Voila is not just a Screen Capturing and Editing tool that also lets you share your work, but an application that allows you to neatly organize your images and videos. That’s what the rule-based Smart Collections and Collections are for. Using these you can organize related images and videos, allowing you to easily access your files when you need them and know where to find them.

As you glean through the Voila interface, you will find a few Smart Collections created by default. A Collection will appear as soon as one is created.

Click to Enlarge

Smart Collections:

As mentioned earlier, Smart Collections are rule-based folders. That is, you can assign specific rules for the kind of images or videos you want to be placed there. Thus, any file that satisfies either one or all the rules of a specific Smart Collection is automatically placed there. This is a great feature that lets you organize your files without you having to specifically drag and drop the files there. This lets you smartly organize related tasks and helps you focus more on your work. To create a rule-based smart collection, hit the Add symbol at the bottom of the app and select Create New Smart Collection. Now you can assign more than one rule to the kind of files you want placed there.

For example, I wanted to create a folder containing all the screenshots I have created for say, a UI re-work. We followed a particular naming convention, assigned the rules and created a Smart Collection. This was when we were planning the re-vamp of the Camera Plus Pro UI. We received a couple of screenshots from our designers and were required to provide our comments. Using Voila it was much easier to put in our comments using the Annotations and organizing them in a single folder. All the files satisfying the rules assigned, would automatically be placed in this folder, making it easier to track the screenshots too.

Creating a rule-based Smart Collection/Collection:

Click to Enlarge

Assigning the rules in case of a Smart Collection:

Click to Enlarge

Information Panel showing the contents that satisfy the rules of the Smart Collection:

Click to Enlarge

Of course, there is another way to organize your screenshots or screen-casts. You can create a Collection. The steps to create a Collection are similar to the Smart Collections, but without the rules. This means you must manually move the files that you wish to place in this folder.

I’m sure you’ll find more uses with this feature. Explore it further and do let us know how you make use of it.

Voila is a comprehensive Screen Capturing app that lets you capture still shots and videos of your desktop. Not just that, you can also edit and annotate your still shots with Callouts, Text, Filters, Arrows and more to make them more meaningful. The built-in organizer lets you manage your files smartly and also lets you share your work instantly via YouTube, Flickr, FTP, SFTP and Mail.

And you even have a better reason to try Voila. Celebrating the 1st Anniversary of the release of Voila v3 we have slashed the price of Voila by almost 17%! That’s right! You can grab your copy of Voila from our Global Delight Store, or the Mac App Store at just $24.99 for a limited period. Hurry!

You’re reading the 5th post in our series, Voila Tips 101: a list that will cover features in Voila, both known and lesser known, that can help you in your work and lets you enjoy all the features of the app. Read the entire list here.

-Vaishnavi

Voila, Voila Tips 101 Mac Screen Capture tool, mac screencasts, smart collection, Voila

Capturing a web page in its entirety is one of the special features of Voila. Sure we have provided you with options to capture a web page from your favorite browsers such as Safari, Firefox and Chrome, but with Voila we went a step ahead and provided an additional option, that is, the ability to capture a web page from the Voila browser.

To capture a web page from the Voila browser, you must choose the Web capture mode and select either the Snap from Voila Browser or Open current URL in Voila option. Choosing the latter option will open the current URL from the active browser in the Voila browser. Selecting the first option launches the Voila browser, after which you can enter the URL of the web page you want to capture.

You must be wondering why you would need a built-in browser for the purpose of capturing a web page. Apart from functioning as a normal browser and letting you capture the entire web page, the Voila browser also lets you perform two very interesting and useful functions.

Snap Scrolling Region: A very useful feature that lets you select and capture an area on the web page. Most of the time you would only want to capture the relevant portion of a web page, such as an article on the latest OS X update, a movie review or any thing interesting. With this feature you can select only that portion of the article, thus getting a neat capture without the unwanted information such as the ads running on that site or anything irrelevant.

Snap DOM elements: Another feature is the ability to capture DOM elements. Using the Snap DOM elements function, you can quickly and easily capture the multiple DOM elements of a web page.

Click to Enlarge

Although in both the functions only a portion of the web page is captured, all the important metadata such as page URL, description, tags, etc. is retained in the info panel. Thus you can always re-visit the web page or refer the source.

I’m sure you’ll find more uses with this feature. Explore it further and do let us know how you make use of it.

Voila is a comprehensive Screen Capturing app that lets you capture still shots and videos of your desktop. Not just that, you can also edit and annotate your still shots with Callouts, Text, Filters, Arrows and more to make them more meaningful. The built-in organizer lets you manage your files smartly and also lets you share your work instantly via YouTube, Flickr, FTP, SFTP and Mail.

And you even have a better reason to try Voila. Celebrating the 1st Anniversary of the release of Voila v3 we have slashed the price of Voila by almost 33%! That’s right! You can grab your copy of Voila from our Global Delight Store, or the Mac App Store at just $19.99 for a limited period. Hurry!

You’re reading the 4th post in our series, Voila Tips 101: a list that will cover features in Voila, both known and lesser known, that can help you in your work and lets you enjoy all the features of the app. Read the entire list here.

-Vaishnavi

Voila Tips 101 DOM, Mac Screen Capture, scroll capture, Voila

When we first thought about a screen capturing tool, there were a few keywords that came to our minds - simple, easy, quick, flexible, etc. This is what you would generally look for in any productivity tool. Thus in an application that lets you work with so many images, supporting export in various formats is quite a handy option.

Which is why, in Voila we have provided you with the flexibility to export an image in various formats such as PNG, JPG, TIFF, PDF, GIF, BMP and the VOILA format. The VOILA format is a raw file format that retains the layers of an image and is recognized only by Voila. In this format, the annotations will be selectable and can be re-adjusted even after being exported from the app.

In the preferences, Voila also allows you to apply different file formats for different export options. Further you can also add applications that you frequently send/export images to, so that once you are done working on the image, you can just hit the Send to option in the Share menu and export the image to the application of your choice. Voila allows you to add any application of your choice here, it however does depend on whether the application chosen by you supports such a set up. Any application that lets you drag an image into the Dock icon would work here.

I’m sure you’ll find more uses with this feature. Explore it further and do let us know how you make use of it.

Voila is a great Screen Capturing app that lets you capture still shots and videos of your desktop. Not just that, you can also edit and annotate your still shots with Callouts, Text, Filters, Arrows and more to make them more meaningful. The built-in organizer lets you manage your files smartly and also lets you share your work instantly via YouTube, Flickr, FTP, SFTP and Mail. At just $29.99 USD, Voila is the only Screen Capturing Software you would need for your Mac. You can grab your copy of Voila from our Global Delight Store, or the Mac App Store.

You’re reading the 3rd post in our series, Voila Tips 101: a list that will cover features in Voila, both known and lesser known, that can help you in your work and lets you enjoy all the features of the app. Read the entire list here.

-Vaishnavi

Voila, Voila Tips 101 Image Export, Mac Screen Capture, Voila

With Voila you don’t have to create great stuff using just the built-in Annotations and Editing Tools. You can also drag images onto your screen captures and create something beautiful out of the combination of the two or more. This you can do with one of the most useful but less spoken of feature in Voila, the Pin. The Pin feature lets you pin down the base image in the Voila workbench. When you have pinned the base image, scrolling through the other files in the Capture Tray will not change the image in the workbench, unless you have unpinned it. After you have pinned the base image, now what?

- You can drag other images into the base image and create a collage like the image below:

- Or you could create composite images. Here, I have taken two separate screen shots of the Menu Bar and the Voila drop-down menu. Using the Pin, I can now create a composite image. A little like Photoshop but much simpler:

- Create a comparison chart:

- Create a Pano image:

- Or some interesting cards or other creatives like the ones below:

I’m sure you’ll find more uses with this feature. Explore it further and do let us know how you make use of the Pin feature in Voila.

Voila is a great Screen Capturing app that lets you capture still shots and videos of your desktop. Not just that, you can also edit and annotate your still shots with Callouts, Text, Filters, Arrows and more to make them more meaningful. The built-in organizer lets you manage your files smartly and also lets you share your work instantly via YouTube, Flickr, FTP, SFTP and Mail. At just $29.99 USD, Voila is the only Screen Capturing Software you would need for your Mac. You can grab your copy of Voila from our Global Delight Store, or the Mac App Store.

Tool Tip: If you want to rotate an image in Voila, select the image and press Cmd; the Resize knobs (Square knobs) will change into Rotate knobs (Circular knobs). You can now rotate the image as per your requirement. Do remember that the base image cannot be rotated.

You’re reading the 2nd post in our series, Voila Tips 101: a list that will cover features in Voila, both known and lesser known, that can help you in your work and lets you enjoy all the features of the app. Read the entire list here.

-Vaishnavi

Voila, Voila Tips 101 Mac Screen Capture, Pin, Voila

With Voila v3.0, video recording made its first appearance. The general idea was to allow you to record high quality videos off your desktop. Thus with Voila you can record tutorials or something that you are trying to explain off your desktop. But did you know that with Voila you can record your iChat sessions, Webinars, Net Meetings, videos from web-pages for personal use, etc.? That’s right! Using Voila you can record and save them for future references.

Points to keep in mind while recording an iChat session, a Webinar or a Net Meeting:

In these sessions, you have the Audio and Video streaming from both ends. Thus when you start recording on Voila, remember that you have to keep both the options checked.

1) If  you are using an external mike during your session, select the external mike (device) that is listed in the ‘Audio from’ drop-down list. If you are using your internal mike then you can select ‘Built-in Microphone’ in the ‘Audio from’ drop-down list.

2) To capture the audio from the other end, check the ‘Record Computer Audio’ option.

Points to keep in mind while recording a video from a web-page:

While recording a video from a web-page for your personal use there are certain points you need to remember. Since here you will be recording only one end of the audio, you can just keep the ‘Record Computer Audio’ option checked. Keeping both the options checked here could cause an audio overlap and it may not sound clear in the video.

Now that you know what more you can do with the Voila Video Recording feature, why don’t you try it out too? And if you are one of those who are looking out for a better and complete screen capturing solution, try out Voila today!

You’re reading the 1st post in our series, Voila Tips 101: a list that will cover features in Voila, both known and lesser known, that can help you in your work and lets you enjoy all the features of the app. Read the entire list here.

-Vaishnavi

Voila, Voila Tips 101 iChat, Mac Screen Capture, Video recording, Voila