Since the release of ScreenSteps 2.0 a lot has changed. Over the past 18 months major enhancements have been added that have dramatically improved the usability and versatility of the product. Version 2.6 is going to be one of the biggest leaps forward yet with the new Microsoft Word and Apple Pages export options.

With this 2.6 release, the price of ScreenSteps Pro is going to be increasing from $59.95 to $79.95.

Does that mean that existing users will have to pay for an upgrade? No! All 2.x updates to ScreenSteps have been free for registered 2.x customers and the good news is that 2.6 will continue the tradition. ScreenSteps 2.6 will still be a free upgrade to all ScreenSteps 2.x users.

So how does this affect you?

If you are already a ScreenSteps Pro user then it does not affect you at all. The upgrade will still be free.

If you are a ScreenSteps Standard user, the only thing that will change will be your upgrade price (it was previously $20, but will increase to $40).

If you haven’t purchased ScreenSteps Pro yet then you have through next Wednesday, June 17th to still get it at the current price of $59.95. After that the price will go up to $79.95.

So, If you have been thinking about either upgrading or purchasing, the time to act is now!

You can even download a preview of version 2.6 to test out the new Microsoft Word and Apple Pages export options here.

The new pricing will not take effect for at least one more week which means there is still time to buy a copy of ScreenSteps Pro for $59.95 or upgrade to ScreenSteps Pro for $20.

Purchase ScreenSteps 2 Pro

Upgrade from ScreenSteps Standard to ScreenSteps Pro

Do you think that the only way to get images into ScreenSteps is to use the ScreenSteps Capture Tool? If so then you are missing out on some of ScreenSteps’ best features. We have prepared two screencasts that show you a plethora of methods for getting images into ScreenSteps. We even prepared two videos, one for Windows and one for Mac that highlight methods that are unique to each system.

Getting Images into ScreenSteps: Windows

Contents include:

• Capture Palette
• Integrating with Windows Print Screen
• Integrating with Windows Alt-Print Screen
• Integrating with SnagIt
• Capturing still clips from QuickTime videos
• Importing Photos or other Image files

Getting Images into ScreenSteps: Mac

Contents include:

• Capture Palette
• Keyboard Shortcut
• Capturing still clips from QuickTime videos
• Integrating with Snapz Pro X
• Integrating with Skitch
• Integrating with OmniGraffle
• Importing Photos or other Image files

These screencasts came directly from content we have prepared and presented in our weekly webinars. To get some more great tips on using ScreenSteps be sure to register for one:

http://www.bluemangolearning.com/webinars

Today we are announcing a free tool for our ScreenSteps Live customers: ScreenSteps Live Support Client. ScreenSteps Live Support Client is a desktop application that enables you to quickly browse and search your ScreenSteps Live content. After you find the lesson you are looking for you can copy the lesson title and url to the clipboard for pasting into a support email or forum post.

ScreenSteps Live Support Client uses the powerful ScreenSteps Live API to retrieve data from your account and is another example of how you can manage your content in ScreenSteps Live but use it just about anywhere. We also have plugins for WordPress and Zendesk that use the ScreenSteps Live API.

The application is available for Mac and Windows and you can download it here.

Watch the video below to get an idea of how this can speed up your support process.

Two weeks ago we hosted a webinar discussing the new Data Grid control available in Revolution 3.5. Revolution is the cross-platform development environment that we write all of our desktop software in and ScreenSteps uses the Data Grid control extensively. In the webinar we show how we integrated the Data Grid into ScreenSteps 2.5 and share some tips and tricks that will prove useful to anyone working with Data Grids.

The webinar is about 70 minutes long with a little over half of the time spent presenting and the reset spent answering questions from attendees. To watch the recording just visit the archive page.

Some of you may be familiar with Zendesk, a popular help desk application. Zendesk has this great feature that allows you to create custom widgets in your sidebar. With just a little bit of work we were able to create a ScreenSteps Live widget that allows us to search all of our content on ScreenSteps Live. That way we can quickly copy the url for a lesson and paste it right into a response to our customers.

Watch the video below so see an example:

You can get the code for the widget and instructions on how to configure the widget here: ScreenStep Live Zendesk Widget Example

We had two great webinars on Tuesday going over some of the basic and advanced features in ScreenSteps Desktop. Here is a recording of one of the webinars. Be warned that the audio is a little distorted. We are aware of the issue and have already figured out how to improve this for our next set of webinars. You can register for an upcoming webinar on our webinars page here:

Register for a webinar

You can download the ScreenSteps Jump start webinar here from Tuesday here:

ScreenSteps Jump Start 4/28/2009 (Windows Media 51MB)

It is a little known fact that Trevor DeVore, the lead developer of ScreenSteps Desktop appeared in an episode of the A-team as a child (fortunately he did not turn out like most child stars). Anyone who remembers the A-team remembers the line that Hannibal would use every episode, “I love it when a plan comes together.”

So do we. That is why we are happy to announce the immediate availability of ScreenSteps 2.5 for Mac and Windows. This release comes after an extensive beta period and some fantastic feedback from our users. Thank you so much for your help.

So what does it include? ScreenSteps 2.5 offers a wide range of enhancements, including rich annotation capability and an improved ability to quickly assemble a number of lessons into complete manuals. Here is a quick summary:

• Text annotation tool (our #1 requested feature)
• Track lesson completion status
• Improved workflow for creating and exporting Manuals
• Relayer annotations
• Improved performance with large libraries
• Easier step reordering in lessons

All of these enhancements are going to dramatically improve your productivity with ScreenSteps. But this 2.5 release contains one important update that is going to change the way you do business.

When Blue Mango started in 2003 we believed that the current documentation, support and training systems in place were completely broken and decided that we were going to to fix it. No small task. We decided to throw out all preconceived notions, rebuild the process from scratch and remove all of the roadblocks that were present in the entire process, from content creation to distribution.

All our work revolved around one core belief about customer support - if it is easy to do well, it will get done well. If it is hard, it won’t. Our goal since 2003 has been to make every step of the process easy, so easy that you have no excuse for not doing it well.

The only way to make the entire process easy was to create a powerful desktop client for creating the content and an equally powerful hosted application for publishing, distributing and collaborating. And the two had to be integrated. We had to create a marriage between the desktop and the cloud.

The integration now available between ScreenSteps Desktop and ScreenSteps Live is the realization of that vision we had back in 2003. The entire process is now “easy”.

• You can create content in minutes.
• You can know quickly assemble that content into manuals.
• You can publish those manuals to ScreenSteps Live with a single click.
• You can add new lessons to your manuals at any time.
• You can collaborate among team members via ScreenSteps Live to divide up the lessons that need creating and updating.

You, as an organization no longer have an excuse for offering sub-par support to your customers or for not providing them with accurate, easy to follow customer tutorials and guides.

So, if you are already a user of ScreenSteps Desktop then download 2.5. No matter how you are using ScreenSteps it is going to make you much more productive. But, if you have not tried ScreenSteps Live yet, we invite you to sign up for a free trial. It will change the way you do business. Don’t believe us? Read some of the case studies of organizations that are already doing it. In every case they have seen near instant results.

Now, don’t get the idea that we are going to be resting on our laurels with this release. We are already hard at work on improvements to both ScreenSteps Desktop and ScreenSteps Live. The easier we make each step of the process the better you will be able to support your customers. The better you support your customers the more your business will grow.

The 2.5 update is a free update for all registered 2.x users. Here are the links you need:

• Download version 2.5
• Learn about the ScreenSteps Support Suite
• See all of the new feature in ScreenSteps 2.5
• Read case studies about how organizations are implementing the ScreenSteps Support Suite

Last night we uploaded the ScreenSteps 2.5 Release Candidate. 2.5 is a major milestone for us as it completely redefines how customer support can be handled in an organization. The integration between ScreenSteps and ScreenSteps Live offers unparalleled speed and flexibility when it comes to creating documentation that actually answers customer questions.

Those of you who don’t use ScreenSteps Live have a lot to look forward to as well. Version 2.5 has tons of speed improvements so that you can work with larger libraries and longer lessons. And since ScreenSteps is all about having an optimized workflow we’ve streamlined some common tasks as well.

You can download the release candidate from our downloads page. By the way, the manual is ready for release.

A few weeks ago Kevin Miller, Bill Marriott (both of Runtime Revolution) and I put on a webinar that introduced the new Data Grid in Revolution 3.5. The data grid was originally developed for ScreenSteps so that we could provide our customers with a much more responsive UI when working with large libraries and lessons. We were thrilled when Revolution decided to integrate it into their core product.

Given the extremely positive response by attendees, Greg and I thought people might be interested in seeing how ScreenSteps 2.5 uses data grids throughout the application. So we’ve added a new webinar to our webinars page entitled Using Data Grids in Revolution 3.5. In the webinar we will show you:

• The various UI elements created using the data grid.
• The techniques used to create some of the visuals.
• The techniques used to hook the data grids up to data from SQLite, stacks, folder contents and the web.

Sign up for webinar

Yesterday we hosted our first webinar about how to use ScreenSteps and ScreenSteps Live to decrease customer support requests. Thank you so much to all of you who attended and for all of the kind words so many of you have shared.

Brian Weiss of WORD’SWORTH, one of the attendees, emailed us and said:

When people agree to attend a webinar, they are trusting you to make it worth their while. They’re trusting you with one of their most precious commodities - their time. You guys delivered, big time.

We hope that the rest of you felt the same.

For those of you who weren’t able to attend, we have posted a recording of the webinar. The recording is about 75 minutes long. The first 30 minutes contain a presentation on how to effectively use ScreenSteps Live to handle customer support. For the last 45 minutes Greg and Trevor respond to questions from viewers.

You can download a recording of the webinar here:

Decreasing Customer Support with ScreenSteps Live wmv (66.3 MB)

Decreasing Customer Support with ScreenSteps Live m4v (81.5 MB)

We are already working on plans for our next one. We hope you will join us. Be sure to check this blog or sign up for our newsletter to be notified when we will present one.

You can subscribe to our newsletter here:

http://www.bluemangolearning.com/newsletters/screensteps.html