Screen capture made easy

I write software for a living, and all software needs to be documented.  There’s no better way to document step by step instructions than by using pictures.  Or you can write a thousand words.  Your choice!

I don’t always have time to take a screenshot, then paste it into a graphics editor, then annotate, then save as, then upload to Confluence, Google Docs, etc.

I started using Greenshot to capture the exact screenshot, then annotate and paste to Jira, Confluence or Google Docs, without the intermediate steps of saving it to my PC.

I must say that it’s super convenient.

I can make notes, draw lines, and hide sensitive data – all in one step.

Greenshot is available at http://getgreenshot.org and the source code is on Github. There are also a number of plugins available.

Here’s a quick demo.

Speaking of demos:  Gif videos are also great for documentation.  Try out Screen to GIF available at http://www.screentogif.com

Nowadays I record my UI features in GIF format and attach it to the feature’s Jira issue for management approval.  No need to come to my desk.

I also paste them straight into PowerPoint when I present to the team.

Happy documenting!