Last month we asked how we could keep improving the newsletter—thanks to the hundreds of you who responded!

Both new and experienced users really, really like the tutorials (85% called it a "most useful" section). Other popular content: free downloads (e.g., stamps), news of product upgrades, and user stories.

News about conferences and events, on the other hand, got the thumb's down—75% called it "least useful."

With that in mind, we'll keep providing concise, helpful tutorials and downloads. We'll include more user tips and stories, like the ones in this issue. And we've cut training and events as a section and replaced it with a standard link—see it up there right above this letter?

Sherry McHone, who won a copy of SnagIt, sent me an email with some very nice comments about the newsletter. I share it with you not to pat ourselves on the back, but because she perfectly summarizes our goals: to help you be awesome at what you do.

"From my own experience, I know that I rapidly lose the motivation to learn new software as soon as I have developed some basic proficiency in it. Other priorities take precedence, I cease exploring the software’s capabilities, and never realize its full benefits. Your newsletter has helped me become a more proficient SnagIt user, but more importantly, has inspired me to look for new, better ways to accomplish my work."

Five lucky newsletter readers who completed last month's reader survey were selected at random to win a free copy of SnagIt! Four of the winners agreed to share a little about how they're using SnagIt...

Bill Bienia, owner of Cobblestone Legacies, uses SnagIt primarily in preparing course material for the National Institute of Genealogical Studies. "The last thing I did with SnagIt was capture a scrolling web page that would only print out a large image to the printer as a single page object. It was reduced so much that the text was minute and unreadable. Using SnagIt, I was able to capture the scrolling image and print out the image in sections that were clear and readable."

Christine Abbey, educational technologist for Sound Engineering, uses SnagIt to capture product images for marketing campaigns and Camtasia training videos. "The last thing I did with SnagIt is capture product images for a marketing collage–not very exciting but it sure is easy with SnagIt," she said.

Steve Byrd uses SnagIt to capture graphics to build marketing pieces for his insurance business. He says his last multi-section marketing packet "came out great."

Sherry McHone, a business systems analyst for custom software developer Technoligence, LLC, writes, "SnagIt is one of my most frequently used applications, because of all the ways it helps me communicate ideas and processes to customers and co-workers. Today was fairly typical of the variety of ways I use it: I created screen shots and animations for a computer-based training module, emailed examples of an issue (bug) found during testing to our developers, printed a file menu to accompany a disk for a client... I am not exaggerating when I say that I cannot imagine getting my work done without SnagIt in my taskbar."

This user tip comes from Kim Murdock, developer of Appkickers—productivity tools for legal professionals. For more on SnagIt scrolling capture, see Chris' tutorial, below.

I use SnagIt almost daily. I have more than once walked into my husband's office and announced how much I love it. I'm a consultant and have always used screen shots to illustrate my documentation. As a programmer, I also use it to print out custom dialog boxes and such to document under-the-hood stuff for myself.

Today I used the Scrolling Window capture in a way that made me once more interrupt my husband and announce my love for SnagIt. I was working with Word 2003's compatibility options—a long list in a smallish window on one of the few dialog boxes that can't be sized. I'd used Scrolling Window on web pages, thought "Why not?" and tried capturing the entire compatibility options list. Of course it worked perfectly.

This is really big for me—it saves so much time. SnagIt just rocks.

Have a SnagIt tip or how-to idea? Send it to us, and you could be featured in the newsletter!

What would it be like to blog with images instead of words? It would be quicker, for one thing...especially with Jing!

Maxwell Scott-Slade runs JohnnyTwoShoes, an independent video game company, with his brother and girlfriend. They've produced some very cool Flash games, and use an image blog—llllost.com—to give fans a sneak peek at upcoming games, along with a glimpse behind the scenes.

Jing, along with some custom code, makes it super-simple to post images directly to their blog. "Jing lets us all have a little say about what's happening without actually ever typing a word more than the title," he said.

As a designer and developer, Maxwell has also used Jing to "show stuff visually" to co-workers.

He says, "Jing lets me communicate ideas much faster. It's hard to be confused when you've got something to look at straight away."

Read our brief interview with Maxwell and download Jing Project yourself—it runs on Mac or PC and it's free! If you're interested in TechSmith products for Mac, please sign up to receive occasional Mac news via email.

Brackets are handy for clearly indicating chunks of information...like these proposed changes to my "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" playlist.

Have you ever wanted to capture a window but it was hiding behind other windows or was partially off the monitor? SnagIt's Extended Window capture allows you to capture entire windows that might be partially hidden from view.

Note: Available on Windows XP and Vista only.



Setup Instructions

1. In SnagIt, select Image capture mode. Hint: click the small, blue button next to the big, red one.

2. For the Input, select Advanced > Extended Window.

3. Choose the output and effects.

4. Click the Capture button or press the capture hotkey.

5. Use the red rectangle to hover over the window to capture. Click the mouse to complete the capture.

6. The Extended Window Capture Preview dialog box opens and allows you to adjust the size of the window if necessary.

7. Click OK. The capture is sent to the selected output.