Mouse pointer captured with image

[Nita Beck]

Earlier today I read WritersUA's latest review of a whole slew of screen capture tools. (See http://www.writersua.com/articles/captu ... index.html.) Great review! I use several of the tools (sigh, four!), including MadCap Capture, which I'm using more often these days with my Flare projects (and even with my legacy RoboHelp projects and Word-based manuals).

I was surprised to read "Somewhat oddly, MadCap Capture does not allow you to include the mouse pointer in your images at capture time..." I thought, "Huh?" I capture the mouse pointer all the time with my screen images! (And I promptly sent off an email to the reviewer to correct his misapprehension.)

For those of you who haven't tried this yet, here's how it's done. (It involves using a time delay, during which you'll position the mouse.)

1. From Tools > Options, on the Capture tab, select the "Capture Mouse Cursor" option.

2. Now turn on the delay. Choose Capture > Time Delay. (The default is 5 seconds, which I've found to be plenty of time to position the mouse where I want it.)

3. Now take a screen capture. (Yes, you'll be using the mouse to indicate what you want to capture, but don't worry...). Capture will now delay taking the shot (and will give you a countdown), so position the mouse where you want it to be in the shot, and wait for Capture to finish.

Voila, you've got the mouse in a screen capture with Capture.

[Andrew]

Nice tip! Thanks!

[Nita Beck]

In case anyone cares, WritersUA's reviewer has corrected his review regarding Capture's ability to capture the mouse. He was very pleasant about it, too!