I found out the other day (thanks Digital Inspiration) that Techsmith had released a new version of SnagIt.  There are few applications that I absolutely have to have as soon as they came out, but I like SnagIt so much I downloaded the free trial of the new version.

First, what is SnagIt?  For me, I use it all the time to take screen clippings.  Sure, I could use PrtSc and then Paint to crop the resulting image, but that’s slow and time-consuming.  I take a lot of screenshots – some for blogging, but most for my research.  SnagIt does this extremely well – you can set up different profiles, e.g, I use F11 to just take a quick region of the screen.  I use Shift+PrtSc to take a region and then open it in the SnagIt editor for further processing (i.e., edge effects, blurring, adding annotations, FTPing, saving as a file, etc.).  I have another profile that lets me take the exact same region of screen every single time – very useful for capturing images of a particular program’s output so I have a consistent look in my reports, etc. etc. etc.

Why do I love the new version so much?  Let me count the ways:

1. New interface.  The old one was functional.  This one is revamped to use the new “ribbon” concept popularized by Office 2007.  That’s not the reason I like it though – I like it because it’s pretty *and* functional.  I find it easier, and more intuitive, than the older version.
2. Tight integration.  Before, it was like SnagIt had a multiple personality problem.  There was the window that you got when you wanted to take a clipping.  A different one for the editor.  Some other kind of library thingy that I never ever went too.  Plus a bunch of different places to change your settings.  This version is more tight.  The editor and the new-looking library are basically in the same application.
3. Better library.  The fact that I can get to the library without jumping through hoops is one good thing.  Another is that it is actually very useful. Below, I included a screenshot of the library window (and if you want to figure out recursion, try taking a screenshot of SnagIt with itself.  Ugh.)  Anyway, along the bottom, you can see thumbnails of things you’ve clipped lately.  Along the right side, is a panel that right now is showing my computer’s folder structure, but which can also show clips by date, or even tag.  Tags! Not only can you tag a clip, but SnagIt also keeps information about which program you clipped it from, and if from the web, what the URL was.  What a great way to keep meta information about your clips, especially for bloggers.
4. Automatic saving.  SnagIt will now save all your clips for you.  So, if you know you want to save something, you can put it exactly where you want.  But, if you’re not sure you want it forever, but don’t really want to get rid of it yet, SnagIt will just hang onto it for you.  In the nifty library.  SnagIt could even replace your old clipboard management software, if you deal mostly with images.

I’m sure there will be other things that I love about SnagIt 9, but those are the things that have impressed me most during the first week of usage.  I know I’m going to be upgrading my license soon.  By the way, you can use the trial of version 9 without losing your older version.

For more information about this new version, you can check out the Digital Inspiration post.  Even better, head over to the SnagIt 9 What’s New page, where they walk you through the new goodness of this version.

SnagIt 9 will set you back $49.95 (USD) if you don’t have a previous version.  For myself, with an 8.x version, it will cost $24.95 to upgrade – but I can save 20%, i.e., upgrade for $19.95 if I do the switch before August 12.  I’m collecting my nickels right now :)

SnagIt is one of my favourite programs - it’s on all day, every day, and I use it all the time for screenshots.  You can do many magic things with it, such as:

• copy part of your screen for easy pasting into another program
• add stuff to any screenshot, e.g., callouts, text boxes, shapes, etc.
• do image processing such as fancy borders, blurring, etc.
• save duly-processed image to your computer, bring it into your clipboard for easy pasting, save it to an FTP site, etc.
• capture in weird in wacky ways, e.g., a particular area of your screen (exact coordinates) so you can capture the same area over and over, scrolling windows, menu items, etc.

And this is just scratching the surface!

I just read today that Camtasia is offering a slightly older version of SnagIt for free, along with the ability to upgrade to the current version for half price.  Check out Digital Inspiration’s post on the subject for more instructions:  Download SnagIt for Free - Full Licensed Version | Digital Inspiration

A couple of months ago, I wrote about ClipMate, and what I use it for. I had tossed out SnagIt as an alternative screenshot capturing tool. There was also a comment on the post from ads, who suggested looking at SnagIt. As I mentioned in my comments on that post, I had tried SnagIt quite some time ago (at the same time I was initially test driving ClipMate), and although I had liked it, I couldn’t justify buying both programs. ClipMate won, back then.

Now, I’ve been playing with SnagIt for the past few weeks. You may have noticed that some of my images in recent posts have sported interesting borders, e.g.,

Yup, that’s me playing with SnagIt.

Screen Capturing, Plus

So, what is SnagIt? Well, It’s not the same thing as ClipMate, that’s for sure. One of the things that I use ClipMate for is to keep track of everything I’ve clipped (say, in the last week). That way, after I’ve clipped an image, or a screenshot, or some text, or a URL, I can go back to ClipMate and find it again, even if I’ve done some other copying in the interim. It’s a serious clipboard manager.

In addition, I use ClipMate for manipulating text that I’ve clipped, e.g., remove trailing carriage returns. Remove >>> things at the front of forwarded email jokes, etc. I’ve even used it to take a full block of text and format it with carriage returns at a specific column. In addition, you can fix spelling errors in text, etc. etc. It rocks for dealing with text after you’ve copied it.

On the graphics side, I’ve only ever used ClipMate to take a snapshot of a specific part of the screen (with a hotkey trigger), which I then export as an image, to be dealt with in some other program. Or, I just take the snapshot and plug it straight away into my EverNote database. This actually, is the main thing I use ClipMate for, in addition to the text stuff I’ve just discussed. But other than exporting an image, there’s not really much you can *do* with the screenshots.

This is where SnagIt excels. It doesn’t have a memory for clips like ClipMate does. Nor can it do text manipulation. However, when it comes time to grabbing something graphical from your computer, or modifying/annotating an image, SnagIt does this in spades.

How Can I Snag? Let Me Count the Ways

SnagIt has a multitude of ways to capture images. I recall reading somewhere that there are over 60 ways to capture an image with SnagIt. I’m not going to try and count all the permutations and combinations, but here are the major categories of capture:

• Region (what I use in ClipMate)
• Window (you can do this reasonably well with just the Alt+PrintScreen in Windows)
• Full screen (imaging just the regular PrintScreen)
• Scrolling Window
• Web Page

And there’s numerous ways of playing with these. Really, too much for me to explore right here. Let’s just say that if there’s something you want to be able to copy from your computer, be it on your (multiple) screens, output from a program, scrolling window, etc. etc., SnagIt has a way for you to capture it.

Spiff Up Your Snapshot

What I really like SnagIt for is modifying or annotating your snapshots after you’ve capture them. A picture is worth a thousand words:

Here, I’ve just taken a screen shot of my entire desktop, then cropped it, and played a little with annotations. I wanted to show you what the menu looked like for capturing options. I’ve added a little callout to point that out to you. In addition, there are stamps available in SnagIt (think ClipArt), and you can download additional ones, like those numbers 1 and 2.

Using SnagIt is very easy. Basically, you first tell SnagIt what kind of capture you want to do. Then hit the big red button. There are also ways to set up hotkeys to make things much quicker. In addition, there’s something about capturing and output profiles, which sounds like ways of saving your favourite settings, but I haven’t got that far yet.

Now, I’m not just pleased with SnagIt because it can help me make better blog posts. I’m actually more impressed with how I can use it to make better walkthroughs for students, and to better highlight screenshots to pass information on to my prof. It has real work-related benefits for me. Really.

Oh, and one of the reasons that I’m really enjoying working with SnagIt is that it (unlike my version of ClipMate) doesn’t mind my multiple monitor setup. So, when I hit the magic hotkeys to take a region capture with SnagIt, I can choose a region on any of my three monitors. ClipMate only lets me play with the primary monitor.

My Money Where My Mouth Is

So, I find myself making another software purchase this month. SnagIt sells for $39.95 US for a single license. However, you might be lucky enough to come across a promotion to bring it down a little. The high end of my sweet spot for software is about $30, so this is not too far out of my budget. And I think that it’s a useful purchase for me.

If you do any kind of screenshot/region capture/snapshots, etc. on a regular basis, I highly recommend that you try out SnagIt. I’m pleased that I can finally put it into my stable, since I’ve liked it since I first saw it years ago.

WishList

There are a couple of things that I’m missing:

1. Scrolling window captures. I have yet to be able to figure these out. SnagIt says that it does them, but I haven’t been able to get them to work. I don’t know if it’s because of the way my system’s laid out, or because I’m an idiot, but I’m having no joy there. Fortunately, it’s not a showstopper for me.
2. Blurring. Why does no one do blurring anymore? I used to use Photo Editor, which came with Microsoft Office (pre-2003) installations. It did a great job of transparency and spot blurring (i.e., only where I want it, not all over). Now, I’ve been using Gimp, and now SnagIt, and I can’t find blurring anywhere. You can blur with some online tools (e.g., Phixr, albeit all over the image), but I miss the spot blurring functionality of Photo Editor. Sigh.

P.S.

Does me buying SnagIt mean that I won’t be using ClipMate anymore? No way! ClipMate still has a quicker “copy region to clipboard” functionality, assuming I’m clipping from my primary screen (which is usually the case). In addition, I like having a record of all my clips, and the text manipulation functionality.

All this means is that I have yet another program running in my taskbar. (Hmmmm, maybe I should do a post on what I have running in my taskbar. Hmmmm.)