To celebrate the recent release of ScreenSteps Pro with Word Export we are running a special Twitter promotion today, Wednesday, June 24th (though if you use the coupon tomorrow it will probably work as well). Basically, follow us on Twitter and you will get a coupon good for 50% off! Here is how it works.

That’s about $40 off of ScreenSteps Pro and $20 off of ScreenSteps Standard!

If you aren’t following us on Twitter:

1. Follow us on Twitter.
2. We will direct message you a coupon good for 50% off ScreenSteps Standard or ScreenSteps Pro.

If you are following us on Twitter:

1. Just direct message us asking for the coupon.
2. We will send the coupon back to you via a direct message.

Yes, this is a blatant attempt to get more followers on Twitter, but it is also a great way to get ScreenSteps Standard or Pro at a great price.

You can compare versions of ScreenSteps Standard and Pro here.

Or, if you have no clue what ScreenSteps is, you can learn more here.

• Embedding of videos
• Export to Microsoft Word/Apple Pages (Pro only)

We have also added some nice updates for ScreenSteps Live users. Checkout the video below to get a quick overview of what is new.

This is a free upgrade to all 2.x users. As you may have heard, with this update the price of ScreenSteps Pro will increase by $20 to $79.95. We have extended the old price of $59.95 through Monday, June 22 so purchase a copy before then to save $20. The price of ScreenSteps Standard will stay the same at $39.95.

Download ScreenSteps 2.6

Purchase ScreenSteps Now

Embed Video From Other Sites

Now you can include video content from sites like YouTube, Viddler and Screencast.com. ScreenSteps 2.6 allows you to insert HTML embed code for step media. This embed code will be used instead of the step image whenever you export to HTML, Blogs, Wikis and ScreenSteps Live.

For PDF and Office Open XML you can specify a URL that will load when the step image is clicked on.

To embed video just right-click on a step or step image and select “Set Video Embed Code”.

Set Starting Sequence Number For Steps

The Sequence annotation tool is a really innovative way of quickly labeling parts of a step image. Now in ScreenSteps 2.6 you can specify the number that Sequence annotations will start on for a particular step. This allows you to span your sequences across multiple images.

You can set the starting number for a step’s Sequence annotations in the Sequence annotation property inspector.

Last Chance To Get Pro At Lower Price

Don’t forget that with the release of ScreenSteps 2.6 the price of ScreenSteps Pro will go up $20. If you have been thinking of purchasing or upgrading, now is the time to do so. See this post for more information.

Download the ScreenSteps 2.6 Preview

http://www.bluemangolearning.com/screensteps/downloads/preview/

With this 2.6 release, the price of ScreenSteps Pro is going to be increasing from $59.95 to $79.95.

Does that mean that existing users will have to pay for an upgrade? No! All 2.x updates to ScreenSteps have been free for registered 2.x customers and the good news is that 2.6 will continue the tradition. ScreenSteps 2.6 will still be a free upgrade to all ScreenSteps 2.x users.

So how does this affect you?

If you are already a ScreenSteps Pro user then it does not affect you at all. The upgrade will still be free.

If you are a ScreenSteps Standard user, the only thing that will change will be your upgrade price (it was previously $20, but will increase to $40).

If you haven’t purchased ScreenSteps Pro yet then you have through next Wednesday, June 17th to still get it at the current price of $59.95. After that the price will go up to $79.95.

So, If you have been thinking about either upgrading or purchasing, the time to act is now!

You can even download a preview of version 2.6 to test out the new Microsoft Word and Apple Pages export options here.

The new pricing will not take effect for at least one more week which means there is still time to buy a copy of ScreenSteps Pro for $59.95 or upgrade to ScreenSteps Pro for $20.

Purchase ScreenSteps 2 Pro

Upgrade from ScreenSteps Standard to ScreenSteps Pro

Getting Images into ScreenSteps: Windows

Contents include:

• Capture Palette
• Integrating with Windows Print Screen
• Integrating with Windows Alt-Print Screen
• Integrating with SnagIt
• Capturing still clips from QuickTime videos
• Importing Photos or other Image files

Getting Images into ScreenSteps: Mac

Contents include:

• Capture Palette
• Keyboard Shortcut
• Capturing still clips from QuickTime videos
• Integrating with Snapz Pro X
• Integrating with Skitch
• Integrating with OmniGraffle
• Importing Photos or other Image files

These screencasts came directly from content we have prepared and presented in our weekly webinars. To get some more great tips on using ScreenSteps be sure to register for one:

http://www.bluemangolearning.com/webinars

ScreenSteps Live Support Client uses the powerful ScreenSteps Live API to retrieve data from your account and is another example of how you can manage your content in ScreenSteps Live but use it just about anywhere. We also have plugins for WordPress and Zendesk that use the ScreenSteps Live API.

The application is available for Mac and Windows and you can download it here.

Watch the video below to get an idea of how this can speed up your support process.

The webinar is about 70 minutes long with a little over half of the time spent presenting and the reset spent answering questions from attendees. To watch the recording just visit the archive page.

Watch the video below so see an example:

You can get the code for the widget and instructions on how to configure the widget here: ScreenStep Live Zendesk Widget Example

Register for a webinar

You can download the ScreenSteps Jump start webinar here from Tuesday here:

ScreenSteps Jump Start 4/28/2009 (Windows Media 51MB)

So do we. That is why we are happy to announce the immediate availability of ScreenSteps 2.5 for Mac and Windows. This release comes after an extensive beta period and some fantastic feedback from our users. Thank you so much for your help.

So what does it include? ScreenSteps 2.5 offers a wide range of enhancements, including rich annotation capability and an improved ability to quickly assemble a number of lessons into complete manuals. Here is a quick summary:

• Text annotation tool (our #1 requested feature)
• Track lesson completion status
• Improved workflow for creating and exporting Manuals
• Relayer annotations
• Improved performance with large libraries
• Easier step reordering in lessons

All of these enhancements are going to dramatically improve your productivity with ScreenSteps. But this 2.5 release contains one important update that is going to change the way you do business.

When Blue Mango started in 2003 we believed that the current documentation, support and training systems in place were completely broken and decided that we were going to to fix it. No small task. We decided to throw out all preconceived notions, rebuild the process from scratch and remove all of the roadblocks that were present in the entire process, from content creation to distribution.

All our work revolved around one core belief about customer support - if it is easy to do well, it will get done well. If it is hard, it won’t. Our goal since 2003 has been to make every step of the process easy, so easy that you have no excuse for not doing it well.

The only way to make the entire process easy was to create a powerful desktop client for creating the content and an equally powerful hosted application for publishing, distributing and collaborating. And the two had to be integrated. We had to create a marriage between the desktop and the cloud.

The integration now available between ScreenSteps Desktop and ScreenSteps Live is the realization of that vision we had back in 2003. The entire process is now “easy”.

• You can create content in minutes.
• You can know quickly assemble that content into manuals.
• You can publish those manuals to ScreenSteps Live with a single click.
• You can add new lessons to your manuals at any time.
• You can collaborate among team members via ScreenSteps Live to divide up the lessons that need creating and updating.

You, as an organization no longer have an excuse for offering sub-par support to your customers or for not providing them with accurate, easy to follow customer tutorials and guides.

So, if you are already a user of ScreenSteps Desktop then download 2.5. No matter how you are using ScreenSteps it is going to make you much more productive. But, if you have not tried ScreenSteps Live yet, we invite you to sign up for a free trial. It will change the way you do business. Don’t believe us? Read some of the case studies of organizations that are already doing it. In every case they have seen near instant results.

Now, don’t get the idea that we are going to be resting on our laurels with this release. We are already hard at work on improvements to both ScreenSteps Desktop and ScreenSteps Live. The easier we make each step of the process the better you will be able to support your customers. The better you support your customers the more your business will grow.

The 2.5 update is a free update for all registered 2.x users. Here are the links you need:

• Download version 2.5
• Learn about the ScreenSteps Support Suite
• See all of the new feature in ScreenSteps 2.5
• Read case studies about how organizations are implementing the ScreenSteps Support Suite