What is Voila?

Voila is a great screen recording and image capturing tool for your Mac, developed to enhance your productivity/ creativity. It allows you to capture anything or everything on your desktop, from your iSight camera or you could snap a whole web page as well. You can then easily annotate the image with variety of editing tools and share the images instantly.

With Voila you can record High Quality videos in the full screen or selected area mode and then share instantly via YouTube, FTP or SFTP.

Voila also manages your images and videos in a well organized library with custom and smart collection.

There are many screen capturing tools. How is Voila unique from the rest?

Voila is the first image capturing tool that offers complete freedom to capture any shape of your choice like Circular, Polygonal, Triangular or a Freehand capture. Apart from these, you have a Menu-with-title Capture, Fullscreen Capture, Object Capture, Rectangular Capture and a Timed Capture as well. You can snap a whole web page, regions of web page or multiple DOM elements. You can also capture from iSight or external webcams. All your snaps will be managed with the built-in image organizer, smart collections and custom collections.

With Video recording and sharing, Voila is going to be your all-in-one screen capture tool.

The ability to have multiple screen capture options, along with the capability to use them in a variety of combinations with a good blend of Annotations and Special Effects and organizing them, makes Voila very unique and different from the rest of the tools out in the market.

What features does Voila have?

Voila has a wide array of options to capture images from a simple full screen to capturing different shapes, freehand, objects, menu, scrolling page and from iSight as well. Snaps of entire web pages can be captured by importing the URL or by typing it within the tool. Multiple regions or multiple elements within the web page can be captured simultaneously. Users can also capture snaps from the iSight or from an attached WebCam as well.

Once you are done with snapping the images you can either export them to iPhoto or share them with anyone through Mail, Flickr, FTP or SFTP. You can also organize your captures neatly into collections or smart folders for easy access and reuse.

Voila also offers screen recording of your desktop in full screen or selected area. Video can be captured on your multiple screen setup as well. The recorded video can be instantly uploaded to YouTube, FTP or SFTP.

What's more? If you think, any new feature can be added or you have any feedback, simply mail us and we would consider including it in our future release.

Who can use Voila?

Anyone who has a Mac system running OS X 10.5.8 or newer can download Voila and start using it. 10.6.x users can also buy a copy of Voila from the Mac App Store.

Voila can be used by teachers to enhance their teaching abilities, students to make their assignments more appealing, executives to make intuitive presentations, Bloggers and Writers make the graphics work more meaningful, Consultants to highlight the key points in their proposals; the list just goes on...

Send us your creative output along with the story "How Voila simplified my work". If your story gets picked, we will showcase them on our site.

How easy is it to use Voila?

Voila is designed to provide an easy-to-use interface for one and all. Tool tips have been provided for the actions to help you perform intended capturing and annotaion work. You can go through the detailed Help within the application, run through the FAQs available on our site and visit the Forum as well.

What are the System Requirements?

Software:
- Mac OS X 10.5.8 or later
- Fully compatible with OS X Mountain Lion
- iPhoto v6.0.1 or later (For exporting captured/annotated images)

System Hardware:
- Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz and above, 2 GB RAM

What types of support do I get for Voila?

For details, refer to application Help. A detailed write-up along with screen shots gets the things going easy.

- Detailed Help is provided within the Voila Help Menu
- You can download Voila User Manual
- Visit Forum to share and gain experience from other users

Should you still have queries, issues or doubts just send your feedback and our dedicated product support team will promptly listen to you and provide you with the details.

Is Voila Snow Leopard compatible?

Yes. Voila v3.x is compatible with Snow Leopard.

Update/Upgrade FAQs

Is Voila v3.1.1 a free update?

Yes, Voila v3.1.1 is a free update to the registered existing users of Voila v3.0.

I am an existing registered Customer of Voila 2.5 (or older) version. Can I update with my current registered application?

If you are an existing registered customer of Voila v2.5 (or Voila 1.x), then you can install the new Voila v3.1.1 in a separate location for testing purposes. If you replace your current registered version with the new Voila v3.1.1, the old version would lose its registration and acts as a Trial/Demo Version. So, consider installing the new version in a separate location.

Please ensure to take a backup copy of your Voila Images Database before you upgrade/replace/delete the application. You can check the database location from the Preferences > General window.

I'm an existing registered Customer of Voila and I want to switch back to my old version. How do I do that?

In case you have replaced your older version of Voila with v3.1.1, then you can always go back to the previous version. You have to download the old version from http://www.globaldelight.com/voila/voila.dmg. Delete the existing Voila application and install the old version. You can register the old copy with the registration code that you already have.

I am an existing registered Customer of Voila v2.x or 1.x; how much do I have to pay for upgrading to Voila v3.x?

There is an upgrade price and it's less than the actual price. Visit our online store to check the upgrade pricing.

I own a copy of Voila v3.0.4 and use it on a PPC Mac machine. Why am I unable to get the latest update of Voila, i.e., v3.x?

For users with a PPC system, the last updated version of Voila is v3.0.4. The updates after this will be for Intel based systems only.

I have downloaded Voila v3.x and I have some questions, comments, feedback. What should I do?

Send a mail to Voila Support Team with your observations, suggestions or feedback.

You can also join us on our Forums and discuss.

Capture FAQs

I want to capture Voila window itself and show it to my friends. How do I do it?

First, hold the Option/Alt key on your keyboard and then choose the type of capture from the Voila Toolbar.

How do I capture a Menu?

To do a Menu Capture:

1. Click on Menu icon in the toolbar.
2. By default, Finder becomes the active application.
3. Select the Finder menu that you want to capture. Or you can also select another application and select a menu to capture.
4. Press the Cmd+Shift+M keys to highlight the selected menu.
5. Press the Return key or click on the menu to capture it.
6. The Voila window is put up with the captured image in the Workbench

How do I stitch two images from two different screens?

By default when the user clicks the + button after selecting a screen, the screens will be stitched.

If the user does not want to stitch the screens, he would have to capture them separately.

1. Click on Fullscreen in the Voila toolbar.
2. Select a screen to capture.
3. Click on the + button in the capture toolbar.
4. Select another screen.
5. On clicking the Capture button, the two screens will be stitched together.

I used to capture desktop icons using Voila, now it does not allow me.

You have a Snow Leopard operating system and this issue is observed in Snow Leopard. Apple has removed the support for capturing individual desktop icons in Snow Leopard and hence Voila cannot capture the desktop icons.

However, this feature works in Leopard OS (OS X 10.5.8 or later)

Can I capture active state window using Voila ? What are the steps?

Using Voila you can capture active state windows. You can capture active state windows by using the shortcut keys for a full screen, selection or object capture. While the capture is in progress, the window being captured appears to be in inactive state; however once the capture is complete, the active state is shown in the image.
 
You can also capture active state windows by selecting the required capture mode from the Status menu.

Note: Selecting the capture options from Voila toolbar captures in inactive state.

Does Voila save a captured image in the Clipboard?

Yes. Voila has an option to directly save the last captured image to the Clipboard.

To enable this, check the 'Copy last capture to clipboard' checkbox in Preferences > Capturing. Now, any image that you capture using Voila is copied to the Clipboard; you can directly paste the image into any application that supports pasting from system Clipboard without the need to copy the image from Voila.

I have a web page opened in Firefox/ Google Chrome. Can I capture it?

Yes. With Voila v3.x, you can capture web pages opened in Firefox or Google Chrome.

I want to save my web page as a PDF. Can I do that?

To save a web page as PDF, launch the page in the Voila Browser. Then hit the PDF button. This will convert the web page of your choice into a PDF file.

Why am I unable to capture to capture an entire window as an object in the Full Screen Mode on Lion?

Yes, this is a limitation of the OS. It is recommended that you revert to the normal mode and capture the Object of your choice.

I am a Lion user. Why can't I replace the original video after I have trimmed it?

Due to a limitation of the OS, you will be unable to replace the original video in Voila while saving. You can however choose a new location for the video and then drag the video back into Voila.

Why can't I remove the cursor in my screen recordings on Lion?

Due to a limitation of the OS, you cannot remove the cursor in your screen recordings. But we have provided you with an option to highlight your cursor so that you can show the clicks while recording.

Annotate FAQs

How do I resize images in Voila?

In Voila v3.x you have the option to resize the images without losing the image properties. Go to Edit in the Menu bar and choose Resize Image. You can now choose to resize your image as per your requirement.

How do I create a copy of the Annotation?

Selecting and dragging an annotation with the Option key pressed creates a copy of the annotation with the same properties.

How do I unlock the image from canvas?

From Voila Layers menu, click the Unlock Image option to unlock the images from canvas. Alternatively, you can click on the Lock/Unlock button in the Status bar.

Can I copy-paste annotations across the images?

Yes, to copy and paste annotations across images, perform the steps provided below:

1. Select the annotation that you want to copy.
2. Press Cmd + C or select copy from the Edit menu.
3. Switch to another image by clicking on the thumbnail in the capture tray.
4. Click on the workbench.
5. Press Cmd + V or Select paste from the Edit menu.

You can also copy and paste multiple annotations in the same manner.

Can I add my own stamps to Voila?

Currently you cannot add your own stamps. However, you can drag other images onto an image in Voila to make it like a stamp. We call this feature as Picture-in-Picture. You can watch this screencast to understand this feature.

I have an image. Can I annotate or add effects to it using Voila?

Yes, you can. Just drag and drop the image to Voila Workbench or Capture tray and then start annotating or adding special effects.

Organize FAQs

What are the image formats available for saving my captured or annotated image?

You can save the captured or annotated images to PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, GIF and BMP formats and share them with others. Select the image from the Capture tray and drag it to the desktop. Just change the settings in the Preferences appropriately.

Oh no! I didn't save my image... Can I get it back?

Surprise! You just got it back.

Voila automatically saves your captured or annotated images in its Capture tray. It will be available as long as it is not deleted.

Sharing FAQs

Can I export an image from Voila? How do I do it?

Yes, you can export it to iPhoto, Mail, Flickr, upload to FTP or SFTP.

Steps to export images to iPhoto:
- Select an image from the Voila application and then click on iPhoto.
- iPhoto application is launched.
- The imported image is added in the iPhoto under a new collection Imported from Voila.

Steps to export images to Mail/Entourage:
- Set your mail client from Preferences>General.
- Select the image(s) from the Capture tray.
- Click on the Mail icon.
- Mail application is launched with the selected image(s) added as an attachment.

Steps to export images to Flickr:
- Set your Flickr account from Preferences>Sharing.
- Validate the account.
- Select the image(s) from the Capture tray.
- Click on Publish.

Steps to export images via FTP/ SFTP:
- Configure your FTP account from Preferences>Sharing.
- Select the images or videos from the Capture tray.
- Click on Publish.
- The URL of the files uploaded will be generated and copied to the Clipboard.

Can I upload the image to Flickr or FTP/SFTP?

Yes, you can. To publish in Flickr, you need to have a valid Flickr account. You need to authenticate Voila with Flickr; this is just one-time job and can finish the setup in just 2 clicks! After that, you can upload images directly to your Flickr Public or Private folders.

To publish using FTP, you need to configure FTP with the URL, Username and Password. On selecting the Copy URLs to Clipboard option, enter the web address, which will be used to generate an URL to view the uploaded image or video. The next time, simply click on the FTP upload icon and it gets uploaded and the URL will be copied to the Clipboard.

Follow the same steps as FTP to publish to SFTP.

Can I upload my video to YouTube?

Yes, you can. To publish your own videos onto YouTube, you need to have a valid YouTube account. Just enter the User name and Password. After you have authenticated Voila with YouTube, you can upload videos directly to your YouTube Public or Private streams.

Editing FAQs

Can I view the Voila window in Full Screen mode on Lion?

Yes, we have provided you with an option to view the Voila window in the Full Screen Mode to allow you to have better precision while working on your screen shots. Do note that this feature is only available to the Lion users.

Can I trim my videos using Voila?

Yes, you can. This feature is however available only on Mac OS 10.6.x or newer.

Can I copy images from Voila to other applications?

Yes. You can copy images  from Voila to Finder and other applications that support pasting from System Clipboard.

Can I drag images from Voila to other applications?

You can select and drag any image from the Capture tray to the Finder or into another application that supports drag and drop of files.

You can also select multiple images from Image Browser and drag them to Finder or other applications that supports drag and drop of files.

Can I copy-paste annotations from Voila to other applications?

Yes. You can copy any annotation (excluding Spray and other non-selectable annotations) from Voila and paste it into other applications that support pasting from System Clipboard.

How do I include images created in Voila in my business presentations, project works or blogs?

Apart from exporting images to iPhoto and Mail, they can also be exported to the desktop or to any folder. Set the image format in Preferences, select the image from the Capture tray and then drag it into the Finder window. Alternatively, you can also use Save As... option from the File menu.

You can now use images to make intutive business presentations, make appealing project reports, upload to blogs and social networking sites, etc.

Can I drag an image to my mail client directly from Voila?

Yes, you can. If you use Apple Mail or Entourage, you can directly drag the image to them and the image gets attached.

You can drag the image to your browser as well.