This is largely a maintenance release that fixes some crashes that people were having on Windows and some funny errors on Mac. We're sorry if you ran into any of them but this release should fix them. We also slightly modified the spell checker to make the interface a little clearer.

You can download the latest version here:

http://www.screensteps.com/downloads

Or check out the release notes here.

Post to Basecamp Screencast

We just posted a screencast that demonstrates how you can use the new "Export to Blog" feature and a "Basecamp" template to post ScreenSteps Lessons to Basecamp (Note: you must have a ScreenSteps Live account). If you are a Basecamp user then you will definitely like this.

Post to Basecamp Screencast

Download the Basecamp Blog Template

We have just posted beta versions of ScreenSteps 2.0.2 for both Mac and Windows. This is the first version of ScreenSteps 2 that has been made available for Windows. You can download the Windows beta from our main download page.

You can download the Mac beta here.

Here are some of the highlights from the new beta version:

1. You can now split a lesson in two (right click on a step to split the lesson at that step).
2. You can now package and export individual lessons for importing into other ScreenSteps Libraries.
3. Enter key will now open text fields for editing.
4. Various image cropping improvements
5. Fixed some problems users were having when the ScreenSteps window was minimized.
6. Improved spacing in PDF output.
7. Various cosmetic improvements.

You can see the full list of changes in the release notes.

We just got back from Macworld last week and what a week it was. After many late, late nights getting ScreenSteps 2 and ScreenSteps Live ready we were finally ready to go Tuesday morning at 11am. Well, at least mostly. This was the first time we had really exhibited at a large show so we were doing a lot of learning on the job.

It went great though. The reaction of people who saw the software was really overwhelming. With ScreenSteps 1 I think we had created something that was interesting. It was a decent program and could be a big time saver. But it wasn't great. With ScreenSteps 2 we wanted to strive for greatness and at least get to really, really good. I don't know if we have achieved great software yet but, judging from people's reactions I think we are a lot closer to really, really good.

The scenario would go something like this: someone would walk by and ask what we did. We would say, "We have a tool that helps you make really quick visual instructions for doing things on your computer. Is that something that you need to do?" They would either respond yes or no but almost everyone was intrigued enough to see a quick demo.

And the demos were very quick. We would do a lesson and have the images captured, annotated and ready for publishing in under 30 seconds.

If they had said that they did do documentation they were ecstatic. If they had said that they didn't do documentation they almost always said, "Oh! I have to do that all the time."

We had several people each day who said that seeing ScreenSteps had made it worth coming to the show. I'm not kidding.

It was also great to see existing customers. We talked to several users who were using ScreenSteps in ways we had never imagined. One user even brought us a thank you card and cookies. The card said that ScreenSteps was the best software that he never knew he needed.

Scott McNulty came and interviewed me for TUAW and did a nice write up. We got so much traffic on our site and people viewing the video that the videos stopped working for awhile. We moved the videos over to Amazon's S3 service and everything seems to be working great.

All in all we were totally exhausted by the end of the week but also totally exhilarated. When you are working on this stuff you never know how people are going to react. Being able to interact with customers and see their excitement was really an amazing experience. We already can't wait until next year. Until then we have a lot of work to do to incorporate all of the great feedback we got from people.

If you want to see the online version of the 30 sec demo (OK, it is actually 3 minutes long) that got people so excited you can see it here.

ScreenSteps 1.2

We are happy to announce the release of ScreenSteps version 1.2. This latest release has some really exciting feature additions including:

• Spell checker
• A new capture palette which makes capturing images super fast (see here)
• PDF improvements:
  • Add logos to your PDF files
  • Add footer text to your PDF file
  • Set a preference for defining the PDF author
• New Auto Update

We have also moved the online manual. Check out the new manual here.

ScreenSteps Docs

ScreenSteps Docs has left beta and is now available as a free utility for ScreenSteps users. You can learn more about ScreenSteps Docs here.

New Website Design

We have launched a new website design which will hopefully make it easier to get the information you need. Go to www.screensteps.com and let us know what you think.

We still have more exciting stuff in the works. If you like the look of the new online manual let us know. It is part of our new ScreenSteps Live project. ScreenSteps Live is basically a hosted service for ScreenSteps lessons. It is currently in a private beta. If you would like to participate in the private beta drop us a line at info@screensteps.com.

After many late nights, at least a hundred unforeseen bugs (several of which were of the "pound your head on the table until you bleed variety") and absolutely no coffee (this is a joint project with BYU) Blue Mango Learning Systems is proud to officially announce the release of MediaNotes 1.1. Ahh..there is nothing like the feeling of shipping software. This represents the first commercial release of MediaNotes.

Many people ask me what MediaNotes does and, to be honest, I haven't been able to come up with a succinct way of stating what it does. But I think that I finally have it: "MediaNotes doesn't let you lie."

Why would people lie when reviewing video performances? Because in the past it has been too hard to tell the truth. It was easier to give vague, unspecific feedback. It was too hard to be precise.

Not anymore.

When you are analyzing a performance in MediaNotes the actual actions are right there in front of you. There is no opportunity to be vague. MediaNotes makes it easy and efficient to provide specific, detailed feedback. We spent a lot of time trying to make sure that the features you use in your everyday analysis would be simple and straightforward. We hope that is what we have achieved.

We would like to thank Larry Farmer and Gerald Williams at the Brigham Young University School of Law for all of their help in getting MediaNotes to this point (MediaNotes was developed through a joint partnership between BYU and Blue Mango Learning Systems). The concept of MediaNotes originated with them and Raymond Robinson at BYU. We have had a great collaborative relationship which has really improved the software.

A special thanks has to go out to Trevor DeVore of Blue Mango Learning Systems. He has spent countless hours making sure that MediaNotes was "right". This was a pretty ambitious project, especially releasing cross platform versions (for Windows XP/Vista and Mac OS X). But he bravely blazed new trails and I think that the resulting software is quite impressive.

Let us know what you think. You can download MediaNotes and register for a free 30-day trial at the MediaNotes website. You can also view some tutorials of how to use MediaNotes here.

At Blue Mango Learning Systems our primary focus is to make communication through media more efficient. With MediaNotes 1.1 we hope that we have taken a major step forward towards that goal.

Greg DeVore CEO Blue Mango Learning Systems