The other day I reported that Snow Leopard is now on my 3.5 year old Macbook Pro. I also reported that I’m a happy camper. Get it, I live in an Airstream? Happy “camper”……okay, it wasn’t that funny.
For years now I’ve done tutorials on this site, and on the original Gadget’s Airstream Chronicles. The tutorials were written, or they were in the form of a podcast. Before I started doing this I always asked, “How the heck do they do that?” I found out, and started using the same techniques.
Let’s talk about the video podcasts first. When I created on screen tutorials I used one program to capture what was happening on the screen. IShowU. Fantastic video screen capture program that I’ve loved since 2006. It’s simple interface and ease of operation had me producing video tutorials in no time!
The IShowU interface
Now, with the new QuickTime that came with Snow Leopard I have a second option. Yes, Quicktime now offers a video screen capture as well. I haven’t produced a full video with it yet, but it’s available to me.
The big difference between IShowU and Quicktime that I see so far? IShowU allows me to record a smaller screen area, or the whole screen. Quicktime only allows the whole screen. I’ll have to play around with comparisons.
So, what’s the second thing that’s changed? Screen captures. It’s such a simple change, but it’s huge to me. See, the new screen capture helps me stay organized and doesn’t require relabeling after I’ve created a capture.
In the old days, when I hit Shift Command 4, I’d make a still screen capture and it would be labeled Picture1.png. If I made multiple captures they’d be Picture2.png, Picture3.png, and so on. Well, I’ve done many tutorials, and I needed to differentiate captures. So I’d go back and relabel the captures after I made them. Slightly time consuming.
The new screen capture utility makes better labels for me now. No more Picture1, 2, 3, etc. Now there’s a very detailed label. Labels are now descriptive. Screenshot and the date and time. Well, I’ll never replicate a screen shot name again. And I don’t have to go around relabeling any longer.
Talk about a time saver.
So, there you go. Two small updates in Snow Leopard that really add a lot to my system. When I make a tutorial with Quicktime I’ll be sure to tell you what it was made with. Then you can be the judge in Quicktime’s on screen video capture and IShowU’s.