A while ago, I looked at a screen capture tool that I used for quite some time called Cropper. I’ve recently been introduced to an alternative that has replaced all my screen capture requirements and is now my primary tool for capturing screenshots and screen casts.
Having been around for a few years, TechSmith has improved Jing’s capabilities as a viable screen capture application and has resulted in a user-friendly and robust application.
This is one of the few applications where I do not feel the need to write extensively about the product due to its excellent website. I would advise my readers to go there for more information as it is quite comprehensive in explaining how to use Jing.
The only thing I would suggest here is that Jing by default has a set of buttons so when you have finished capturing a screen, it can “save to disk”, “capture to clipboard” or “upload to screencast.com”. I personally do not like the “upload to screencast.com” button as its too easy to hit and I’m frequently capturing screens that are commercially sensitive…
In order to get around this, Jing offers a means to configure your buttons. When you have captured a screen, you will be taken to an editing window:
Click on the rightmost button (spanner) to configure your buttons and remove the “Upload to screencast.com” button”. This way, the only actions you can do is to either Save it or Copy to Clipboard.
Jing comes in both a free version and a “pro” version. For everyday use, the free version is perfect. It sits unobtrusively on the top of your screen ready to be clicked on whenever you need a new capture.
There seems to be a dedicated and fun bunch of people behind Jing and it shows on their blog which has some excellent tips on getting the best out of their software.
I know there are quite a few screen capture applications out there, but I’ve found Jing to have met my needs perfectly at the moment. They would make the product even better to allow for round frames instead of just rectangular ones but I’m not one to complain when its free and does pretty much everything I want :)
Relevant Links
- Jing Home Page
- Getting Started with Jing Help Site
- Jing Blog (worth a read :) )