What is the best tool for creating user guides with screenshots on Windows?

Question

I need to write some guides for my development team on how to get some software up and running and would like to include partial screenshots. Are there any tools that are particularly good at this? Word is almost there in that I can easily paste screenshots inline with text, but I need the ability to crop the images and Word image manipulation is really painful. I'm somewhat biased against screencasting as I hate having to go back to a screencast for reference and sit through a bunch of talking. Are MS OneNote or LiveWriter any good at this?

Edit: Going to use the free Cropper tool (looks pretty polished and allows you to do screenshot and crop in a single step) along with MS Word. Couldn't justify paying for more software but SnagIt looks really good if you're going to spend money.

Edit: I didn't intend to duplicate this question but the accepted answer there covers the options presented here pretty well.

Answer 1

If you are running Vista Ultimate, you may give the Snipping Tool a try (enter snipping in the Vista Start menu to launch it). This allows you to crop the image directly on the screen, then make some modifications (drawing on it and marking text). Afterwards, you can save the image or copy it to Word or whatever you are using for writing the text.

Answer 2

Using HTML and making a .chm "compiled html manual" is a good option. Here is a CHM guide.

Answer 3

I've heard that Dr. Explain excels at this. It's perfectly suited for exactly this sort of thing. It will grab a screenshot, then explode each control with an annotation template for you to fill.

Answer 4

We use SnagIt from TechSmith ... great tool for screen shots! Easy to manipulate and annotate.

Here is a complete list of the features and some sample screenshots.

Answer 5

I use Word, but I tend to take the images to an image package (PaintShopPro) to annotate them or to crop. I also don't generally crop dialog boxes with hard edges, I like to fade them out with a wavy cut-away effect so that the reader knows something has been cropped out of the image.

My reason for using Word is ease of use, but also ease for someone else to update the document themselves when they make a change to the software!

Answer 6

Another vote for SnagIt; it also can screenshot menus and scrolling areas, as well as take shots on a timer.

Answer 7

Vyew lets you take screen captures, crop, annotate, and then control who has access to view it (either public free-for-all, or invite a list of email addresses). You can place multiple screenshots sequentially in the same 'book', on separate 'pages', which you can then click through to view them.

You can try it without registering at all, but you need to register a free account to save your stuff permanently.

Disclaimer: I work for the company that developed it.

Answer 8

we capture images using Snag-It and write the actual documentation in MadCap's Flare

Answer 9

I use Snag-it when I can, but there is also a decent free tool that will also let you take cropped screenshots: Mezer Tools

Answer 10

We use SnagIT. It's seamless, quick, and powerful.

Answer 11

+1 for SnagIT. I have tried many if not all free tools snippet tools on the marked and none of them has the great combination of fast snipping and commenting as SnagIt has.

Answer 12

I use plain old paint and MS Word. Pretty basic, but as a consultant working on-site with clients I don't always get to choose the tools. Someday I hope to grow up and get to use Snag-it, but for now its the little old paint brush for me.

Tip for fellow cavemen using this technique: Saving the files as JPG before copying and pasting them to Word radically reduces the document file size.

Answer 13

I like the bug shooting tool. I don't integrate it with the online service. I find its easy to setup, easy to use and I like the ability to create big red circles around objects on the screen. I'm in the midst of writing up documentation for a roll out of Jira/SVN/Crucible and I have found bug shooting to be really useful. I keep gimp up and running for quick cropping as well.

http://lifehacker.com/398585/bug-shooting-does-advanced-screen-capture-and-annotation

Answer 14

Tip for creating user guide screen shots: Alt+printscreen will put a screenshot of only the current window on the clipboard. Very useful for dialog boxes and the like.

Answer 15

There is an open source tool called Zscreen that is quite good. You can download it from Source Forge. Also, if you use the latest version of the Maxthon browser, it also includes a capture tool that I use for some web apps

Answer 16

Paint.NET is my favorite. Can crop it to your liking, then CTRL+A, then paste onto Word.

Answer 17

im using PCHand Screen Capture. before buy it i tried a lot, i think it is a pretty good screen capture tool.it could capture anything on the screen, and it is easy to use, even for a novice. it also offers many capture modes and several output types. see the link below: http://www.screen-capture-record.com/

Answer 18

you should check out iorad.com....you just record your actions and it automatically spits out a nice looking word doc user guide....no copy/paste involved. Its free for now, while in beta.