How to make a screenshot layout without VB

Question

I am looking for a program for creating screenshots with layouts. At first, I found out that I could do this using Visual Basic (the uglier names that I had not heard from the programming language) from joelonsoftware.com . I do not want to start learning VB now, especially since I am still involved in the Java learning process. Then I found mockupscreens.com , with the search bar "how to make screenshots layouts". But, seeing that I will use this program quite rarely, I don’t think I paid $ 80, because it's worth it.

The layouts that I would like to do will be mainly for Windows XP (maybe also for GNOME, KDE and Mac OSX, but they are not priority).

Edit: Balsamiq is proposed, but it is also not proprietary.

Answer 1

Balsamiq

Answer 2

Visio works well if you have one.

Personally, I like paper and pen. Then I cannot get bogged down in WATCH it and go more for convenience and functionality. Same thing with websites.

After you have the infront form of the client, you have zero room for moving - you don’t deliver the pixel-perfect, they become ... evil. :)

Answer 3

You do not need to learn the language to use the visual form designer from Visual Studio to create layouts. In addition, Express Edition Visual Studio is freely available in several languages, namely VB, C # and C ++. Choose. The whole ship with the same form designer that generates code in one of the languages. But if you only need a designer, the code may not be relevant for you.

Answer 4

For this purpose, Microsoft Visio used a template containing common elements of the Windows interface. I don’t know if this all does.

Answer 5

Jeff Attwood posted this on CodingHorror - where he mentions Powerpoint Prototyping

Answer 6

pen and paper or, if possible, blackboard. Once you have something that you personally think it might work, I would choose a computer model as complex as you can, so you don’t waste time matching the font size before the workflow, etc. . The tool I used here is my visual designer Visual Studio (it doesn't look too good with screenshots, is good enough to convey what you would like to build).

Answer 7

As expected, C # Express would be good for this, like VB, it has a GUI designer, but it is also syntactically similar to Java, so considering what you are trying to learn and what to do with it might be good landing.

Answer 8

Pencil (works in firefox)

Answer 9

There is a fairly comprehensive list here: http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?GuiPrototypingTools

The important point is whether the tool has a “black and white” (or “drawn”) skin for your layouts, as others have already commented. Many of the tools (including my own, MockupScreens) do.

Answer 10

wxGlade will work as well as free software.

Answer 11

http://balsamiq.com/ has already been mentioned, but I want to explain why I like it. This will allow you to sketch a screenshot, and it still looks like a pen and a paper version or discussion on a blackboard.

If you tell in detail about your screenshot, the client will think that you have "done" and do not understand what makes you finish the project for so long. Thus, this "fragmentation" serves as another layer of abstraction.

Answer 12

MockupUI is another one, but its layouts don't look like drawn ones. They look like real things and with real data. It allows you to draw wireframes, as well as your own widgets that inherit their appearance from your OS configuration (for example, the visual style of Windows).

About layouts with high accuracy: the risk that the client believes that it has already been completed is minimal while you make your layouts at the design stage of your project (which is before the start of the code). On the contrary, the sketch may be too abstract for the client to digest if he is not a software developer. Sketches are for developers, not customers.

Frames (or sketches) and layouts are not the same thing, and they have different uses. One of them is to explain the functionality, the other is an idea of ​​how the product will look. Check out Yisela's message about the difference between wireframes and layouts .

Your question was about software for screenshots of layouts, but you have finished buying a fairly powerful framework software.