Screen captures

[ideasguy]

A Bank Genie Pro user reported a bug yesterday

Fortunately it was quite minor, and fixed now
Program updates are posted on the Bank Genie Pro product support website:
See http://www.bankgenie.net/support/Updates/updates.html
The bug is fixed in Version 12 of program BS423.

In our email correspondence, Colin attached a screenshot of the screens in the program Error File - BS499.
As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words, and I was able to locate the problem easily.

I enquired as to how he created the screenshots. He replied:

I use http://www.gadwin.com/printscreen/  even on my Windows 7 laptop although M$ give you a snipping tool (or something)

Useful!

Clicking on Products, I find they have a product called Diagram Studio?.
It looks interesting. Anyone ever tried that?

Incidentally, for the Bank Genie and Ideas Genie User Guides, I use a product called Snagit by Techsmith - very easy to use to create screenshots with balloon help.
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit/

 

[NightHawk]

I use Faststone Capture.  Very similar to Snagit, cheaper, but does the job 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

I hadn't heard of that one Laurie, thanks.
I'm hoping our users will make a decision to buy one of these items.  A screenshot can make it so much easier in communications.

[NightHawk]

Here is a sample screen capture I did with Faststone Capture to show a bit of what it can do.

You can use boxes with colours of your choice with text inside to explain something on-screen.  A bit like the balloon effect in cartoon strips in newspapers, with the boxed arrow pointing to the characters' mouth when he's talking.

I've also used a yellow highlighter box over some text to draw attention to it.  Just like using a yellow highlighter pen on paper.



I'm sure George and Colin will see some similarities between this and the other two programs mentioned here.  There may be other more advanced features in the other two programs I'm not aware of, but as George has said, it is worth considering at least one of these suggestions.

Screenshots can be very useful in showing a particular problem any of our members may have using George's software, and who want help solving the issue.  Or indeed a screenshot of anything else members may find useful in explaining something to our members.

Re-iterating what George said - "A picture is worth a thousand words."

Please consider trying one of these programs.  I know George will definitely appreciate it when you require his help to solve a problem.

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Excellent Laurie!

It looks like Faststone Capture is very similar to Snagit - certainly in intent!
You can see the work Ive done with it in the Demos and Screenshots section of the Ideas Genie website:
http://www.ideasgenie.co.uk/screen_shots.html

Its nice to have options!

[ContraOboe]

Cool!

[Eric Hardy]

Just seen this thread.
 My method is this: -
1. Press "Print Screen" on my keyboard
2. Open Paint
3. Press "Control V"
4. Save the picture as a JPEG
5. Right click on picture and "Send to Flickr"
6. Make sure the picture on Flickr is private
7. Copy the code and paste it in my reply

Of course it can't do all the clever highlighting Laurie can do with his Fastone Capture

[NightHawk]

Thanks for telling us the method you use there Eric.

As you say, there are more options available for screen captures with dedicated programs.

One great feature I like about Faststone Capture (I can't speak for the other programs we've discussed so far here), is that you can capture a 'scrolling' web page.  The 'PrintScreen' feature in Windows just allows capture of what you can see on your monitor at any given time, so if the page scrolls you only get part of the page.  Then you have scroll down manually, PrintScreen again, and patch the two images together in a graphics program.

I use this particular feature of Faststone Capture a lot for my own personal use and it's so much easier to deal with.

It's worth downloading each of those programs to try out so you can compare them against your current method of screen captures.  Faststone Capture is a free trial download for 30 days, and I'm quite certain the other two have free trial periods too.

If you don't like them you've lost nothing, but I think you will probably end up buying one of them 

Laurie.

[ideasguy]

Thanks for your input Eric! That is probably the simplest method since it uses the standard Windows tools, so anyone can do it.
I hope our members can learn that method.

Laurie has explained how Faststone Capture can capture a scrolling web page, and you can also do that in Snagit.
Fun for all if trying the 30 day trials

[Eric Hardy]

Something weird happened there, George. I got notification of your reply in my email inbox as usual and when I clicked on the link I got this message. I tried again by clicking "reload tab" on my Ideas Genie Community page and the same thing happened. I have got here by reopening the forum from scratch and clicking on your message as it appears on the Home page.

[ideasguy]

Nasty!
Thanks for your very detailed report.

Ive started a new topic to discuss this, Eric:
http://www.flowergenie.co.uk/ideas/forum/index.php/topic,1631.0.html