Capture screenshots and video with Snagit 11

We see plenty of different tools for taking screen shots from the rather basic tool built into Windows to alternative in The Gimp or Gadwin Print Screen.

Techsmith Snagit is not a free tool but if you capture and, especially, edit screen shots on a regular basis, it is worth the cost. This is a 30 day trial, which is easily long enough to get a feel for what is on offer.

New to Snagit in version 11 is the ability to capture video as well as individual images.

Installation is simple and an icon for Snagit appears in the Notification Area. It takes over the Print Screen key from the Windows utility. So just press the button and the Snagit editor will appear.

Snagit can do more than just take a grab of the full screen or active window and this is where it starts to justify its price tag. It can scroll windows automatically to capture long documents or web pages. This is an excellent way of capturing the precise look of a web page. Many browsers can 'print' to PDF files but the layout is normally completely different to what appears on screen to users.

There is also a specific mode to capture menus in programs. This is another useful tool as pressing the Print Screen often makes the active menu disappear.

Cropping an image is simple as clicking and dragging the handles around the edges to remove unwanted sections. This is one of the strengths of Snagit as it is quick and easy but it is also the source of one of our major gripes. The cropping of an image in permanent. It is not possible to go back and reveal previously cropped areas.

Video editing is more limited although if you intend to do a lot of screencast editing, Camtasia Studio, also from Techsmith, is better suited to that role.

It is also easy to add a wide range of annotations to images include icons and text. Tags can be assigned to grabs to make them easier to find later on.

There is a good range of file formats for saving files including PDF. Images can be sent to Microsoft office and to Camtasia Studio if it is installed.