Gavin Clabaugh posted the following very handy tip to the NTEN-Discuss mailing list recently, generating some very useful information sharing about several web publishing tools - some free open source, some given away, and some available at low cost. If you have ever wanted to create a snapshot of your screen or even create a video presentation using your computer, then you should definitely read on. You will be surprised at how easy - and inexpensive - it can be.

Dear friends,

First off: No biting the messenger here. Let's keep them choppers to yourself. This ain't open source, but.. it is free. And, in my opinion, it is one fine screen capture utility. And, it's free; don't know why, but it is. I use it regular-like. It does more than screen cap, you can:

• Capture scrolling windows (like web pages that are longer than one screen)
• Capture live "interactive" screen interactions (i.e., screen video)
• Set delay capture timers so you can get the mouse and/or drop-down menus just in the position you like before the cap snaps.
• All images from a web site (handy for bulk copyright violation I suppose)
• All the regular stuff (capture portions of a window, whole windows, etc)

It's called SnagIt. The publishers are giving the not-quite-most-recent version away, for free. Works under Win2k, WinXp, and Vista (at least so far). I use it regularly - both personally and not so personally - for blog posts, user docs, announcements, instructions and party invites. I'm sure they want to up-sell you the next version. But, for me, this one is just fine.

Techsmith (the publisher) wants you to register for a copy. But, then they just send everyone the same key. So, I just included the key below. Once you've installed it, they also want you to register but I just clicked no. It hasn't bothered me since. YEMV (Your experience may vary).

Minimalist Instructions:

1. Download it: http://www.oldapps.com/download.php?oldappsid=SnagIt725.exe
2. Install it
3. Run it
4. When asked, click you have a key.
5. Enter your name, your true-love's name (you know who you are), your pet's name (may be the same as previous), or whatever
6. Type in the key (wouldn't let me paste it in .. grumble)
   Key: YW6RC-4YMK6-SZBBD-C2MCW-Q9D96

You're done.

Have fun. The captain has turned off the seatbelt sign. For some of you, it is now safe to walk about the cabin.

Gavin

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Gavin Clabaugh-Explaining
Time, Space, and Coffee @
www.digitaldiner.org
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Additional Tools and Resources

In the ensuing discussion, it became apparent that there are more ways to do screen shots and screen casting - and several very good options were shared. Here is a summary:

• Plain old PrtScn
  If you use Microsoft Windows and do not want to install new software, you can save what you see on the screen by simply pressing PrtScn button, which saves a snapshot of the screen to your computer's clipboard. You can then paste it into another program (e.g. Paint or Word) to email it to someone.
• WINK (free open source)
  Wink is a Tutorial and Presentation creation software, primarily aimed at creating tutorials on how to use software (like a tutor for MS-Word/Excel etc). Using Wink you can capture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users. (Andrew Jones)
  http://www.debugmode.com/wink/
• SnapZ Pro (shareware)
  The only Mac alternative by the way (and I’ve gotten many emails on this subject) is called SnapZ Pro. I still miss Snagit every day, but SnapZ is cool in that it lets you make little QuickTime movies of your screen capture. Fabulous way to illustrate user flow or usability issues. (Mark Rovner)
  http://www.ambrosiasw.com/utilities/snapzprox/
• Beth Kanter's screencasting resource list
  http://screencastingprimer.wikispaces.com/resourcelist