I do a lot of work with screen recording software, so the first time I saw Jing, it didn’t really impress me. I use Adobe Captivate for the bulk of my screen recording. (Along with occasional need for something that records real-time movies like Camtasia does for my PC or iShowU does for my Mac.)

The first time I saw Jing was at the recent ASTD convention in San Diego. I tried it out at the vendor booth and walked away thinking it would be just another app that a pro like me wouldn’t use. Besides, I have a license for their pro level app, Camtasia, on my machine already.

However, this weekend, I’ve been setting up a blog for the class I’m teaching on collaborative learning with blogs, wikis, and podcasts. My students will be creating their own accounts on Edublogs.org, who has used Jing to create training movies. I thought I’d check Jing out so that I could handle any of my student’s questions about it. I didn’t realize that I’d be so impressed.

Unlike Captivate, it’s success is the less-is-more design. It is a little sun that lives in the top right corner of my screen.

When I move my mouse to it, I see 3 simple options.

From there, I can make a quick diagram or a screen recording that converts to a .swf file. It’s fast, easy, cross-platform, and free. I find I’ve been using it today to make mock-ups even though I’ve got  Camtasia open on the computer beside me.