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

By: Thomas W

Thomas W — Tue, 15 May 2012 18:01:43 +0000

I’ve just used SnagIt 9 for the first time (our IT Group is loading V9 on all “new” computers). What an obnoxious POS that takes FOREVER to load! I still use V7 at home, and my previous work computer had V8 (as far as I’m concerned just a fancy-shmancy update of V7). As a person whom has absolutely NO USE for the gaudy, bloated current crop of Windows OS’ that have been foisted upon users, (I still run in Classic Mode on my corporate WinXP64 workstation), the SnagIt 9 interface is an unacceptable garrish hodgepodge (in addition to being slow as molasses to load). As I have corporate keys and download files for both V7 and V8, my next step is to flush SnagIt 9 and “downgrade” to a more FUNCTIONAL (for me) version of the software.

DITTO – NEWER IS NOT ALWAYS BETTER. V9 is a bloated pig of an application compared to its predecessor.

By: John Conners

John Conners — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:34:10 +0000

I’ve actually not got SnagIt installed just now so only have the installer. Did the stamps not get installed with the installer? If not then I’m afraid I won’t have them either.

By: Matt Gumm

Matt Gumm — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 13:11:04 +0000

Weird question for you: any chance you have a copy of the stamps. I just had a computer crash, and when I installed SnagIt 8 on the new computer, I realized that I don’t have any of the stamps, and the versions they have online now aren’t compatible.

By: Olivier

Olivier — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 12:57:49 +0000

Just found this very interested post. I used snagit 8 for years, and decided to upgrade to snagit 11, as I needed video for some short tutorial screencast.
I agree with a lot of the above on usability. For now, I’m sticking with Snagit 11 though. The main drawback initially with 11 was the time it took to open the editor after a capture and add some stamps on top of the capture.
I did some changes in the config to speed things a little:
- First, I created a profile that does not open the editor for very simple cases where I only want a snapshot of pieces of the screen. That’s probably 70% of my use of Snagit.
- The 2nd profile I create opens the editor. In Tools/Program Preferences/Program Options I checked “Always keep Editor running in background”. There is a memory cost to that, but it seems acceptable. And now I get the capture in the editor in an acceptable time
- I also try to keep the content of the library small (delete captures I don’t need). I was not able to find away _not_ to save captures in the library.

Hope this helps others…

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.