Comments on: SnagIt 9 Or How To Take A Step Backwards In Usability

By: ric

ric — Tue, 27 Sep 2011 04:07:36 +0000

It takes guts for any blogger to say this. Because it hurts potential income. In the form of advertisements by the software company or other financial support/reward for saying good things.

I like Snag-It(Ver a lot.

I agree completely that Snag-It 8 is better than the newer versions. I have used Ver 8 for many years. Version 8.2.3 (Build14) 1 May 2007.

Did not fall for the trap of buying “new” “improved” versions of any software. My Microsoft Office 2003 is still serving me well.

Am well aware that in software – NEWER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER.

Don’t like the ribbon interface.

All software companies have to earn money. Their staff got bills to pay, families to support, limosuines to buy, etc…
So they have to grind out “new” “improved” versions to sell to you.

They are not evil.
It is just that when they plan the new software. Someone decides that in order to cram in all the “new” features, they have to remove some of the existing features of the existing software. Sometimes, this is techincal due to programming conflicts. Sometimes this is due to cost reasons. They have to make compromises.

By: Stuart McGarrity

Stuart McGarrity — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 17:22:32 +0000

I too dislike the much reduced performance I see of SnagIt 9. I see 10-20 sec delays before being ready to capture, and the same before being ready to edit. I plan to ask our IT folks if we can go back to SnagIt 8.

By: Alex Campbell

Alex Campbell — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 15:13:29 +0000

While I still use Snagit 8, I try the new versions of Snagit to give them a chance to redeem themselves. However, in version 10, they really screwed the pooch. I sent the following email to Snagit about problems I found in the All Commands list of the Quick Access Toolbar.

I have found some other ones that appear to be bugs or commands that ought to have more explanation in the All Commands list.
I am also listing multiple apparently different commands with the same balloon help. I am also listing commands that are too little information for me to understand.

1. Add to Quick Styles – 2
2. Bottom – 2
3. Center – 4
4. Clipboard – 3
5. Dashes – 2
6. Dn
7. Email
8. Ends – 2
9. Fill – 2
10. Flip – 4
11. Font – 2
12. Gradient – 2
13. Group – 3
14. H – 3
15. Halftone – 2
16. Histo-contrast – 2
17. Horizontal – 2
18. I – 2
19. Learning Center – 2
20. Left – 3
21. Oil Painting – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
22. Opacity (Draw) – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
23. Opacity (Hotspots) -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
24. Order – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
25. Page Curl – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
26. Perspective – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
27. Perspective/Shear Options… – 2
28. Pixelate – 2
29. Popup Size -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
30. Posterize – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
31. Remove Noise – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
32. Right – 3
33. Select Color from Image – 4
34. Send -2
35. Sh – 1
36. Shadow (Draw) -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
37. Shadow (Shadow Image) – 2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
38. Shape -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
39. Sharpen -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
40. Shear -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
41. Sm -2
42. Solarize -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
43. Styles – 2
44. Text Color
45. Tolerance -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
46. Top – 2
47. U – 2
48. Vertical -2
49. Width (Draw) -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
50. Width (Hotspots) -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
51. Width (Image) -2 (appears to be error since I can only add the first one)
52. Zoom -2

By: John Conners

John Conners — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:10:34 +0000

Funny you should mention it as I’m taking a look just now. There look like some nice new features, but my point about commonly used tasks not being well placed still holds true. I’ve been forced to use SnagIt 9 on my Win7 64bit machine as version 8 kept crashing so I spend a lot of time flicking between the ‘Draw’ and ‘Image’ tabs. I mostly fade the edges of a capture, then copy it to a clipboard so I have about 5 times as many mouse clicks to do that as SnagIt 8 and that’ll still be the case with SnagIt 10.

I still stand by my assertion that nice though the ribbon looks, from a usability standpoint in SnagIt, it was the wrong option.

Oh, and it still won’t remember that I want my saved quick styles showing in the ‘Image Style’ control so that’s yet more mouse clicks.

By: Troy

Troy — Wed, 12 May 2010 14:52:08 +0000

What do you think of SnagIt 10?

By: Andi

Andi — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 09:25:58 +0000

Thanks for your article John. I have to say, you had a simper time of it than me in Step 10 “Click Resize > Resize image – pretty much the same as SnagIt 8″. All I wanted to do was capture an image and resize it, but however I selected the image the resize options were greyed out. So my replacement (most effcient so far) for step 10 was:

a) Click on resize and find it greyed out
b) Click on rotate, flip, horizontal
c) Click again on resize and find it’s come to life
d) Click on rotate, flip, horizontal to get back to my original image
e) Click on resize and resize image
f) Confirm that I want to flatten the object
g) Choose my percentage and finally resize.

By the way, a few years ago I tried the *Microsoft* ribbon bar: once, during a busy project, and could find nothing that I needed. Tasks that had taken less than a second before took me quarter of an hour. I rolled-back to Office 2000 and I will never upgrade again… not to another Microsoft product.

By: KL

KL — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:06:09 +0000

Just noticed a revealing statistic in Add/Remove Programs:

Size of SnagIt 8: 27 MB
Size of SnagIt 9.1: 146 MB

Maybe this is a factor in the slower performance I was getting with 9.1

P.S. Betsy at TechSmith was responsive to my concerns (above) and shared them within the company, which is appreciated.

P.P.S. I still use SnagIt 8 just about every day, and love it. Whenever I recommend SnagIt, I always say, install 8, not version 9. I would encourage TechSmith to focus more on simplicity and having fewer features that are more valuable, while making snappy performance an absolute requirement.

By: Paris

Paris — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:35:31 +0000

Sorry Usability people – you really missed some testing on ver 9. The thing I hate most id I can’t save the items as objects like I could in 8. Now each time I want to make changes to the original it is like starting from scratch. I pgraded but I neve use 9. it’s way to different. hopefully you will make lots of money on the new users.

PS I hate the black background. It make me feel depressed as I use it.

By: Jim M

Jim M — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:00:42 +0000

I’d be happy to test a new version but I think it will be hard for your team to understand that moving backwards is really moving forwards. SnagIt 8 is a tool I use on a daily basis. SnagIt 9 was not an upgrade. Keep in mind that keeping an application fast and easy for 90% of the things you want to do is better than continuously adding features and making screen grabbing so slow.

-Jim

By: Betsy Weber

Betsy Weber — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 06:23:37 +0000

Thank you so much for all the feedback. I have continued to send it to our user experience and Snagit teams so they hear your comments.

Would anyone be willing to help usability tests and beta test future versions of Snagit? We need your feedback so we can improve…

If you’re interested, drop me an email.

Betsy Weber | Chief Evangelist | TechSmith
+1 (517) 410-0030 | b.weber@techsmith.com
blog: http://visuallounge.techsmith.com
twitter: @betsyweber and @techsmith