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CaptureIt! - Help & Tutorial

1. Overview
   CaptureIt! is an amazing screen capture tool.

   It allows making screenshots as well as recording screencasts, and exporting them to various formats (even for iPhone and YouTube).

   We recommend adding CaptureIt! to your Dock for easier access to it in the future:
   CaptureIt! works in the 'stealth mode', so when you launch it, you'll see its user interface, but you won't see CaptureIt! in the Application switcher (CMD-Tab). However, when you'll see the CaptureIt! interface, you'll know that it was launched: the screen will be dimmed except of a window under the mouse pointer.

   The major advantage of CaptureIt! is that while it is running, you can keep using your Mac without interruptions, and perform any actions! So working with CaptureIt! is almost transparent for the user.

   You can always quit CaptureIt! by clicking its icon again (whether in Dock or in Finder) - it works like a trigger.
   
   
   
   
2. User Interface
   The CaptureIt! user interface consists of a small floating toolbar and a menu attached to it.

   Most of the time, you see only the small toolbar.
   Application's toolbar can be slightly moved by pressing the Shift key to allow work with things under the toolbar.
   The toolbar and current selection stay on the same place while Ctrl key pressed.
   You may think of the menu as a simple palette attached to the toolbar containing available functional items that you can use right in place or move to the toolbar, if you use them often. You can open the menu at any time by clicking the 'Open menu' icon in the toolbar.
   

   • To add items from the menu to the toolbar, drag them while holding the Option key
   • To re-arrange toolbar items, drag them within the toolbar while holding the Option key
   • To remove an item from the toolbar, drag it out of it while holding the Option key.

   There is only one exception: You can't remove the 'Open menu' icon from the toolbar.
   

   Hover the mouse pointer over toolbar and menu items to see helpful tooltips.

   To set up the behavior of many interface items, use the CaptureIt! Preferences (see bellow).
   
   
   
3. Selection Mode
   CaptureIt! supports the following selection modes:

   • Auto-selection (default): the selection follows the mouse pointer, and it is automatically resized to fit the current window, menu, dialog, widget, desktop icon (on OSX prior 10.6), etc.
   • Manual selection: When you open CaptureIt! Menu, you can adjust the current selection manually:
     • Click and hold the left mouse button inside the current selection to move the entire selection
     • Click and hold the left mouse button on a selection border hotspot to resize the current selection
     • Click and hold the left mouse button outside the current selection then move the mouse pointer to make a new custom selection
     • Click and release the left mouse button on any window to select it immediatelly.
   
   
   
4. Screenshot
   You can make screenshots of any windows or custom selections.

   First of all, select the area you need, and then click the 'Capture image' or 'Timed capture' item in the toolbar or the menu. To make a screenshot of a window without its background, hold the Command key while clicking 'Capture image' or 'Timed capture'.

   The resulting screenshot file is placed to your Desktop (by default) or in the folder specified in the CaptureIt! Preferences. Additionally, the screenshot file is placed to the CaptureIt! history: The history holds up to 20 most recent screenshots. You can open and close the history by clicking the Badge icon which also indicates the number of screenshots in the history. The badge automatically appears on the toolbar after you make the first screenshot.

   To navigate the history, use the arrows on the left and on the right of the history view.

   The history allows quick sharing of your screenshots with your friends, for example, via iChat - just Drag & Drop an image from the history right to a chat window.

   If you double-click an image from the history, it will be opened in the default application.
   
   
   
5. Video Recording
   CaptureIt! also allows recording screencasts and exporting them to various formats.

   First of all, select the required area, and then click Record video in the toolbar or menu.

   To stop screen capturing, click the CaptureIt! icon on the menubar:

   After screen capturing is stopped the CaptureIt! Encoder tool is launched. During a video recording, CaptureIt! produces a video file in lossless CIVID(X) format (something like well known RAW format for digital cameras). The CIVID(X) file contains raw screen data encoded with our proprietary high-performance codec. Intermediate CIVID(X) files are required lower CPU & Memory usage and increase the FPS rate. Next, the CIVID(X) file has to be converted to a common video format. You can set up video codec, quality, and scaling options and save them as a preset for the later use: CaptureIt! Video Encoder allows simultaneous encoding of several video files.
   
   
   
6. Layers
   With the layered screenshot feature you can make a shot of all windows on screen at one time and then rearrange windows as you like, e.g. change the order or position of windows, hide unnecessary window, etc. There are several options for saving this image: just drag the selected layer to preferred location or save the whole composited image. Also you can save all the layers as separate images.

   
   
   
   
7. Sharing
   We recommend using the free Dockdrop Application to share your screenshots/screencasts. Put the Dockdrop icon near the CaptureIt! icon in your Dock, and they will work together.

   Dockdrop supports FTP, Flickr, WebDav and SCP (even with public key authentification).

   You can drag a screenshot from the CaptureIt! history or a screencast from its output folder right onto the Dockdrop icon, and it will be uploaded, and its URL will be copied to the clipboard, ready for pasting in an e-mail message, a chat window or a website.
   
   
   
8. Spruce Up Your Images
   To spruce up your screenshots before publication, use Picturesque.
   Just drag an image from the CaptureIt! history right to the Picturesque window, adjust effects, and then drag the image out of Picturesque.

   It is a very easy to use yet powerful tool.
   
   
   
9. CaptureIt! Components
   CaptureIt! consists of two applications: One of them is the main application called CaptureIt!. It is designed to work in the stealth mode, and includes a helper application that calls the CaptureIt! Tools.

   The CaptureIt! Tools application consists of the Preferences, the Layers Editor and the Video Encoder.
   
   
   
10. Preferences
    You can configure many aspects of CaptureIt! behavior by using the Preferences available in the CaptureIt! Tools application.
    Some preferences require restarting CaptureIt! for them to take effect.

    To access CaptureIt! Preferences, click Open application preferences on the CaptureIt! toolbar or in the menu.
    
    
    
11. Registration
    You can also use the CaptureIt! Tools to register your copy of CaptureIt!. To do it, just open the CaptureIt! Tools by clicking Open application preferences on the CaptureIt! toolbar, or in the menu, and then choose CaptureIt! Tools > Registration... menu.
    
    Each registered user receives a special x-captureit link attached to the license e-mail. If you are a registered user, you can open this link in the Safari, and CaptureIt! will register your license automatically, thus eliminating any errors possible while entering your license manually.
    
    
    
    
    
12. Coming soon...
    • Adding comments to, and drawing on screenshot
    • Optionally split large CIVIDX to internal chunks 1 or 2 Gb (for FAT32 drive/partitions support)
    • Fast Tasks
    • Localization to more languages
    • Much more improvements...
      Do you have comments or suggestions?
      Click to write an e-mail with your suggestions to our Support Service.