Matthew Ellison

Time-saving Tools and Techniques for Capturing Screens

Matthew Ellison

Consultant and trainer for User Assistance tools and technologies Technical Director of annual

UA Europe conference

What we’ll cover in this session

Recommendations on when and how to use screenshots in user assistance Potential pitfalls The basic procedure for capturing screens Image file formats Tips for capturing screens successfully How screen capture tools save work and

add value Survey of popular screen capture tools

When/why should I use screenshots?

Identify the appearance and/or location of a control Show and explain the layout of a screen Provide a visual instruction Show the result of an action Confirm that user has displayed the

correct dialog box or screen (in tutorials)

Show and explain the layout of a screen

Numbers clearly identify main regions of the screen

Provide a visual instruction

Image provides same instruction as text

Refer to a tool or button within text

Show the result of an action

Confirm that user has displayed correct dialog box

Screenshot confirms success or shows what

dialog box looks like (unnecessary for onscreen Help)

When screenshots can cause problems…

Developers make late changes to the screens The screens need to be localized for many

different countries Possible solutions: Blur or obscure the text Draw simplified version of screen

Example: Blurred text

Localized text is selectively blurred –

other dialog elements remain sharp

Original screen capture

Example: simplified screen

Another potential pitfall

Users may not notice scroll bar and assume they are seeing entire

topic

Instructions are out of view beneath screenshot

Possible solution: thumbnail

Another solution: DHTML dropdown

Capture a window

1. Press <ALT>+<Print Screen> 2. Paste the Clipboard contents into

an image editor 3. Optionally: resize the image (only

necessary for onscreen presentation)

4. Optionally: reduce the color depth to 256 colours

5. Save as a file Demo

Capture a control or region

1. Press <ALT>+<Print Screen> 2. Paste the Clipboard contents into an

image editor 3. Crop to the required region,

optionally applying edge effects 4. Optionally: Reduce the colour depth

to 256 colors 5. Save as a file

Capture a cascading menu

1. Press <Print Screen> 2. Paste the Clipboard contents into

an image editor 3. Crop to the cascading menu 4. Carefully remove the background 5. Reduce the colour depth to 256

colors 6. Save as a file

Resizing screenshots for on-screen presentation

Reasons to decrease the dimensions of a screenshot • Reduce screen space • Avoid confusion with real screen

For best quality of resulting image: • Use millions of colours (24- or

32-bit) before resizing • Use an anti-aliasing resize

method

Resized screenshots

Original Image

Smart Resize

Pixel Resize

Raster vs. Vector

Raster vs. Vector

Websafe vs. Non-Websafe

Annotated screenshots

1. Capture to a lossless raster format

2. Add annotations and captions using a

vector-based image editor 3. Store and edit combined image

in vector format

4. Use “Save As” to create raster format as required

.bmp

Windows BitMaP Typically uncompressed and therefore

very large Non-Web-Safe

.jpg

Joint Photographic (Experts) Group Lossy compression Great for photos, but not for screenshots Web-Safe

.gif

(Compuserve) Graphic Interchange Format Lossless compression Maximum of 256 colours Web-Safe

.tiff

Tagged Image Format A container format that supports many

types of compression, layers, and different colour modes including CMYK Popular for printed publications Non-Web-Safe

.png

Portable Network Graphics Lossless compression Alpha layer for transparency Does not support CMYK colour Web-Safe

Screen resolution at capture time

You are capturing pixels The number of pixels that make up a

screen element does not alter when you change the screen resolution

Size of windows and dialogs at capture time

If possible, reduce the size of a window or dialog as much as you can without: • losing vital information • making it unrecognizable to the user

Example: Resized window

Resized dialog shows all UI

elements

Original dialog

Capture only as much of the screen as the user needs to see

Always aim to minimize the dimensions of the screen capture Exclude screen clutter that will distract the

user from the main focus

What I look for in a screen capture tool: Minimum requirements

Include the cursor (or easily add it post-capture) Capture windows, objects,

cascading menus, and rectangular regions (with precision) Automatically add border or edge

effects Automatically use a specified file

format when saving file Add editable callouts and other

objects on a separate layer

What I look for in a screen capture tool: Nice to have

Re-capture a rectangular region Save capture to a file without user

intervention Capture individual buttons Convert to a specified image resolution

automatically Capture non-rectangular regions such as

ellipses and polygons Capture scrolling windows

Screen capture tools

Let’s look at: FullShot – Inbit Jing - TechSmith MadCap Capture – Madcap Software RoboScreenCapture – Adobe

(Bundled with Adobe RoboHelp) SnagIt – TechSmith

FullShot (Enterprise Edition)

FullShot’s capture method

Capture buttons automatically added to active window Each button activates a different

capture type (Window, Region, etc.) Hotkeys can be used as an alternative

FullShot's Capture Settings dialog

General settings

effecting all captures

Type-specific settings

FullShot summary

A popular tool with a good track record FullShot Standard Edition automates the

screen capture process very successfully Uses a different capture mechanism and

workflow from most of its competitors Interface is fairly complex Difficult to capture screen regions

precisely

FullShot summary

For: • ease of capture

(using title bar buttons) • wide range of capture shapes and effects • minimizes file sizes by optimizing the colour

palette Against:

• no magnified view of the pointer area for precise selection of capture regions

• does not enable you to set the colour depth of a captured image to a specific value

• no support for capturing buttons in the Standard Edition

Jing

Sharing button

Jing summary

A simple and fun to use utility It enables you quickly to capture and

share windows, objects, and regions of your computer screen It is available for both the Windows and

Mac OS

Jing summary

For: • free • support for sharing screen captures quickly

and easy through a hosted website • ease of access and use • support for simple video capture

Against: • basic • no edge effects available • no vector based annotations

MadCap Capture

Profiles Editor

MadCap Capture summary

A very interesting and innovative screen capture tool Focuses on streamlining the screen

capture workflow rather than necessarily competing on feature-count A compelling choice for users of MadCap

Flare

MadCap Capture summary

For: • integration with MadCap Flare, and support for

"single-sourcing" screen- and print-oriented image formats

• ability to reproduce the position and dimensions of previous region captures

• powerful and multi-layered vector-based image editor

Against: • reliance on Flare to exploit certain features fully • steeper learning curve than some of the other

tools • edge effects (such as torn edge) perhaps not quite

as well implemented as some of the other tools

RoboScreenCapture

Raster-based image editing tools

Complex but well-organized

UI

RoboScreenCapture Capture Settings dialog

Can be useful for capturing drop-

down menus and pop-ups

RoboScreenCapture summary

A well-designed package that enables easy and very precise capture of regions, buttons, and other screen elements Bundled with Adobe RoboHelp versions 7,

8, 9, 10 and has been well integrated with these products Not available for purchase as a standalone

product A little out-dated

RoboScreenCapture summary

For: • wide range of capture options including

capture of individual buttons and repeat last capture

• high level of control over color depth, resolution, and compression

• precise selection of capture region using arrow keys

Against: • no support for special edge effects • can’t save capture settings as named profiles • no support for true freehand region

SnagIt Each profile

contains a specific combination of

settings

Logical organization of controls

Easy-to-use Wizard for

creating new profiles

SnagIt Editor

SnagIt summary

A full-featured package with a logical workflow that is likely to address the needs of even the most demanding of user assistance developers

SnagIt summary

For: • exceptionally well-designed interface and

workflow • comprehensive options for capturing,

standardizing, and adding effects to images • bundled tools include powerful vector-based

image editor and file management utility • flexible All-in-One capture profile

(similar to Jing)

Against: • may offer more features than required by

some user assistance specialists • rather lame capture sound effect

Gift for TCUK 2013 attendees

Free download of all slides from UA Europe 2013 in Manchester Go to: uaconference.eu/TCUK …and enter your contact details to receive username and password

Matthew Ellison matthew@uaeurope.com

Questions?