Tools of the Trade – Snagit

This is a tool that I use on a daily basis, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are litigation support professionals that have never purchased a screenshot software application.  I was originally introduced to Snagit by a temporary employee that I hired for litigation support who recently held a position as a technical writer.  I originally started using Snagit to capture screenshots for training manuals.  I was impressed with its ability to capture icons on the desktop without capturing the desktop background.  I also liked that I could capture a screenshot showing a drop-down menu including the mouse arrow where I was making the selection.

After I spent some time using Snagit, I instinctively started to use it whenever I wanted to capture a partial screenshot and share it in an e-mail to an attorney or paralegal in the firm.  I might send a screenshot of one small section of a spreadsheet that I want the recipient to focus on or I might send a screenshot showing document counts after running database searches or I might send a screenshot of the tags I just added to a database.  I also use the screenshots to show error messages to a vendor that I am working with.

Here is an example of a screenshot:

Other examples of Snagit screenshots are included in the article on this site entitled Tools of the Trade – TextPad.  Notice how I draw your attention to specific document numbers.

I'm sure there are other screen capture tools that provide similar functionality, but my advice is to have one of these tools at your fingertips.  The attorneys and vendors that I work with have become accustomed to receiving these helpful visuals within my e-mails.

You can download a trial version of Snagit here.

The default hotkey to initiate the screenshot capture is “ctrl-shift-p” but there are other ways to initiate with the mouse.  I prefer to use the Region capture where I can click and drag to create a custom screenshot.  I have used the web page capture on occasion where it allows the window to scroll during the capture.

In a Fast Tip Friday tutorial, I demonstrated how to cut out sections of a screenshot using Snagit.

Let us know if you have a favorite screenshot capture tool and if you're already using a tool like this in the world of litigation support.