(2)
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ScreenSteps is not just another screen capture application. ScreenSteps helps you answer questions by automatically creating image-based documents as you capture screenshots.
Using the integrated authoring tools you can quickly annotate images and add text. When you are finished you can export to HTML, PDF, Word (DOCX)*, WordPress, TypePad, Bloger, Movable Type, MindTouch*, Confluence*, Googles Sites*, Joomla or ScreenSteps Live.
* Requires ScreenSteps Pro
Using the integrated authoring tools you can quickly annotate images and add text. When you are finished you can export to HTML, PDF, Word (DOCX)*, WordPress, TypePad, Bloger, Movable Type, MindTouch*, Confluence*, Googles Sites*, Joomla or ScreenSteps Live.
* Requires ScreenSteps Pro
What's New
Version 2.9.1:
Features:
- Parature support. ScreenSteps can now create knowledge base articles in Parature.
- When a Workgroup library is open then templates stored in the Workgroup Resource folder are accessible throughout the application.
- If you enter an email address in the URL dialog without prefixing it with "mailto:" then ScreenSteps will automatically add the "mailto:" prefix.
- Added support for importing lessons and manuals from ScreenSteps Live by clicking on links in the web interface.
- ScreenSteps.me is now Clarify-it.com.
- When updating a lesson on ScreenSteps Live the upload dialog no longer gives you the option of creating a new lesson. This brings the lesson upload dialog behavior in sync with the manual upload dialog.
- When registering ScreenSteps and one ScreenSteps Live account is configured then the settings for that account are used to populate the registration dialog fields.
- Updated Zendesk integration to support API updates.
- Switched Open Colors shortcut to CMD + Shift + K so that it no longer conflicts with the copy lesson to clipboard shortcut.
- Changed plain text shortcut key to Cmd + Shift + E. Cmd + E conflicted with Clarify-it.com export.
- When importing manuals from ScreenSteps Live ScreenSteps now searches for an existing manual in the library. If one is found then that manual is updated rather than creating a new manual.
- Clicking on the alert icons that appear aftering comparing with ScreenSteps Live were not opening the URL to the manual or lesson.
- Tabbing order is now correct for fields in annotations property inspector.
- Option/alt dragging to create an annotation was not adding an undo entry.
- When option/alt dragging an annotation to duplicate it the annotation being duplicated would often be moved slightly. This no longer happens.
- When duplicating a step the "settings" field was not being duplicated properly. This caused ScreenSteps to forget the region used to capture the step image.
- Trying to break a link between a lesson and ScreenSteps.me/Clarify-it.com would not work.
- When setting the URL for really long strings of text the URL dialog would cut off the bottom of the label field on OS X.
- When capturing a rectangle that was the height of the screen the screen capture instrutions box would jump around the screen. Very scary.
- If an error occurs during screen capture the screen capture session is canceled prior to displaying the error dialog.
- Added a workaround for odd premature ending of links that can slip into step instructions.
- One of the text labels in the Blogger export dialog did not have enough left padding.
- URLs for videos were not being output to PDF [2.9 regression].
- Attempting to change the step body text color in a PDF template would change the step title color.
- Exporting images to a write protected location would generate an unhandled error.
- Fixed issue where text would be cut off in PDF files that used small text sizes.
- Using accented characters in PDF filename no longer breaks PDF output.
Version 2.9.1:
Features:
- Parature support. ScreenSteps can now create knowledge base articles in Parature.
- When a Workgroup library is open then templates stored in the Workgroup Resource folder are accessible throughout the application.
- If you enter an email address in the URL dialog without prefixing it with "mailto:" then ScreenSteps will automatically add the more...
Requirements
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 or later
PPC / Intel, Mac OS X 10.4 or later
ScreenSteps User Discussion (Write a Review)
Overall:
(3)
(3)
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ScreenSteps is not just another screen capture application. ScreenSteps helps you answer questions by automatically creating image-based documents as you capture screenshots.
Using the integrated authoring tools you can quickly annotate images and add text. When you are finished you can export to HTML, PDF, Word (DOCX)*, WordPress, TypePad, Bloger, Movable Type, MindTouch*, Confluence*, Googles Sites*, Joomla or ScreenSteps Live.
* Requires ScreenSteps Pro
Using the integrated authoring tools you can quickly annotate images and add text. When you are finished you can export to HTML, PDF, Word (DOCX)*, WordPress, TypePad, Bloger, Movable Type, MindTouch*, Confluence*, Googles Sites*, Joomla or ScreenSteps Live.
* Requires ScreenSteps Pro
Copyright © 2012 MacUpdate LLC
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+4
+26
Randy Crawford reviewed on 23 Nov 2010
It is very effective and easy to use when it comes to snapping screen shots which are automatically added as steps to an open lesson. This is a very quick and easy process that is seamlessly integrated into the process of using an application while you document it.
At the end of a documentation session you are left with a lesson full of screen steps that can be nicely annotated and described with minimal text to produce a clear tutorial that teaches the end user well.
Unfortunately, this is where things fall apart. It is extremely time consuming and tedious to reorganize steps into multiple small hyperlinked lessons All the time you save by creating steps easily is completely lost in the editing process. The editing interface is anti-productive. The standard system clipboard is not supported so there is no way to collect steps and improve efficiency using scrapbooks or multi-clipboards. There is no way to handle multiple steps so each step must be individually moved from lesson to lesson in a tedious multi-step process that wastes time and energy. In the end, the process of producing documentation becomes as frustrating and time consuming as it would be without the program.
Because this program integrates with Zendesk I will continue to use it but only as a publishing tool. I will develop and organize all the content of my manual with other screen snap tools such as Little Snapper, Skitch and Voila and then move them into ScreenSteps as a final step.
If you don't need multi platform or zendesk integration you are much better off with MacSnapper.
If the time comes that the developer gets a productive editing interface in place, ScreenSteps could become the best product in the category of documentation development, but until then it is punishing experience to use this product.
+2
+3
ScreenSteps was actually designed to create how-to lessons. The idea is that you title your lesson "How do I..?" and then answer that question by capturing images and adding text. For that workflow it works very well. You create the lesson first and then fill it in.
It sounds like you are capturing all of the parts (steps) and then want to create a lesson after the fact. I can see how that workflow would be frustrating with ScreenSteps. But please understand that one of the reasons it is frustrating is that ScreenSteps wasn't designed to work that way.
For the way you are working I think that something like LittleSnapper would be a better fit.
Thanks for the feedback though.
+1
+8
+1
+18
This program is easy to use, clean and uncluttered, does what it says on the box and produces excellent results.There is also a very excellent and easy to navigate Online Manual accessible from the application.(The screen casts are also useful.)
No doubt as my experience with the program grows, there may be times when I will need to ask the developer questions, but I've got this feeling that this one developer who is going to respond quickly - He has got to have pride in producing such an elegant program.
My money will be in the post soon but for now, Five Stars.
KR8ZedKAS reviewed on 13 Jun 2008
still using demo now but plan to buy soon to use for school. great job screensteps developer. I love it & very useful
like I said I didn't buy yet,still in demo mode so can't say how stable er any thing yet but so far its caused no crashes or problems. also like developers' frequent upgrades that I've seen on MACUPDATE lots because they do add new additions to it so its not just for advertising like some programs look to do on here so their programs show on main MACUPDATE web site page.
over-all I like it very much & does what it says it does. can't wait until I use it for next semester class. 5 big stars from me
+14
If one copies the download here onto his/her hard drive, it will overwrite the version 1 copy. There doesn't seem to be any link on the BlueMango web to get the version 1 app.
Furthermore - three versions for 2? Yuck!
This app has been very useful to me in the past, but with upgrade practices like this, I have to question whether I will support this developer any further. I would have been more than willing to PAY for the upgrade had the developer been forthcoming about upgrade fees.
And I have to agree that the new interface is worse than the old one.
+3
I am not sure what more we can do as far as notifying about upgrades. We sent emails out to all registered users announcing the upgrade back in January as well as our upgrade policy, posted info on our blog, sent our press releases, launched it at MacWorld and were featured on some prominent Mac blogs.
If you don't want to upgrade, the downloads for version 1 are right on our downloads page (http://www.screensteps.com/downloads).
If you had trouble finding the download url then normally the solution would be to contact us and ask where the download url was instead of accusing us of underhanded practices.
You can read our upgrade policy here: http://www.screensteps.com/purchase/#upgrade_policy
As far as the UI, we have a few comments that people prefer the previous UI but are far outnumbered by the positive responses we have received. This things are always a matter of opinion so no one is right or wrong. We feel that the new UI great improves the workflow of creating and managing a lot of lessons. If don't, then you are welcome to stay with version 1.
+3
I am not sure what more we can do as far as notifying about upgrades. We sent emails out to all registered users (except those who had indicated that they did not want to be on our email list) announcing the upgrade back in January as well as our upgrade policy, posted info on our blog, sent out press releases, launched it at MacWorld and were featured on some prominent Mac blogs.
If you don't want to upgrade, the downloads for version 1 are right on our downloads page (http://www.screensteps.com/downloads).
If you had trouble finding the download url then normally the solution would be to contact us and ask where the download url was instead of accusing us of underhanded practices.
You can read our upgrade policy here: http://www.screensteps.com/purchase/#upgrade_policy
As far as the UI, we have a few comments that people prefer the previous UI but those are far outnumbered by the positive responses we have received. These things are always a matter of opinion so no one is right or wrong. We feel that the new UI greatly improves the workflow of creating and managing a lot of lessons. If you don't, then you are welcome to stay with version 1.
+14
A "read me" file with the download archive or something similar would help, along with a note with your MacUpdate post of your new version.
Although I probably followed the MWSF show news to some degree, your app definitely fell under my radar.
I certainly do appreciate the link to the old version, but it should be made obvious for those that made the mistake of overwriting the file with the new one.
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+3
So sorry once again. That wasn't our intent. MacUpdate automatically updates this information from change logs that we post on our site. We don't usually post updates here. MacUpdate always has so it never crossed our mind to update the information here. The information is on our website and we figured that was enough but maybe we were wrong. I added some information to the description here on MacUpdate to help clarify for future users.
Don't worry, installing version 2 should not have overwritten any of your preferences, registration information or lesson files. You can download and install version 1 and you will be right back where you were.
If you want the most current information regarding pricing/upgrading I really suggest checking our website.
Sorry again for the confusion we caused you. It wasn't our intent.
+3
It was sooo elegant!
+1
+38
Curlypaws reviewed on 15 Feb 2007
The application allows you to capture screenshots - either using the built-in screenshot utility or your favourite. You can then annotate them and output the resulting instructions as PDF or HTML. The format is very attractive, and it is possible to tailor it too.
I'm very impressed with the ease of use of ScreenSteps - it turns what is normally a chore into a quick and easy task. Very much recommended.