PowerPoint Tips & Tutorials
Interview with Tony Dunckel, Product Manager of SnagIt
How do I capture the images you see on my Web site? For years I've used SnagIt, a Techsmith product that takes screen captures. I use SnagIt for all the figures in my books, as well.
I wanted to highlight the features of this software, especially in relation to PowerPoint, so I spoke with Tony Dunckel, the SnagIt Product Manager, and asked him the following questions:
1) "I think that most people know that SnagIt is a screen capture program. Why is it better than using the Print Screen button on the keyboard? What extras does it add over and above plain screen capture?"
Tony: "When you use the Print Screen button, you can capture the entire screen or a window, but you can't do any editing unless you go into another software application. SnagIt is faster, easier, and more beautiful! From the point of view of aesthetics, you can beautify the result. For example, you can add edge effects, a border, or use the Spotlight and Magnify" effect."
Here I show the Effects list on the SnagIt screen after taking a screenshot of SnagIt. (Yes, SnagIt can capture itself.)
Tony ran me through the Spotlight and Magnify effect, which I'd never used. Here's an example from PowerPoint 2007. Can you see how the center part of the dialog box is magnified? The background is also dimmed. Nice!
Tony continued, "SnagIt is also more efficient for PowerPoint users with its toolbar right in PowerPoint. It can save to file or print immediately. It also offers many formats, including PDF."
Even more: SnagIt can take video! It can make AVI files that exactly show your activity on screen. Here's an example, from my tip on pop-up windows in PowerPoint.
When I mentioned this to Tony, he noted, "And you can put that video into a PowerPoint presentation."
2)"About how many people use SnagIt?"
Tony: "We have over 7,000,000 registered users, going back to the time when SnagIt was shareware."
3) "How would one use SnagIt with PowerPoint?"
Tony: "Research has shown that there's a 40% retention improvement when you use images and text together. As you create a presentation, you can capture images that you need, using the built-in toolbar in PowerPoint. You can also work from SnagIt and use its PowerPoint button; SnagIt is aware when PowerPoint is open. You can use SnagIt to aggregate all your images and automatically put them into PowerPoint, one on each slide."
Here you see the SnagIt dialog box that lets you set up a screenshot from within PowerPoint. I used SnagIt's Caption feature to add a caption at the bottom; the caption is part of the image.
You can see the Insert as a New Slide check box at the bottom. This feature is the one that lets you insert images so easily on slides in PowerPoint. Here you see the SnagIt window inserted onto a slide. SnagIt created the slide and inserted the image automatically. I just added a title and a simple background.
This image is scaled to 75%; you can scale the image before saving it. I use this scaling feature very often so that all my Web site images fit in my central text column.
Some other capabilities of SnagIt:
- Text Capture: You can capture any text that appears on your computer screen as text (in a TXT file).
- Web Image Capture: You can enter a URL of a web page and captures all the images that appear there. This is great for transferring the images from your company's Web site to a PowerPoint presentation.
- Printer Capture: You can capture printer output from any Windows application.
When you capture the screen, you can specify the entire screen, any open window, or a region. If you're capturing a Web page, you can capture the entire page, even the part that doesn't show (because you'd need to scroll down to see it). Finally, also for a Web page, you can capture not only the screen, but all of the links!
4) "Is there a free trial? How much does SnagIt cost?"
Tony: "There's a 30-day free trial. After 30 days, you can capture, but can't output (save as a file, print, etc.) A single-user copy is $39.95 and there are discounts for volume purchases, as well as for educational and governmental use."
For more information, go to the SnagIt Web page.
