Following a presentation by Jim Simbro of the Columbus Computer Society, a number of our LCCS members started using SnagIt, an advanced screen capture program. Because of the interest, we have demonstrated some of its features at our monthly SIG meetings. The program is full of interesting features and many options for input and output.

Why capture? Just think of the possibilities if you can capture anything you can see on your screen. Then send the captured image anywhere – graphics file, printer, folder, etc. You can then use the image anywhere. Some examples: illustrate documents, slide shows, articles, tech support (capturing error messages), teaching procedures, screen motion and audios.

System Requirements: Minimum requirements are Windows 95 OSR2, 98, ME, NT4.0, or 2000; 90 MHz processor; 16 MB RAM; 12 MB hard-disk space for program installation. Video and sound capture require more. Recommended requirements are 400 MHz processor, 64 MB RAM, Windows-compatible sound card and microphone, and extra hard drive space for videos..

Installation was easy and without problems. Our base registered version is 5.1 but we downloaded the most recent upgrade – version 5.2.1, (June 7, 2001). As soon as the installation from the CD or download is completed, the upgrade can be found by clicking on the Help menu and selecting "TechSmith on the Web". In addition to other improvements, it adds more input options. The upgrade is recommended.

Registration. A free trial copy of the full SnagIt program can be downloaded from the Web and will work for 45 days. You can then register it for $39.95 or less with special discounts and bundles. See http://www.techsmith.com and click on Register. You can also request a boxed version by paying shipping in addition to the $39.95.

To keep costs down, there is no printed manual for SnagIt, but there is a plethora of sources for information.

The online Help files are quite complete and fairly well organized. A Tip of the Day, optionally displayed every time SnagIt is launched, offers useful hints. The tips can be scanned from the Help menu. Probably TechSmith on the Web is the best place for help and information. Not only are the Help files also there in a convenient layout, but a manual in PDF format can be accessed or printed out. You can sign up for newsletters that contain timely tidbits and features or access an archive of weekly features. The archive is especially helpful because it includes a step-by-step guide to using each feature.

For first-time users, there is a Capture Wizard but it is very limited. To select input and output options, it is better to use the menus instead of the wizard. The main screen of SnagIt (see graphic) has tools, menus and a toolbar. At the bottom left is a hot key, which can be used instead of the Capture button (upper left). The hot key is user selectable. We have chosen F12 because it is closest to the familiar PrintScrn key.

The input menu displays options for various types of capture – for example, screen, window, active window, and region, to name just a few. Output options include file, printer, clipboard, and catalog.

An example of a simple image capture is the graphic on this page, showing the SnagIt main screen itself. Image Capture was selected at the left, input is set at Region (a variable rectangle is selected), output was to a file and the output option was to show the Preview Window before saving the file. Images can be edited at this time (see below) or later using the Catalog Viewer.

There are many more input options, such as full Screen, Active Window, Object, and a variety of shapes (graphic at left). Output may be set at File, Printer, Clipboard, etc. (graphic at right).

It should be noted that a set of input and output options can be saved as a Profile so that settings do not have to be entered each time. Also, every time SnagIt is opened, the last-used settings will still be entered.

Text Capture is used for capturing text from applications that lack a cut and paste feature. It is not appropriate where it is possible to select, highlight, and print selections. Use text capture only when you need to get editable text as the output (text you can edit in NotePad or WordPad). Otherwise, for general screen captures, always use the Image Capture tool. One example is a printout of directory (folder) contents. Remember how easy this was back in the "DOS days"? With the advent of Windows, it was not easy. Now you can use SnagIt’s Text Capture, along with Auto Scroll when it is more than one screen in length, to do the same thing. The resulting text is both editable and has a small file size, compared to an image capture of the same folder.

Auto Scroll

Auto Scroll allows the capture of a scrolling window as a single image. This is available with the Window, Active Window and Region Input options. Clicking the Auto Scroll button enables the capture of windows containing a vertical scroll bar (image or text). Selecting the Scroll Direction option allows you to scroll vertically, horizontally, or both. This feature is great for capturing long Web documents, Windows folder contents, etc. There is also an advanced Custom Scroll setting for windows that contain special (moving) elements. The scrolling options are application-dependent and may not function with all Windows applications

Images can be edited and enhanced either from the Preview Window at the time of the capture or from the Catalog Viewer after the images have been saved

Catalog –- Browser and Viewer We were somewhat confused by the instructions for Catalog Browser vs SnagIt Studio. Here’s how we worked it out. If you want to use SnagIt, rather than your favorite graphics program to enhance images, then by all means output the files to the SnagIt Catalog. The options may not be as sophisticated as those found in many graphics programs. But this feature is useful and easy to use.

The Catalog Browser is easily accessed by clicking the Catalog Key in the main SnagIt screen. This brings up thumbnails of images stored in the catalog folder. A different folder can be selected by using the browser panel at the left of the screen. By double clicking on a thumbnail, the Catalog Viewer is launched. It is here that you can access menus for enhancing and editing your images. Features include contrast, brightness, hue, saturation, annotation, rotation, etc. Annotation, with easily adaptable options, allows you to make captions.

The Snagit Studio is designed to add layers to existing images — text, sticky notes, arrows, etc. It is really an annotation editor. You can open SnagIt Studio from the Start Menu Programs or if SnagIt is already open, select the Studio key. Then go to File to import an image. The imported image becomes a background upon which to add these text boxes, notes, etc. After the layers are added, the Studio uses its own format to save the image so that the additions can be edited later, if necessary. By exporting, you can also save the file in other formats (e.g. JPEG), but then the layers cannot be altered later.

The video feature of SnagIt is easy to use and many applications come to mind. It is an ideal teaching tool for demonstration of procedures that novices often have trouble mastering. Another use is technical help. You can trouble shoot at a distance, for example, by sending the AVI clips (compressed) as email attachments.

With easy-to-follow Help instructions, video captures are a snap and fun to create. Just ask for "video" in the index and it’s all there. Be sure you have lots of spare hard drive space, though, because even a short clip can be very large. When using full screen (800 X 600 resolution and High Color) the size of our AVI files was about 12 MB per minute or 14-15 MB with sound. The file size can be decreased by slowing the frames/sec, selecting a smaller area of the screen, and by compression techniques. WinZip compressed our AVI trial to about 10% of the file’s original size without any noticeable loss of quality when it was unzipped and run on another computer. But, even without decreasing the size, about 40 minutes of video with sound could be stored on a single CD-R.

Sound is easily added to the video, by selecting Record Audio in the Input Menu. It can also be dubbed in later by using DubIt, a program that can also be downloaded with SnagIt or installed from a CD. Registration of SnagIt automatically registers DubIt so there is no additional cost. Like SnagIt, DubIt has many uses – we used it primarily for adding and editing sound for our video clips. The audio track is easily deleted so you can re-record should you flub DubIt.

The AVI files are played by Windows Media Player. We tested both version 6 and version 7 in full screen view. Movement was smooth and very realistic. It was difficult to keep hands away from the mouse or keyboard.

So what do we think of SnagIt? Even for a novice it’s a great little program. It’s very user-friendly, although not necessarily easy to master. It will take a while for the average user to exhaust all the many options and their possible applications. There’s something for everyone. We highly recommend SnagIt!