Is Photoshop a good tool for screenshots?(long)

[forcarolynne -at- shaw -dot- ca]

Hi fellow tech writers:

I need to find the best way to take screenshots so they can be used in 
print and in online documentation and still retain their quality AND I need 
a program where I can also embed callouts. This issue has arisen as we are 
trying to implement single sourcing for print and online documentation.

We use FrameMaker to develop the document. It is then converted into a MIF 
file and imported into Robohelp 2000 for online. My manager, who does the 
online conversion, would LIKE to have the screenshots in print just import 
smoothly into Robohelp, but this doesn't work for 2 reasons:
	1) Images are poor quality once imported
	2) Callouts and lines created in FM come out misaligned once imported.
 I don't know of a good way to do what is being asked. 

The best way I know to meet our needs is to save the screenshot into a 
"master" image file separately. The screenshot can then be exported to JPEG 
and either linked to or pasted into the FM doc. For online, that same
master screenshot would be exported to GIF in the correct resolution for 
online. This process requires we maintain the image files separately from 
the print and online docs.

How did we do screenshots up to this point? Just copied and pasted into 
FrameMaker. But this resulted in such poor quality for online that I had to 
go in and recreate all of the screenshots just for online. This was a big 
pain,especially when I needed to add callouts - I did it using Corel 
Photo-Paint which I found tedious and not user-friendly.

My solution proposes that we invest in a good imaging tool such as 
Photoshop, where I can take the screenshot, use Photoshop tools to create 
callouts on a different layer and then and then merge the layers to export 
the PSD file into JPEG for print and do the Save for Web to export
into GIF for online. My understanding is that you have to manipulate the 
screenshot for these different media anyways because they have different 
requirements (i.e. resolution, file size).

Does anyone know of a better way to do this process? Is the solution that 
my manager wants one that can be achieved or do we have to, as I propose, 
create and maintain the screenshots separately?

I am just trying to find out if my proposed solution is on the right track, 
or unnecessarily complicated.

Thanks, 
Carolynne

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