Mimic not capturing a button

[ccardimon]

Mimic won't capture the Enter button shown in this screen shot. Any ideas?

problem2.png

[SteveS]

If all else fails you can always copy the button you used in your attachement and paste it on the background image...

Have you tried a hitting the print screen a couple of times when the window is open during the movie capture process? Sometimes helps with capturing an interface, although why the button is missing is strange. Is it being added at runtime by the program itself and mimic is taking the screenshot too soon?

Another option is to replace the background image used by Mimic with one showing the button (sort of like my suggestion of adding it, above).

HTH

[ccardimon]

If all else fails you can always copy the button you used in your attachement and paste it on the background image...

How do you do that?

Have you tried a hitting the print screen a couple of times when the window is open during the movie capture process?

Do I just press Print Screen, or do I have to hit ALT, too?

Sometimes helps with capturing an interface, although why the button is missing is strange. Is it being added at runtime by the program itself and mimic is taking the screenshot too soon?

I have to look at it again.

[SteveS]

In the folder containing your movie files there will be a series of bitmaps. I like the preview pane of Windows Explorer in Vista and W7 because you can select each file in Explorer and the preview pane shows the image before you open it in an editor, saves heaps of time.

Once you identify the correct frame you can open it with any image processing tool that allows you to cut and paste images (or parts). This is a great method for doing cosmetic surgery on any screenshot! You can remove anything you do not want the end user to see. I use photoshop, but snagit will also let you manipulate images by coppying selections. I haven't tried Capture because we use Snagit as a standard tool.

If you want to capture extra screenshots during the original capture process you can press the print screen button (on its own) to force Mimic into making another grab. This is very useful when there are animations and the like, you can make sure you get exactly what you want. I make a point of grabbing extra shots, you can easily delete them when you are editing the movie. For example, If I expand a menu I take a manual shot after the menu has opened to make sure I've got a good image.

[ccardimon]

It's coming along! I finally grabbed that button. I have to go slowly and keep hitting the Print Screen button. That seems to do the trick. Any suggestions on editing the movie? What do you use for image and movie processing? I need all the advice I can get.

[SteveS]

I find creating movies a pretty painless experience, and like the concept of sharing the palette between Capture and Mimic so the printed material matches the tutorial...

Once I've got all the frames I'll go through and remove the extras I grabbed but don't need.

Then I'll add the callouts explaining what is going on and any instructions ('type your name in the log on name box' type of thing)

Next, I'll adjust the time for each frame, around 5 seconds seems to work, depending on how much information the allouts hold. No callouts and 2 seconds is ample.

The next step is adjust timings within the frame. When objects are shown or hidden, mouse pointer monements (about 2 seconds from the end of the frame, depending on how far the pointer travels).

When I'm happy with the movie I'll copy the background image to somewhere I keep my Capture resources, open it in Capture and copy all the callouts etc I want in the print version from the Mimic frams and paste it into Capture. Crop the image (if necessary) and save. If I need a torn edge effect I'll open the final image in Snagit to apply the torn edge.