5 Ways This Tool Is A Better Video Screen Capture

There must be a dozen or more handy utilities which let you capture your Mac’s screen. Not just screen snapshots, but videos with audio; videos of your live interaction with your Mac’s screen.

The latest has features that make it easy to capture screen video, including picture-in-picture, video editing, and the share it all via email, YouTube, Flickr, or FTP. The question is, “Why do you want to capture a Mac’s screen as a video?”

A Different Kind Of Screen Capture

Screen capture tools for Mac users fall into four basic categories. Screen snapshots. Screen videos. Easy to use. Very complex.

Voila’s latest version provides more functionality, more features, but in a unique, more usable package.

Still, there’s that nagging little question. Why do you need to capture a Mac’s screen as a video?

Screen captured snapshots of static areas on your Mac’s screen are easy. There are a dozen tools which do it, most free, including Grab, which comes with your Mac.

Video screen capturing is easy with the latest QuickTime, but the features are sparse. What Voila does is make video screen captures sensible, easy, with features that are purely self explanatory.

Why Capture A Screen In Video

The basic reason is simple. Screen capture videos make excellent instructional tools and presentation videos. In other words, select a window on your Mac, or any part of your Mac’s screen, or the whole screen, and begin recording both video and audio.

Voila captures both and saves it as a movie file on your Mac. You can edit the movie, drop in annotations, speech balloons, highlights, and more. Then upload the finished video or email it. Set up is easy. Check out the Preferences (click any image for a larger, pop up view).

Voila can be set up in the Dock or the Menubar. Capture can also have a countdown. Record the screen capture area as 100% down to 10% in MPEG-4 video. Export screen static snapshots as PNG, JPG, PDF, TIFF, or other file formats. Share through email, FTP or SFTP, Flickr, or YouTube accounts.

The real fun begins with the easiest of all video capture screens.

Voila’s screen is virtually self explanatory. Gone are the lists of cumbersome video formats and undecipherable settings. Instead, you get a simple toolbar at the top. And a tab section to the left for tools and file organization.

The large screen area is the section of your Mac’s screen which gets captured. Recent captured screens or videos line up at the bottom. The Collections area stores your Recent screen or videos.

Simply put, Voila will capture your Mac’s screen as you click about, while you speak, capturing both video and audio. Once captured, use the Tools and Effects tabs to edit your snapshot (screen or video).

Tools and Effects can be added in an non-destructive overlay to your screen capture (static or video). Pencil, Paint, Spray Paint, Shapes, Arrows, Speech Balloons, Erase, and Text. All appear as drag and move selections on top of the screen capture.

The Effects tab brings up Edges, Skew, Filters, Color Adjustments, and Cropping options.

Even the top toolbar is self explanatory. Select the Fullscreen to capture your Mac’s whole screen, or just a Selection, or a single Object (window), record a Website, or use your iSight camera (even as picture-in-picture).

Voila lets you snap and browse and save web pages. Multiple capture snaps different portions of the screen using a timer. If a picture is worth a thousand words, how much is a screen capture video worth as an instruction or presentation aid?

My Mac has half a dozen screen and video capture tools. Voila is the first one that makes the capture process simple and elegant.