Menu

• Dictionary
• Hot Shots

Directory

• Sponsors
• Billing Options
• Content Providers
• Web Hosting
• Traffic Counters
• Website Designers
• Resource Sites

And here I finally am at the wrong end of the day to be writing this or any other column for that matter. I usually like to get stuck into the columns I write for here ... and over at Porn Resource ... quite early in the day when my brain is fresh and almost awake.

Unfortunately right now it's late afternoon and even though I'm writing this out on the back deck ... instead of in the office ... my brain is mush and I could seriously do with a nap before dinner. However that's not likely to happen so let's give thanks for the Backspace key ... it's getting quite a workout at the moment ... and jump into something that's not too deep.

With that in mind I thought that we might take a little look at some very interesting software that Steve came across this week. Not only did he come across it but he's already downloaded it and used it for a couple of projects with clients and it has saved him a heap of time too.

Skitch
Anyway, let's look at this software Steve came across and we'll start with Skitch ... a strange name for a very useful little program that just happens to be FREE.

We've just completed an interesting website for a client that's based on my favorite content management system and tomorrow Steve has to take a drive over to the next town to train our clients in how to use the program. The only problem is that these clients are not very computer-savvy so Steve wants to back up the training session with plenty of notes complete with screen grabs that will help them once Steve has gone.

Now in the past we have used Snapit to get the screen grabs and then added arrows and stuff in Photoshop and that's been quite time consuming. But now, with Skitch we can grab part or the entire screen, add arrows or draw shapes on the screen grab to highlight important areas and even blot out parts of the screen grabs if they contain details we don't want others to see.

Then we save the image ... the default is PNG ... and drag and drop it into the relevant spot in the notes and the job is done.

Now you guys may not be writing a lot of tutorials but if you are working remotely with graphic designers or web developers Skitch gives you the chance to take a screen grab ... highlight an area that needs some attention ... and then send the image off to whoever is doing the work for you and they can immediately see the spot that you want them to work on.

I can see it getting a lot of use in our office ... and not just for writing tutorials. You can get Skitch at evernote.com/skitch ... and while you're there have a look at the main Evernote product too. It's been around for a few years and once you start to use it you wonder how you ever survived without it.

Jing
An odd name for another free tool that blew Steve away when he downloaded it and used it for the first time yesterday. Once again, we had a client who needed to be walked through something quite different that we had added to his website but getting Steve and our client in the same room at the same time for at least the next week was all but impossible.

And then along came Jing ... a little program that allowed Steve to produce a video tutorial on how to use the new features we had added to our client's website. All Steve needed was the software and a microphone and while Steve described what he was doing Jing was recording everything he was doing on the screen in front of him.

The end result was a simple 5 minute Flash movie that we uploaded to our server; the client downloaded, watched and then was able to use the new features without any hassles. The total time from downloading the program to learning how to use the program, producing the video and uploading it to our website was just 1 hour.

You can pick up Jing from techsmith.com/jing and if you do you'll find that it can do video or stills and the button to fire it up sits discreetly at the top of your browser window so it's always there when you need it.

While most webmasters probably don't need something like Jing all that often if you're one of those guys who likes to help newbies then Jing will add a new dimension to the help you can give.