Techsmith did it again with Jing Pro... sort of

(Reading time: 6 – 10 minutes)

Here’s an excellent snapshot of my emotional state right after I upgraded to Jing Pro. I thought about just not publishing this, because I end up chumping myself worse than Jing Pro, but there are a couple of valid points to consider:

Jing has several really non-standard user interface “features” which I am not sure benefit users. To be more specific, Jing has some important user interface innovations… and some gratuitous changes of no clear benefit to anyone (that is, me). I’ll save a specific suggestion for a future post, this is getting long enough already.
Whether I’m right or wrong, other people have had similar trouble figuring out Software from Techsmith, so it’s in Techsmith’s interest that such diatribes as the following don’t erupt. That is, whether I’m “right” or “wrong,” Techsmith would bear the brunt of having a publicly unhappy customer.

As it turns out, I do have future plans for that more or less glowing report. And I’ll put my endorsement for Jing Pro right here up front: If you make a lot of static screenshots or simple screencasts for blogging,

just go ahead and plunk down the $14.95/yr fee for Jing Pro.

I find absolutely indispensable for blogging, much better than MS Paint for example.

If you have any problems with Jing Pro, email me before you email Techsmith, I may be able to help you quickly.

I’m putting the following rant out there raw, stream of consciousness, with very little editing. Partly I don’t feel like taking the time to clean it up, partly, and the raw version gets you a better snapshot of my emotional state as I pounded through the process.

Ok, on to the rant…

Purchasing Jing Pro (rant)

I really, really wanted to write a glowing report on my experience with using the Pro version of Jing.

After really taking some time to figure out how to use the free version, I thought I had the skills I need.

But the Pro version is slightly different, in an important way, which I’ll get to later.

My technology chain for the current project has an .swf embedded in a sales page, which I really, really wanted to take live today.

But the Pro Version of Jing doesn’t save as .swf. When I tried to “Save As” .swf from the dialog box, there is no option for that. It saves as mp4. Which is run as Quicktime in my browsers. Which runs automatically and blasts my voice to the world at large… before the prospect even gets the chance at reading my headline.

That’s NDG at all.

So I’m now 30 minutes into a researching how to set a remote Quicktime client to NOT play automatically (it’s a user option so far as I know now), or converting the .mp4 file into a .swf file. The conversion is probably easy… provided I purchase the correct application… but which application is best? More research…

So, I’m absolutely astonished at this turn of events.

I’m going to take the sales page “live” without the screencast, I just don’t have anymore time. I resent that I spent a couple of hours yesterday rehearsing this with the promotional free version, to find that the Pro version requires me changing how I deliver the technology. Because I simply will NOT risk users getting an audio blast BEFORE they even read the headline.

I may consider using the free version instead. It has a link to Techsmith at the end of the screencast, which will adversely affect conversion, but not as much as getting blasted off the page.

And that’s my time budget for this project. I won’t have time to unscrew it until September 9 when I get back from Burning Man.

Folks, if you sell stuff, or even give stuff away that you want people to use, please adhere very tightly to The Principle of Least Astonishment.

More: Quicktime isn’t compatible with 64 bit Windows. Do a Google search on “Quicktime blacked out controls.” Quicktime Pro is 29.95, and gets a big 2.5 stars for rating.

More and more: I did find something that would convert from mp4 to swf. It’s ignoring the autoplay “false” directive. This particular piece of software reinvented standard user interface practice, too. More astonishment. It has a pro version. No thanks.

These are the same piece of software, advertised here: http://www.webdesignforums.net/photoshop_flash_and_other_graphics_8/convert_mp4_to_swf_24020.html to convert from .mp4 to .swf, but they don’t:

you can try these software applications to see if its something that you think may help you.

Xilisoft MP4 Converter 3.1
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime…onverter.shtml

ImTOO MP4 Video Converter 3.1.5.0430b
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multime…onverter.shtml

Yet another link took me to a malware site.

I have a newsletter announcement waiting to go out.

AVSStudio ran a System Modal on me… locked me out of writing this post. That almost produced a flash of rage… fortunately, I don’t suffer from that. But I could feel it. They also put a watermark banner in the output file… $49.95. Another 15 minutes wasted.

An enraged customer.

Nice.

I should probably just outsource all this. I know for a fact someone in Eastern Europe who does this kind of work pretty cheap. He doesn’t pay for any software. He just uses cracked versions. Keeps his overhead low.

I don’t have any problem paying for software.

I’ve paid for a colossal amount of software in fact, most of which I don’t use. Most of the software I actually use is free software.

Now, I’ve uninstalled, then reinstalled Jing, trying to get the free version back… but it gets me the Pro version again…

However, on the reinstall, I find the documentation stating file preferences are set such that the output format cannot be changed when you’re saving the screencast. This is very confusing because the user interface for the screencast implies choice. It’s a combo box. This is a serious WTF?

I understand “making things simple,” but displaying a combo box with a single choice – when the software is capable of other choices – is really dumb. That’s not simplifying the software. It’s astonishing the user.

Techsmith’s problem in my mind is now this: using their software is going to astonish me in ways I cannot anticipate. This means I’m going to have to budget open-ended time when I use Techsmith tools. Just like programming… without the feeling of accomplishment. And there isn’t anything they can really do about it now, because the emotional trigger is hard-wired into me. Because of my experiences, any time I run into difficulty, I’m going to feel imposed upon, confused and angry.

We have a saying back in the country: “Don’t fix what ain’t broke.”

This was a couple hours of my time. Let’s call it hours. That’s about $250 worth of consulting from my company. Figure my base rate at $50/hr, 100% overhead, ~20% profit (reasonable), comes out to about $125/hr.

If this seems high, go talk to someone that actually runs a technology company and pays people what their worth. If anything, it’s low.

If I didn’t really like their products… I wouldn’t be having such a reaction.

Now I have to re-record the screencast.

So much for the rant

Ok, rant over.

I felt embarrassed and frustrated when I realized that the file type chosen for saving is set in the global options interface, and not through the Save As dialog box.

I find this really annoying because it’s not how I would have coded the application myself. In fact, the last major desktop application I worked on had this same kind of system: One set of users got the ability to save to certain file types, other users to more extensive selection of file types. But we didn’t change the interface, the Save As dialog dealt with all of it transparently.

Thus my pique at what I felt should something extremely simple…

Someday, I need to make a list of all the software I have purchased. And emphasize that I am not using the vast majority of that software anymore. It’s a long list. And I want to be really clear that none of these little software engineering rants of mine mean I want everything for free. Far from it. Just want it to work.