BostonPocketPC

Recently, I began posting up on my personal blog about some of the software that I use on a daily basis that I have come to find invaluable. When I mentioned this to Steve Hughes, he asked why I wasn’t posting things here as well. My answer was “Well, it’s not all Windows Mobile, you know.” he still thought that this would be of interest to our readers. As a result, this is the first in a series of posts I started writing about “Software I Live By”…

I often feel remiss in not giving enough praise where praise is due. I especially feel this way when a product or products I use simply make my life easier and more productive. Such is the case with TechSmith’s awesome products – SnagIt and Camtasia Studio.

While I often rely on screen capture software for product reviews and news publishing at BostonPocketPC.com, this is but a fraction of what I do in my daily life. Most recently, I have been spending a great deal of time in documentation work. As you might imagine, both words and images make for good step-by-step instruction. While SnagIt is generally categorized as screen capture software, the product goes far beyond that simple action. It’s ability to allow me to capture and buffer multiple successive screen shots without the need for stopping and saving after each individual capture is invaluable from a productivity perspective. The SnagIt Editor is an amazing compliment to the screen capture functionality, and allows for the mark-up of captures with professional polish.

Recording video demonstrations of software is also an important part of my life, and I have yet to find a single solution that works nearly as well as Camtasia Studio. Whether it is ease of use,  the vast array of editing and production options or the reliability of the product as a whole, Camtasia Studio is nothing short of being the ssoftware recording equivalent of a best friend for me.

TechSmith also continues to amaze me with each new product release. I continually ask the question “what more could a new release have to offer?”, only to be impressed with the result. TechSmith truly listens to their community of users when it comes to both issues and requests.

If you are someone who regularly needs to capture screenshots and you aren’t already using SnagIt, I cannot encourage you enough to give it a try. The same goes for those who regularly record video from your desktop; Camtasia Studio is the way to go. I really don’t know how I would function without these products. More importantly, I don’t know how I would ever finish a project without them