February, 2006

TechSmith Tools

by Alaina Eldredge, VP Programs, STC-SRC Chapter

During our January meeting, we reviewed three TechSmith tools: SnagIt, Camtasia Studio, and Morae. TechSmith was not able to send a representative, but attendees and our reluctant presenter (me) discovered that these three tools are not only easy to learn, but they also offer some very impressive features.

SnagIt

Version 7.2 is the latest and greatest of this nifty screen capture program. I've been using version 6 since the Jurassic era, so I was pleasantly surprised to discover the cool new features and user-friendly interface in v7.2. Here are a few examples:

In addition to capturing a screen or window, you can now capture and save text in fully-editable ASCII format. So, you can use SnagIt to take a screen shot of a Web page, and then grab all of the text that it contains. Very cool.
Record your mouse as it accesses menu items, clicks buttons, or does anything else that a computer mouse might want to do. Then save the video as a WMV or AVI. Nice feature for short training videos or for demonstrating a procedure to a colleague.
One last feature that I just have to mention: You can use SnagIt to take a screen shot of a very long scrolling window. Automatically. Without scrolling the window manually, and without stitching together multiple screen shots to make one large screen capture. That's impressive.

Camtasia Studio

As with previous versions, version 3 of Camtasia Studio lets you record your screen actions, PowerPoint presentations with voice, and Web camera video. Use these features to create compelling video tutorials, training presentations, and rich sales demonstrations for Web and CD-ROM delivery. Nice product with a terrific wizard and a help system that walks you through every function.

Morae

Morae requires a server-based setup, so we reviewed its features instead of actually using the product. So what does it do? Morae is a usability software that records real-world actions, such as user comments and facial expressions, along with detailed application and computer system data. This provides usability professionals a unique view into the way that software and Web sites are seen and experienced.

Ben Johnson gave us a brief background on his company's experiences with Morae. He says that the results have been excellent, and he recommends that companies who conduct usability testing take a look at Morae.

Summary

Each of these three tools is well worth investigating. Their impressive feature list is too long to list here, so see www.techsmith.com for more information and to download trial versions.

And One Final Note…

Congrats to Angela Fleischmann, winner of Camtasia Studio software, and to Michelle Halsey and Shannon Smith, winners of the extremely fashionable TechSmith t-shirts.

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