Balancing Act: Keeping Your Screen Movies Small and Beautiful

Screen recordings are a valuable tool for enhancing training, tutorials, manuals and websites. Companies use this technique to produce streaming and downloadable content. The recording tools are readily available and affordable. In this article, we explore some techniques, tips and tricks for recording sound, mouse movement and happenings from your screen to an AVI file. We will talk in both general terms and use specific examples. The examples pertain to HyperCam, a downloadable screen recording application from Hyperionics Technology. Like most screen recording applications, HyperCam captures the action from your Windows screen -- including cursor movements and sound -- and saves it to an AVI movie file.

Rice, William H. IV. WilliamRice.com (2002). Design>Documentation>Multimedia>Screen Captures

Better Screenshots

Most tech writers have their favorite software for capturing and processing static screen shots. I won’t compare these applications or try to tell you how to use them. Instead, I’ll give you techniques that help you produce the best possible screen shots, no matter what application you choose. This article assumes that you’ve taken screen shots before. It uses terms like “hot keys” and “time delay” and “capture cursor.” If you don’t know what these terms mean, look them up in the help for your screen capture software. They represent standard features that are found in most screen capture applications.

Rice, William H. IV. Williamrice.com. Design>Graphic Design>Online>Screen Captures

Brokedown Palace, Part 1: Why User Guides Don't Work

Software user guides use up an awful lot of space with screen shots. But I know what the screen looks like -- it's right in front of me. Any decent GUI design is self-documenting to some extent, at least. No matter how much we complain about them, GUIs have gotten pretty good. Children have them figured out in minutes. And then they start asking questions like, 'How do I make my stick man move around?' Computers are toasters or drawing pads to them. That's another reason user guides don't work: the average user doesn't need one anymore.

Knowles, Michael. Write Thinking (2002). Articles>Writing>Documentation>Screen Captures

Creating Documentation that Shows  

Advocates using screen shots, text balloons, arrows, and scannable text to create picture-like documentation.

Eaton, Janet M.F. Intercom (2000). Design>Documentation>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

Empirical Proof for Presenting Screen Captures in Software Documentation    

None of the previous studies on screen captures addressed the functions in the framework. There was no empirical research on any of the four functions of screen captures. This article presents our research on these functions. Each section starts with a brief explanation of the function. Next, we illustrate the screen capture designs used to test the function. The remainder of each section explains the setup and results of the empirical study. The article ends with some general conclusions about the functions of screen captures.

Gellevij, Mark and Hans Van Der Meij. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Documentation>Graphic Design>Screen Captures

Hot Shots  

The elusive screen, captured at last.

Kvern, Olav Martin. Adobe Magazine (1998). Design>Graphic Design>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

Review: Review of Screen Capture Tools

Describes the important attributes of a capture tool and examines and compares the features of five popular products.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Reviews>Software>Screen Captures

Screen Capture Software: Better than Print Screen  

Everyone knows that detailed pictures are a necessary supplement for technical documentation. For those who create software manuals, this means screen captures—images of what users see as they look at the monitor.

Wardin, Carla. Intercom (2003). Design>Graphic Design>Software>Screen Captures

Screen Captures 102  

An introduction to generating screen captures from Microsoft Windows computers. Consider your deliverables; where is the screen capture going to be used and seen by the customer? This helps you determine how you need to create your screen capture.

Brierley, Sean. TECHWR-L (2002). Books>Documentation>Technical Illustration>Screen Captures

Screen Captures 102  

This document is about making screen captures for technical writers working primarily in a Microsoft Windows environment. The tools targeted include Adobe FrameMaker, Microsoft Word, Adobe Acrobat, along with Techsmith’s SnagIt, Adobe Photoshop, and Ulead’s PhotoImpact 4.2. Certainly, the thoughts and techniques mentioned herein can be applied to other professions, other operating systems, and other tools.

Brierley, Sean. TECHWR-L. Books>Documentation>Image Editing>Screen Captures

Screen Captures in Software Documentation    

While screen captures are the most widely used illustrations in manuals, there is almost no literature on their role and design. In this paper we draw together practice, theory and empirical research to advance a taxonomy that identifies these roles and designs. We suggest that screen captures in software documentation can help the user to switch attention, develop a mental model of the program, verify screen states, and identify and locate window elements and objects. Four important design areas (coverage, positioning, size, and cueing) are distinguished and empirical findings discussed. Research has substantiated the claim that screen captures speed up task completion, but others have yet to be proven. We believe that a more refined approach, afforded by the taxonomy, is likely to improve practice and research, and yield strong evidence supporting the use of screen captures in software documentation.

van der Meij, Hans and Mark Gellevij. Technical Communication Online (1998). Articles>Software>Documentation>Screen Captures

Screen Captures to Support Switching Attention      

This study set out to validate the supportive role of screen captures for switching attention. Forty-two participants learned how to work with Microsoft Excel with a paper manual. There were three types of manuals: a textual manual, a visual manual with full-screen captures, and a visual manual with a mixture of partial- and full-screen captures. The findings show that participants in all conditions looked up from the manual to the screen on about 97% of the cases in which such a switch was called for. Rank order analyses showed that users of the visual manuals switched attention significantly more often than did users of the textual manual. No differences were found between conditions on learning effects and training time.

Gellevij, Mark and Hans Van Der Meij. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2002). Design>Graphic Design>Documentation>Screen Captures

Screenshots with the Mouse Pointer

How to produce screenshots which include the mouse-pointer.

Springer, Hans. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Graphic Design>Documentation>Screen Captures

Taking a Second Look at Screen Captures  

Asserts that screen captures aren't as necessary and helpful as many writers of documentation might think.

Bright, Kathy. Intercom (2001). Design>Documentation>Graphic Design>Screen Captures

Screencasting: the Future of Technical Communication?    

Screencasting has numerous advantages for software training: the added realism of the screen versus paper-based or static online screens, ease of use, and low cost. Archee reviews two popular programs.

Archee, Raymond K. Intercom (2008). Articles>TC>Video>Screen Captures