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One of the biggest issues facing the modern workforce, in my opinion, is digital clutter and miscommunication.
Sure, working remotely for over a year made us realize how easy it can be to stay in touch with the office while still being at home to tend to laundry, keep an extra eye on the kids, and just avoid wrath-inducing traffic. As a project manager for a digital content production team, I love that WFH freedom, but I absolutely hate how many pointless conversations get stretched out due to confusing emails, overly dense processes, and general disorder of all sorts.
Typically when I talk about these concerns, colleagues and friends recommend yet another program or app that'll magically fix all of my problems. But platform fatigue is real, so I've avoided adding anything to the mix. Until, that is, I heard an especially compelling pitch about not another project management app but an extremely handy tool.
The Tool Writers Swear By
In digital marketing, content helps a lot, so naturally, a huge part of my job as a PM is overseeing the workflow of our writers who collaborate with editors, SEO specialists, social media managers, photographers, etc. A lot of people can weigh in on a particular article or piece of work, and it can get really confusing really quickly. With every department sending their own documents with different notes, those clutter-related anxieties hung like an ever-present weight on my shoulders.
I was lamenting about this several months ago, and a new writer we had just hired told me that she had the answer to all of our communication problems. She had just come from another company that used this tool that made it easy to weigh in on a single piece of content with really intuitive note-taking features. To my surprise, she said that its primary function was taking screenshots.
The Unexpected Benefits of Screenshots
The tool the writer was talking about is called Markup Hero, and right now you can get a 2-year subscription on sale for just $48 (reg. $120) or a 1-year subscription for just $27 ($60). Designed to speed up workflows and boost productivity, it was easy for our entirely remote team to pick up this screenshot and annotation tool, as it's made for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome.
It was Immediately apparent how using screenshots to hone in on specific areas of written content as well as works of graphic design, programming code, and even decks changed the energy of our work environment. Markup Hero got us in sync in a way that I'd always wanted and never thought was possible.
How Markup Hero Streamlines Information
As we used Markup Hero more and more, we found that discovering new ideas for improving our content, communicating those ideas, and staying organized all happened easier and more organically. The greatest benefit of this shift was that we began to save a lot of time on our processes.
Basically, if anyone on our team has to share notes on a specific project, they take a screenshot with the app and its image/PDF uploader, and then they use the included annotation tools to relay their notes, suggestions, and questions. By keeping these screenshots in an organized catalog, we're able to consolidate a diverse team's collection of notes on a single project in a single space.
Looking Back on Process
The Markup Hero app allows teams to clearly communicate their messages on any image, PDF, or website, and looking back on our history of notes has been a productivity game-changer. It also helps that Markup Hero lets you access all of your markups and keep them well organized with titles, collections, history, and custom privacy settings.
Like a professional sports team, we review our processes by looking back on our easy-to-read notes and advice from draft to draft on a particular project. Being able to have that quick reference saves a lot of time when we're trying to figure out why a particular word was used in one article or a particular logo on a certain page, and so on.
So Many Possibilities
Our team is also really inspired by the range of features associated with Markup Hero. You can annotate screenshots with a wide range of shapes and graphics including plain text, arrows, lines, rectangles, ovals, pens, highlighters, and blurs — all of the essentials of any digital toolbox.
Other departments that work on our company's projects and presentations for clients have found their own unique uses for the app's crop canvas, download markup, and duplicate markup features. As we've all found our workflow to have improved severalfold since beginning to use Markup Hero, different team members have even recommended the app to colleagues, peers, and friends.
People Love Markup Hero
And after a little research, it turns out we're not alone. Having looked at a few reviews, I'm happy to see that the workforce at large is supporting this useful and intuitive tool. I saw that it's earned 4.7 out of 5 stars on Capterra, 4.5 out of 5 stars on G2, and it earned some kind words from qualified users. Capterra's Jeheen Mahmood wrote, "This is a must-have. I can literally save hours every day by annotating screenshots instead of typing instructions for my team." And Chrome Web Store's Skoshly MarTEch wrote, "This is undoubtedly one of the best screenshot and annotation tools I've used. It's my true hero without the cape."
Now you might be reading this and wondering how some app that takes screenshots can inspire so much positivity and enthusiasm. And the truth is, my enthusiasm is for what the app freed me from. I know what it's like to be buried under a mountain of digital clutter and crossed wires while producing projects, although, I'm beginning to forget that feeling — I haven't had it since our team got our hands on Markup Hero.
If you feel like I once did (and who doesn't these days?), then you might want to get the Markup Hero: Screenshot & Annotation App. A two-year subscription is usually $120, but you can score it right now for just $48, a savings of 60%.
