio track done at PBS and then my running a Google picture search to gather a variety of pictures of Itzhak together, with a few other things. I then wrote out the incident just before the taping with this amazing Itzhak teasing me (convincingly) that he was planning to toss his violin as he took the hand mike to sing."

He continued, "I laid down the recorded narration track first, and then segued into the television audio. Using Camtasia allowed me to then easily set up the pictures to cut to the rhythm of the piece. Really quite easy production using TechSmith's fine program."

See an action shot of Barry recording the video pictured below:

Plus, Barry also sent a Camtasia Studio Valentine's Day card! As you may remember, I also got a 'Secret Santa' greeting card too - I love getting video greeting cards!

What's nice about these video stories is that they live on and reach a broader audience. Pictures and text are great for a story, but the audio narration and music really make the story much more valuable and interesting. You can actually see and hear the emotion attached with a video. Also, remember the old game of 'telephone'? With video storytelling, you don't have to rely on people remembering all the details - the story won't ever change.

Thanks to Barry for making my day!

Fog Creek Software makes a project management system called FogBugz, which we use here in a variety of departments.

For instance, if I want create a new page on the site, I simply e-mail our webstaff the specs and it's automatically entered into FogBugz. In turn, I get an e-mail back with a URL to track the project status. That's just one of the many ways we use it - FogBugz has helped us with our project management in ways never before possible!

So, when I saw Andy over at Structured Solutions had created a SnagIt and FogBugz mashup that takes SnagIt's screen captures and posts them directly to FogBugz, I was so excited! Screenshots are an essential part of many of our projects, so it makes sense to add them in FogBugz. Andy's SnagIt and FogBugz mashup makes it even easier than before.

You can read more about what Andy did here. And, he even made a great Camtasia Studio screencast. You can view it here.

So, what's this SnagIt COM-Server thingy? Well, SnagIt's COM Server allows any programming language that supports COM access to SnagIt's image and text capture features. Basically, you can now embed and control SnagIt directly in your applications.

You can read more about SnagIt's COM Server option here.

Andy - since you combined two of my favorite apps together, SnagIt and FogBugz, you're our screencast of the week!

I don't follow rules well - ask anyone at TechSmith.

So, it's no big surprise that I missed National Delurking Week this year. What's National Delurking Week you ask? That's where you come out from under your shell and tell me a little bit about yourself.

So, I'm not going to let missing a little date hold us back from participating! I want to know who you are so I can write and make videos about stuff you care about.

What do you have to do? We'll donate $1 to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for every comment from a unique visitor in today's post that tells me:

• Which product(s) you use - SnagIt, Camtasia Studio and Morae
• Where you call home

And, I'll throw in an extra $1 if you link to some work you've done with our products - or any comment that just makes me laugh.

I have up to $1,000 to donate to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children if we can get enough unique comments. If you're reading... please don't embarrass me by making me end up with a $3 donation.

Comments must be posted between now and Friday, February 24, 2006 at midnight EST. Comments must be on this blog post.

So, comment away, and thanks for reading the blog!

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a local Autodesk CAD User Group, down in the Detroit area.

It was great to meet many Camtasia Studio and SnagIt users. They used Camtasia Studio and SnagIt in a variety of ways ranging from training and demo videos to materials for the help desk.

Pictured below are some SnagIt and Camtasia Studio users I met at the User Group from INCAT - Steve Slack, Rob Stein, and Josh Hunt. They've just launched a great CAD LMS complete with lots of Camtasia Studio videos. You can see more about it here.

I took down some materials for their meeting as giveaways for the attendees. The same offer goes for you - if you're conducting a meeting, workshop or other event, I'm happy to send you materials. We have many resources available to you - please visit: to order materials for your event, download sample presentations and other resources.

On a side note, below is a pic from my office window yesterday morning. Isn't it beautiful?

On the drive home from the CAD User Group meeting yesterday, I encountered thunderstorms and tornado warnings. Plus all snow was gone with the rain. Life in Michigan is never dull!

Are you tired of hinting around at what you want? Want to give your clueless valentine a break?

I'm using SnagIt to show the gift that I want for Valentine's Day, complete with the links intact.

This is SnagIt 8's coolest new feature. It seems almost magical, how it can capture the image along with everything that image links to, as well!

That way, I can snag a picture of what I want, e-mail it to my husband, and everyone wins in the end.

Sure, there's something to be said for surprises on Valentine's Day... and that's why I'm surprising him with the gift of SnagIt. It's calorie-free, useful, and really demonstrates that lovin' feeling.

At TechSmith, of course!

We had a visitor last week at TechSmith! SnagIt and Camtasia Studio user, Phil Parr, spent part of his vacation visiting us.

We had a great time. Phil - who came all the way from Florida - got to spend time with the SnagIt and Camtasia Studio teams and directly give us his feedback on our software.

When Phil's not on vacation, he's an instructional designer with a ten-year history in the corporate education field.

The same offer goes for you! If you're in the area, please e-mail me. I'd love to give you a tour, introduce you to the product teams and other TechSmithies, and hear your thoughts on our software.

When it comes to a way to spend your vacation, there's really no comparison. You can get a tan at the beach... but here you can get better software.

For those who have been with us over the years - or are just joining us - I thought you might be interested in the new SnagIt timeline.

We've marked points from SnagIt's humble beginnings to today. Click here to view the timeline.

For instance, did you know SnagIt got its start as an internal application? That it was created for use in documentation for consulting projects TechSmith was working on at the time. That's just one of many fun facts!

SnagIt's been around a long time...how about you? If you'd like to add a button to your website or blog to show how long you've been a SnagIt user, visit here.

Do we have any readers who've been using SnagIt since 1991?

What were you doing 15 years ago? Thankfully while I was in high school getting into trouble, TechSmith was working on SnagIt.

Can you believe it - SnagIt turns 15 this year!

To celebrate, I asked one of the original programmers on SnagIt, Dewey Hou (now Director of Product Development), and the SnagIt Product Manager, Tony Dunckel, to make a screencast about the history of SnagIt. Click the screenshot below to watch it. The screencast is a little over 12 minutes long.

We created a commemorative t-shirt so you can celebrate the 15th anniversary all year long! I took some pics of people around the office wearing it - some particularly funny.

Here's Bill Hamilton, our president and Dewey Hou, Director of Product Development:

Here's a marketing pyramid made up of Assistant SnagIt Product Manager Jessica Boyle (left), Director of Marketing Jody Burgess, and perched on top is Marketing Assistant Jessie Ho:

Here's a pic of the SnagIt Product Manager Tony Dunckel and the Lead SnagIt Developer Paul Middlin:

And, finally, Jen Middlin, Public Relations Manager, Paul Middlin, Lead SnagIt Developer (Jen's husband) and the next SnagIt user, Baby Middlin, who is a week overdue at this point. You're seeing it right - that is definitely NOT a stethoscope!

See more pics in our Flickr Gallery here.

The first 10 people to post in the comments about why they love SnagIt will get a SnagIt 15th anniversary t-shirt free! Then, make sure you e-mail me with your name, mailing address and t-shirt size. (I can't get your e-mail from the comments.) Extra points for a video!

Also, if you win or purchase a SnagIt t-shirt, please e-mail a picture of yourself wearing it - we'll include it in this Flickr photo gallery of customers in their shirts. Bonus points for exotic locations and celebrity impersonators in the background!

What are you going to do to celebrate?

We've been busy at TechSmith this month preparing not one, but two software releases for you - it's a TechSmith Two-peat! SnagIt 8 has just been released and wait 'til you hear about all the new features and uses!

First off, you might notice things look a little different. We used icons for a more visual look for SnagIt - it should be easier for you to identify what you want to capture with the new icons. Rest assured, if you're a veteran SnagIt user, all your favorite and familiar capture options are still there (plus some great new ones), and the workflow is still the same as always. And, if you really don't like the new look, you can always switch to the Classic View.

OK, I've got to tell you about my new favorite feature. I know you'll like it too. You can now use SnagIt to capture Web pages with the links - and all of the links remain clickable! Interactive screenshots! You can save the capture in a format that support links such as a Web page with image (.mht), Adobe PDF, (.pdf) or Macromedia Flash (.swf). The links will be embedded in the capture and clickable, just as they were on the original Web page. Just send the capture by e-mail and simply indicate where to click.

So, you're asking...Why would you care about this feature? Because this new feature saves you the time and trouble of copying and pasting links, and it allows you to guide people to exactly the right spot. And, it is perfect for archiving a webpage. And, you don't need to know how to do any programming to do this. For instance, we've been eating our own dogfood at TechSmith and using SnagIt 8 internally for quite some time. So often I'll send a screen capture in an e-mail to my colleagues to show off someone's blog post about our products. Since I can capture the links, the recipients can click on the image's links - within the e-mail - and are taken to that Web page. So, I've gotten so used to this feature, that now whenever someone externally sends me a screenshot of a Web page, I find myself clicking on the links . . . only to find that it's just a static screenshot.

Here's an example of an interactive screenshot I made that I emailed to some co-workers to show them what was being said about SnagIt.

Coming in at a close second, my next favorite feature is our new hotspot feature.

Your screen captures can be more engaging and informative if you add interactive areas to them. With SnagIt's new hotspot feature, adding interactivity is easy. Capture an image, and then use SnagIt's hotspot feature to specify parts of the image that, when moused over, will display text or images, or when clicked upon, will open a Web page. Add helpful hints and explanatory illustrations, or even create a functioning prototype of a Web page. I also like that since the textual comments only appear when you hover over them, the entire image doesn't end up cluttered with text. I'll use this feature when I do mock-ups with the webstaff over a new blog design. I can show them how I want the new blog to look and function. And, adding comments will be handy so they'll know exactly what I'm suggesting. Create interactive maps, picture tutorials, a staff directory that shows their pictures when you hover your cursor over their names . . . this way, screenshots include all the additional information you want them to know, without getting in the way of the images.

The rest of the company is thankful for this new feature because I no longer have to bug random co-workers...SnagIt 8 can now save screenshots as PDFs. I don't have to hunt down someone with Adobe Acrobat to create PDFs for me. I can do it myself. I like it because PDF is a perfect format to share captured images and documents with others - since everyone is able to view this universally accepted format.

And last, who doesn't want to be smarter? SnagIt has smarter editing features now. With SnagIt's powerful editor, there's no need to go anywhere else to add the finishing touches to your captures. SnagIt 8's Editor has been enhanced to include vector editing. What's vector editing, you might ask? That means that the callouts, arrows, shapes and text that you place on your capture remain editable. What's also nice is that you can reselect any object you've previously placed on the capture to delete or edit it anytime. So, no hitting that undo key over and over to edit your annotations. Save time making your images look exactly the way you want them to, the first time.

Later, (by saving them as .snag - a new file format!) you can come back and modify those images for different audiences, or update them with new information, without going through the hassle of taking additional screen captures. I like to change my mind...often...so this feature will be useful for me!

I did a quick screencast with the Assistant SnagIt Product Manager, Jessica Boyle. Click the screenshot below to watch the screencast.

We'll be making some new screencasts for the blog to show off the features in more detail as well. Stay tuned! Or, if you'd like to submit a screencast showing off a new feature, I'd love to highlight you.

As always, we have a fully functional eval for you to test-drive SnagIt 8. I can't guarantee that new car smell, but you can kick the tires. I know you'll like it! Or if there's something else you want to see in a future release, we need to know that too. Here's a list of everything that is new.

We even have special upgrade prices for current users.

So, let's hear your feedback about SnagIt 8! What do you think? What do you like? What would you like changed or added for our next release?

OK, I'll be the first to admit it...my PowerPoint presentations stink.  But, I'm hoping they'll improve.

I'm on the road to recovery from bad PowerPoint presentations because there's a new book in town...Congrats to Microsoft PowerPoint MVP and all around great guy, Geetesh Bajaj, on the release of his new book, Cutting Edge PowerPoint for Dummies!

He has a whole chapter in his book about audio and video, including some tips for using Camtasia Studio with PowerPoint.  His chapter about his top ten favorite PowerPoint tips is worth the price of the book alone. Don't believe me? You can read some excerpts from his book here.

And, Geetesh told me that, 'Every single screenshot was created using SnagIt - I'm so spoiled with your amazing program that I can't even imagine a screenshot anymore without SnagIt!'

If you're interested in hearing about how Geetesh uses Camtasia Studio with PowerPoint, please read our case study about it here.

PowerPoint MVP Troy Chollar recently sent me a link to a new PowerPoint sample that he created. The movie of the presentation was created with Camtasia Studio. You can view the project here.

Troy told me that he made a new year's resolution for 2006 to actually develop and post all the samples and tutorials he has promised people. As a result, with his site well-stocked with Camtasia Studio videos, it will become a much better marketing tool.

Luckily, Troy was in town working with his client for the North America International Auto Show in Detroit, and I was able to meet up with him last night. He made their presentation that they gave during their press announcement. He used SnagIt to create the concepts for the presentation and for storyboarding. He gave me a sneak peek of the booth and presentation before we went out to dinner. And, if you've ever gone to the Detroit Auto Show, you know what a luxury it is to go on the show floor before it's open to the public, because you have the place all to yourself. See some pics from our visit here.

I hope this is one new year's resolution that won't be broken!

Well, it was a fun week at CES. This show was amazing, and it was such an honor to attend. There was so much technology, I could taste it!

One of the highlights of the week for me was the Tablet PC MVP, Geek/Blogger dinner.

I had a few minutes at the dinner to talk with Robert Scoble. (Go to his blog to read his observations on the show.) I had a brief chance to catch up with Jake Ludington, and Chris Pirillo, who both have great newsletters and blogs. Rob Bushway also has a recap of the dinner on his blog where he refers to SnagIt as a "snipping tool on steroids." While we don't condone drug use at TechSmith, we do love that phrase.

Another highlight of the show happened while I was wandering around the expo floor looking for the CAM Commerce using SnagIt in their booth! CAM Commerce makes inventory control systems, and they use SnagIt's batch conversion tool to compress thousands of photos to add to the inventory system that they show to potential clients. They also recommend SnagIt to their clients to compress and convert all of their thousands of pictures for their systems. It's always fun to run into users, especially when you least expect it!

I uploaded a few more pictures from CES. You can view them here.

In the past, I talked about math videos made with Camtasia Studio.

Now, I've had a few people ask me how to make their own math or whiteboard videos.

I'd recommend visiting Tim Fahlberg's great site, CoolSchoolTools. He has lots of great resources about whiteboard videos complete with tutorial videos. Visit here to see how to make your own videos.

Tim isn't the only one making whiteboard videos...he's been helping train teachers and students how to create & produce their own Whiteboard Movies all over the world. And recently he even collaborated with his three-year old daughter to make videos with Camtasia Studio - that's got to be the record for the youngest person in a whiteboard movie! You can view her video here.

Tim's got his sister, math and computer science professor Linda Fahlberg-Stojanovska making videos, too.

Tim has also worked with another math teacher, Julie Dansby, who not only creates whiteboard movies with Camtasia Studio but also has her students making them too!

See examples of Julie's Whiteboard Movies here.

See examples of her students' movies here.

I started talking with Tim over five years ago about whiteboard movies and finally had the chance to meet him earlier this year on a trip to Seattle. It was wonderful - I mean, how often do you get a chance to meet a whiteboard movie star?! I should have gotten his autograph...

We also have several free SnagIt and Camtasia Studio lesson plans available on our Web site, including one about making whiteboard movies with Camtasia Studio.

I love to hear how people are using SnagIt and Camtasia Studio. It never ceases to amaze me to hear about all the different and creative ways people are using the software - often in ways I could never imagine!

In a recent article, Tony Dunckel, SnagIt Product Manager, mentioned some of the unconventional uses of SnagIt.

They included:

1. A company which specializes in class reunions digitizes old yearbooks and puts them on CD. From the CD, they use SnagIt to create personalized nametags for class reunion attendees.

2. An office worker uses a webcam to monitor the furnace control in his home. SnagIt is set to take timed captures every 30 minutes of the furnace control and report it to the person's computer at work. With a serial furnace connection, he can remotely program the temperature in his house.

3. A library integrated SnagIt into their software with SnagIt's COM Server. They use SnagIt's text capture feature to automatically capture and import the title and description of media sources as they process them to create electronic indexes.

4. Many law enforcement units around the country use SnagIt to capture digital and online criminal evidence. They then use the images in computer forensic investigations and courtroom reports.

5. A company uses SnagIt to capture images from a super electron microscope using microscopy applications, and then uses the images inside image analysis applications.

We even have a user - Max Rottersman - who uses SnagIt to create teleprompter scripts for video blogging! Read more about Max here.

Can anyone top those?! Let us know!

I'm also compiling a list of the strangest Camtasia Studio videos to share with you - I'll post links to them soon. Does anyone have any unconventional Camtasia Studio videos they want to share?

A picture is worth a thousands words. I know, I know...we've all heard it a million times. But, I've never really thought much more about that statement until recently.

That's when I read this great blog post at the Creating Passionate Users Blog that actually gives the background and scientific explanation about exactly how a picture is worth really a thousand words. That's right - with references and percentages and everything!

As many of you know, at TechSmith our products help people visually communicate complex ideas.

Words are just not enough for most people. Since you can capture and edit anything you see on your screen, SnagIt makes it easier to make that lasting impression. When your logo is on a screenshot, people will notice. When you highlight a section of a Web page that you don't like, your coworkers will understand what you mean. When you have the perfect graphs, images, and marked up screen captures in a presentation ... you get the point.

What's a SnagIt screen capture worth to you and your audience?

A technical writer and an evangelist walked in to the break room.

Doesn't that sound like a beginning to a great joke? It's not. It's very serious ... because it's about you.

This morning technical writer Kelly Mullins and I got to talking about tutorials. Specifically, we began talking about tutorials users might wish for - like how to record a webinar, how to play a Camtasia Studio video on a Pocket PC, or how to record a screencast.

And, I got to thinking ... rather than guessing what tutorials you want, wouldn't it be better if we just asked you?

So, here's your chance to be heard. What kinds of things are you trying to do, but could use some help with? What other tutorials or examples do you need?

Let us know ... and maybe we'll stop talking about you behind your back.

You can find a list of our current tutorials in our Learning Center.

As I mentioned earlier, Cliff Atkinson is holding a free webinar on Thursday, November 3 on how to unlock visual stories with a PowerPoint storyboard. If you want some background on him, you can read his TechSmith interview here.

I asked Cliff to share the SnagIt Profiles he finds most useful. He was also kind enough to share the Beyond Bullets SnagIt Profiles he'll be using in his webinar. You can download them here.

In case you didn't know - not only can you make and save your own favorite SnagIt Profiles for captures you routinely do, but you can also share your SnagIt Profiles with others. This is particularly useful if you're working on a team and want to standardize your captures for projects. You can learn more about this by visiting here.

We also offer several free sets of SnagIt Profiles for download, from Grayscale Images to Multiple Output. I think you'll be surprised at the variety of choices - I am!

There's still room in the seminar if you haven't already signed up already. Come see how Cliff uses SnagIt - live!

I'm always amazed at all the ways I end up using SnagIt. We had a pumpkin carving competition at TechSmith last night, and I even used SnagIt to help with my design.

First, I used SnagIt to capture the Visual Lounge logo. Then I used SnagIt's Editor and custom scale feature to blow up the screenshot of the Visual Lounge logo. Then, I printed the screenshot, taped it on my pumpkin and used it like a stencil.

You can see more pictures from our fun evening in my Flickr gallery here.

I bet you can guess which pumpkin is mine!

And, no, I didn't win the competition. Oh well, there's always next year. I better start planning my design now. Any advice?

Ever wish your PowerPoint presentations kept people on the edge of their seats like the latest Hollywood thrillers? With Cliff Atkinson's help, they now can.

Since I know many of you use SnagIt and Camtasia Studio for adding visuals in PowerPoint and recording your presentations, I thought you might be interested in Cliff's upcoming webinar on November 3 called 'Unlock the Visual Power of Your Persuasive Story'. Make sure you register early!

I met Cliff a few years ago at PowerPoint Live. I was blown away by his keynote, "The Science of PowerPoint Overload."

Later, I discovered his book Beyond Bullets. Blown away again! He never ceases to amaze me. He's changed my PowerPoint presentations for the better, and he'll help you use it in a whole new way that really engages your audience. No naps for my audience members!

Cliff told me he plans to use SnagIt in the webinar as well, so watch for that, too.

I'm attending, so I hope to see you there...while Cliff saves us all from boring PowerPoints one bullet at a time.

At TechSmith we have a high commitment to listening to our customers. Our best features are built on the feedback from our users like you!

So, if we could add a feature or make a change to SnagIt, Camtasia Studio or Morae for you, what would it be? Share with us and others in the comments sections of this post.

As a thank you to you, our loyal users, we're offering our SnagIt buttons in electronic form.

Add a graphic to your blog or Web siteabout how long you've been a SnagIt user! Veteran? Newbie? It doesn't matter - let others know you're in theSnagIt club...download the graphic here.

Tracy is the first person I've found with the SnagIt Button on his blog. Anyone else out there with one?

The first 10 people to post in the comments with the URL of where they post the SnagIt Button will get a t-shirt.

We're thankful to have loyal customers like you.

How do you use SnagIt screen capture in the classroom? I'd love to know!

Please be sure to tell me which captureprofiles you use the most, if you've created any special captureprofiles, and when you use them. Don't forget to include whatgrade and class you teach.

Please email Betsy Weber aboutyour experience using SnagIt in the classroom. The first 10 SnagIt users to share their story with me will receive a TechSmith t-shirt. I'll also have a drawing for a copy of SnagIt that anyone who submits their story will be eligible to win.

We will share some of the responses at a variety of places including this blog, The Visual Lounge, as well as at our Education website and newsletter.

Want to wear your SnagIt pride on your sleeve? Get a SnagIt button!

Developers from TechSmith are attending the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference next week. If you wear your SnagIt button at PDC, and we happen to spot you, we'll give you a gift card.

If you don't have a button, (we passed some out at TechEd), I'm happy to send you one. E-mail me your name, mailing address and phone number and we'll get a button out to you.

And, although we won't have a booth at the show, we'd still love to meet-up with you at PDC.

Even if you're not going to PDC, I'd be happy to send you a SnagIt button. And, if I run into you while I'm on the road and you're wearing a SnagIt button, I'll give you a gift card!

If you're like me, you probably have either a drawer or a shoebox where you shove all your important paper receipts. This is not the best system to say the least. I'm never able to find any receipts after they enter my 'shoebox of shame.'

Thankfully, SnagIt works well with Quicken. Intuit has just released a new version of Quicken that lets you store digital images with your transactions. If you're already a SnagIt user - I'm sure the wheels are already spinning thinking about how much more organized your personal finances can be if you usethe two products together.

We worked together with the makers of Quicken 2006 to develop special capture profiles and stamps for Quicken 2006 users which you can download from our website. SnagIt captures and stores all of your receipts, bills, statements, warranties, and checks.

Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt Product Manager, made a screencast while I was at the HTCIA conference last week. He'll show how to use SnagIt and Quicken together in the screencast.

Watch the screencast

Time: 7:58 minutes

If you've used SnagIt together with Quicken, I'd love to hear your story! Please email Betsy Weber or reply in the comments.

Who's throwing out their shoebox with me?