If you are a budding screencaster, then there are a number of tools which can help you in your quest.

Some are free, some cost money, some are quite complicated to use, and some are simple.

Today, we’ll be looking at one of the best free and easy alternatives out there.

The Jing Project, TechSmith’s free-to-download, cross platform screen capture and screencasting tool, has just received some welcome upgrades that make it even easier for anyone to get started in the world of screen recording. 

Useful Functionality Added

I reviewed Jing when it first reared its head back in July, and since then the Techsmith team have added some useful functionality to this already useful tool.

If you haven’t encountered it before, Jing Project lets you make screen capture still images of your desktop (or anything on it), or movies of up to five minutes long of the same. 

This can be really useful if you are trying to show a friend how to do something on your computer, or need to get a point across quickly to a client without laboriously putting it into words and pulling out your hair.

New features Include

• A 3, 2, 1 countdown before you start recording your screencast, so you can get “psyched”
• Onscreen status of whether your mic is on or muted
• No more sign up for Screencast.com when you go to upload your video (this is now dealt with in the app setup)
• Rollover info on the items in your recording history
• Much better access to the HTML embed code, right out of the share menu (my favourite)

Beauty In Its Simplicity

As I’ve said before, this isn’t professional screencasting grade stuff – for that you want to take a look at the new Camtasia Studio 5, or upgrade to Final Cut Pro if you’re feeling wildly frivolous and have a lot of time on your hands. 

But Jing’s beauty is in its simplicity, and the ease with which anyone can make a screencast and share it over the web in a minute or so.

Originally written by Michael Pick, a professional screencaster, web video maker and blogger. Some Rights Reserved.

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