Blog24

GrabUp is a neat piece of Apple freeware that frequent bloggers may find useful, especially when the next version is released.

GrabUp is actually an Apple OSX preference pane that modifies the standard screen grab keystrokes that are built into the Apple operating system. Rather than saving the resulting images locally on your computer they are saved online using a unique and private URL. Not only that the generated URL is stored ready for use in the clipboard ready to paste wherever required with a simple COMMAND V keystroke.

While this may seem illogical at first to some it all depends why you take screen shots.

Many people may use screen grabs for software tutorials or to highlight certain aspects of software. If you are publishing step-by-step tutorials online grapUp could be the perfect addition to save you time.

Jon told Blog24 that ease and speeding up such processes inspired the creation of grabUp.

The idea for grabup came after my personal need to upload numerous screen shots quicker. I found myself wasting so much time taking screen shots, uploading them to an image host and copying and pasting the link.

Basically if you tend share your screen grabs via email, chat or the web then grabUp will save you time. The best way to illustrate this and how to use grabUp is to watch Jon Wheatley’s video.

I have already used this software for this purpose and it was very easy and a lot quicker than my usual process of;

1. Downloading the image
2. Cropping and preparing it for the web
3. Uploading either via the WordPress interface or FTP
4. Typing the URL for the image

 

The Next Release

Blog24 is pleased to announce that the next version of grabUp is in development. The main change will the be the option to have images saved on your own server rather than grabup.com.

Jon told Blog24:

We’re working on a new version of the software that will let people
upload images to their own web server by entering their own ftp
information and specifying a folder to upload images to. After we
launched grabup this was the biggest request that we got so we’re
going to make it happen.

Missing Features

The provision of an optional keystroke so saving locally remains an option would make grabUp more appealing. An option to actually name the resulting files would be useful too.

An option to have the URL incorporated into a image tag with configurable styling and automatically inserted height and width within the css style attribute would be terrific. All ready and waiting on the clipboard for even quicker insertion to blog posts.

The Alternatives

At the time of writing there is no software that does what grabUp does, it remains unique in function. There are those who said the same kind of functionality could be done by scripting with AppleScript or Automator. True but neither solution would be as fast as grabUp.

Snapz Pro X is a great screen capture tool too, but the ability to upload images to the web is not an option. I use Snapz Pro X and I am happy to report that it plays nicely with grabUp. This means that with SHIFT COMMAND 3 I can take regular screenshots and selections and make screencast movies and with SHIFT COMMAND 4 I can make my selection ready for use online. If you have Snapz Pro X too then grabUp is the perfect partner.

Overall grabUp is a great addition if you regularly use screen grabs for the internet. If you are a blogger and regularly illustrate your posts with a relevant logo or other images from found on the web grapUp is the fastest solution.

I look forward to the next release and give praise to the creators of grabUp.

GrabUp is available for download from www.grabup.com.

Example of Use

If you are a blogger then illustrating your blog posts is made very quick and easy with upGrab. For instance having completed writing this post I wanted to add the grabUp icon to the top of the post. I grabbed the image from grapup.com and inserted the image within seconds, added class and style attributes and that was it.