Category: Tips

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minitoolbar1When working with the Text or Callout tools in Snagit a little menu pops up. This little Menu is called the Mini Toolbar.

In the Mini Toolbar you have a quick access to some of the most common tools, you can for example change font, colors, size of font, bold, shadow and have access to a lot of other helpful tools.

These are useful functions, the only problem is that the Mini Toolbar often places itself on top of what you are writing or if you want to grab a corner and drag something the Toolbar pops up and places itself on top of what you want to reach and you have to fiddle to get to what you want to do.

minitoolbar2

Well, there is an easy way to solve this problem and only see the Toolbar when you want to see it.

Go to the Snagit Button in the upper left corner of the Editor (1) and choose Editor Options (2).

minitoolbar3

And simply choose to unclick Mini Toolbar (3).

minitoolbar4

But, what if I need it sometimes you ask. Well, just right-click your mouse when working and the Mini Toolbar will appear on your command. Now you only see it when you need it.

Thanks goes out to Magus for this excellent tip.

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

Record Better Videos with Snagit

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Record Screen with SnagitSure, when it comes to Screen recording nothing beats Camtasia Studio. But Snagit is also an excellent tool when you need to quickly record a video off your screen.

In this article I will cover a simple step that can greatly increase the quality of your Snagit Video Screen recordings.

Go into the Video Capture Output Properties. You find this by choosing Record Screen Video, choose Capture Output and Properties (See image below).

record-screenChange framerate

You should change the frames per second of your recordings. This simple change will really impact the quality of your videos.

record-screen3Just change the Frames per second from 5, to 15 or higher. Try different settings but 15 should be enough for a great screen recording. I you capture with too high frame rate you will use too much computer resources and the recording may become laggy.

And that’s all there is to it. If you make this simple change your video should come out crisp and clear.

You can also experiment with different compressors (codecs) to get better results.

If you have questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

The Eyedropper Tool

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eyepicker1This article is about my first learning experience in finding some quick and easy steps to edit colors using the eyedropper tool in Snagit.

One of the handiest and most useful tool in Snagit is the Eyedropper. This has similar functions found in other applications and it is also called colorpicker, color picker, eye dropper or sometimes iDropper.

This tool makes it easy to match, duplicate and change colors in your capture. It’s an excellent tool to copy colors from one image to another.

To start using the Eyedropper, click on the “Draw Tab” then choose from the “Drawing Tools”. Each tool comes with many Styles to select from before you pick a color in the “Outline” or “Fill” toolbar.

As a beginner, it’s not easy to find which other toolbars the eyedropper is connected to. Sometimes, you’ll find them grayed-out and unclickable.

A1

For example when working in the Snagit Stamps Menu you cannot access the Outline or Fill effects (both of which have the Color Picker).

To easily see where the Outline and Fill effects are available, you can start clicking on the available tools in your ribbon toolbar to see which toolbars that aren’t grayed out as you click.

A2

For example when working with the Callout Tool you find that both the Outline and Fill are available (and thus the colorpicker for both of these).

Other options using the eyedropper are also available; open the Snagit Editor, select the image you want to retouch in your “Captures Tray” or the “Library”. Click on the “Image” tab and choose “Canvas Color”. Go to the Eyedropper tool, click and the cursor will turn to a color picker. You can start picking colors from your selected image and as you move the Eyedropper clicking on the colors, you will see the “Canvas Color” toolbar also changes to the colors that you click.

A3

Following the basic steps mentioned above should give a new user of Snagit a better understanding about the locations and functions of the eyedropper tool.

Until next time ;-)

Mizra – Your Snagit Guide

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scrollingwindowHello Friends!

Snagit is the Best Screen Capture software – I can confidently say no doubt about it. There’s a cliche that goes, “Nobody’s Perfect.” Well nobody doesn’t necessarily have to be a person, it can also be applied to things and animals. ‘Nothing is Perfect’  well with one exception SNAGIT IS PERFECT :-)

Today I am sharing one  common issue that some Snagit Fans may have experienced and thought there was no solution.   You get a nice long article that you want to capture and print but oh no! Snagit Scroll Feature won’t work! Relax am here to help you sort this one out.

First of all if you are still using Snagit version 7 or 8 you should think about upgrading. Lots of the little nagging issues in previous versions of Snagit  have been resolved in Snagit 9. I think Snagit 9 upgrade is well worth it

To use the Auto-Scroll Capture feature correctly you need to adjust  some settings. Follow the instructions below: 

For Snagit Version 8 or 9

scrolling tab

IMAGE

1. Select Input

2. Go to Properties

3. Click on Scrolling tab

4. Set the Scroll delay to “0″ miliseconds.

5. Set the Scroll direction to “Both”

6. Click Apply, then OK

7. Select Input > Scrolling > Auto Scroll Window

8. Open the program you want to scroll.

9. Click on the Capture hotkey or open SnagIt and click the Red Capture button to start.

10. Once you see the hand-cursor, click on the middle of the window that you want to scroll and wait for a few moments for it to scroll and make the capture.

For Snagit versions 7 and  older
 

 

I recommend you use the Custom Scroll Window function because the settings of Auto-Scroll Window will not work properly due to the non-standard scrollbars that redraws during scrolling.

To use Custom Scroll, do the following:

1. Select Input

2. Go to Scrolling

3. Choose Custom Scroll

4. Open the program that you want to capture

5. Click the Capture hotkey

5. Once you see the crosshair scroll that allows you to drag your desired region then click on the down arrow control with the left mouse button to begin the capture.

For windows that is scrolled horizontally, I recommend you use the Extended Window input, most especially if you are using XP. To set Extended Window, do the following:

1. Select Input

2. Go to Advanced

3. Choose Extended Window

If you are unable to scroll, you can also change the Scroll delay value, to do so, follow this:

1. Select Input

2. Go to Properties

3. Click on Scrolling Tab

4. Set the Scroll delay to 300, then 500, then 1000 to see whichever allows you to create a successful capture.

If you continue to have problems performing your auto scroll captures contact our support team for assistance.

That’s all there is to it. I hope this has been helpful to you.

Credits to TechSmith Support Center.

Until Next Time ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

 

 

 

 

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snagitvideoHi There,

Did you know that Snagit not only captures images but that you can also record Video with Audio?

Yes Snagit keeps getting better and better always one step ahead of all the Screen Capture Software out there.

However please note that this feature is only a small subset of the powerful screen recording and editing capability of Camtasia Studio.  Camtasia Studio will allow you to record, edit, annotate and produce videos in all of the standard multi-media formats. It uses an optimized screen capture codec so the resulting files are small and highly compressed.

Back to Snagit, most of the time I notice that first time Snagit users usually ask whenever they record a video from player, website or application, why the audio is missing once playing the videos on the editor.

I  encountered the same problem but I soon discovered how  easy it is to fix the problem and make it work. I will share with you the steps below. Although it may look long winded don’t give up,  if you follow the instructions step by step its very easy and you only need to do it once.

How to record a video with  audio in Snagit:

blue-button

Click on the Light Blue Round button with an arrow beside the Capture button and choose Video Capture. See image above.

Make sure that under the Options area, the Microphone is highlighted or on.

mic-is-on

Now click on the tab Output with an image written “None Selected” , then go to Properties, on Audio options, make sure that the Audio capture device is set to your sound card, click Apply then OK.

Once done with setting up the necessary functions on Snagit, proceed to configuring the recording input in your Window Record Control.

sound-and-audio-device

Go to Start > Control Panel > Sounds and Audio Devices > Audio tab. In Sound recording area, make sure that your sound card is set as the Default Device, click Apply then OK.

Now, under the Sound recording area, click on the Volume button, this will open the Record Control box. Once there, choose Options > then Properties.

Put a check on the box beside the following options: Stereo Mix, Mono Mix, What you hear, Mixer, Wave out mix and Wave in, then click OK.

Back to Record Control box, put a check on the Select button corresponding to each property that you checked earlier, then close the box.

record-control

If you follow these steps and it  fails, you may want to update your sound card or if your sound card does not support recording audio-generated applications, you may use a jumper wire. Just place the jumper wire between Line Out and Mic In on the Sound Card, making the Line In as the recording source.

Alternatively you may own an older version of Snagit that needs upgrading to the latest version Snagit 9.0. You may request upgrade for  Snagit here.

If  you find this article helpful please feel free to share with all the Snaggers and give us your comments!

Until Next Time ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

Cool Text Art

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I do find that most Snagit fans (like me) enjoy working with both graphics and text. You find many Snagit users among technical writers for example.

So I found this little free online application that you can create “wordart”. Don’t know if there’s such a word but it sounds fitting.

The service is called Wordle and the image you see above was created by just inputting the text from one of my articles on Snagit Guide and out came this wonderful image.

My kids is in the learning to read age so I printed out a couple for them too and they just love finding the words in it.

So, what are you waiting for, go create your own word art and tell me all about it in the comment area.

Until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

Thanks goes out to Ryan Trauman for the initial tip about this site.

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users1

Hi There

Most people I speak with agree that Snagit is the best screen capture software around.But I would also have to add that Snagit is more, it’s a great tool for collaboration work as well. It saves so much time and makes everything much clearer!

Please share any comments, ideas or stories you have about using Snagit in collaboration work in the comment section below. I would love to hear these stories.

Are the following scenarios perhaps familiar to you?

Have you ever experienced chatting with your teammate about an error you see on a web page that he can’t see when in fact both of you are on the same page?

Have you ever tried teaching a teammate how to do certain steps on a software or a website but they don’t seem to get the same end-result you do?

Yes, that can be annoying. Good thing, Snagit can solve these problems between you and your teammates. You can do this with Snagit, by simply taking a shot of those things you have on your screen and a little edit, you can instantly send it to your teammate via instant messaging, email, etc.

To me, as a user working with a team, SnagIt has been very helpful in sending and sharing my ideas, thoughts and instructions to my teammates. Misunderstanding almost never happens and it serves as another layer of added clear and concise communication between the team.

snagit-in-email1The team primary use email and skype internet messenger to collaborate and Snagit enhances both these tools. I paste in instructions in emails as in the example (see image). Then I enhance the images with arrows, comments using the drawing  tool. Please note, for this to work you need to have your email set to html, not txt format.

To easily share when chatting with Skype I also use the Snagit Skype Add-on. This makes it possible to immediately send captures to anyone on my skype chat list. You find the Snagit Skype Add-on here. (Require that Skype is installed on both parties computers.)

I’d love to hear your stories about Snagit as a collaboration tool below.

That’s  all for now until next time ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

PS. If you aren’t using Snagit yet, please read more about Snagit here.

If you are already using Snagit but haven’t upgraded to version 9.0 yet go here to: Upgrade Snagit

Capture Snagit – How To

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One Question I get pretty often is “How do I capture Snagit?”.

Kathy sent me this question today: “I am trying to create in-house step by step instructions on how to perform video capture using SNAGIT. I am trying to capture SNAGIT’s home page w/Quick Launch, Related Tasks, Profiles, and Profiles Settings. But when I use Printscreen it activates SNAGIT. I’ve also tried to use Ctrl Insert, Ctrl A, Ctrl C to capture the screen but to no avail. Is there some way that I can get around the Print Screen hotkey and get my screen capture? I would appreciate feedback as soon as possible…thank you and have a nice holiday…”


How to do a screen capture of Snagit

Go into Snagit Tools/Preferences and change the setting Global Capture Hotkey and remove the print screen button.

Now when you choose Print Screen you will the “old” print screen. Just click the Print Screen button.

After this, open the Snagit Editor and paste in the screen capture.

You will have to crop the image because without Snagit you will capture the complete screen every time.

That’s all there is to it.

Happy Holidays ;-)

Peter – Your Snagit Guide

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Snagit License Question

Hello Snagit User ;-)

In this post you’ll find answers to the most common license and download questions – I lost Snagit, what do I do? I want to install Snagit on a second computer, can I? I lost my license key, can I get it back?

In connection to the emails we sent out the last weeks we have gotten a lot of similar questions and I am guessing you also perhaps could benefit from the answers.

But first, a BIG thanks to everyone that contributed to the blog post “Snagit 9 Wishlist“. We have had a fantastic response with more than 70 comments and counting.

I will huff and puff for these ideas to the Snagit development team and hopefully they will listen and implement many of them in near future releases.

If you have more ideas you would like to see implemented, please don’t hesitate to comment on the blog post and I will keep pushing for them.

Read on for common Snagit license and download questions…

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Snagit Tutorial Sites

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Snagit TutorialSnagit Guide is proud to be one of many websites that offer Snagit tutorials. I have made an attempt to put together a list of great places where you can get great tips on how to use SnagIt as well as help and Snagit support.

This list is by no means complete and if you have suggestions to more great Snagit tutorial sites, please include these in the comments below.

Read on to find out about great Snagit Tutorial Sites…
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