Thread: Ashampoo Magical Snap 2

Capturing a screenshot is easy enough with the Windows default screen capturing tool but the options available are pretty limited. You need an advanced capturing tool with all the goodness of a powerful screen capturing utility that is also easy to use, and Ashampoo Magical Snap 2 fits the bill rather nicely.

Once installed, a thin orange bar will be visible on the upper part of the screen. When you hover the mouse over the bar, you will be presented with the tools available to start your capture. Different capturing modes are available like snapping the whole contents of a window or web-site (even those that are not visible in the window), capturing only a block of area from a particular window, selecting a rectangular area to capture, a freeform selector, and a fixed-region snapping tool.

Once you start the capturing process, the toolbar present in the upper screen will provide extra options for processing your snapshot. It comes with a variety of tools for managing your screenshot - undo/redo button, zoom tool, rotating option, etc. It also provides options to create a mirror of your screenshot and also flip the capture upside down. You can then choose to add extra effects on the fly while editing the screenshot drop shadows and shape effects, such as a stylish "torn paper edge" effect, and the ability to capture the mouse pointer, also with a shadow and special effects.

On the left side of the monitor screen will be the Mouse Tools bar where several editing tools are located. Using these tools, most of the editing work can be done by just using the mouse.

It has a selection tool, eraser for removing a particular part of the screenshot, different shape tools, marker and pencil tool for drawing on the snap-shot, text tool for adding text, snippets to your screenshot, etc. It also has a Spotlight and. Highlight Area options for adding spotlight and highlight effects to the captured area.

The tools for saving and sharing your screens hots are available on the tool bar at the right side of the monitor screen. You can save it in a default location or specify an output folder for every capture that you take. You can also store the snapshot in different formats - BMP, PNG, JPG, and even in PDF format. If you just want to copy the capture into the clipboard, it is provided for in the toolbar.

If you want to send the screens hot directly through email, there is also an option for that. The availability to print out the captured image directly is another good feature that Ashampoo Magical Snap comes with.

The bar at the bottom of the screen allows you to fill a variety of colors to your snapshot with just a few mouse clicks. Other notable features include the support for multimonitor capturing, a host of hotkeys for instant screen capture, and interactive guides that show you how to access the various features available.