TechSmith SnagIt 7: A great screen capture program and so much more!
Written: May 07 '04
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Capture, forums, and instructional videos
Cons: Haven't found any yet
The Bottom Line: Capture, edit and save anything you can see on your screen.
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| ivplay's Full Review: TechSmith SnagIt 7 |
Have you ever wanted to capture something on your screen and save it to a file or print it? How about capture a video of what you do on the PC to save for training purposes? TechSmith SnagIt 7 can do this, plus a whole lot more.
Brief Overview
TechSmith SnagIt 7 is a software application that has its’ roots in a screen capture utility, similar to the Print Screen button in Windows. However, it has developed over the years into much, much more. The new version, version 7, comes with the original SnagIt utility, but also has the SnagIt Editor and SnagIt Studio. The application is available as either a download or a boxed utility, complete with the Getting Started Guide. I will explain each of the aspects of the application at some length below, but first, a little about what I have done with this and the installation…
What do I do with it?
I own the boxed edition, which I wanted primarily for training purposes. First, we recently completed a rollout of SAP at my work, and there was extensive training for each of the shift supervisors on how to use it. They were coming in often asking some of the same questions, so my IT person and I created video walkthroughs with audio dubbed over it showing the basic functions that the person would need to do to complete the tasks. I also use this myself to capture screens for printing and create instructional videos for my father, who is somewhat computer challenged. I send him a video capture of what I do to fix a computer problem he is having, as this makes it much easier to explain than trying over the phone. We could use the remote assistant from Microsoft, but it is so much slower, even with Broadband connections on both ends.
Installations
The boxed edition I own comes complete with the following:
Getting Started Guide, 16 pages of full color instructions
Application disk
Registration card
You may also download the program from TechSmith’s website, which can be found here:
http://www.techsmith.com
The download file is an 8.76 MB executable file, and is currently on version 7.0.3. Over a broadband connection this will take a matter of minutes; dial-up customers should get some popcorn and watch a few TV shows!
Admittedly, there is not much in the way of instruction, but after reading the Getting Started Guide, I felt like I was ready to go! If you go the download route, you can also print off the Getting Started Guide off of the website as well.
I inserted the disk into the computer and it automatically pulled up the installation screen, as I run Windows XP Home. From this screen you can install SnagIt, Register the software online, or Browse SnagIt information. I chose to install and come back for registration; that way I wouldn’t need the registration card later. I installed the files, which loaded the application, added a quick launch icon and desktop icon. It also added SnagIt icons to many of my Microsoft Office applications, which I will explain later.
After installation, I noted that the program only utilized about 23MB of HD space and when running only consumes 16MB of RAM. This is a relatively small program that will not slow down your computer significantly. You will also need to own a Windows OS of either 98, ME, NT 4.0SP6a, 2000 or XP. At least a 90MHz processor is required, while it is recommended to have at least 400MHz to run smoothly. If you still run Windows 95, TechSmith SnagIt version 6.3 is still available for download at the website, as well.
Getting Started
I already explained that there is a 16 page full color Getting Started Guide, so what more is there to getting started? Thanks for asking, because this is one of my favorite parts of the program. They have 5 getting started tutorials shipping with the program, and they cover the following:
Introduction
Basic Image Capture
The Preview Window
Capture Profiles
SnagIt Editor
You can also go online to the TechSmith website for 5 more online tutorials covering the following:
SnagIt Studio
Catalog
Text Capture
Video Capture
Printer Capture
After watching all of these narrated videos, I felt as though I was ready to do most anything I wanted to with this software.
Interface
The interface for this program is quite simple, really. Are three tabs along the left side of the screen, capture, edit and organize.
Capture Tab
The Capture tab is selected by default and it is the most widely used function of this program, I would guess. This tab has 6 Basic Capture Profiles and 6 Other Capture Profiles. These are most commonly used methods of capture, including the following:
A region of the screen to a file
A region of the screen to the clipboard
A window to File
A scrolling window
An object on the screen
The entire screen
A freehand region
A menu with time delay option
Text from a window
Record a video of the screen
All images from a web site
A DirectX application
I am not going to go into each one in detail, as that would take up way too much space. The ones that I like are The Entire Screen, A Scrolling Window, Record a Video of the Screen, and All Images from a Web Site. The entire screen option is your trusty old screen capture, similar to the Print Screen window.
The Scrolling window is one that allows you to capture a window that is larger than the screen, such as a web page. You select the window, hit the left mouse button and scroll down. Hit the left mouse button again and voila, you have captured the whole scrolling window! You can now print the window, save it as an image, or edit it in the editor. Popsrocks, if you are reading this, this is a great way to print those epinions pages you were having a hard time with! You don’t have to worry about the different regions, etc. in the web browser; it captures everything and prints it!
Record a video of the screen is what I used in both training instances and it is simply a recording of the action within a predefined area of the screen. You can preview, edit and save the video and then dub sound over it later using other software. You can only capture 2GB Type I AVI files, but you can capture many of these in a row if needed and compile them on a hard drive or disk. This works very well for training purposes, and I would recommend this software highly for anyone who produces training discs. For $40, it is a great buy. Back to the software….
In addition to the 12 preset capture profiles, you can customize the capture process in many different ways by changing the type of capture, the input area of the capture, the output of the capture, and any of several different filters, or styles. I find that 98% of what I do is covered by the basic 12. I have used customized captures and saved them to my profile, but they are rarely used again.
Selecting All Images from a Web Site will open up a small input window asking you for the URL of the website you would like the images from. You input the URL and SnagIt will go to the website and download all images on that page. This is very handy, as you can now save, catalog, and use the images that you otherwise would have had to save individually. I use this for my own web page development rather than linking their picture and driving up bandwidth, as I hate it when someone does that to me!
Edit Tab
Under the edit tab, you can choose one of three options, SnagIt Editor, SnagIt Studio, and Batch Convert Images. The Editor allows you to quickly add arrows, callout and other special effects to an image file. This includes several image enhancements, my favorite of which is “Emboss”. Your subject can be any image file you want, not necessarily a screen capture by SnagIt. This is also the application that opens up for the preview prior to saving.
Studio allows you to annotate images and save to a file, as well as adding several predefined ‘extras’. These include an “APPROVED” stamp, which has come in handy several times at work. The Studio reminds me very much of Microsoft Visio in its layout and functionality. Finally, Batch conversion allows you to select a batch of items and perform the same editing functions to each one. I can see where this would be a great time saver if you want to add a ‘torn’ look to several pictures at once, but I have not used this at all.
The best way to figure out what functionality the editor and the studio have is just to open up an image and start making changes. After each change, there is a big “Undo” button that you can use to go back to your original image. Then you are free to start modification again!
Organize tab
Under the Organize tab you can either Open SnagIt Catalog Browser, Create a Web Page form Image Files, or Configure SnagIt Printer Capture. The Catalog Browser simply opens up the SnagIt catalog file for you to browse, just like it states. Not too interesting, although it does have a nice preview screen. I have not tried to create a web page from image files, so I cannot speak to that, but the Printer capture is interesting. If you want to export a web page and your browser does not have the export function, you can select Print, and SnagIt 7 printer should be an option. Selection of this printer and selecting OK will allow you to save the file as a multipage .tif file, or one of many other types of image files. This will then allow you to save the page without having to print it out or cut, copy and paste into word, etc.! I find this useful as well.
Personal Experience
I personally find TechSmith SnagIt 7 very user friendly and feature packed. As mentioned, I have used this for a variety of captures and outputs, including quote and comma delimited. I can then take that data and import it directly into the spreadsheet of my choice, Excel.
Speaking of Excel, SnagIt 7 has many add-in icons that allow you to open it directly from the following Microsoft applications:
Word
PowerPoint
Excel
Outlook
Internet Explorer (Requires Internet Explorer 4.0 or later for this add-in to work)
And for Adobe:
Adobe FrameMaker
You can call SnagIt from the icon in the program toolbar to open the application and capture the data or image that you want. Save it, edit it or email it after you capture!
Technical Support
If you need tech support, this product comes through. There is a FAQ, written tutorials and video tutorials. There is also a very good user forum where I have found many questions to answers I didn’t even know I had! The Forum is really useful… If all else fails, you can contact the TechSmith Support either by email or by phone for which regular long distance charges apply. TechSmith offers free technical support for this product as well as Camtasia.
You will want to register this product, as it is free and will allow you to access free upgrades. This only applies between major releases, but this is a nice touch on top of a great program.
Overall
TechSmith SnagIt 7 is a great program for screen capturing. It has helped me to produce instructional videos for employees and computer-challenged parents. It has also helped me to speed up image capture from the web, and has some very nice alternatives for editing your images in the editor and the studio. All of this is on top of the ever-useful screen capture, adding up to a great value for $40.
I hope you find this review useful, and please leave a comment and a rating if you so choose!
Recommended:
Yes
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