Jing Example
September 28th, 2007 by Greg R Notess
Earlier this year, Techsmith (makers of Camtasia Studio) released the free (although beta) Jing Project. This screencasting software works on Macs as well as Windows and comes with hosting at Screencast.com. Jing has few of the fancy features (or even much editing capability) when compared to Camtasia, Captivate, or even the free Wink. But it is relatively easy to use, free, and it works on a Mac.
One complaint I’ve had with Jing is that once I install it, by default it stays loaded all the time. You see a small half yellow circle at the top of the screen and an icon in the system tray. You can change those settings, but assuming that anyone trying the software always wants to have Jing loaded seems a bit presumptuous. And it is annoying that you have to guess what the icons mean (no text is displayed). It is fun how it moves and grows as you mouse over it, but text would make it easier!
I’d be meaning to spend more time with Jing, so I’ve finally created a quick screencast comparing the same search at various search engines. While I miss the editing controls in Camtasia and the variety of publishing options, Jing does have one strength missing from Camtasia, Captivate, and Wink. With the hosting at screencast.com, it makes it easy to embed a screencast in a blog post. Just share the screencast from Jing (which uploads it to screencast.com) and then log in to your account at screencast.com and click “share” (again with the word-less icon) to get the URL, link code, embed code, and an option to send email invitations to view it.
So here it is, embedded in this blog, assuming it plays well with WordPress. Note that I tried to make sure I had enough text to move it down below the right navigation page content. It automatically keeps the screencast at the recorded resolution (much easier to read than the YouTube and other video sharing sites). Usually, there is a nicer image on the first screen. I’m not sure what caused the problem on this one, but it shows the problem with not being able to edit it. If, due to bandwidth limits, nothing is displayed below, try the backup.)
Some times when I edited and then viewed this, the right navigation content got pushed down to the bottom of the page. It seems that in WordPress, when I edit the message after pasting the embed code in code view, the code gets messed up. It seems that I just need to re-paste the code that screencast.com gives as my last step in editing this post.
Since everytime I edit this post, I have to re-paste the embed code, I’ll just leave a comment to update it. I’ve embedded the same screencast over at post at SearchEngineShowdown.com. That blog runs on Movable Type, and except for the screencast being too large to fit between the columns, Movable Type at least accepts the embed coding far more readily than WordPress does.
I used to have the same embedding problem on Blogger, and it was the final /embed tag that kept disappearing. You might want to compare the code–adding a simple /embed (or whatever it turns out to be) is certainly easier than copying the full section over, and over.
Thanks for the review–I’ve been waiting for something for Macs. Time to play!