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ScreenSteps 2.8.7, documentation gets social
ScreenSteps, an app for creating screen-based documentation and a TUAW favorite, has just released a pretty big update and a brand-new social document service called ScreenSteps.me. The desktop update includes, among other improvements, a totally-rewritten screen capture tool that makes the documentation process quite a bit simpler. The coolest part of the new screen capture tool is the ability to remember snapshot positions. If you're repeatedly taking screenshots of the same window or the same section of a web page, you can grab the exact same part of your screen each time. This not only saves time, it gives your documentation more uniform images, improving clarity. Among the other new features is a blur tool in the image editor, perfect for obscuring email addresses and personal information in screenshots. Also, ScreenSteps has added Zendesk as a service with which it can directly interface (the list already included WordPress, MindTouch, Confluence and others). ScreenSteps.me, in beta right now, is a social document service, similar to Skitch.com or Jing, but for documentation. Send a lesson directly from the desktop application and get back a short url and/or styled or unstyled HTML, ready for pasting on the web. It's simple, and it's great for everything from sharing on Twitter to posting to Basecamp or HTML newsletters. You can sign up for the ScreenSteps.me beta right now for free, and you can download a 14-day trial of ScreenSteps Desktop at Blue Mango. A license for the desktop version (good for both Mac and Windows) is US$39.95 for standard, US$79.95 for the Pro version (version comparison). Academic pricing is available.
CSS motion magic with Sencha Animator preview
We've seen some cool tricks done with CSS3 in recent months. From iOS icons made in pure CSS to the OS X Dock animation that Sam mentioned this week, people are embracing the possibilities. It is, however, only a certain breed of developer that has the mindset and the patience to build these kinds of showcase pieces. For most of us, the idea of recreating even basic Flash feats -- such as splash screens and banner ads -- in CSS3 is a bit daunting. The future is looking bright, though: Sencha has announced a new tool to take the pain out of complex CSS3 animations. Sencha Animator is currently available as a Developer Preview running on the Mac, Windows or Linux. It's buggy as heck, but showcases an intelligent interface with timeline-based animations across all of the available properties. It's functional enough to really get into, but there's enough missing (or broken) to keep you wishing for the next update. Nonetheless, it's very exciting; the tech of the future isn't looking like a step backward anymore1. The app will come in two editions, Standard and Ad Builder. The current developer preview is of the Standard Edition, which apparently has all the bells and whistles, it just lacks the license to use it for ad creation. Interested ad agencies will have to contact Sencha directly to talk licensing. As far as pricing on the standard edition, Sencha says only that they're "pricing standard edition like a traditional design tool: on a per user basis in the low hundreds of dollars." You need a Sencha Forum membership to use the preview, but it's free to try after you activate your account. If you're curious about the tools that are going to shape the web of tomorrow, you can check out the demos and give it a try yourself. 1 I'm choosing not to use this post as a platform to debate the merits of Flash. The fact is that Flash makes it relatively simple to create rich content for platforms that support it, and at the moment HTML5/CSS3 lack the feature set and tools that Adobe/Macromedia have developed over the last decade. I'll leave it at that.
