Feature: TechSmith's Snagit 8 is the premier image capture program for Windows
Motivation: It just got better with the new 8.1 version

If you are in the documentation, illustration or web training fields in Windows there is a good chance you know about and use Snagit already. This note is to inform you that the new 8.x version of Snagit provides significant features and improvements over & and above earlier versions of Snagit - such that the $20 upgrade is well worth your while.

Meantime, for those new to Snagit, it is the premier tool for doing partial and complete screen captures of what is happening on your PC. Those captures can be still-shots (see below) to video clips which include all mouse cursor movements and keyboard typing. Snagit 8 is quite
versatile. As the screenshot of this evolving review in Dreamweaver shows, one can not only capture a portion of the screen but immediately add a border, drop shadow, a text note with or without a pointer in Snagit's convenient drag and draw editor.

Snagit's graphic editor is not the equivalent of Photoshop or even Photoshop Elements. But the real power of the Snagit editor is its ability to eliminate keystrokes and speed up documentation and illustration tasks by allowing users to capture in many different ways (or profiles as Snagit calls them) and then do very fast and convenient captioning and annotations within the editor. Most annotation commands/effects start with good guess defaults but can be easily reset and customized by the user. Snagit always takes the users last custom settings as its remembered default settings for a command/effect.

For example, right out of the box, Snagit 8 provides 10 different capture profiles for such common tasks as:
1-Full Screen Capture - equivalent to Windows PrintScreen but now you can annotate;
2-Region Capture - draw out with mouse rectangular region to capture;
3-Window Capture - Snagit "knows" Window's different sub-Windows and suggests them with red outline as the mouse cursor is dragged over the screen - left click to capture the sub-window you want;
4-Webpage - is a smart capture as it auto-scrolls down webpage and captures links;
5-Video capture - captures screen changes, mouse movement, menu dropdowns etc;
6-Scrolling Window to PDF - captures images and text with output to PDF file;
7-Menu with time delay - captures dropdown ad cascading menus;
8-Objects from a Window - captures ActiveX and other Windows objects;
9-Images from a Web Page - captures all the images from a web page;
10-Text from a Window - captures just the text from a Windows app;
What is better is that users can easily customize these basic capture profiles for their specific tasks ad save their custom profile(s) for later use.

But there is more. Snagit as already implied in the profiles allows a number of different user selectable output options as well. These include output to several graphic file formats including PNG, JPG, GIF, and PDF plus text output to .TXT files. Also users can capture to FTP, IM-Instant messaging, the Clipboard, eMail, or directly to the printer. Video output is in AVI file format which can be directed to a file or directly through FTP to a website.

If you get the impression that Snagit is the Swiss Army Knife of capture utilities you are right on the mark. But Techsmith has worked overtime to make Snagit very easy to use. There is active help during a capture sequence. Tooltips popup as your mouse hovers over profile choices or command buttons with helpful info about what each profile or button does. Finally, the helps system is packed with the fruits of Snagit's labors - screen captures and video tips on how to work more effectively in Snagit.

What's in Snagit 8.x


To the left is the new Snagit screen layout; but advice to classic Snagit users: the old layouts are available with a simple click of the Toggle View icon or menu item. As seen in the screenshot, profiles are now shown as icons - but again, by clicking a toggle users can change quickly from list layout to icon and back. Another improvement has been the better quality image when the capture is scaled up or down - better than anything Photoshop can do at keeping text and edges of buttons and windows legible and jaggy free.

But here are my five favorite enhancements from the 13 new ones added to Snagit 8.x. First, is the ability to output to PDF format including picking up and preserving any Web hyperlinks. This is quite helpful in doing quick reviews and notes on websites for customers. Second, is the ability incorporate Flash files into captures - this makes interactive websites and presentations much easier. Third, in Snagit's Graphic editor, captions and callouts can be changed and re-edited with ease - this is e real time saver. Fourth, it is now easy to repeat an effect like shadow, blur or spotlight with multiple click on the captured area - another big time saver. Finally, Snagit now exports to Word and PowerPoint much more smoothly including powerful icon toolbars - see Snagit's very helpful online help center for details.

For $20 upgrade or $40 for a new copy, Snagit is one of the best ways to document Windows and Web applications. The only drawback - having been spoiled by Snagit, I feel like I am floundering when doing a Mac or Linux desktop project. Thank heavens for virtual machines!