There are a few utilities out there which can make your life so much easier, you wouldn't contemplate living without them. As someone who works on the web, I'm taking screenshots all the time and SnagIt is the only tool I'd use for this vital element of my job.

In its latest incarnation, SnagIt has added a lot of new features and a jazzed-up interface. While the old familiar 'big red button' remains, much of the UI (particularly in the Editor window) has been completely overhauled. Gone is the XP blue of previous versions, replaced with a Vista-friendly charcoal look which works pretty well.

The program's key features (taking and editing screenshots) remain pretty much unchanged. You still have a huge amount of power of just what type of screenshot you can take, with timers, cursor settings and profiles all still playing a major role. I was pleased to see that my profiles from the last version of SnagIt were kept as it would have been a real nuisance to have to re-program them.

The biggest improvements to this new version are certainly connected to the Editor window. For example: whereas previously, you had to take a capture, work on it, save it and then take your next one; now you can take as many screenshots as you like, using whichever profiles, and work on them all as you wish. This is a huge time-saver and a very welcome addition to the program.

Another feature that has been added is of less obvious use. SnagIt now supports meta-tagging and labeling of captured images. The idea behind this feature is that you start to use SnagIt to categorize your images as well as capture them. I can understand the thinking behind this addition but I'm not sure if it's really much more than feature-creep. I can't see myself changing my workflow to fit with SnagIt, nor do I want to lose the capability of moving image files around at will (if you use Windows Explorer to move tagged images, the tags and labels are lost).

SnagIt 9 represents a big step forward for a great utility. While some of the new functionality may not appeal, the most significant changes are major improvements to what was already a very good piece of software. Strongly recommended.