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Why to Use Jing?

 In our line of work a picture is often worth a thousand words.  You may have been referred to this page because we need you to create an image to help us understand something.  If you already have your own favorite way to take screenshots and movies of your browser, thats fine, you can use that.  If not, we recommend trying Jing. It is our current favorite way to quickly share visual information but we have no affiliation with them and if something better comes along we'll switch.

How to Use Jing

Jing, a project of TechSmith, has the concept of "the program that is always ready to capture and share images and videos from your computer to anywhere else in an instant."

This is a quick guide focusing on the sorts of tasks you might need to communicate on tickets. If you want to learn more there is extensive documentation on the Jing site.

Getting Started

1. To make use of Jing, download a copy from http://www.jingproject.com/, install, and run on your desktop. The PC client requires the Microsoft.net 3.0 framework. The Jing installer downloads it for you during the installation if you still don't have it. Once you have installed Jing, you are ready to start using this program.
   

   
   

2. If you run Jing for the first time, you will be asked to set it up by creating a Screencast.com account. Enter a valid email address, display name, and password for your Screencast.com account. If you already have an account with Screencast.com, simply click Log in.
3. Know that when Jing is already running, you will notice the Jing launcher, a yellow ball located at the top center of your screen.

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Capturing  and sharing images

1. To begin capturing images, move your cursor or hover over the Jing launcher to display the fly-out menu and click Capture.
   
2. Drag your cursor or mouse to select the area you want to capture.
   

   

3. As soon as you are done setting the area to capture, a toolbar appears. Click Image.
4. Upon clicking Image, a window appears showing the image you have just captured. Notice the toolbar at the left side of the window. Use this to edit your image.
   

   
   

5. You may add arrows, texts, frames, and highlights to your captured image. The tool color lets you choose the color of your arrows, texts, frames, and highlights. To draw an arrow anywhere in the image, click ; to add texts, click ; to add frames, click ; to highlight a part of the image, click . Click  to select the color of your arrow, texts, frames, or highlights. Use   to undo or redo your last action.
6. You may specify a filename for the image. Otherwise, the default filename, which is the date and time of capture, will be considered.
7. When you are done adding annotations to your image, specify if you want to save the file to your local directory or upload the image to Flickr or to Screencast.com. You may also share the image via FTP. Select File if you want to save the image to you local directory; FTP, if you want to share via FTP, in which case you will be asked to indicate the FTP Settings; Flickr, if you want to upload the image to Flickr; or Screencast.com, if you want to upload to your Screencast.com account.
8. As soon as you have specified where to share or upload your image, click Share. A message will flash notifying you that the image is being uploaded.
9. As soon as the image has been saved or uploaded, another message flashes to notify you that the image has been uploaded and that you may paste the URL into an instant messenger, email, blog, or anywhere you want to communicate visually so others can click and view your image.

 

Capturing and sharing videos

1. To begin capturing videos, move your cursor or hover over the Jing launcher to display the fly-out menu and click Capture.
2. Drag your cursor or mouse to select the area you want to capture.
   

   

3. As soon as you are done setting the area to capture, a toolbar appears. Click Video to start recording.
4. Note that during the recording, another toolbar allows you to pause, stop, or cancel recording. Elapsed time is also shown. However, unlike the images, captures videos may not be edited.
   

   

5. You may specify a filename for the video. Otherwise, the default filename, which is the date and time of capture, will be considered.
6. When you are done with your recording, specify if you want to save it to your local directory or upload the video to Screencast.com or share via FTP. Select File if you want to save the video to you local directory; FTP, if you want to share via FTP, in which case you will be asked to indicate the FTP Settings; or Screencast.com, if you want to upload to your Screencast.com account.
7. As soon as you have specified where to share or upload your video, click Share. A message will flash notifying you that the video is being uploaded.
8. As soon as the video has been saved or uploaded, another message flashes to notify you that the video has been uploaded and that you may paste the URL into an instant messenger, email, blog, or anywhere you want to communicate visually so others can click and view your image.

 

History/Viewing your captures

1. To view all captured images and videos, hover over the Jing launcher to display the fly-out menu and click History. This opens the History window displaying all captured images and videos.
   

   

2. To view only your captured images, click Images; to view only your captured videos, click Videos; otherwise, click Both to view all captures.
3. Hover over the image or video thumbnails to view details such as name of the File, Kind, whether image or video, Size, Date, which also includes the time the image or video was captured, Dimension, and Location, indicating whether the image or video is saved in your local directory (File) or uploaded in Screencast.com.
4. Click on a thumbnail to enable the Share, Embed, and Delete buttons.
5. Note that you may always refer to the Jing History to locate your captured images and videos and share them with others through instant messaging, emails, blogs, etc.

Settings

1. For other features and settings, hover over the Jing launcher to display the fly-out menu and click More. This opens another menu where you may send feedback, set up sharing preferences, find help, or simply exit from the application.
2. Click Preferences to set up sharing. This opens setup preferences display for Screencast.com, Flickr, FTP, and File.

Screencast.com

1. To set up sharing for Screencast.com, click Screencast.com. This opens the pop-up to log into Screencast.com. Enter your email address and password and click Log In. If you don't have a Screencst.com account yet, click Create new account. Logging on to Screencast.com will enable you to automatically upload images and videos to your account upon capturing and clicking Share.
2. Closing the Screencast.com pop-up will open the Screencast.com Account Settings. If you wish to stay "logged in" to your Screencast.com account, click Stay logged in. Otherwise, click Log out, if you want to log out from your account. Note, however, that if you are not logged into your Screencast.com account, upon capturing and uploading images and videos to Screencast.com, you will be asked to log on to your Screencast.com account.

Flickr

1. To indicate preferences for Flickr Settings, click Flickr. This opens Flickr Settings pop-up which displays your user name, the set to which you want your images and videos to be classified in, and your sharing preferences, whether you want to share images and videos to only yourself, to your family, friends, or to anyone.
2. In the Add to set field, specify the group or set to which you want your images to be classified. This is optional, however. You may leave this blank.
3. Indicate also in the Share With field whether you want to share images to Only You (or yourself), with Your Friends, with Your Family, or with Anyone. Click OK to confirm preferences or Cancel to abort.
4. Note that you must authorize Jing to uploade images and videos to your Flickr account. Otherwise, Jing will not be able to upload to Flickr.
5. To authorize Jing to link to your Flickr account, click Authorize from the pop-up. This opens Flickr Authorization pop-up stating that Jing requires authorization before it can upload to Flickr. Click Start Authorization to continue. Otherwise, click Cancel to abort authorization.
6. Upon clicking Start Authorization, you will be brought to the Yahoo log in page where will be asked to enter your Yahoo user name and password. If you do not have a Flickr account yet, you will be asked to create an account here. Also, you will also be asked if you wish to merge your Yahoo account with Flickr or not.
7. As soon as you have created your Flickr account, you may now link Jing to your Flickr account by granting authorization. Click Ok, I'll allow it. Otherwise, you may cancel authorization and go back to Jing.
8. By authorizing the link to your Flickr account, you allow Jing to access your, to edit your images, to upload to your Flickr account via Jing, and to delete images via Jing.
9. As soon as you click Ok, I'll allow it, you will be further notified that you have successfully authorized Jing. You may however, revoke authorization in your account.
10. If you wish to edit authorization, from the Flickr Settings pop-up, click Change Authorization. This brings you back to your Flickr account where you may change authorization settings.

FTP

1. To indicate FTP sharing preferences, click FTP. This opens the FTP Settings pop-up.
2. Specify FTP Server Details such as Server, Port, Directory, User name, and Password. Also specify in the Sharing Templates section the Share link, Image embed code, and Video embed code.
3. Click OK to confirm or Cancel to abort.

File or Local Directory

1. To specify settings for sharing or saving to your local folder or directory, click File. This opens the File Settings pop-up.
2. In the Select File Destination section, indicate in the Target Directory where you prefer to save all images and videos. This means the folder in your local directory. for example, D:\data\users\jingfiles.
3. In the Sharing Templates section, specify the Share link. For example, D:\data\users\jingfiles\[filename]. This is the link that will be pasted to people when you share images and videos.
4. Specify also the Image embed code, if any, and the Video embed code.
5. Click OK to confirm or Cancel to abort.

Other icons

1. To find help, click the "question mark" icon.
2. Click the check icon when you are done with your settings.
3. Click the "power" button to exit from Jing.

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