Séquence Documentation
Séquence DOCUMENTATION
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
Séquence Documentation
The goal of this tutorial is to help you to understand the main concepts of Séquence. When you launch Séquence for the first time from your Applications folder, you can see 2 new elements on your screen : 1. A new icon at the right of your menu bar with many options:
2. A palette with a selection zone in the middle of your screen:
Selection zone : The first key element is the selection zone. It's the area that you want to get as a screenshot or a screencast. With the dots in each corner and the middle, you can resize the selection zone to the required format.
With the round button in the middle, you can move the selection zone where you want on your screen. You will see later that you can also make this zone full screen or to a fixed dimension.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
Séquence Documentation
Palette : The second key element of Séquence is a small dark window containing some buttons. It's the palette of Séquence. This window allows you to pilot the behavior and some options of Séquence.
You can move the palette anywhere on your screen. The selection zone will always follow (like a magnet). The palette always appears on the right of the selection zone but if you move the selection zone to the right of your screen, you will see the palette moving to the left. Séquence is a smart application. You will see why later. The palette and the selection zone will always appears in front of any application until you quit Séquence. Try to switch to another application and you will see the result. Like that, you can take a screenshot or screencast of any content from any application, even from the DVD player or a fullscreen application like a game ! You can hide or display the palette with a menu option in the menubar. Let's discover now the main functions of the palette.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
SĂŠquence Documentation
At the top of the Palette, you have with 3 big icons. The first icon (a screen) tell you that you are in the selection mode. The selection mode allows you to define the zone to capture. The second icon (the movie clapper icon) is the action mode. The action mode allows you to take a screenshot or a movie. The third icon (the pencil) is the paint mode. It's where you can draw doodles on your screenshots or screencasts before to capture them.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
SĂŠquence Documentation
Go to the action mode. Under the 3 main icons, you have two smaller icons. They are the type of actions.
The first icon (with a camera) allows you to be in the screenshot mode.
Click on the red icon to take your first screenshot. SĂŠquence will make the sound of a camera and ask you to save the file on your computer. Congratulations, you made your first screenshot!
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
SĂŠquence Documentation
You just learned that the first button is about taking screenshots. The second button (with a filmstrip icon) is about taking screencasts (recording in a movie everything that happens on your screen). This is the most sophisticated and advanced part of the SĂŠquence application.
With the red button, you can record a movie, stop it or pause it. Recording a movie can take a lot of space on your drive. Just record few seconds or few minutes. If you want to record longer sequences, just make sure that you have enough space on your disk. One minute movie can take between 10 and 50 MB of space on your hard drive. In fact, it’s depends of the video format selected in preferences and we we will explain that later. Now that you know how to record a movie, let see the available options.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
SĂŠquence Documentation
At the bottom of the Palette, you have 3 buttons with icons. Let start by the one on the right with a music icon. It allows you to record the sound of your computer. A very convenient tool to capture movies with the sound of some popular websites (youtube.com, dailymotion.com, etc). The second icon in the middle allows you to record the sound from your microphone or your webcam. It’s very convenient if you want to add some audio comments while you are recording a screencast. The first button with a person icon is a powerful function. If your Mac is featured with a webcam, you can add the image from the webcam at the same time.
You can move the window of the webcam where you want and also resize it. If you want to add audio comments too, don't forget to enable the microphone. With these 3 powerful multimedia options, you can now create amazing screencasts or podcasts. It's not the end, you have even more possibilities!
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
SĂŠquence Documentation
Let’s return to the selection mode.
You have six different selection area available. 1. A zone that you can freely choose 2. A fixed area in pixels 3. the full screen 4. the most front window of the actual application (works only for screenshot) 5. iPhone simulator size (for developers working with xCode) 6. A perfect square All the options of the Palette are also available in the menu bar.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
Séquence Documentation
If you capture a screenshot in full screen mode, the palette window will automatically disappear temporary. Like that, you will not see it in the taken image (you can also hide the palette from the menubar option). If you capture a movie in fullscreen mode, a stop menu option will be available in the menubar. The possibilities with Séquence are endless. You can discover in the menu bar more options to save your images or movies. For example, you can upload them automatically to your website (FTP mode) or your MobileMe account. Note that the options are different if you are in screencast or screenshot mode. The menu will automatically be updated. In the preferences window, you can also choose more options like the quality for audio and video. Preferences window Behavior : this tab panel allows you to setup the main behavior of Séquence when you take a screencast or a screenshot.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
Séquence Documentation
You can decide if Séquence will grab the cursor or not. When you take a screencast, you can have a circle of the color of your choice to highlight what you are doing. When you click on something, the circle will blink with a larger border. Very convenient to understand when an user have to click if you are doing the presentation of a software. You can also setup which keyboard shortcut to use to call Séquence when you need it. Sharing : this tab panel allows you to add your server settings. It’s where you will put the FTP information to send your screenshots or screencasts automatically to your own web server.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
SĂŠquence Documentation
Options : this tab panel offer some options for SĂŠquence.
You can define the default quality of a JPEG image. You can setup the level of transparence of the background around the selection zone. Finally, you can setup the quality for the recording of audio and video. For the most compact size of videos, we recommend to use the MPEG4 format or H.264. All videos will be saved in the quicktime format (.mov) that can be played on both Mac and PC computers. Note : some video formats are only available on Macs with Intel processors.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010
Séquence Documentation
Main menu of Séquence: In the main menu of Séquence, you will find a quick access to all main features. The first option allows you to deactivate or activate Sequence. When you deactivate Séquence, all menu options are no longer available and the palette with the selection zone will disappear from your screen. Like that, you can activate Séquence only when you really need it.
app4mac.com - 2004/2010