I have become obsessed with research and testing of screen capture tools. I was reminded via email about another great product from TechSmith. They are in beta for the Mac version of Snagit. Snagit is a very cool tool for screen capture. Those of you in the PC world are probably already familiar with it.  It is great for recording still images from your computer screen or for grabbing images from your web browser window.

I spent a few minutes today checking out the various tools. It has a wonderful array of tools, including call out boxes, highlighters pen effects, a variety of border styles and one special effect that really rocks, you can select perspective with a reflection to simulate depth. And did I mention you can change the opacity of any of your markup tools or callout boxes? This is slick.

Another big plus, you can save your capture in a variety of formats, bmp, jpg, png, pdf and they have built in a “share” feature so you can email your capture with ease.

TechSmith pays attention to the details. They have try before you buy downloads of their software. If you are looking for a well designed and feature friendly application, I strongly recommend that you download a beta trial now if you are on a Mac and if you are on a PC, try it and buy it.

SnagIt Beta for the Mac Click to listen to this post

Friday I spent the day at the Social Media 2010 Conference organized by Roohi Moola of Neighborhood Now. It was the first conference of its kind held in Sonoma County. There were about 200 participants and we had speakers from as far away as Atlanta. I captured short videos of the speakers and attendees.

Saturday was the NBAUG (North Bay Adobe User Group) super Saturday Meeting. Cyndi Reese of Santa Rosa Junior College is the force behind this wonderful group.  The group meets eight times a year. It is an Adobe supported user group and they provide prizes and speakers.

Saturday and Sunday: I am participating in a Social Media Workshop facilitated by Karen Clark of MyBusinessPressence.com at the Doubletree Hotel. Karen has used social media to grow two businesses she owns and is a trainer and speaker on all things related to social media.

If you are luck enough to live in Sonoma, check out WiredSonoma. It is an interactive community for those of us who live in Sonoma and we have an online community and face-to-face events.

Love all things Macintosh? Check out the North Coast Mac Users Group – now in its 25th year. We have monthly meetings, special interest groups and a Mac Computer Expo in October each year.  Helpful, friendly and we have people from all over the North Bay and beyond as members. See more at www.ncmug.org

These are just a few of the social media and computer resources in Sonoma County.

What tools and resources do you love and use in and about Sonoma County, California?

Screenr is a web based application for capturing content from your computer screen. It is cross platform (Mac and PC). You can create a movie of up to 5 minutes in duration. It can link directly to your twitter account.

Watch how to user screenr

Step One

Sign up for a free account.

Step Two

Tell screenr you are ready to record.

Step Three

• Select the size of the viewing window from several preset sizes.
• Press the red record button and you have five minutes of recording time.
• You press the green done button when you are finished and then screenr will create a high quality version of your capture.

Step Four

When the conversion process is complete, you will see a new page with your video and you can add a short description. This becomes a tweet with your video.

Options for Sharing

• You can download a .mp4 file to your local computer
• Publish your video to YouTube
• Copy and paste the embed code for your file and share it on your web site, blog or via email
• Delete the video

That’s all.

Screenr has a bookmarklet so you can start recording your video from any browser window.

Try it out.

I think you will find this a nice addition to your social networking tools.

A great way to build your visibility is through your web site. Picking a domain name and business name that are the same makes it easy for people to find you online.

Deciding on a name can take some time. Before you seal the deal on your business name, see if your name idea is already registered by someone else. You can do this by visiting godaddy and doing a search. You can register your new domain name there, even if you are not ready to start building out your site. Securing a unique url (domain name) is a smart marketing strategy.

Things to consider when picking your domain

Your domain name is one of your most important pieces of marketing real estate. If you have a memorable url, it can go a long way in helping your clients connect with you.

You might want to include your blog on your site or register a separate domain name for your blog. A growing trend is to use a blog platform to build your web presence. A blog is a special kind of web site, with a key advantage. Visitors can subscribe to a blog, but they can’t subscribe to a traditional web site. If you are just getting started with your web presence or if you are re-branding, I encourage you to consider using a blog for building your site.

You are reading my blog which is built using Wordpress. Wordpress is one of the easiest and most robust of all the blogging platforms. This installation uses the Thesis theme which allows me to customize the look of my blog. Thesis has excellent seo (search engine optimization) features built in.

Valuable expertise on demand – rich business content and presentations | myBrainshark.

There are many ways to add video and share it on the web. My Brain Shark offers some unique and free options.

If you are a Powerpoint user you already know most of what you need to know to use My Brain Shark.

One feature that is different from other services I have found, you can use your telephone to record a audio track for your slides. No need to buy a microphone or worry about learning how to use it, just follow the dial in instructions and you are ready to record.

This could be a way for you to post a real “Audio Logo” on your web site.

A quick tip for you, add some video content to your web presence.

A quick and easy way to do it is by using a web based service like Animoto.

Here is a sample of what you can do wit Animoto in about five minutes.

I am working on two book publishing projects for my clients. I have been curious about how ebooks are made and discovered that I already have the tools I need to convert documents into the epub format.

In the past two days, I watched video clips showing how to convert files from InDesign into the epub format. There are a few changes required to get a pleasing result, since epub documents have some limitations. I am confident that this conversion process will become a regular part of the design equation.

I learned that seven out of the top ten best sellers in Japan are digital books.

Alex Mandossian had a thought provoking post in his blog. I have included the video, it is short, about 90 seconds. Watch it and see what you think.

“Is This the Future of Book Publishing?”

Are you reading more or less than you did five years ago?

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http://www.youtube.com/completelycreative. You can subscribe to my channel.

In my quest to find tools for screen capture and online video, my friend Karen Clark pointed me to Prezi.com

In their gallery area I encountered a sample prezi by Brian Solis, one of the co-creators of the Conversation Prism.

The Conversation Prism by Brian Solis and Jesse Thomas

What are your thoughts about the social media conversation?

I am creating a presentation for the BACN Bits and Bytes segment of the March BACN Meeting.

I have been fearlessly testing a variety of screen capture and free or low fee video editing applications.

I have been interested in computer generated video since the early days of computer animation,(Macromedia Director and Flash in the 1990’s. Before that, as a student at San Diego State, my minor field of study was telecommunications. Desi Arnaz donated his old Desilu Studio video cameras to SDSU and came to lecture a few times, along with another television pioneer, Rod Serling (Twilight Zone). I was more comfortable in front of the camera than behind it, still true today.

Now, I am on a mission to find out how to create and share information using my computer video capabilities.

I am inspired by Patrick Schwerdtfeger, author of Webify Your Business. He has posted more than 300 videos of himself on YouTube and more are coming daily.

I am not looking to break his record. I am exploring video as part of the marketing conversation for business and for my clients.

Here are a few of my video snippets. So far I have used a SnapZ ProX, Jing, Camtasia Studio for the Mac, Screenr, iMovie 08, and I even went to the PC side of my Intel Mac and checked out Windows Movie Maker. Did you know you can capture video right in Facebook? Not the highest resolution, but for a quick post, it will do. I have taken short movies with my iPhone and a flip video cam. It is a new world.

Below are samples of movies I have uploaded to YouTube.

I would love to hear back from you about how you using video in your business.