ScreenSteps is a great application from Blue Mango Learning Systems that makes creating, annotating and publishing instructions or task based documentation a breeze. Now although ScreenCasts are a brilliant way to get across complex information, sometimes there's no substitute for step by step instruction manuals with clear screenshots and good, consise instructions. The problem with creating "printed" documentation is that it can be difficult to assemble and can go out of date very easily requiring Herculean effort to update. And as for trying to keep on top of changes to videos - forget it!

Screensteps is cross platform application for both the Mac and Windows, which allows you to create libraries of "lessons", each lesson being a step by step process covering whatever tasks you want to document. Available in both a free version and a pay for version, the application has comprehensive tools built right in for screen capture and image annotation to easily and quickly build up step based documentation. Once you've created your lessons, ScreenSteps also has some powerful export functions that allow you export your lessons in either customised PDF or HTML format (in the pay for version) or even directly to a hosted ScreenSteps Live web service (included in the free version as well as the paid for version).

As well as exporting individual lessons, ScreenSteps allows you to organise your lessons into topics and sections, allowing you to create individual PDF files or HTML output containing an entire Library of lessons complete with a table of contents and easy navigation. The PDF version collates all your lessons into a multi page PDF whilst the HTML output provides all the code you need to upload to your website for online documentation.

If you're not sure about uploading HTML files to your website (or if you don't have a website) be sure to check out Part 2 of this ScreenSteps show where I'll be taking a look at ScreenSteps Live, a free service to host your ScreenSteps lessons. ScreenSteps Free and ScreenSteps Live are tightly integrated and it's really easy to export your lessons directly and automatically to ScreenSteps Live from within ScreenSteps.

As well as the free options, there are Standard and Pro versions of ScreenSteps which allow you to export locally to PDF and HTML so once you've tried the package, you can upgrade to get the full features. There's a ScreenCastsOnline discount code available for both the Standard and Pro versions of ScreenSteps giving you a massive 25% discount off the normal online price. The discount code is:

SCO25

and is valid up until the 1st May 2008 - NB, ScreenCastsOnline will also get some commission for every copy sold via this special promotion!

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Tags: Windows, documentation, Writing, tags, instructions

Not one but two top applications featured in this weeks show! This weeks episode is sponsored by Houdah Software and I cover both HoudahSpot and HoudahGeo.

HoudahSpot is no stranger to regular ScreenCastsOnline viewers as we covered it back in March 2007. Since then, HoudahSpot has been completely re-written to take advantage of some of the new technologies in OS X Leopard. HoudahSpot is really what Spotlight should have been and even with the improvements to Spotlight in Leopard, HoudaSpot enables you to take search on the Mac to the next level. It doesn't replace the underlying Spotlight engine, it justs gives you a much more flexible yet powerful "front end" to your Spotlight data. Add in Templates, the new BlitzSearch Menubar icon, integration with Launchbar and much more, HoudahSpot is a great addition to your Mac.

HoudahGeo is one of those applications you need to see to fully understand its capabilities! That's why we have ScreenCastsOnline! It's an application that allows you to easily "geotag" your photos with location data without needing access to a specialised GPS device or expensive GPS enable camera. HoudaGeo lets you simply add in location data visually using either a simple Map option or using its built in integration with Google Earth. But if you have got a GPS tracker, it can use that as well!

As well as allowing you to "Geotag" your photos, HoudahGeo also allows you to share you photos with its built in uploading integration with Google Earth and Flickr. Once Geotagged, just a click of a button and your photos will be uploaded and placed in the correct position on global maps with Google Earth or Flickr - it's really that easy!

Once you've exported to Google Earth, the show will demonstrate how you can create a virtual slideshow in Google Earth, flying from loction to location and displaying your photos at each location! Not only that, but you can email the slideshow to friends or family and they can watch it in Google Earth on their own computer (without needing a copy of HoudahGeo) - how cool is that!

As mentioned in the show, there's a special discount on both HoudahSpot and HoudaGeo for ScreenCastsOnline viewers and is 20% off the usual retail price for all versions and licences (except for the already discounted student versions). This 20% discount is good until the 31st March 2008.

Just use the coupon code SCO0138 when ordering your copy of either HoudaSpot or HoudahGeo. Please note that that is SC (the letter O) then zero 138.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Tags: Photo Management, File Utilities, Flickr

Busy, busy week! Apple finally released Leopard 10.5.2 and in a flash, put right a lot of the issues and complaints people were having with the User Interface. So this week I take a look at some of the changes in the new update and the best way to install it.

Also, I've been holding off doing a show on Spaces, the virtual desktop management system in Leopard, as I must admit, I did find it a little buggy! Hopefully 10.5.2 has fixed that so the second part of the show is all about Spaces. In this section I cover:

• Spaces Concepts
• Setting Up Spaces
• Moving Between Spaces
• Visualising Spaces

This weeks show is the first that contains an Extra! section just for ScreenCastsOnline Extra! members. In this additional section I cover:

• Moving Apps & Objects Between Spaces
• Organising Spaces by Task

Some major changes to the show format this week in that I've introduced a brand new theme and and transition clips. The new theme was commissioned from Geoff Smith, podcast theme maker extraordinaire! To celebrate, I spent some time putting together a new opening sequence, a new chapter marker and a new ending. All in motion graphics. I hope you like them!

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Tags: Leopard, Spaces

It's been a while since I first found PDFPen, a great utility for editing PDFs. With the introduction of Version 3, however, the application now has some amazing features allowing you to edit the embedded images and text in the PDF itself!

Add in the ability to create and insert text, images, signatures and scribbles into a PDF and even create your own libraries of often used material, no longer do you have to spend hundreds of dollars on Adobe Acrobat!

This show is sponsored by Smile On My Mac, the publishers of PDFPen and covers:

• Introduction to PDFPen
• Manipulating PDF pages
• Working with Text
• Editing original PDF text
• Working with Columns
• Copying Text
• Searching for Text, Notes and Comments
• Working with Images
• Editing original PDF images
• Adding your own Images
• Filling in PDF Forms
• Adding Your Signature
• Making Transparent Images
• Applescript Support

On top of all that, this weeks show also contains a special ScreenCastsOnline discount code to save 20% off the usual price of PDFPen - The code is SCOPDFPEN - This code has been extended to 5th March 2008

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Tags: Utilities, PDF, Editing

Another Members show this week and it's part 2 of the iCal tutorial. In this weeks episode, I look at some of the more advanced capabilities of iCal that make it such a powerful planning and sharing tool. In addition, I also take a look at some third party tools that enable you to extend the capabilities of iCal and also integrate and syncronise with Google Calendar.

The show covers:

• Time Zone Support
• Sharing Calendars including
• Exporting
• Publishing
• Subscribing
• Syncronising Calendars including
• .Mac Sync
• iPhone Sync
• Third Party Integration
• BusySync for sharing iCal calendars
• Spanning Sync for integration with Google Calendar

Don't forget that the members version of the show has embedded chapters so you can go straight to the section that you want or easily skip sections.

LInks mentioned in this weeks show:

ScreenCastsOnline Forums
The MacBites Podcast
BusySync - See update below
Spanning Sync
UK Affiliate Link for .Mac

Update 31/12/07 - In case you were not aware, BusySync has just been upgraded to sync across the WAN (ie via Macs connected across the Internet not just the local LAN). The press release can be found here. If you're interested in learning how to configure the new WAN features, see this section of the user's guide.

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

I've been holding off doing a show on iCal for a while now, but I'm glad I did. Leopard and the iPhone has brought a new lease of life to iCal, the calendar application included with Mac OS X.

Under the hood, there's a ton of cool and really useful features that now make iCal a credible and reliable tool to help you plan, organise and share your busy schedule.

In fact, there's so much stuff to cram in, I've had to split the show into two parts! In this first part, I cover:

• iCal User Interface Basics
• Creating and Managing Calendars
• Calendar Groups
• Creating and Editing Events
• Setting up Mail for iCal invitations
• Using Invitations to Setup Meetings
• Mail Integration
• Using Data Detectors in Mail
• Setting up To Dos via Mail

Part 2 will be along shortly looking at some of the more advanced features of iCal.

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

This weeks' show is the last Leopard related screencast for a couple of weeks, and it's all about a couple of the most controversial aspects of Leopard, and that's the Leopard Desktop and Stacks.

These two areas seem to have been the most contentious, what with the missing rounded corners, the translucent menu bar and the perception of the 3D dock as being just eye candy! Not to mention the dubious visual metaphor of Stacks using the foremost icon in the dock - very confusing!

Well in this weeks' show, we'll examine all these features and look at some resolutions using some free third party applications. So this weeks show covers:

• New Menu Bar
• Recreating Rounded Corners
• Turning off the Translucency
• Configuring New Screensavers
• Customising the 3D Dock
• Stacks Overview
• Fixing Stacks Visuals
• Creating a Recent Items Stack

As promised, here are the links to the various utilities used in this weeks show:

OpaqueMenuBar
Displaperture
Leopard Docks
Stack Overlay Icons
mac OSX Hints

This weeks show is an Extra Members show and is available in Apple TV HD format (1280x720), Enhanced Desktop ED Format (960x540) and iPhone/iPod resolution (640x360). For full details on how easy it is to become an Extra! member and get this show along with the next six months worth of weekly shows PLUS access to over 120+ Mac based tutorials, just follow this link.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Struggling with finding the optimum email solution to use with your iPhone? Do you have multiple email accounts that you'd like to process in a single universal inbox? Would you like to have all your email synchronised and available from any device and from any location?

If so this weeks show may be for you.

It's my personal journey from traditional POP based email clients through web based solutions to finally a scheme that gives me the flexibility and control to access all my email from anywhere. It's all about IMAP and harnessing the power of IMAP using .Mac Mail to give you the best of all worlds when accessing your mail. But IMAP is just part of the solution. You need to have a way of channelling all your mail into a single inbox.

Even if you're not an iPhone user, the recently expanded .Mac service gives you some huge benefits over more traditional POP or web based solutions.

This week show covers:

• Introduction to POP email
• Introduction to Web based email
• Utilising GMail Mail Fetcher
• Introduction to .Mac Mail
• Configuring POP, GMAIL and .Mac
• Creating a single universal Inbox

Update - As of today (24th October 2007 - a couple of weeks following this shows publication) Google are slowly introducing IMAP support into gmail accounts. This removes the need to forward GMail into .Mac for the IMAP capabilities of .Mac. Of course, if you still want the advanced facilities of .Mac under Leopard. This solution is still valid.

If you're an Extra! member and would like to download the presentations as mentioned in this weeks show, you can download them from this page.

As mentioned in the show, I'd really appreciate it if you could complete the ScreenCastsOnline survey form at:

ScreenCastsOnline Survey

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Time to take control of your messy folders and do a bit of Housekeeping! This weeks show features a great utility for managing your files, folders, trash and un-installs. All in one easy to use, yet exceptionally powerful package.

This week's show is sponsored by NoodleSoft and features their recently upgraded application - Hazel.

Hazel is a utility that resides in your preference pane (and optionally your Menu bar) and constantly monitors the folders that you instruct it to. By applying rules, you can make Hazel move, sort, colour, re-arrange, file... well pretty much anything with your files and folders. The really cool thing is it does it all automatically once you've created your rules.

For example, simply create a a rule for Hazel to monitor your desktop and automatically move completed downloads from your desktop to a sorted folder structure. Hazel does it for you automatically.

Add in some neat features to manage your Trash effectively and finish off with App Sweep to help you cleanly un-install applications.

App Sweep is built into Hazel and cleans your mac by sweeping up the miscellaneous files that a standard uninstall leaves behind, and you've got a pretty fully featured package that makes keeping your mac in tip top shape a pleasure.

Also this week, we have a special ScreenCastsOnline Discount code to get 10% off the usual price of Hazel. Just use the code:

SCO2007

when making a purchase from the online store.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Some significant updates have been released to applications I've previously covered on ScreenCastsOnline. Mix in a new website design on the ScreenCastsOnline website plus installing and configuring a cool Rapidweaver template to provide automated site maps and you have the basis of a pretty packed show this week! I'm pretty jazzed about the new website design so I thought I'd share it with you as I know the majority of ScreenCastsOnline viewers get all the shows via iTunes.

Objective Development have released a new version of one of my favourite Mac apps and that's Objective Development (actually 4.3.1 came out just after finishing recording). LaunchBar is much more than an application launcher as it enables you to search, switch and launch and gives you compete control over your mac with just a few simple keystrokes. LaunchBar has introduced some additional features in this release that extend its power considerably and without getting too much into the QuickSilver vs LaunchBar debate :-) I've found that LaunchBar is a killer app for the mac!

Yes, I know we only did the introduction of Rapidweaver 3.6 a short few weeks ago, but RealMac Software have just released RapidWeaver 3.6.2 which further extend the usefulness and ease of use of what already is an amazing product! A quick run through and demo of the new features in included in this week's show.

One of the new features I introduced with the new ScreenCastsOnline site is the introduction of some SiteMap pages. SiteMaps are great for allowing users to see the entire contents of your website on a single page and easily find and navigate to content. SiteMaps are also incredibly useful in ensuring that your SEO or "Search Engine Optimisation" is in good health. Google and other search engines use sitemaps to fully crawl through your website and ensure all your content is indexed and searchable. Rather than attempt to do this by hand, I stumbled on SiteMap by LogHound. This is an inexpensive RapidWeaver plugin that does it all for you with minimal configuration. It's also useful for finding pages that still have the default RapidWeaver settings. In this weeks show, I take you through an expalination on how to configure the product and demonstrate the results!

This week is also the start of the revised scheme for Extra! members in that there will now be an Extra! members show every two weeks instead of one a month, and this is the first such show. If you're not an Extra! member, you'll only get the first 5 minutes or so of this weeks show but as a consolation, it will be in HD. Back to a full free show next week but if you'd like to get all the shows in future plus get immediate access to a library over 100+ screencasts, just follow this link to get full details and instructions to sign up.


Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

As Mac users, we're faced with a tremendous choice in the various browsers available to us! If you're like me, it's really hard to stick to one so we're constantly switching between browsers or trying new ones as they get updated.

Wouldn't it be great if you could manage all your browser bookmarks centrally and them have all browsers use the same set of bookmarks seamlessly!

If you've a number of macs, how about being able to syncronise not only between browsers on the same machine, but between multiple browsers plus your desktop and laptop?

And what about the iPhone? Sure iTunes will sync your Safari bookmarks but what if you're a Firefox or Camino user on your desktop machine?

Well this weeks show will provide you with the solution to all these problems with a single piece of software and that's Bookit from EveryDay Software. Bookit is a low cost application that allows you to do all these things.

The show explains in detail:

• Installation
• Initial Configuration
• Bookmark Syncing on a Single Mac
• Bookmark Syncing between Multiple Macs using .Mac
• Other Bookit Features

Also this week is a special Extra! members section only available in the Extra! members versions of the show. This special section covers a free utility designed to provide fully PC compatible zip files using drag and drop. Also included is a really neat way of configuring the Finder to accomodate drag and drop applications in a very cool way!

The special session is only available to Extra! members, full details on how to become an Extra! member and access the special versions of the shows including HD and Apple TV versions (1280x720) can be found on this page - ScreenCastsOnline Extra! Membership Special Offer

Membership also gives you access to over 100+ previous ScreenCastsOnline shows - over 24 hours of premium content!

Links for shows and information contained in this week's show:

SpeedDownload
1Passwd

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Back to basics this week and hopefully it'll relieve the pressure off the credit card for our US based friends who may have maxed out buying the iPhone!

This week I cover one of the most misunderstood, under appreciated and under utilised functions with OS X and that's OSX Services.

OSX Services are like mini utilities that help you manipulate, format and transfer text into all sorts of applications. I'll be looking atService Scrubber which is a donationware application which allows you to enable and disable services, restructure your services menu and assign keystrokes to service actions.

Also, I take a look at some of the more useful services and touch on how to use the TextExpander service. It's possible to download and install services and I take a look at WordService and TinyUrl , both extremely useful OSX services.

Finally, I take a look at configuring QuickSilver to access your OS X Services directly instead of via the menu.

All in all, a pretty packed (and hopefully informative) show!

This week's show is an Extra! members only show so subscribers to the free feed will only get a sampler of the full show. To get more information on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member, visit the Become a Member page.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Take control of your email inbox with this great free Mail plugin!

This week's screencast covers one of the utilities I use everyday to help me keep my email organised and at least feel as though I'm in control.

It's a simple mail plugin that allows you to create special rules which you can then assign to simple keystrokes. The rules can be as simple or as complex as you'd like allowing you to easily colour code your email, move email messages to folders or basically anything you can do with a standard email rule but under your control. The screencast even shows you how you can assign multiple rules to a single keystroke and build in a level of intelligence in how the messages are handled based on the content.

Mail Act-On Link

This weeks show is for Extra! members only but you can see a trailer for the show from the ScreenCastsOnline website.

Discussions: Forum

Extra members get access to full versions of the show in AppleTV (HD), ED and iPod resolutions.
The free show (or trailer) is at a much lower resolution.
Click here for more details on becoming a ScreenCastsOnline Extra! member

---

Yes, the 100th show!

Thanks for all the support and good wishes from everyone which has made reaching this milestone possible!

This week is a double episode covering two very distinctly different product areas.

Elgato turbo.264 Video Encoder - The first is the new hardware based H.264 video encoder from Elgato. This innocuous and inexpensive piece of kit plugs into a spare USB 2 port on your Mac and turbocharges your H.264 video encoding with amazing results. If you do any amount of video encoding for your iPod or Apple TV you must watch this screencast!

You'll be amazed at how cheaply you can double, treble or even quadruple your video encoding speed, even on an older Mac!

Product Link

OmniPlan - The second part of the screencast is all about the Project Management application OnmniPlan from Omni Group. I don't usually cover business based applications in ScreenCastsOnline, so this is a bit of an experiment. If you like it, let me know and I'll cover some more business applications.

OmniPlan is another of those Omni Group applications that just works and make planning on the Mac a pleasure!

The screencast covers the basic UI and functions of OmniPlan and leads you through making a simple project plan. I also cover some of the exporting features on OmniPlan.

As mentioned in the screencast, you can get a 10% discount of the usual price of OmniPlan by using the coupon code SCREENCASTPLAN when buying via the online store (valid up to 15th July 2007.

Product Link

As mentioned in the show, as a celebration of the 100th episode, I'm releasing both the Hi Definition version (1280x720) and the Enhanced Definition (960x540) for freedownload together with a time limited offer of a discounted Extra! membership offer. Please follow this link to download the HD shows and check out the details of the discounted membership offer.

Discussions: Forum

---

Tags: OmniGroup, Project Management

An application to allow you to organise your digital life this week! One of the most respected award winning Mac software packages is featured in this weeks sponsored edition of ScreenCastsOnline.

NoteBook 2.1 from Circus Ponies Software Inc. is a well established, powerful information manager that allows you collect, organise and search all those little bits of information that we all tend to pick up when using our Macs. Using a unique paper notebook style interface, NoteBook gives you the power and flexibility to organise and arrange your notes, clippings, photos and other digital snippets and then annotate them with keywords, highlighters and even voice annotation. As well as the great organisational functions of NoteBook, it's really easy to find anything instantly using NoteBooks patented indexing system.

Sharing your information is a cinch, with the ability to publish your notebooks as fully functional websites via .Mac or any other Internet Hosting Provider.

This screencast takes you step by step through all the major features of NoteBook 2.1 and shows you just why this application is one of the premier Mac applications.

Discussions: Forum

---

Welcome to the first show of 2007! This week I cover something I never thought I would. Being a Launchbar user I never really felt the need to use Quicksilver as it seemed pretty alien to me and besides, Launchbar is great. It was only when I delved deeper into Quicksilver that I realised just how powerful it could be - and not only that, it's free!

So this week is an introduction in installing, configuring and basic usage of QuickSilver - the application launcher (and much more) from Blacktree Inc.

As it's also the first show of the month, this is an Extra! members only show, so you'll need to be an Extra! member to view the full version in high resolution. More details on the Extra! membership here.

Discussions: Forum

---

This weeks show is for Extra! members only, and covers a unique application which is really a series of free Applescripts that help you implement David Allens "Getting Things Done" (GTD) productivity methodology. What's unique about this implementation is that these scripts are fully integrated with OmniOutliner Pro, iCal and QuickSilver and together make a seamless and powerful organisational tool.

The scripts were developed by Ethan Schoonover and he has released them as the Kinkless GTD package or KGTD which are available for free download from his site.

David Allens GTD system is a well established productivity methodology, and I'd really recommend getting a hold of the GTD book to understand some of the basic principles. There are some pretty powerful and effective techniques in there for getting hold of all the stuff we normally juggle in our heads which stress us out, and depositing that stuff into a tried and trusted system where we can more effectively process the required actions to get things running smoothly.

I did mention I'd put a link to the GTD book and I've had a few emails reminding me so here you go:


NB Affiliate Link :-)

---