Snapz ProX: Mac Only
Background:
As I said, Snagit wasn’t around. And I ran into this cute little software. I don’t really remember the details, but it was pretty much love at first sight. And so we moved in together. Snapz ProX really was super nice to me. We got along great and Snag It was just a distant memory.
Pros:
The biggest advantage of Snapz ProX is that it was around when I needed it. So I got to know how to use it as much as I’d used Snag It. But it wasn’t at all like Snag It. It was a different sort of program altogether. But I was ready for the difference, because I needed to get great screenshots. And while Snapz ProX did lots of things, the thing it did best (for me) was take a picture, give it a beautiful rounded edge and throw a soft (non-harsh) shadow effect. I started using it for all my e-books and training manuals. And it really, really looked gorgeous. Every time I looked at a screenshot that Snapz ProX created, I’d feel that love all over again. And people commented. Customers, more often than not, talked about the sheer beauty of the screenshots. I felt vindicated.
It does also have the ability to create thumbnails on the fly, which would be useful if you’re creating thumbnails for a project. It also will remember the size of the image if you’re scaling objects. This is very handy, because if you want all your images scaled to say, 54%, then you don’t have to do much more than simply tell Snapz ProX once. You simply put in the size, and it will make sure all the graphics are scaled up or down. If you’re doing a project where you would like scaling, well this is a huge time-saver because most other programs will just take the screen shot and then you have to go through the additional step of re-sizing the image. If it’s just a couple of screenshots, then it’s not much of a problem to re-size the images but if you’ve got two dozen images then heck, yeah, this is a handy tool to have.
Cons:
Ooh there were many, but the biggest grouse was how it would always either force me to dump the graphics on the desktop or in my images folder. I had to take all these images and then drag them to another folder, blah, blah, blah. Now to be fair, most other programs like Snag It and Little Snapper do that as well, but I don’t know…I expected so much more from Snapz ProX. (Note: There’s a workaround. To save your Snapz ProX images into a folder of your choice, simply place an alias to that folder in your Pictures folder. Select that alias in the Snapz ProX pop-up and all your snapshots will wind up in that exact folder).
It had so few bells and whistles (it has a video capture mode and some other stuff, but I never use that because I prefer Screenflow or Camtasia) that I did expect it to be a little more intuitive. Since it wasn’t saving the files in some pre-assigned folder, I thought maybe it would be a good idea if it stored it in a folder of my choice. But no. It wasn’t playing ball. Or maybe I didn’t know better. It’s hard to tell.
I also can’t put in any comments or do anything at all with the screenshot. It’s just a screen-shot software and that’s it.
I also couldn’t take a full page screenshot. You know the kind that goes on and on and on. Again, that foxed me. I could only ever take a screen shot of what was on my screen. Anything under the fold was kinda not available to me.
Hidden Stuff:
As I said, it does have some screen capture stuff and a few other things like taking multiple captures. I didn’t need that much.
In short:
- If you want simple, elegant looking screenshots, this is the tool to have.
- It’s not much good at taking full page screenshots or doesn’t have many bells and whistles but it’s great at what it does.
- It’s great at scaling and creating thumbnails. And in this respect a great time saver.
