Screenpresso is a screen capture/editing/effects/twitter tool. Oh, and it’s free! It’s a bit like Microsoft’s Snipping Tool—only more feature-rich. After it’s downloaded, it resides in your system tray (I know, another resource drain, but you can turn it off). When you’re ready to get a screen shot, just right click on the icon and you’ll get a menu of items. This is where you choose if you want an entire screenshot or a certain region of a screen. There’s a cool feature called ‘screenshot autoroll’ which stitches together more than one screen-full.

Above is a shot of their main features—let’s take a look at the more advanced features:

• screenshot history – if you don’t want to save your captures, just leave them in the history of Screenpresso. If it’s something you won’t use again, just delete it. If it’s something you’ll use over and over, there’s an option to save it to a folder on your hard drive. It looks like they are saved in a date order and with a .png extension. If you find yourself making a lot of captures, I’d suggest filing them in folders to keep things manageable.
• add effects – here’s where you can add borders, shadows, etc.
• capture scrolling part – this feature lets you capture more than one screen-full using a stitching mechanism. I didn’t try out this feature, but this is pretty cool!
• screenshot to email – this is very nice because all you have to do is have your history open and drag your capture over to your email task bar and it will put it in your email as a .png attachment.
• screenshots to Twitter – pull up your history and you’ll see the twitter bird icon at the bottom of the screen. Click it and you’ll get a popup to sign in to your Twitter account and send it to twitpic and add a message.
• edit/enhance your image – here’s where you can add explanatory text, arrows or other formatting features to highlight an item or feature. Also a nice feature is the blurring tool – great for blocking sensitive/identifying data

Conclusion

Since this is a start-up, they are still working out kinks and probably trying to make everything work. They are working on a Pro version, which will probably be a for-pay service. I see it looks like they will be offering video – but that service isn’t ready just yet.

I liked using it, the features were pretty intuitive and didn’t take too long to catch on. I think Jing is a competitor of theirs (you can read my article on that), and has an advantage because you can video and record what’s on your screen and share it. I’ll still use Microsoft’s Snipping Tool most because I usually don’t have a need to put effects on my snips or save them. Screenpresso is great for full screenshots and being able to point out with text or arrows what you want your reader to see.

I previously posted about Jing from TechSmith. Back then, I had compatibility problems with the program and had to uninstall it. Now, it’s rediscovered – at least by me. I installed it and didn’t have any problems using it with Windows 7.

I use the Snipping Tool to capture illustrations, (ships with Windows Vista & 7), but one thing it can’t do is get a capture of a drop down menu. Jing has the ‘capture hotkey’ feature. With this feature you can click to get to your drop down menu, initiate your capture key combination (I chose Crtl + J), and then the Jing interface appears and you can get your capture—slick.

Here are some of the newer features

• ability to add up to 8 additional customizable buttons to have Jing do different things
• Send your screencast to twitter to share
• updated help section with videos showing you how to do just about any Jing task
• Get an embed code and post your content to a blog or website

Other Jing Features:

• Takes a snapshot of your whole screen or a small portion of your screen
• Option to save your output (.jpg) to either a free screencast account, your computer, or if you’re really geeky, you can save output at your FTP site or YouTube (Pro Version).
• Ability to capture a video running on your computer to share with someone
• Ability to make your own video – be it instructional or just fun in nature. Videos can then be instantly shared via IM, web or email.
• If you have a microphone, you can record your comments or instructions while capturing what you want to share. Nice feature and really allows for personalization.
• Output your jpgs to your Flickr account
• There is a 5” time limit for videos.
• A Pro version is available that will allow direct import to YouTube and the ability to save your videos as MPEG4s instead of the default SWF Flash Video. Other advantages to Pro as well. See them here

The Pro version is only $15/year. If you are one who likes to make instructional videos – for fun or for business, you’ll want to upgrade. With the Pro Version, you’ll be able to use a webcam and get smoothly transitioned shots of yourself, along with what is on your screen. Then post to your YouTube account with one click.

Jing is a free product by TechSmith (who also brings you SnagIt (like Jing, only not free), and Camtasia Studio (a high-end video producing software, also paid). Jing also integrates well with both of these products.

A brief synopsis of Jing Features:

• Takes a snapshot of your whole screen or a small portion of your screen
• Option to save your output (.jpg) to either a free screencast account, your computer, or if you’re really geeky, you can save output at your FTP site or YouTube (Pro Version).
• Ability to capture a video running on your computer to share with someone
• Ability to make your own video – be it instructional or just fun in nature. Videos can then be instantly shared via IM, web or email.
• If you have a microphone, you can record your comments or instructions while capturing what you want to share. Nice feature and really allows for personalization.
• Output your jpgs (videos not allowed), to your Flickr account
• There is a 5” time limit for videos.
• A Pro version is available that will allow direct import to YouTube and the ability to save your videos as MPEG4s instead of the default SWF Flash Video.

Jing is a free product by TechSmith (who also brings you SnagIt (like Jing, only not free), and Camtasia Studio (a high-end video producing software, also paid).

This time around, I especially wanted to try out the screencasting feature of Jing. I was disappointed to see my ‘masterpiece’ crash and burn. It would capture the screen as I did a short talk (about 30 seconds). I then clicked stop and waited to review my small video. However, both times I tried it, the program closed (regretfully, according to Microsoft). It seems that Microsoft’s DEP (Data Execution Prevention) thinks Jing is bad for me and my computer.

There was a link Microsoft provided to troubleshoot the problem. They said to go into the Advanced System Properties and click through a few tabs and browse to find the .exe file and allow it (many tedious steps). I did all of this only to get the message that they couldn’t accommodate my request—very frustrating!

I then tried a video capture on my XP machine and it worked just fine. So I will post this on the Jing blog or help center to see if there is a fix or work-around for this.

I’d be happy to hear your experiences with Jing and what you use it for. I can see a use for it to show a client how to perform an action. For example, a client was having difficulty seeing my editing changes in a word document. I sent her the step-by-step instructions, but a visual would have been much better. If any of you are tech support to family members, using Jing could come in handy for showing them how to fix something.