Relatively difficult learning curve for Capture?

[sdcinvan]

It is me or is MadCap Capture one of the most complex tools ever created?

Okay, perhaps that's an exaggeration but having 'mastered' complex tools like Adobe Premiere Pro and Cubase, I was surprised to find myself still somewhat confused after about two hours into trying to make Capture do something. I finally know how to do some of the basics but man, this tool is an oddity and seems rather unintuitive.

I've exhausted YouTube's very limited assortment of tutorials, one tutorial tip found via a Google search, MadCap's webhelp, and a few MadCap webinars. Can anyone suggest other free training resources?

Thanks so much.

The only tip I've found (but kudos to the author):
http://beck-communications.com/2013/05/11/creating-faded-edges-and-spotlights-on-screen-captures-with-madcap-capture/

[RamonS]

Did you look at the PDF guides? On the start page in the Getting Started box click Browse PDF Guides. You will get a list with a bunch of PDFs for various topics and tasks.

[Nita Beck]

Check out the recorded webinar called "Picture This: Optimizing Images with MadCap Flare and Capture". I attended Paul Pehrson's session of the same name at MadWorld 2013 and was astonished at how much I learned about Capture in particular. You can access the webinar here: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/resources/recordedwebinars.aspx#capture. (Scroll down to find it.)

Hope that helps. (And thanks for the kudos. )

[sdcinvan]

Check out the recorded webinar called "Picture This: Optimizing Images with MadCap Flare and Capture". I attended Paul Pehrson's session of the same name at MadWorld 2013 and was astonished at how much I learned about Capture in particular. You can access the webinar here: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/resources/recordedwebinars.aspx#capture. (Scroll down to find it.)
Hope that helps. (And thanks for the kudos. )

Yes but thank you. I have this webinar in my sights. I'll have to watch this soon... thank you for letting me know how valuable this webinar is.

Did you look at the PDF guides? On the start page in the Getting Started box click Browse PDF Guides. You will get a list with a bunch of PDFs for various topics and tasks.

Thank you. I knew about the extensive collection of Flare v9 PDF guides but I did not know about the Capture v6 guides. Thank you!
All starting with, http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/CaptureV6/CaptureGettingStartedGuide.pdf

[vola_newbie2]

Thanks for the links, I will have a look at all of them.

I tried to use Madcap capture without rtfm, very bad idea.
MadCap Capture helped me to stay humble (or to feel idiot, don't know what suits the best)

[sdcinvan]

Thanks for the links, I will have a look at all of them.

I tried to use Madcap capture without rtfm, very bad idea.
MadCap Capture helped me to stay humble (or to feel idiot, don't know what suits the best)

I think part of the problem is that MadCap Capture is not very intuitive and still has a number of awkward functions. MadCap Capture certainly doesn't replace my other tools. I still prefer TechSmith's Snagit for capturing screens because it is more precise and image editing is easier. For bulk image captures [captured in rapid secession], no other tool can do what GadWin's free PrintScreen (http://www.gadwin.com/download/) can do.

Perhaps MadCap Capture is a very powerful tool and I just haven't learned how to control its powerful features yet.

[ChoccieMuffin]

Personally I don't like the fact that it can't capture the rounded corners of Windows apps (or I haven't figured out how to) so I'm happy to stick to Snagit for taking my screenshots. I don't need to to anything whizzy with them other than plonk them in a document (and blur out my name whenever it appears on the screen) and Snagit is great for both.

[sdcinvan]

Personally I don't like the fact that it can't capture the rounded corners of Windows apps (or I haven't figured out how to) so I'm happy to stick to Snagit for taking my screenshots. I don't need to to anything whizzy with them other than plonk them in a document (and blur out my name whenever it appears on the screen) and Snagit is great for both.

AFAIK, no screen capture tool can capture the rounded corners. When I use Snagit, I just 'fill' in the area around the rounded corners with a transparency and save the image as a png.

[SteveS]

Snaggit (I'm using version 10) does capture the rounded corners in Win7.

If you capture a window and change the canvas colour you will see the new colour around each corner. You can then set the canvas (background) to transparent, although I prefer to use the same colour as the presentation media background to prevent blurred edges.

HTH

[sdcinvan]

Snaggit (I'm using version 10) does capture the rounded corners in Win7.

If you capture a window and change the canvas colour you will see the new colour around each corner. You can then set the canvas (background) to transparent, although I prefer to use the same colour as the presentation media background to prevent blurred edges.

HTH

Well, well... funny how I never noticed that until now. So cool!

Since we are talking about Snagit, my one pet peeve is that you can create vector objects in Snagit but you cannot save your image in vector format (exception .snag format which is only useful inside Snagit). I never understood this limitation.

[Centauri27]

You know, those are my sentiments exactly. I'm a veteran of tech and love software tools...but I could never warm up to Capture, even though we've had it for over 5 years (back when MadCap was charging extra for it). I agree that it just seems awkward and rather unintuitive. I tried to get back into it with Capture 6, but immediately ran into a totally head scratching "WTF?" problem: the "capture" button for region capture moves around when you resize the region. And if you've selected a larger region, the capture button moves entirely off the screen! This makes it inaccessible and impossible to complete the capture!

[sdcinvan]

You know, those are my sentiments exactly. I'm a veteran of tech and love software tools...but I could never warm up to Capture, even though we've had it for over 5 years (back when MadCap was charging extra for it). I agree that it just seems awkward and rather unintuitive. I tried to get back into it with Capture 6, but immediately ran into a totally head scratching "WTF?" problem: the "capture" button for region capture moves around when you resize the region. And if you've selected a larger region, the capture button moves entirely off the screen! This makes it inaccessible and impossible to complete the capture!

I know it is a PITA, but you/we need to send in feature requests. I've noticed this problem as well but I didn't bother to report it because I had already reached the limit of my patience with MadCap Capture.

I would just love to see an expert roll through this tool. I am still not sure if it is me or this tool is simply just a inept and unintuitive. I'm going to request that MadCap do a Webinar on this tool.

[vola_newbie2]

Yes please keep us posted if there is a webinar. I would be very interested.

BTW, happy new year everyone !

[sdcinvan]

I did some digging and found the following MadCap Capture resources.

Yes, there was a webinar that featured Capture. It covers a number of the Capture features and proved to be helpful in learning a about Capture.

Official Webinar: Picture This: Optimizing Images with MadCap Flare and Capture
http://youtu.be/6Jm5fE5epIQ
Nita already provided a direct from MadCap link: http://www.madcapsoftware.com/resources/recordedwebinars.aspx#capture. (Scroll down to find it.)

Our own Nita Beck has the following tips:
http://beck-communications.com/tag/madcap-capture/

And then a bunch of short Youtube clips:

Resize Images in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/cFVkMu8Ot_8

Figure Numbers in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/CsGj4hImGXg

Recapturing Images in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/JLv-bgZ7okA

Creating Captions in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/T4E1y7QP0RI

Image Profiles in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/vQZoJhmFmMY

Variables in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/Ziu5hM-w0a4

Blurring Images in MadCap Capture
http://youtu.be/f75T7XEJ-UE

And finally, http://docs.madcapsoftware.com/CaptureV6/CaptureGettingStartedGuide.pdf

Forgive me for some of the repeated information in this post. I had forgotten that some of the above URLs were already entered into this thread.