The first time I tried Snagit (TechSmith) was to take screen shots of the Miva Merchant admin when writing the official guide to the software. I’d previously paid someone to capture screens for me, but it was tedious to work with an obscure file naming scheme, and counterproductive when I needed to move things around. Snagit allowed me to capture what I needed, at different resolutions. It was a simple program, and quite inexpensive.

If PhotoShop is too rich, or overkill for your work, try Snagit. It boasts many standard tools, including drop shadows, filters and watermarking.

Snagit is still affordable (currently $49.95), but now boasts hordes of tools for simple and on-the-fly graphics editing. I used to “snag” the screen and use PhotoShop to resize, add effects and run filters. Now, I can edit most images for this site from within Snagit itself. And, yes, I can also work with images never captured through the software.

The beauty of Snagit, however, is not just what I can capture, but how… Not only can you grab pages via a scrolling window method, Snagit can capture entire web pages with links intact. This is quite useful when I need to archive a page before modifications, or, unfortunately, when I need to capture a site that’s ripped off my work. You can also set up custom profiles for capturing at specific resolutions or percentages.

Default, basic capture profiles are sufficient for most. When you want to do something special, though, you can create custom settings.

The ability to use output commands is a plus. Snagit can launch virtually any program (including email and FTP) to attach or upload images. It can also output to Excel, Word and PowerPoint (to name a few). Need to include the graphic with a description in a new Word document? Just choose “New Document” from the drop down.

Output files to email, FTP, documents and more. You can even customize outputs to specific programs. If that weren't enough, you can also download "stamps" for marking up images.

And, while I’ve always had an affinity for Google’s Picasa and Adobe Bridge, Snagit’s image library feature is more than sufficient for those wanting a single tool to handle it all.

I first used Snagit more than five years ago. Price wasn’t the deciding factor for me. After all, I have always needed tools that get the job done and save me time. It just so happens that Snagit fit the bill across the board.

Snagit is available for both PC and MAC, and is available for trial or purchase directly from TechSmith.

© Pamela Hazelton, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Originally published on 2011/04/14.
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The company does offer a 60-trial (up to 100 subscribers) as well.

And, yes, I use Constant Contact for my mailings.

Trusted Email Marketingand Online Surveys

© Pamela Hazelton, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Originally published on 2011/02/19.
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While Google and other sites cache web pages, the best way to ensure you’ve got a timestamped copy of any page is to capture it yourself.

Here are some common tools and methods (most of them free) to help you keep track of pages via snapshots:

The Print Screen key just may become your best friend. After pressing the key, you can paste screenshots into documents, graphics programs and other software.

• The Print Screen key. The quickest and easiest way to capture what a page looks like is to use the Print Screen function. This captures what’s seen on the actual screen (no scrolling) and stores it in memory as a copy. You can then open any graphics or document program and paste the image to save it.

To “print screen” capture on a Mac, hold down the Apple key ⌘ + Shift + 3, then release. Then, click your mouse on the screen.

• Use a screen capture tool. I especially like Snag It, which allows you to capture pages several different ways, including saving an entire page by scrolling in the browser.
• Create a PDF. If you have a PDF creator, you can “print” the page to a PDF file. If not, you can use a free service called PDFMYURL.com (simply enter the full URL of the page and the service will create a PDF file which you can save to your desktop.
• Save As… Most web browsers allow you to save entire web pages to a local HTML file. If your browser doesn’t offer this option – or if results are less than desired – you can always view the source code of a page and copy and paste its contents to a separate file.

After capturing a page, name it logically so you can easily reference it later. Some programs will, by default, name the file in timestamp format, which isn’t terribly helpful when you need to find something on the fly.

© Pamela Hazelton, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Originally published on 2010/10/08.
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Here’s a list of my favorite ones.

4096 Color Wheel

This interactive selector provides a bonus feature. When you click a color, it saves it in the left column, allowing you to select multiple colors and grab the hex codes when finished. It also tells you which colors are considered “web-safe” – which isn’t as much an issue today as it was years ago, “web-smart” and “unsafe”.

Color Picker

A familiar-looking tool that also allows you to add colors to a saved list. When finished, just click each color for the hex value.

Colors on the Web

This site boasts tons of information – all about color. Several tools are available to help you pick color schemes, themes and complimentary colors.

Color Wheel at AllProfitAllFree.com

This selector looks like the one provided by Windows, so you’ll be used to the selection process.

© Pamela Hazelton, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED Originally published on 2010/04/10.
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