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User guide of ScreenToGif 🎬

#This wiki is currently under construction. ⚠️

This free tool was (and still is) mainly projected to work as a quick and small screen recorder. If you plan to record hours of fullscreen content, I recommend switching to a more advanced software.

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Recording 📹

ScreenToGif allows you to record part of your screen with the Screen Recorder, also there's the Webcam Recorder and the Board Recorder.

Screen Recorder

The screen recorder is composed of a hollow window with the main controls on the bottom. From the left to the right:

• Snap to Window: Click, drag and drop on top of a window to automatically resize and move ScreenToGif to fit.
• Options: It opens the Options window.
• FPS: The maximum fps of the recording. A range value from 1 to 60 fps. A value of 15 fps means a duration of 66ms for each captured frame.
• Width and Height: The size of the recording rectangle. You can resize to fit your needs by typing new values or by dragging the corners of the window.
• Discard (currently hidden) : When the recording is paused, this button will appear. As the text says, it will discard the current recording.
• Record: Uh... It starts/pauses the recording?
• Stop: If there's an active (or paused) recording, clicking this button will open the Editor window with your recording loaded.

Notes:

• You can move the window around when recording, this allows you to record multiple parts of your screen.
• The numeric fields of this app will respond to your mouse scroll wheel, increasing/decreasing by 1. When combining with Ctrl or Shift it will increase/decrease by 5 or 10 respectively.
• You cannot resize the recorder window during the recording.

Webcam Recorder

As the name suggests, this recorder captures the video feed from your webcam. Here's the list of elements from the left to the right:

• Back: It will return to the startup window. This button is not present if you set the Webcam recorder as the startup window. The same behavior happens with the other recorders.
• Options: It opens the Options window.
• Check for video devices: Runs the hardware check to find new video devices. The same check occurs when loading this window.
• Video devices: It shows all of your video devices (like webcams).
• Discard (currently hidden) : When the recording is paused, this button will appear. As the text says, it will discard the current recording.
• Record: It starts/pause the recording.
• Stop: If there's an active (or paused) recording, clicking this button will open the Editor window with your recording loaded.

Notes:

• To increase or decrease the size of the recording, you should resize the window.

Board Recorder

It's a recorder with a canvas where you can draw things. The ink controls are positioned above the canvas with some options to change the color and size of the tip of the pen.

Notes:

• The board recorder will record your drawings automatically. You can disable the auto recorder by holding the Ctrl key or by clicking on the button.

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Editor ✏️

The editor is the main part of ScreenToGif. It's composed of four main parts, the ribbon, the viewer, the action sidebar and the frame list (and bottom controls).

Ribbon

The ribbon lets you access all of the editing features of ScreenToGif.

• File: 💾

  1. New: All the options to create or load animations. The previous animation is automatically discarded.

     • Screen Recording Ctrl + N: Opens the screen recorder. When you finish recording, it returns back to the editor to load the new frames. If cancelled, it won't discard your previous animation.
     • Webcam Recording Ctrl + W: Opens the webcam recorder. Follows the same behavior as above.
     • Board Recording Ctrl + B: Opens the board recorder (sketchboard). Follows the same behavior as above.
     • Blank Animation Ctrl + Alt + A: Opens the New Animation panel.
     • Media or Project Ctrl + O: Opens a file picker and gives you the option to load images, videos or a project. Multiple selection enabled, except for projects.

  2. Insert: Options to insert animations inside the current one. It opens the Insert Frames window.

     • Screen Recording Ctrl + Shift + N: Opens the screen recorder. When you finish recording, it returns back to the editor to merge the new recording with the Insert Frames window.
     • Webcam Recording Ctrl + Shift + W: Opens the webcam recorder. Follows the same behavior as above.
     • Board Recording Ctrl + Shift + B: Opens the board recorder. Follows the same behavior as above.
     • Media Ctrl + Shift + O: Opens a file picker and gives you the option to insert images or videos to your current animation.

  3. File: Where you can save or discard your recording.

     • Save as Ctrl + S: Opens the Save as panel.
     • Save as Project Ctrl + Alt + P: Opens the save dialog to export the current animation as a zip file. (The .stg file format is the same as the zip).
     • Discard Ctrl + Delete: Discards (deletes from disk) your current animation. It does not interfere with the running encodings.

• Home: 🏠

  1. Action Stack: Undo, Redo and Reset.

     • Undo Ctrl + Z: Uh, it undoes the latest changes made to the frame list.
     • Redo Ctrl + Y: Redoes the latest undid changes of the frame list.
     • Reset Ctrl + R: Starts over again, the same recording with no changes at all.

  2. Clipboard: Copy, Cut and Paste. There's also a small button under the "Cut" button that shows your current clipboard, called "Show Clipboard".

     • Copy Ctrl + C: Copies all selected frames into the clipboard. It opens the Clipboard panel as soon as you copy. Also, it selects the latest copied frames as the active clipboard entry.
     • Cut Ctrl + X: Same as above, except that it removes the selected frames from the frame list.
     • Paste Ctrl + V: Gets the current active clipboard entry and inserts them before or after the selected frame on the list. You can configure the paste behavior on the Clipboard panel.
     • Show Clipboard: Opens the Clipboard panel.

  3. Zoom: Zoom controls, fit the image on the view.

     • Set to 100% Alt + 0:
     • Fit to Window Alt + -:

  4. Select: Select All, Deselect, Inverse Selection and Go To.

     • Select All Ctrl + A:
     • Go To Ctrl + G:
     • Inverse Ctrl + I:
     • Desselect Ctrl + U:

• Playback: ⏯

  1. Playback controls (first, previous, play/pause, next, last). They are also found at the bottom-right corner.
     • First Home:
     • Previous PageUp:
     • Play/Pause Alt + P or Space:
     • Next PageDown:
     • Last End:

• Edit: ✏️

  1. Frames: Frame deletion controls.

     • Delete Delete:
     • Delete All Previous Alt + Left:
     • Delete All Next Alt + Right:

  2. Reordering: Frame ordering, you can move frames, invert the order, etc.

     • Reverse Ctrl + Alt + R:
     • Yoyo Ctrl + Y:
     • Move Left Ctrl + Left:
     • Move Right Ctrl + Right:

  3. Delay (Duration): Allows you to change the duration (delay, time of display) of each selected frame.

     • Override Alt + O:
     • Increase or Decrease Alt + Y:

• Image: 🖼

  1. Size and Position: Resize, crop, flip/rotate the frames. Only the flip action will flip the selected frames, the other actions will be applied to all frames.

     • Resize Alt + R:
     • Crop Alt + C:
     • Flip/Rotate Alt + L:

  2. Text: Text elements, such as Captions, Title Frames and Free Text.

     • Caption Alt + S:
     • Free Text Alt + F:
     • Title Frame Alt + T: Opens the Title Frame panel.

  3. Overlay: Frame overlays, like Free Drawings, Watermark, etc.

     • Free Drawing Alt + D:
     • Progress Alt + P:
     • Watermark Alt + W: Lets you add an image as watermark, setting the position, scale and opacity. You can select multiple frames to apply this feature.
     • Cinemagraph Alt + G: What's Cinemagraph? Use the paint tools to paint on top of the parts of the image that should animate. The unselected parts will stay static (fixed, not changing) using the first frame as base. This action is applied to all frames.
     • Border Alt + B: Lets you add borders on your animation. You can fine tune each side of the border. You can select multiple frames to apply this feature.

• Transitions: 🔀

  1. Styles: Fade (to the next frame or to a specific color) or Slide (to the next frame).
     • Fade Ctrl + Alt + Y: You can fade to a specific color or to the next frame. Use the slider to select the length of the transition. You must select one frame to apply this transition.
     • Slide Ctrl + Alt + T: Slide to the next frame. You must select one frame to apply this transition.

• Statistics: ℹ️

  1. General: Informations about the current recording.
  2. Selected Frame: Informations about the current frame.

Viewer

The viewer consists of a zoomable control that supports Mouse + Keyboard interactions:

• Zoom Ctrl + Scroll: From 5% to 500%, using the scrollwheel while hovering the viewer to zoom.
• Seek Scroll: Use the scrollwheel while hovering the viewer to seek (navigate among frames).

Action sidebar

There are several panels:

• New Animation:
• Save as:
• Resize:
• Crop:

Frame list

[image here]

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Saving your recording

To save your animation...

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Other

...

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Options