Screencast’s or Print Screens Free Through Jing

Print screens and screen casts are made easy with Jing. Have you ever wanted to quickly create a short screen cast or screen shot for a tutorial or blog? There are a variety of great software providers that offer you solutions at affordable prices. Jing is free and it offers a lot for the price. Downloading the software is free; they also provide 2GB of storage and bandwidth for hosting your files if you want. Need more space? You can purchase additional space through Screencast.com or you can store it yourself either on your computer or in your own FTP.

Jing is a simple install and really easy to set up and work with. Once you have installed the software Jing sets on the side of your screen and resembles a half sun. You run your cursor over the “sun” and three options appear. You select the cross hairs, left click and drag the window around the area that you want to print or record. After the area is highlighted you choose to take a picture or record a screen cast.

If you choose to take an image you just click “image” after which time you have the option to edit the image with arrows, notes, frames, or highlights as seen in the image below. When you save the image it saves in the location that you pre-specify in the settings. (again, this may be your computer, FTP, or hosting account online) Creating a screen cast (screen video) is just as easy. You have basic functionality (pause, stop, record) and pre-specified voice over or some other audio mix off your computer.

One of the coolest features (I think its cool anyway) is that you are able to send or post links directly to the content that you have created. You also have the option to embed the content onto your site without moving files. It’s really that simple and offers you a lot of flexibility.

The hosting account is offered through Screencast.com. You can use the account to upload files for storage as well. The hosting account can be used for any kind of document but was made for the images and videos that you create using Jing. You can find out for yourself by visiting any of the links above or by going to http://jingproject.com. I really think that for the price (free) and the functionality Jing fits right in as being one of Today’s Best Tools. What do you think about Jing? Have you used it in the past? what advice can you give other readers?