http://www.grabandsend.com

WHAT'S IT DO?

Captures screen image, customizes the screenshot with the user's own comments, using text and arrow tools, then sends message and files to selected recipients using it's own mail handler.


DOES IT DO WHAT IT PROMISES?

Reviewer 1. The enthusiastic marketing material (the "Tour") on 3rd Eye Solution's Web-site certainly makes the program sound appealing and, indeed, the concept is a sound one. Within a single hot-key ready interface one can: a) capture a screen image or group of screen images, b) edit the image(s), c) add text comments and emphasis arrows directly on the image(s), and d) email one or all of them to anyone you wish, conveniently bundled in a Zip file attachment. Capture, edit, emphasize, and email…all in a single application session. Sounds good, useful and convenient; and, if not for an unfathomable series of poor software design decisions, it could have been all of these things. The reality, however, is that every individual "phase" or function of this software is marred by either a glaring lack of options or frustratingly poor implementation. Consumers are advised to ignore the tour and carefully read the FAQ page instead. This gives you a clearer picture of the software's many, many limitations.

Reviewer 2. Yes. It does grab screenshots and allows me to save them.

Reviewer 3. Yes, it grabs whatever is on the screen and sends it while giving the opportunity to do stuff in between.

Reviewer 4. Yes. It will allow you to capture screen elements and easily email them.

Reviewer 5. Yes, but constrained with respect to its available annotation and email capabilities.

Reviewer 6. Yes.


WAS IT EASY TO INSTALL?

Reviewer 1. It was that, yes. You'll need to have your email server name, login name, and password ready, as that's the first thing it asks for after it finishes installing. It had been so long since I had set all that up that I had to go to my Outlook settings to find that info, but otherwise, not a big issue. Needing this info was my first real surprise, though. I had originally assumed it would simply hook into my existing email software for it's "Send" functions. To be "hot-key ready," at all times, it will need to load to the systray at startup, and will do so by default. As such, note that it is something of a resource hog. As it sits in the system tray, it uses about 13.5 MB of system memory, more than any other process I typically have running at startup (Antivirus, firewall, printer\scanner\fax control program, and few others). Only "Explorer.exe" was higher.

Reviewer 2. Yes, I had no problems installing this program.

Reviewer 3. Somewhat. At the end of the install, a registration box pops up. During the installation process, my taskbar disappeared and it was difficult to get to my email program where the registration information was located. The taskbar flickered, but never stayed visible long enough to click on my email client icon.

Reviewer 4. Yes, although I did encounter some strange screen flashing in the full screen background that is opened during the install process.

Reviewer 5. Yes, installation was straightforward enough, but I found several potholes along the way to getting it linked to my email program and functioning. Asking for "SMTP Name" rather than amorphous "Mail Server" in Account 1 Properties cell would have helped.

Reviewer 6. Yes.


GOOD POINTS?

Reviewer 1. Few, in my opinion, but perhaps Grab and Send simply suffers in comparison to other, better, products. It does capture screen images (even full-screen Game Screens); it does provide for some (limited) modifications; and it does email the images, as advertised. It simply doesn't do many of these things as well as other screen-capture software packages do (i,e. PrintKey, Snagit, etc.). Grab and Send does offer one capability that many others do not: the ability to draw (lines and arrows) and put comments directly on the image (in a fashion similar to text-boxes, but these are integrated into the image itself upon conversion).

Reviewer 2. Fairly simple to use and allows comments and pointers to be edited into screenshots.

Reviewer 3. Grab and Send saves a step in saving a file, opening a new email, and attaching the file. It can add notes and arrows (pointers) to the image. The drawing options will make it stand out from other programs and it automatically zips the file(s).

Reviewer 4. Captures were fast. It was only a split second on my Pentium 4 machine before I could edit the pictures. Being able to ZIP the images from within the program is also a plus.

Reviewer 5. Good introduction script, although I wish I could have slowed its playing speed. Extensive, good user documentation. Encouraging ZIP'ed email screen attachments is a good idea and a big space saver. Updates are free, although no duration is mentioned.

Reviewer 6.  It was easy to add annotations to my screenshots and I liked the ability to ZIP the images before sending them.


WEAK POINTS?

Reviewer 1. Imagine, for instance, screen-capture software that enables capturing 1) whole screen, 2) Active window, and 3) provides a selection rectangle that lets you capture anything you see on the screen, without having to crop it afterwards…from the smallest toolbar icon to the largest game-screen explosion. Imagine that this screen-capture software then allowed you to copy the captured screen image to the clipboard, for quick, efficient pasting in other application documents. Imagine that it also granted you the ability to save the image as a stand-alone image file on your hard-drive, in multiple file formats, no less. Then, imagine how easy it would be to email that image file as an attachment or, in some cases, paste it right in the message body, all without sacrificing the efficiency and ease of use your email client provides. There are screen-capture programs that do all of this (and more), but Grab and Send isn't one of them. Of all the capabilities listed above, Grab and Send provides only three (and one of those is crippled). Capturing the Whole Screen and capturing the Active Window are covered, and you can save the image as a file on your hard-drive. Unfortunately, it saves only as a proprietary Grab and Send file-format, that only Grab and Send can use. If you want those images for pasting in other documents, you have to mail them to yourself. It's the only way to get them in a multi-app-friendly format (and in that function, only JPG is offered). As "image editing" is limited to Cropping (somewhat essential, when Whole-Screen and Active Window are your only options) and Moving, it's scarcely worth mentioning,. This is the likeliest reason for the proprietary "save-as" file format. It needs to exist as something the program can continue to work with (remain editable) prior to (and after) conversion to JPG. Ignoring the fact that this has been better implemented elsewhere (through the use of layers, for instance), even this capability is so devoid of options that it cannot surmount its many other shortcomings. Absent are the basic drawing options offered by so many other applications : circles, ellipses, rectangles, or even a variety of arrow heads and line styles. It creates one type of arrow and that one is so plain and childish in appearance, that I couldn't imagine using it very often. It's certainly nothing I would choose to use in a professional or educational presentation. Grab and Send does offer one capability that many others do not: the ability to draw (lines and arrows) and put comments directly on the image (in a fashion similar to text-boxes, but these are integrated into the image itself upon conversion). The email function is, by far, the worst in terms of poor software design choices. Presumably to avoid the (painstaking?) task of coding the software to work with the variety of email clients available, Grab and Send utilizes it's own database-driven email handler to send and "manage" the e-mail it produces. Unfortunately, this strips most of the convenience, and all of the "ease of use", right out of it. To understand why this software is bad, one need only consider how most email clients like Outlook or Eudora are good (what it is we like about them). Consider, for instance, how easy it is to compose new email, to reply to received email, to add attachments of all kinds, to add email addresses to, and use, our Address books and Contact lists. Now, strip away these convenient and efficient capabilities and you can easily understand why this software makes little sense to use. Address Book or Contacts List? You have to build that from scratch using Grab and Send database records that I found to be cumbersome and frequently irritating to use. Can you add additional file attachments? No, you can't. Can you use it to initiate a correspondence with someone (after all, for what reason am I sending these screenshots to people)? Initiate, yes, I suppose so, but that's all. I was so back-and-forth with Outlook anyway, looking up addresses to add to the database and so forth, I quickly realized it would have been easier and less time-consuming just to hit the PrtScn button and paste it into MS Paint, save, and send it with Outlook. In fairness, Grab and Send doesn't profess to be an email client and as such it's unreasonable to criticize it for these "email-capability omissions," but its inability to interact with any email client that has these capabilities is exactly why it's so very limited in it's real-world usefulness (and quite the opposite of "convenient").

Reviewer 2.. It can be a bit tricky to learn.

Reviewer 3. Sending a file straight out isn't much of a step to save. When cropping a large image that goes off the screen, it would not scroll down and I could not find an option to zoom out. The Help file was not found. Background color for the notes applies to the arrow and the text portion. What if I want them in two different colors? Icons aren't logical. The envelope is a standard for "send", but in this program it means Manage Outbox. The email page is confusing. I added an address in To, Subject, notes, and hit Send. Yet, it gives me "Address Not Defined" with another popup. It takes too many steps to send the image.

Reviewer 4. Only being able to capture a Full Screen shot or the Active Window limits this software. As someone who includes graphics in user documentation, I have used other capture software which will allow capturing the user-defined portions of the screen. This ability does not exist in Grab and Send unless the picture is cropped during the editing phase. This should be an upfront one-step process.

Reviewer 5. Very limited functionality in a separate private program space. The separate unique-to-this-program Address Book is a pain, as is its private Email Handler. Its inability to print the annotated screenshot is a nuisance, and a single hotkey set in Preferences for Active Window SnapshotX or Whole Screen Snaphot is an unnecessary limitation. Both should be available via different hotkey combinations. Text labels its intuitive 15 buttons, not just tool tips, would substantially improve usability and avoid instructions such as "Click the 'Send' button, the fifth button from the right side of the toolbar." Support only via email and only five days per week, without any response-time commitment, and for an undisclosed duration, should be a red flag for any but the casual user. Grab and Send is substantially overpriced at $29.99, probably $9.95 or maybe $14.95 would be appropriate, but certainly no more.

Reviewer 6.  I didn't like that I had to go into the properties to switch the only hotkey between full screen or active Window when capturing the screen, although the cropping ability meant it wasn't a huge problem. I also didn't like that Grab and Send could not read my contacts list from Outlook. The properties pages seemed unfinished, exemplified by having to go into the properties Window and then select the properties button to create an email "account".


OTHER COMMENTS.

Reviewer 1. The first thing one should do before downloading and/or ordering this screen-capture software (or any other) is to consider why you might need or want screen-capture software in the first place. To what use can these images be put, and why would you want to send them to people? There are reasons…but I'm hard-pressed to see where 3rd Eye solutions actually considered any of them when developing this product. Consider, for instance, some of the more typical reasons/uses for capturing (and sending) screen-shots that I or different members of my family have employed at one time or another:

1.Illustrating "how-to" documents and other instruction materials;

2. Capturing OS or application error-messages to send to support personnel (even if your "support person" is just your brother);

3. Capturing images from the Web that cannot be acquired through the "usual" methods (some might refer to that as "stealing," but it is a reason); and,

4. Gamers who occasionally like to capture screen images of their high scores, frame-rates (fps), or just a particularly interesting "head-shot."

There might be other reasons, big and small, petty and noble,.but at the very least, a good screen-capture program ought to make all of these things easier to do than they would otherwise be. Unfortunately, the main problem with Grab and Send, is that it doesn't really make anything easier to do. That it does screen-captures and emails them should have been a "bonus." But it is so poorly implemented it doesn't feel like a bonus at all. When combined with the unnecessary limitations it imposes on the functions it does do reasonably well, there's simply no compelling reason to use it over other products (or even, over the built-in abilities of most operating systems).

Reviewer 2. I didn't find a lot of use for this program myself, but it would probably be pretty useful for those with a real need to save screenshots from programs.

Reviewer 3.. It's a good idea that needs more fleshing out. It should be able to zoom in/out, print images, and save images as a file format (jpg, gif, tif, etc.). The price is high for what it currently offers.

Reviewer 4. I guess the overall concept of this software is a bit lost on me. Although I have often used screen capture software in my job and personal computer use, immediately emailing those screen grabs has never been a huge priority on me. Maintaining a totally separate email entity from my standard email client seems a bit too much for me to worry over.

Reviewer 5. Scrolling windows, e.g., "Help|About", should have standard Windows buttons. Two separate Send buttons/keystrokes to send a screen snapshot is poor design. The snapshot of Amazon.com screen hung computer once and I had to kill the Grab and Send program to recover.

Reviewer 6. The main interface was nice, but once you get beyond that, the interfaces seemed as if they were from a different program. I would have preferred Grab and Send to integrate into my email program. Having its own set of sent folders and contacts meant that I had to keep two email apps cleaned up.


WILL YOU CONTINUE USING IT?

Reviewer 1. Not a chance.

Reviewer 2. Probably not, as it doesn't serve a purpose that I have a need for.

Reviewer 3. No.

Reviewer 4.. No.

Reviewer 5. No. It's too lightweight vis-à-vis Snag-It, my screen-capture program of choice, which has much greater functionality for only a $10 greater price.

Reviewer 6.  Yes.

Grab and Send's producers reply in part: "The review was SPOT ON!!! THANK YOU. We liked it a lot and sure it will give us a boost to improve the product. We are carefully looking at the comments and updating the software. Whatever you guys have written is fine by us."

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