You may think of Screencast.com as just the most convenient way to host your Jing content so you can quickly send a link to someone.

In fact, Screencast.com can host virtually anything. Usually it's images or video, but there's no reason you couldn't upload a PowerPoint presentation or a huge ZIP file containing project resources.

Before getting into the Desktop Uploader (which is free and works on both Mac and PC), I should make clear the uploader doesn't have anything to do with Jing directly. The best way to send your Jing images and videos to Screencast.com is to do it straight through Jing. The purpose of this post is to show how you might take more advantage of the Screencast.com account you got with Jing.

Here are some typical scenarios where people use the Desktop Uploader:

• You have a file that's way too big to attach to an email. You upload it to Screencast.com, then email the link to the file. Your recipients download it themselves. (Learn how to make content down-loadable to viewers.)
• You want to back up a bunch of videos or files. You select them all and upload them to Screencast.com via the uploader.
• You're looking for feedback on the latest (non-Jing) screencast you made. You upload it to a password-protected folder that contains previous versions. It's easy for the viewers to look at each draft.
• You need to work on something at home, but you forgot your USB drive. You can upload it to yourself.

The Desktop Uploader is easy to download and install. Be sure to keep the following in mind--especially if you're using a free Screencast.com account:

A free account comes with 2 GB bandwidth per month. Bandwidth is the total amount of data you can transfer per month. For example, if 10 people downloaded your 10 MB video, that would be 100 MB--or 5% of your monthly allowance. As you can see, using the Desktop Uploader with large files for yourself or with a small group is one thing, but trying to share a large video with hundreds of students or the public could chew up that bandwidth pretty quick. You can always check your bandwidth. Learn how here.

By default, when you share to TechSmith's Screencast.com, Jing uploads your content to a private hidden folder named, creatively enough, Jing.

This is fine, but did you know you can have up to eight Jing buttons all of which could share to Screencast.com if you were so inclined?

But why would you even want ONE additional Screencast.com button? Here's four reasons why some Jingers use them.

• Make a button for videos that you know you will use again. An example might be for frequently asked questions. When the question comes up again, don't re-make the video, just grab the link from Screencast.com. You could even make a playlist.
• Make a button that returns embed code instead of the link.
• Separate work content from play content.
• Make a button that sends content to a password protected folder for clients, or a public folder a collaborative group can access.

Some readers might be thinking, "A way I'd utilize multiple Screencast.com buttons would be if they could point to different accounts." This seems like a good idea. If only Jing wasn't tied to that Screencast.com account so much...

I digress--want more Screencast.com buttons? Here's how to do it.

Last week we posted about Screencast.com's new optimized display which can provide a nicer viewing experience and viewing option for larger images and MPEG-4 videos. Here are a couple of other new features that might be of interest to some of you.

1. All Screencast.com viewers can have improved content navigation: There are now thumbnails below your content and above are 'previous' and 'next' controls. (See an example) This feature doesn't apply to your Jing folder. There's a couple of reasons: First, you probably don't want people to be able to see all the things you Jing, and second, some people have thousands of Jings in that folder and viewers wouldn't appreciate the delayed loading time.

   You can certainly move desired content out of your Jing folder to take advantage of this convenient feature. See this post about managing your content. Learn a lot more about content management on Screencast.com.

2. Screencast.com has also released a customization feature for Screencast.com Pro customers--Page Templates which allow you to change the color, upload your logo, change the headers and footers, and customize your View pages. Check it out here.

(Click image for full size view.)

Tell us what you think!

Have you ever sent a large Jing--like a capture of your whole desktop and sent it to a viewer who replied with something like, "I loved your image/video but I had to scroll all over the place to see what was going on."

It can be the pits because even if your viewers have the same size monitor--at the same resolution as you, the web browser itself takes up some of that screen real estate so your viewer will see a "cropped" version of your content.

Let's be really clear: Screencast.com does not alter or resize your content in any way. It just initially auto-scales content over 500 pixels high to provide a good viewing experience so it can be enjoyed on all monitors. Full-size viewing is still an option--just click the full size button.

In terms of Jing, this optimized display affects images (Jing .PNG files) and Jing Pro MPEG-4 videos, SWF videos are still displayed at full size.

Screencast.com has some other new features that can benefit many Jing users, but we'll talk more about that later. If you're really curious and want to see some examples, check out the Visual Lounge--a blog operated by TechSmith's chief evangelist, Betsy Weber, and of course learn more at Screencast.com.

Stay tuned and let us know what you think!

Updated 10/28/08: Screencast.com just made it so you don't have to move your content out of the Jing folder to allow commenting. That said, learning to manage your Jing content on Screencast.com can be a very valuable skill--especially for those of you who have a ton of content and reuse it.

Mike got a little over-excited yesterday when he revealed how to allow commenting on content created with Jing. He forgot to mention one really important step: You have to move the content out of the Jing folder in order for viewers to comment. We hope to remove that necessity in the future.

Until then...it gave me a great excuse to make a video showing you how to do it (and to make fun of Mike).

So here you go... How to Allow Comenting on Jing Content:

Screencast.com recently added the option for you to allow viewers to comment on your content. The best part is that you can be notified via email when people post.

Learn more here.

Here's a tip: I name Jing content I care about with a real file name instead of using the default time stamp. This makes it easier to find it in my Screencast.com Jing folder. In fact, I often start my file name with an underscore so it's at the top of my list in the Jing folder on Screencast.com.

Learn more about managing your content on Screencast.com. And as always, you can visit http://www.screencast.com/answers for more information about Screencast.com.

Oh, and in case you've not heard, Jing is free, the Screencast.com account is free and we're here to stay.

See that thing over there on the right? It's called a MediaRoll, and it contains Anton's instructional Jing videos, all in one place! MediaRolls can contain images too--and you don't have to have a fancy blog to take advantage of providing viewers with selected content in one convenient place.

How did I make it? I'll show you. (2:48) You can do it with Jing and your Screencast.com account!

Please take note that if you're offering your MediaRoll to the public at large and lots of people are downloading videos, you could max out your allotted (1 GB per month) Screencast.com bandwidth. Learn more at the Screencast.com Help Center, or watch a video about bandwidth issues .