15 Dec 2019

SnagIt Is for More Than Just Documentation Specialists

Both Windows and the MacOS have the built-in ability to create a screen shot, which is one of the reasons that I'm often surprised by questions that people post to support groups with a screen shot created by pointing a digital camera at the computer and taking a picture. The built-in ability for both Windows and Mac users is limited, though, and a true screen capture application such as SnagIt gives the user many more options.

First Thought: Do You Need SnagIt?

That's a valid question and most people probably think SnagIt is intended only for professional trainers and documentation specialists. Those kinds of users undoubtedly think of SnagIt the way a carpenter thinks of a hammer: It's simply an essential tool that's used every day. Even if that's not your job description, SnagIt might still be worth buying in some cases.

A little background: Around 1990 I was the communications and advertising guy for a software company and the head of the support department wondered if a program she had heard about could help train users how to get the most out of their accounting software. That program was called SnagIt. It could. It did. And SnagIt continues to be the application that full-time trainers reach for.

Snag is isn't just for professional trainers, though. It's priced at $50 (the cost of a week's worth of overpriced coffees) and companies that want every employee to have a copy of the program can pay at little as $25 per seat and even lower prices are available for more than 250 licenses.. The company's Camtasia application for video capture and editing is a $250 investment, so most companies will probably restrict it to just the professionals. Those who have a previous version can upgrade for half of the current price.

The question this will raise is why a company might want every employee to have a copy and the answer is complicated. Start with this background: Employees call on each other all the time to help with computer programs — ones the company has developed internally for employees or commercial applications. TechSmith cites research by Blissfully.com that shows mid-size companies (200-500 employees) often have more than 120 apps that employees use. Some apps are used by all employees — a good example might be the payroll application. Other apps may be used by just a few employees — a warehouse program that's used only by management staff.

Adding to the complexity, many apps are updated once or twice a year, some apps will be added, and some will be replaced. A single training and support department probably won't be able to keep documentation for all parts of all applications up to date. TechSmith's strategy manager, Daniel Foster, describes the problem this way.

Even for apps that are used by everyone, not all functions are used regularly. For example, an hourly employee may need to make a special entry in the time system to account for emergency time off but doesn't remember how. Let's call him Alphonse. He remembers that Francesca had a similar emergency several weeks ago, so he asks her about the process. This happens a lot. A survey by RescueTime found that about half of all employees say that they are interrupted frequently and nearly as many say that they are interrupted at least occasionally each day by people with questions about how to do something.

TechSmith realized that about 35% of SnagIt users aren't support and documentation specialists, but instead are people who use the application to train co-workers and document processes. A sales rep might use SnagIt to provide documentation to a customer. The user of an app might use it to explain a process to a co-worker. Here's Daniel Foster again.

Having spent a bunch of years in a software development company, I know that the one sentence developers detest more than any other is "Feature A doesn't work in application B." There's no clue about what the problem is and even if the person reporting the problem has tried to remember the process and report any error messages, something is almost always omitted. A series of screen shots or even a video can help developers understand the problem so they can fix it. Although SnagIt isn't Camtasia, it can capture basic screen sequences as videos.

And that brings us to why even individuals can make good use of SnagIt. Those who have become, by default, the "computer person" for family, friends, and neighbors could find that $50 is a good investment. A simple screen shot or two, or a short video, can save the time needed to write complex instructions.

So the use cases for SnagIt have changed over the years and the scope of users has grown.

The New Version's Nearly Invisible Improvements are Key

The user interface looks a lot like it did in 2019 and the casual observer might not notice much of a difference. TechSmith's master trainer, Jason Valade, directed my attention to the upper left corner of the interface.

Let's see what the template option offers.

 Click any small image for a full-size view. To dismiss the larger image, press ESC or tap outside the image.

We all know that email is the most common vector for distributing malware with links to malicious sites, so it might be useful to explain how people can see the contents of a website safely without using a browser to visit the site. It's an easy process that uses a Windows PowerShell command with the URL of the suspect site.

I started by opening PowerShell and capturing three images that could be used to describe the process. I then annotated the three images and saved them in SNAG format.

Clicking the (1) Create button offered the option to create an image using a template or to create a video from multiple images. I selected the option to use a template and then selected the template that had three images in a vertical arrangement. Currently all SnagIt templates are limited to a single page, but this is likely to change.

Dragging (2) each of the three images onto the template continued the process. I then added text to the locations provided in the template and saved the resulting image as a SNAG file so that I would be able to update it later.

The share option offers choices ranging from various file options to Word and Excel formats, email, OneDrive and Google Drive, and a lot more.

<< This is the resulting image.

Not all explanations require a complex description, though. Sometimes a single screen shot with a highlighted area or an arrow is sufficient. It's not unusual for me to answer a question with just one screen shot that has a text overlay, an arrow, or a highlight. These are all functions that Windows and MacOS native screen captures don't offer by default.

Photos are Helpful and Sometimes Videos Are Even Better

The second major new feature in SnagIt 2020 is the ability to create videos using captured images. SnagIt has had the ability to create simple videos for several years, but anyone who needs to create complex instructional videos needs Camtasia, not SnagIt. I had six SnagIt images that I created to show how extensions can be added to Microsoft's new Edge browser, the one that's based on the Chromium engine.

The process is similar to that used to create an image from a template. Start with (A) a series of images that you want to use for the video and then click (B) Video from images in the Create menu.

Then you can decide whether to turn on the computer's camera, set the background color, choose whether you want to include cursor movements or not, and select an audio source. The size of the video is shown in pixels but cannot be changed. The left and right arrow keys scroll through the images. Clicking the X icon cancels the process and clicking the white dot starts a short count down to the start of the recording. During the recording, a pause control button and a button to end the recording appear and you'll see a digital time display showing the length of the recording.

Here's the video I created.

There are two problems with the video, one that you may have noticed and one that you probably didn't.

1. The SnagIt cursor was wobbling around near the bottom of the screen. That was my error. I enabled cursor visibility. I could have gone back and recorded the sequence again but decided not to because it illustrates as easily made error. (And also I'm lazy.)
2. Next, I cheated and used Camtasia to edit away some errors. SnagIt is intended for quick, simple videos so you'll need to record the demo enough times to get it entirely right in one take or send a video that contains errors. Those who need to perform complex editing for instructional videos should acquire Camtasia, but SnagIt is a useful tool for those who need to create short instructional pieces.

It's clear that TechSmith wants to avoid creating a $50 SnagIt application that eliminates the need for the $250 Camtasia application. Even so, SnagIt's ability to create videos from captured screen images adds abilities that go far beyond the application's previous basic video capture function. If there's one feature that I'd like to see added it's the ability to capture cursor information. Camtasia can be used to add highlights, sounds, and call-outs based on the position of the cursor and mouse clicks. It would be helpful if video sequences captured in SnagIt and then handed off to professional documentation associates would carry that information along.

 SnagIt is what you need to explain procedures

TechSmith's SnagIt has been the application that documentation specialists have used for nearly 40 years. It's still the right application for professionals, but it's also a good choice for anyone who needs to explain how things work regardless of the audience. New features added to the 2020 version make it even more useful for subject matter experts who need to share their knowledge.
Additional details are available on the TechSmith website.

Short Circuits

Tell Cortana Farewell on IOS and Android Devices

Microsoft, Apple, and Android all have assistants. Cortana, Siri, and the Google Assistant respectively. One of these three is not like the others. One of these three doesn't belong.

Siri has a lock on Apple computers and portable devices. Google Assistant is widely used on Android devices. And then there's Cortana, which is installed on Windows 10 computers, but it's questionable how many people use the service. Cortana was also released for IOS and Android devices, but Microsoft is about to "unrelease" it. At the end of January 2020, Cortana will no longer work on those devices. Microsoft tries to position it as an improvement.

Cortana runs on Windows 10 computers but only in 13 countries. Microsoft claims 150 million users, but many of those probably type questions into the search bar instead of talking to Cortana. Assistants aren't as useful on computers as they are on smart phones and Cortana is severely limited in what it can do when compared with Siri and the Google Assistant. There's also Alexa, created by Amazon, which was first used in the Amazon Echo and the Amazon Echo Dot smart speakers. Alexa, though, isn't included with any computers. It can be installed on MacOS and Windows computers and on most phones. Those who have Amazon speakers often prefer to use Alexa on their other devices just to keep things as simple as possible.

So where does that leave Cortana? As of 31 January 2020, out in the cold. That's probably not news.

What you might not know is that there's a Cortana smart speaker, the Harman Kardon Invoke. Research by Kantar US Insights gives the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot and other Amazon products have a little over 60% of the market share. Google Home, Google Home Max, and the Google Home Mini have about 30% of the market. Several other devices take up the remaining 10% and sales of the Harman Kardon Invoke have been so low that the device doesn't even show up in the analysis.

Microsoft seems to be repositioning Cortana as an assistant for businesses and for use in automobiles. Cortana development has been moved from the AI and Research unit to the Office unit. The announcement by Microsoft shows that Cortana will be promoted as a productivity tool in Microsoft apps rather than as a competitor to Alexa, the Google Assistant, and Siri.

Which Audio Device is Active?

Most computers have speakers and many have a built-in microphone. Sometimes the speaker or microphone might appear to be broken and this is usually a problem that's easy to fix.

The computer might have more than one audio device. Maybe you've installed a monitor that has built-in speakers. Perhaps you've added a USB unit that has audio devices. Or maybe there's a headset that you use with Skype or when playing on-line games.

Windows tries to figure out which device you want to use, but sometimes it guesses wrong. So if you can't hear audio or the microphone appears to be turned off, here's how to fix it.

The easy option, if you need to check just the playback option starts with clicking the speaker icon on the Task Bar. Then click the up arrow to display a list of all playback devices. The full list might not fit in the panel or you might also want to check the input device. If that's the case, right-click the speaker icon and select (1) Open Sound Settings. The Settings panel that opens offers options for (2) playback devices and (3) input devices.

The screenshot shows a headset (USB PnP), speakers in both Display Port monitors (Q2781), the computer's built-in speakers (Realtek), and the external USB device that is my default (Focusrite) as playback options. For inputs, the choices are the built-in microphone (Realtek), the microphone in the headset (USB PnP), and the external USB device I use for recording TechByter (Focusrite).

To switch to a different playback device or a different microphone, just select it from the list.