Ten Top Tips for Super Snappy Snapping
After the launch of LittleSnapper last week, we've had plenty of feedback on how to improve the application and a few questions on how certain features work. Now that you've all hopefully had a chance to play with LittleSnapper, I thought I'd share ten tips to improve your LittleSnapper workflow.
1. Drag and Drop in
If you're browsing the internet, and want to add an image to your library you can simply drag and drop an image from your browser to the LittleSnapper dock icon and the image will be added to your library ready for you to work with.
2. Drag and Drop out
You don't need to use the File menu's Export option to quickly get your snaps into Mail or Finder. When you're in icon view, you can simply drag and drop the image (or images) directly from the icon view to your chosen destination. If you're working in Edit view, simply hold down the Option key, and drag from the Edit view to your chosen application. By default, LittleSnapper will apply any annotations you've applied: however you can choose to always export the original without annotations by changing the Dragging out images will include annotations option in LittleSnapper's General Preferences.
3. Copy snaps to clipboard
If you're browsing in icon view and want to copy a snap to the clipboard, you can simply Copy the image (via the Edit menu and all the usual shortcuts) to paste anywhere in OS X.
4. Return to rename
Just like the Finder, if you ever want to rename a snap but don't have the inspector open, you can hit Return on your keyboard. The Inspector will open with the snap title ready to rename.
5. Straight to Editing
A few people have asked if LittleSnapper can be set up to open in Edit mode after taking a snap (just as certain other apps do). The answer is, of course, yes! Fire up the LittleSnapper preferences, and head over to the General tab and change the settings for "After Snapping". Simply ensure you've checked the "Show LittleSnapper" option too, and you're all set.
6. Fill in the spaces
When you're drawing shapes in Edit mode, you can choose just to have the shape outlined, or fill the shape. To change between the two, simply select the shape(s) you can to fill, and then go to the Layers > Style menu and selecting either Stroke or Fill.
7. The Slider
When using the annotation tools, you can use the slider on the action bar to modify each tool. When shapes are selected, the slider adjusts the stroke width. On blur, it adjusts the blur intensity, and when using the Highlight tool, you can adjust the opacity of the overlay. One thing you may not have discovered, however, is that when using the text tool the slider actually adjusts the opacity of the text background. Dragging the slider to the far left removes the text background entirely.
8. Multi-line text
If you want to force a new line for text annotations, simply hold down Option when pressing Return and keep on typing.
9. Callouts
If there's not enough space for your annotations near the item you're commenting on, the text callouts will come in handy. They let you place numbered badges around the snap, and on the relevant text annotation, so that you can place them in a more spacious area.
10. Crop
LittleSnapper 1.0 does, in fact, ship with cropping. Simply open the image you want to crop in the Edit view, and choose the Layers > Crop option. Then click and drag to select the crop area. As with all the Annotation tools, the Crop is non-destructive and can be changed at any time by going back to the Layers menu.
If you're wanting to see any of the features in LittleSnapper in action, we've prepared a dozen short clips that show many of them off. They can be found on the Features page.
About the Author: Nik is the PR Ninja here at Realmac Software, spending his time telling the world about RapidWeaver.
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