A better Problem Steps Recorder #

Windows' Problem Steps Recorder makes it easy to create step-by-step screenshots for troubleshooting, documentation, etc. However, annotation and output options are severely limited (see UPDATE 2 below).

Searching for a Windows program similar to MacSnapper1 or Explainer2, I stumbled upon Wink, a freeware, cross-platform screen capture tool that allows you to "[C]apture screenshots, add explanations boxes, buttons, titles, etc and generate a highly effective tutorial for your users." Additional features include audio recording, importing BMP/JPG/PNG/TIFF/GIF files, and exporting to PDF, PostScript, HTML, Flash, EXE, and the aforementioned image formats.

1 "Create lesson webpages and PDFs from snapshots and images"
2 "A screenshot app for those of us who explain 'computer stuff' to other people"

UPDATE 1: A few more macOS step recorder apps for creating manuals, documentation, guides, etc.:

UPDATE 2: On a recent documentation projection, I discovered that Microsoft Word can edit and export Problem Steps Recorder-generated MHT files quite robustly. Besides editing text, annotations like rectangles, arrows, callouts, and freehand drawings can be added to images (along with optional effects like transparency, shadows, etc) via Insert → Shapes. If you need still more, images can be exported via "Save as Picture...", edited/annotated in FastStone Capture or similar, then reimported via "Change Picture" → "From a File..." (the context menu's "Edit Picture" command apparently hasn't worked for ages on bitmap images).

/windows | Apr 14, 2016


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