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ScreenSteps: A Beautiful Way to Share Information Online

Written by Marshall Kirkpatrick / June 27, 2008 2:54 PM / 6 Comments

screenstepslogo.jpgTutorial creation tool ScreenSteps released a new version today and we're excited to discover this very useful looking tool. This desktop app for Windows and Mac lets users create attractive screenshot-based support documents in minutes. You can capture full or partial screenshots, add relatively sophisticated annotation and then publish to the web or export in HTML or PDF formats.

The 30 day trial of ScreenSteps Pro took us just a few minutes to learn how to use and we're already excited to use this service for product reviews and tutorials.

ScreenSteps lets you drag and drop to capture screen shots, then go back and title them, overlay annotation and make other edits to a long list of images you've captured while navigating through any process online. Beyond that, we'll let the company's demonstration video speak for itself but we can confirm that it's very easy to use. The one thing so far that we wish ScreenSteps allowed was publishing to Google Docs as a PPT. We like embedding click-through tutorials from Google Presentation. Right now it appears that all your presentations are just shots lined up, one after the other, with annotation added on top.

We would guess that many people have different export preferences, so it would be nice to see those options expanded even further. See below for some other examples of presentation type services you might also find useful.

Asset management, or changing the order of the images in a presentation, could be easier to do too.

The video below looks much better when viewed full-screen; hit the TV button to view it that way.

Other Services to Check Out

Last weekend Corvida wrote here about a number of online presentation tools, and readers offered even more suggestions in comments.

A few services that could be of interest that weren't mentioned include:

  • Screenflow is the hottest new screencast video capturing tool on the market. It's Mac (Leopard) only but tough luck Windows users, you've had all the good screencasting software for years.

  • JingProject is a free, quick and dirty screencasting service from the makers of Camtasia. It's Mac and Windows friendly. We've had it crash a lot and direct access to the files is not as simple as it should be, but when it works it's really easy to use.

  • There are probably hundreds of other services that combine powerpoint, video, audio and other media types to let you create presentations. What are your favorites?

The two mentioned above capture moving images, which can sometimes take way too long to get right. We think that ScreenSteps looks like a very intelligent entry into this field as it only captures screenshots and is really easy to use. If you'd like to learn more about the application, check out the interview with its developers posted today at The Unofficial Apple Weblog. Thanks to Jason Glaspey for bringing ScreenSteps to our attention.

Comments

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  • Hey Marshall,

    Thanks for mentioning Jing in your write-up. I just wondered if you could be a bit more explicit about which version / platform you've had the crashing issues on. The Mac version has been quite a bit more reliable and quicker than the Windows version for most of its short life, but lately the Windows version has made strides.

    What type of direct access to file issues have you had? I'd love to take your feedback to the team so send me anything you've got.

    I'm pretty passionate about what Jing brings to the table and have written a bit about it, so if you're interested check out some of these posts:

    http://www.brooksandrus.com/blog/category/jing/

    Disclaimer: I work for TechSmith, but my passion for Jing is real. :-P

    Posted by: Brooks | June 27, 2008 6:06 PM



  • This is fabulous! Where was this when I was in I.T.? That would have been so useful for creating "how to" guides.

    Posted by: Sarah Perez Posted on FriendFeed   | June 27, 2008 7:27 PM



  • nice. I wish I had a use for it though

    Posted by: Jamie Posted on FriendFeed   | June 27, 2008 7:33 PM



  • this is fantastic and on my to buy list.

    Posted by: Darren | June 28, 2008 2:36 AM



  • Another useful tool is Wink (http://www.debugmode.com/wink/), exports screen captures to Flash, is easy to use and it's freeware. Works on Windows and Linux

    Posted by: Carlo | June 28, 2008 2:39 AM



  • I tried them all and find Screenflow the best buy far!

    Posted by: erwin blom | June 28, 2008 3:27 AM




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