SnagIt Review: Software I Can’t Live Without

You don’t even know you need some software until you try it; then you find you can’t live without it!

SnagIt (www.snagit.com), created by a company called TechSmith, is one such application.





SnagIt enables you to grab screen shots of web pages that you can use in documents or on your websites. You are probably thinking you can already do that by simply using the Ctrl – Alt – Prt Scrn keys. The difference with SnagIt is that it makes it very easy to capture part of a screen, drop-down menus, whole web pages (rather than just the bits you can see on the screen), images and irregular shapes.

Simply highlight the part of the screen you want to capture, click copy and then paste it into your document. That’s it.

You can also add comments and highlights and edit text on your screen capture.

The application is very intuitive, and the basics can be learned in just a few minutes of trial and error.


What Do I Use SnagIt For?

Listed below are some of the things I use SnagIt for:

1)    Illustrating articles I write about other websites — the screen shot above was snagged using SnagIt

2)    Creating help documents by adding screen shots of all the actions I require the reader to take

3)    Capturing references to my website that appear on other websites to use as testimonials; displaying actual screen shots is more convincing than merely reproducing quotes

4)    Copying maps into Word documents when providing directions


Download a Free Version of SnagIt 7.2.5

TechSmith is currently giving away a free full version of SnagIt 7.2.5. This version is well specified and will do everything you need it to do. The reason TechSmith is giving it away free is to try to persuade users to upgrade to the latest version 8. There is a limited-time upgrade offer that enables you to upgrade for half the normal selling price (normal price, $39.95; special offer, $19.95).

I upgraded to the latest version, the biggest advantage of which is a completely new user interface that is much more intuitive to use. Other than that, it is basically the same as the free version.

To download your free version of SnagIt, follow these steps:

Step 1: Download the demo version of SnagIt 7.2.5 from TechSmith FTP servers:
ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/SnagIt.exe [English]
ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/snagitde.exe [German]
ftp://ftp.techsmith.com/pub/products/snagit/725/snagitfr.exe [French]

Step 2: Visit the TechSmith website here and request your SnagIt 7 software key. It is immediately sent to your inbox (so give the correct email address). Key the code into the registration form and your trial copy of SnagIt will convert into a full retail version.

Take advantage of this great opportunity while you have the chance!