If you haven’t run across them before, TechSmith’s Snagit and Screencast are worth a look. Snagit is a real-time screen/voice recording and still-screen capture app and Screencast is a platform for sharing the resulting recordings with your clients.
Of all the productivity tools I’ve tried over the years, it is the system I use most consistently and have found most useful.
With Snagit, I record my screen (or a portion of it) complete with a voice-over. Once recorded, it takes just the time necessary to upload the file to effortlessly publish it to the Screencast host. One click and Snagit saves a link to the recording to my clipboard and I paste the link into an email or text message for my client.
Here’s an example of Snagit in action:
Snagit also includes a set of tools for capturing still images and marking them up with words, numbers, and various icons and pointers.
What’s the value? First, with Snagit, I can explain things with a minimum of written documentation—it’s a near-perfect venue for show and tell.
Second, Snagit provides me with a record of, and documentation for, what I’ve shared and when I shared it. If something is unclear, needs to be shared with others, or if the viewer wants to hear the presentation any number of times, it is readily available.
I also use it, occassionally, to record the virtual meetings I’m involved with as reference and to supplement my note taking (I, of course, ask for the consent of others involved before recording).
One pointer: I often include this message with my screencast links: “This message contains an informational screencast meant for the person to whom it is addressed only, please do not share it with others, forward it, or upload to any other online location.”
The fact that I can speak my point and record the screen, rather than type it out and attach images, saves me countless hours.
You can post your video clips and still images directly to TechSmith’s Screencast (for free). Or you can save them to other platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, and Vimeo.
Don’t forget about consent when using screen recording tools and sharing their contents…
Be in Accordance Before You Record: Recording Consent Laws
TechSmith’s research on the use of visuals in communicating with employees…
The Value of Visuals: A Business Case for Visual Communication in the Workplace (7.9MB PDF)
Posted in MARCH 2019 / Chuck Green is the principal of Logic Arts, a design and marketing firm, a contributor to numerous magazines and websites, and the author of books published by Random House, Peachpit Press, and Rockport Publishers. Copyright 2007-2019 Chuck Green/Logic Arts Corporation. Contact.
Thoughts?