Rate my startup: The easiest way to reply with step-by-step screenshots
storyteller.freshlog.com
storyteller.freshlog.com
After that, I find the easy publishing, commenting, and one click round trip annotation features of Skitch to be extremely compelling: http://skitch.com/
For the part that comes after taking the screenshot, Skitch offers a particularly slick workflow without the separate Preview app.
Since both your app and Skitch allow one click capturing with a history of captures, perhaps you could emphasize the storytelling aspect of your approach. Maybe they own the mindshare for annotated image discussions, but you own the category of screenshot sequences.
Ideas: Eliminate subsequent capture button clicks until clicking Done. Drag to select and snap, use a key to switch between marquee rectangle and gui control? Show frames as a filmstrip while capturing. Flow the other commenting and annotation steps.
PS. It's a different situation, but just yesterday I had to crop a dozen very high resolution JPEGs into 3 or 4 separate images each, and was disappointed that Preview couldn't just mark all the crops I wanted at once. Maybe yours could allow multiple rectangles at once, then "screenshot" them all at once.
Yup, continuously taking multiple screenshots without having to click the 'Capture' button, can be achieved by a global shortcut key (I've set it to Cmd+Alt+s for my current build).
I like the idea of floating previously capture screenshots like a filmstrip while capturing, I'm considering using a semi-transparent HUD for that, thoughts?
I'll be keeping Storyteller simple and easy to use, so I won't be implementing simultaneous image crops anytime soon .
Good thoughts! :)
I like "Show them exactly what you mean".
"Easily reply customers with step-by-step screenshots"
but would I be boxing myself in, because I think it's good for regular sharing between friends, family and co-workers too?
http://storyteller.freshlog.com/instructions/d290-How_to_ena...
Your friends might find this useful :)
Yeah I use Storyteller myself quite a bit to document user interface flows myself too :)
After you click the 'Capture' button, you can press spacebar to capture your entire browser window with a single click.
Is this what you were looking for?
Interested in being on one of the episodes?
I put up the first episode and am pivoting based on the feedback I got from the HN community: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1379942
If you are interested, email me: marc {at} ideatin {dot} com
The same applies to anyone else doing anything productive, that would like to do the same.
http://alvinlai.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/storyteller-i...
The creation workflow looks really good. Pretty much everything you need without any excess features that nobody would actually use.
The presentation piece looks like it's still under construction. I'd expect to see a powerpoint-style slideshow instead of a simple HTML dump of the whole thing.
I also liked the irony of presenting the workflow for your screenshot workflow tool as a video!
Good suggestion for powerpoint-style slideshow transitions, it might help with focusing on one user interface screenshot at a time to better simulate it.
I might implement this down the road with Javascript.
Haha, a screencast video would pique your interest more than static images, wouldn't you agree? Yes irony :)
It wasn't obvious from the video that the desktop client does anything which can't be done in a browser window.
It could be pretty compelling since you can drag and drop media onto the browser window, mark it up, and be right on the results/sharing page without having to mentally context switch from your app to the browser window.
You are right that it's possible to drag and drop media into a web browser and mark things up, but a web based implementation would miss out a ton of key benefits a native app can provide, in terms of uninterrupted flow and time savings.
Here's a workflow using Storyteller:
1. Take multiple, consecutive screenshots (faster, with a shortcut key) 2. Immediately view your screenshots for annotation/re-arrangement/description 3. Click 'Create Story' 4. Get URL of new story (copied to your clipboard automatically), ready to paste anywhere
With it, you'll be able to skip mundane steps like:
- Locating where/which screenshot files to work with - Juggling between local files to open for annotation (unnecessary decisions get painful after lots of repetition) - Opening a browser window (Storyteller pops up when you need it) - Locating the files to upload - Waiting for the story to finish creating and copying the URL manually - Closing the browser window/tab
I personally like the speed and general smoothness of a native app too.
I have been uploading step-by-step screenshots quite a bit to reply my customers for a previous product of mine called Freshlog, a tool that helps create screenshot-attached documents in project management services like Basecamp and issue trackers like Unfuddle, Github etc (http://freshlog.com).
My customers have found my step-by-step screenshot walkthroughs very helpful and it has always been a pleasure to go the extra mile to make these for them.
However, after doing this many, many times a day, it can get very time consuming and tiring, so I made Storyteller. :)
What if the Windows version was what it needs to take off?
Edit: I am currently using a PC and I would have automatically downloaded it (And you know how hard that is, but your video sold me). My first thought was "I will install this as soon as I get home".
Can I have a show of hands for Windows users wanting this? :)
After that, I'll send out invites in manageable batches :)
1. Reliability
I want to use the stories generated and hosted by Storyteller for FAQ, customer support, prototyping and storyboarding purposes, which would remain on a company's website for a long while, requiring a good level of reliability.
I'm hosting the images off Amazon S3 so huge traffic spikes for one member's image wouldn't affect other people's stuff.
2. No fuss
I made Storyteller to be a no-fuss and easy solution, so users wouldn't have to bother with FTP, HTML, Dreamweaver or a web interface, hence I intend this to be a pay as you go service, for minimal configuration fuss.
Unless of course the user explicitly deletes unwanted stories.
Since I'll be paying the bill for S3, and actively maintaining the service for good level of reliability, that's my plan for billing.
- Open sourcing
I'm not sure about open sourcing everything but I do intend to open source parts of the project, because I agree with 37signals that when you make something, you can't just make one thing :)
I know a lot of people that would use something like this for a knowledgebase app for their companies, but would run it on their corporate intranet and wouldn't want to have to go to the outside world to fetch data (or, for that matter, have screenshots of their internal applications floating around on the internet).
Perhaps this could be an enterprise version, an internally-hosted service, or some other pricing model (e.g. purchase a corporate license for a higher price, free upgrades for life).
Once a corporate user makes the purchase, that's a lump sum in your pocket, and since they're using their internal systems to manage everything (rather than using your S3 account), there's little further cost to you (other than support, which should be minimal).
What this gets you is larger one-time income (until the next paid upgrade), but lower costs. There would be no real change to your workflow, other than that you'd occasionally get big cheques from people you'd never hear from again.
Right now, I want to focus my efforts to create a great product for folks like myself, who would enjoy and benefit from easy and no-fuss storytelling with screenshots.
I might consider an enterprise version down the road, but creating a great product to scratch my own itch and help others like me comes first.
"Let's use Storyteller to teach you how to use Storyteller"
If you have 1 minute to spare, watch this earlier screencast I made:
The new user interface has changed quite a bit though :)
I created Storyteller to scratch my own itch.
I wanted a quick, no-fuss way to send step-by-step screenshots to customers and co-workers without having to waste time or bother with complicated application-switching, picture-annotation and uploading steps.
I just needed to send step-by-step screenshots to other people and wouldn't need all the features in Adobe's 10 pound gorilla :)
You recognized my Singaporean accent eh? :D