Facebook Plunges Again
Tumblr 101: Tips And Tricks To Get Started
Jing, the all-in-one screen capture and recording tool from TechSmith, reviewed
Jing, at its most basic, lets you take perfect screenshots. You can drag a selection box around the target area, or let it snap to the current window. It's not as customizable as Snagit or Screenpresso, but it's definitely good enough.
When you probe a little deeper, however, Jing becomes a lot more interesting. Instead of taking a screenshot of a selected area or window, you can hit the 'Capture video' button and immediately start recording.
But it gets even better! Jing can automatically upload your screenshots and videos to TechSmith's Screencast.com site.
If you don't like the sun radial menu, you can access the same options from the system tray -- and you can set a shortcut key for capturing (such as Prt Scrn).
Screen recording
Screenshots are exciting, but recording your screen is far more exciting. Has your mom or dad ever phoned up and asked how to make Outlook or iTunes work? Well, now you can just open the app on your computer and record a little clip -- with audio, too!
With the free version of Jing you can only record in SWF, but the quality is more than good enough. The pro version gives you the option of recording in MPEG-4, and presumably removes the Jing branding at the end of the video.
It seems like the framerate is pretty low, presumably to keep file size and computational requirements down -- but there's no option to change it, which is annoying.
With the free version of Jing you can only record in SWF, but the quality is more than good enough. The pro version gives you the option of recording in MPEG-4, and presumably removes the Jing branding at the end of the video.
It seems like the framerate is pretty low, presumably to keep file size and computational requirements down -- but there's no option to change it, which is annoying.
Uploading to the cloud
Of course, no new app would be complete without cloud integration. Launched back in 2008, Screencast.com is something of a YouTube/Dropbox hybrid. After you upload a file from Jing, you have the choice of sharing the video with a direct link, or embedding the video on your website or blog. Using Screencast.com is nowhere near as smooth as SugarSync or Dropbox, though -- but it does work.
Everyone gets 2GB of storage and 2GB of traffic per month, for free, and it costs a rather massive $10/month to upgrade.
Everyone gets 2GB of storage and 2GB of traffic per month, for free, and it costs a rather massive $10/month to upgrade.
Conclusion
Jing does a lot, and it does it for free. It's a little rough around the edges -- why do images and videos not auto-save?! -- and is almost entirely unconfigurable. The two-click screen capturing is fantastic, though, and the ability to send short clips to friends and family via Screencast.com is definitely a killer feature. It's also worth noting that, thanks to the excellent Jing Learning Center, Jing is very newbie-friendly.
Comments
13
Subscribe to commentsmohsenu88Nov 23rd 2010 1:38PM
wow,that's a killer app!thanks
schall.markNov 23rd 2010 2:19PM
Jing does auto-save when you capture your screen then share to screencast.com or any other site. It just is not in your history until you press one of the buttons other than cancel.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 23rd 2010 2:17PM
@(Unverified) Hrm... I took a few screenshots, failed to hit 'save', and then had nothing in History :(
Perhaps I'm doing it wrong.
schall.markNov 24th 2010 11:44AM
Hey, I actually work on Jing. Are you hitting cancel button ( the circle with an x) after you capture. This is actually an interesting idea, to auto insert into history after capture. We thought itd be nice if the user can throw away an capture that they didnt like.
XorlathorNov 23rd 2010 2:43PM
Cool, Jing is pretty awesome. My only complaint is that Jing Pro requires a recurring fee - nobody likes those...
Jeff KnouseNov 23rd 2010 3:14PM
Looks like a fantastic program. I have used Camtasia at work. Would love to have Jing at home. Thanks
annoyingposter4Nov 23rd 2010 5:22PM
http://www.microsoft.com/expression/products/Encoder4_Overview.aspx
Microsoft Expression Encoder is free and outputs in VC-1 WMV or H.264 MPEG4
schall.markNov 24th 2010 12:56PM
@annoyingposter4 You have to pay for H264 output for Expression Encoder, because Microsoft is not going to pay for the rights like Apple does for all it's users.
cobaltNov 23rd 2010 8:09PM
I've used the free version and learned about it from a university professor. It is perfect for training purposes and incredibly easy to use. Now that I know about the Pro version, I'm hoping to get this software ASAP.
davidNov 24th 2010 11:45AM
I used the beta when it first came out but came to rely on TechSmiths's other products, which are awesome. I'll have to give Jing another try.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 24th 2010 11:55AM
@(Unverified) Hey! Thanks for stopping by :)
Yeah, I'm not hitting 'save'. It feels a little clunky to hit 'capture as image', and then follow up by pressing 'save'. It turns the whole capture process into 3 or 4 keypresses -- ugh. I would have it auto-save, and then just have a 'share' button on that final page. Of course you could enable auto-sharing too... as an option!
Screenpresso dumps everything into a 'Temp' dir, which I think is wiped every time you reboot (or every day).
Sebastian AnthonyNov 24th 2010 11:57AM
@(Unverified) Sigh, this comment is in the wrong place. It's meant for the guy that works on Jing.
Sebastian AnthonyNov 24th 2010 12:00PM
@(Unverified) Sigh, this comment is in the wrong place. It's meant for the guy that works on Jing.