We are thrilled to announce the availability of the public beta of ScreenSteps 2.7. We think that you are going to be able to find some very creative uses for ScreenSteps with this new release.

The Biggies

Copy lesson to clipboard is the feature I am personally most excited about. I have been using this feature over the last couple of weeks and being able to insert pictures and text into an email is truly fantastic. It is great for sending a quick how-to to a client (or family member) or for submitting bug reports.

So far we have tested this feature with Microsoft Outlook and Apple Mail and everything seems to work great. Entourage users – we are sorry but it doesn’t look like it is going to work out for you. We don’t know what Entourage does with rich content that is pasted in but it certainly isn’t what you would expect.

Drop shadows on annotations is a close second as far as favorite features. Annotations really stand out with the new drop shadows. We think that you will agree that everything looks much better.

Smart selections make working with annotations so much easier. You no longer have to switch tools to reposition annotations. Just click on the annotation and move it.

The Tags palette makes tagging your lessons a snap. Just select Window > Tag Palette. You can now drag tags onto any lesson in your library or in your manual.

Replacing content is also very exciting for our WordPress, TypePad, Movable Type, MindTouch and Confluence users.

1. Post a lesson to your blog or wiki
2. In the blog/wiki editor, add content before or after your lesson.
3. Change your lesson in ScreenSteps Desktop and repost.

Your lesson content is replaced but all other content is left alone.

Other Improvements

• You should notice that ScreenSteps is a bit faster. We have added a lot of optimizations to improve launch time and other functions.
• We have expanded the search options to allow you to sort lessons by status and also find all of your draft lessons.
• Markdown has been added as a template style.
• ScreenSteps Live users can now attach files to lessons they upload right after they post the lesson to ScreenSteps Live.

Download The Public Beta

You can download the public beta here: Download 2.7 Public Beta

You may also want to register for our WordPress and ScreenSteps webinar next Tuesday. We will be showing off some of the new 2.7 features during that webinar.

Register for Webinar

Here is another video previewing some of the features coming to ScreenSteps 2.7. We are getting very close to having a public beta available but we still wanted to show you some of the new stuff.

This preview is all about annotations. We will be highlighting two new features that may seem small but that will have a big impact on your day to day use with ScreenSteps: drop shadows and annotations.

Drop Shadows

In 2.7 you will be able to add drop shadows to any of your annotations. Drop shadows not only look nice, but they make the annotations “hover” above your screen captures or images. This makes it much clearer what part of the image is your annotation and what is the original image.

Smart Selections

Smart selections are one of those subtle changes that make a world of difference. In previous version of ScreenSteps, working with different types of annotations could be a little cumbersome. To reposition different types of annotations you needed to use the Select tool, or choose the annotation tool that matched the annotation you wanted to reposition.

Not anymore. In ScreenSteps 2.7 you easily select, reposition and resize any annotation, regardless of the tool you have selected. We think that you will really love this improvement.

The Sale Just Got a Little Staler

Today (Wednesday, November 25th) the ScreenSteps discount went down to 30% off. If you haven’t purchased ScreenSteps yet be sure to take advantage of the offer today (30% off is still a great deal). Just use the coupon code THANKS. Be sure to do it today though. Tomorrow the discount will drop to 20%. You can order ScreenSteps here