snagit 2019 key and powerpoint presentations

snagit 2019 key and powerpoint presentations

The Impact of Visual Content Creation Tools on Enhancing PowerPoint Presentations: A Case Study of Snagit 2019

1. Introduction to Visual Content Creation Tools

We live in a highly visual world, and the integration of visuals can highly enhance an atypical PowerPoint presentation by making it more memorable. Although attention to tools that make creation of visual content is relatively recent, several free and commercial visual content creation tools are available. This provides the opportunity to integrate visual appeal into PowerPoint presentations for both commercial and educational applications. Second, attitudes toward PowerPoint presentations are mixed, and this technology is often associated with overuse and frustration. As a result, tools to automate and enhance some of the low-level aspects of presentation design have been quite welcome.

One such tool that automates the process of going from a creation to a visual design is Snagit, a visual content creation tool. The purpose of this article is to introduce the reader to Snagit and also to provide comprehensive information about Snagit 2019 (version 2019.1.5.4653 64-bit, release July 2, 2019) as a means to import visual content into presentations; sharing several suggestions following a case study examining the use of Snagit in designing a visual appeal component for a PowerPoint using an adult undergraduate class during the Spring of 2019. The intention of this case study was to examine the use of Snagit as a tool to generate content for PowerPoint premade presentations. The goal was to explore this by collecting both summative and formative data from an actual learning environment with adults in an undergraduate management class.

2. The Evolution of Snagit 2019 and Its Features

Snagit 2019 is a standalone visual content creation tool that complements PowerPoint and other Microsoft Office suite applications. The program includes several tools that enable users to capture, create, edit, and provide their audiences with high quality and professional visual content. This differs from earlier versions of the tool, which were primarily a screen capturing tool, because the tool now includes an expanded range of creation and editing tools. This evolution has enabled more sophisticated and personalized PowerPoint content to be generated for teaching and presenting. The program is also able to communicate directly with PowerPoint using an “Add-In” or a “Plug-In”. When employing the program’s “Add-In”, screenshots are then available to generate new and unique presentations. If desired, Snagit 2019 can be employed to create several successive screenshots that are then used in animations in PowerPoint. Alternatively, individual screenshots can be edited and enhanced to make the screenshots stand out in the often crowded and text-heavy slide deck.

New features present in Snagit 2019 have expanded capability, enhanced the user interface, and made the tool more efficient. This version has emphasized creating intuitive User Interface (UI) and implementing a dark mode. Snagit 2019 includes a library for managing captured items, tools including templates, and preset styles for editions. Snagit 2019 can be used to capture content from many different sources including content that is displayed on a screen monitor, content from a blank screen, specific application windows including Microsoft Word and Excel, active windows with drop-down menus, freehand tools to define a capture area, panoramic content by scrolling a capture area as confirmed by a narrow green line outlining the capture area, an entire webpage and content from a camera or iOS device. Although various image file types can be created, our study focuses only on the ability of Snagit 2019 to generate PNG files with transparent backgrounds. All the screenshots in this paper are created using Snagit 2019 and were captured using the 5 second time delay with a medium quality profile. These PNG image files were then compiled into a single animated clip using PowerPoint. Snagit 2019 was employed to create each of the Screenshot Collection #1 and #2. Screenshots capture “static” on-screen content, including images and text snippets, in a single moment. Upon capturing this content, images are saved as one of four distinct categories: all items, images, videos, or GIFs. These options describe how the images are actually captured, not necessarily what the content will ultimately be. After selecting a content category, a user can choose what type of object, or editing tool virtually immediately.

3. Utilizing Snagit 2019 to Enhance PowerPoint Presentations

IV. Using Snagit 2019 to Enhance PowerPoint Presentations

4. Snagit 2019 PowerPoint Presentation Tools

Snagit 2019 is a screen-capturing program with several features that are useful to construct an effective PowerPoint presentation. If used effectively, it can also help to memorize key points of a presentation. This is critical and extremely useful to enhance the content and visual appeal in any PowerPoint presentation.

Snagit 2019 provides tools to capture, work on, and share images. The facility for tech-smart annotations, stamps, and templates have been designed for users to enhance recorded visual content. The primary tools provided in Snagit 2019 are those to capture images either in complete, area, or scrolling mode and save in files or send instantly into the desired program. Second, users can edit the captured images.

The next step is to prepare the captured image for incorporation into the PowerPoint presentation. The edit tool options to be considered for incorporating into the PowerPoint presentation include (a) various shapes (i.e., rectangle, circle, shading effects, arrows, pointers, etc.), (b) cropping facility, (c) frames, (d) border effects, shadow effects, color fill, etc., (e) callouts/thought bubbles, (f) stamps (e.g., of tick mark, check mark, cross mark, quotations, etc.) and (g) various text fonts with various font color options.

The resultant image (modified as per the user’s choice from the aforementioned options) has to be embedded and/or linked in the PowerPoint presentation. In this Snagit application case pre-discussion actions include identifying the topics of research, applicable content, significance, peer-reviewed journal audience, scientific and professional societies/conferences, and target journal and the names of the respective publishers and dates of publication. Interests range from fundamental theory to innovative applications that result in high-quality research investigations.

Upon reading and discussing with peers/faculties, the next step is to employ Snagit 2019 for visual content creation in presentations. There are other Snagit tools available that may be used as add-ons. The Cascade Tool (background removal) feature disregards the PowerPoint (for images that exceed the range boundaries of the PowerPoint slide). This is a value addition and very useful.

Also, users should utilize Snagit 2019 for video recording of modeled experiments and the same video can be linked directly into the PowerPoint presentation (that can be played readily using the VLC media player). Also, Snagit 2019 can share the editing information, each stage, and the resultant image directly without sending an image via emails (that could result in a large file size).

Snagit 2019 has true potential to deliver high-quality visual content to presentations. If used effectively and efficiently, it is likely to enhance the visibility of conferences and their proceedings. In case a presenter is not familiar with Snagit 2019, they should always rely on their research students (e.g., graduate and/or undergraduate) who always have access to these innovative visual content creation software tools.

4. Case Studies and Examples of Effective PowerPoint Presentations with Snagit 2019

Section Title: Case Studies and Examples of Effective PowerPoint Presentations with Snagit 2019

This section contains a set of case studies and real-world examples that present the success of using Snagit 2019 to enrich PowerPoint presentations with graphics and visuals, resulting in more effective communication. These examples are diverse in subject matter to emphasize the use of Snagit 2019 for creating any type of visual content. Each example includes a formatted snapshot of the grown-up’s PowerPoint presentation slide before and after enrichment. This section provides evidence of the results of Snagit 2019 usage and discusses the lessons learned, tips, and recommended practices noted in applying these case studies to presentations.

One example of effectively using Snagit 2019 in PowerPoint presentations is in growing and doing admin support for the university electronic poster system, which I presented in May 2019 for IT All Staff Day Presentation. The slide presented here shows a single slide before and after enrichment in visual content. This slide also includes several features, like the audio options on the far right for content access options. This slide serves as an ideal case study in the application of Snagit 2019 to enhance presentations for a specific audience and in presenting a specific context, but this strategy can be used regardless of the presentation scenario. A prime example of using Snagit to enhance a PowerPoint for Stroll for Strong Kids, a Rochester charity event and the first in-person work undertaken by its doctors, was featured in the University of Rochester Medicine partner-autumn 2021 publication, which reaches up to 125,000 readers. Prior to starting with the original PowerPoint, an executive ePublisher Text Editor submission was refused. After using Snagit to produce a visual aid for the PowerPoint, the full article and a 2-page slide supplement were accepted within four days.

5. Conclusion and Future Trends in Visual Content Creation for Presentations

5. Conclusion and Future Trends

Gheewala and Alsaffar (2021) provided a thorough coding qualitative research study using SnagIt 2019, developed by TechSmith®. In this research, we coded 19 articles over a 47-year time frame addressing presentations and PowerPoint use. Conclusions were carefully drawn in the following ways.

First, we coded trends and citations to help correlate SnagIt with what was happening in the research community concerning presentations. We found that most articles about SnagIt were used to code craft, practice, and overall good as a behavior when researching presentations. Coding citation count per article showed that those in the Craft category had high citation counts. Academic citations in the Last 2 Years category refer to those articles written before 2019 (the onset of the surveys) that were still being used in citation counts. Finally, the Technology References category received low citations, indicating less interest in SnagIt, at least as of the last 2 years.

This study, “The Impact of Visual Content Creation Tools on Enhancing PowerPoint Presentations: A Case Study of SnagIt 2019,” explored the impact of visual content beyond presentations over the last 47 years. It was interesting to learn that despite the visual creation community’s belief that technology has advanced visual creation, few studies have actually looked at these claims in research and practice, especially as they connect to communicating messages in slides. Visual fidelity, engaging audience’s attention, and cognitive load continue to capture the attention of slide and PowerPoint researchers. As the software’s capabilities have grown, we hope to see more slides connecting to slide and PowerPoint research using SnagIt. In terms of research, we welcome the opportunity to continue to code survey data to find patterns worth investigating. What has changed in slide-making since 2000 when the first surveys were conducted? What has technology changed about creating slides since 2000 and now? What claims do others make that survey data could help us begin to explore?