Wink is a small and useful tool that enables you to record desktop action or Windows applications, in order to create tutorials or animations in Flash.

This type of software is ideal for users who want to create "how-to" or demonstration videos, and share them online.

The user interface is standard, but simple to use. The user guide is nicely drawn, and Wink keeps in mind the fact that there are some users who have never used such a program.

When you bring up the new project wizard, you can enable screenshot capturing, audio recording, but you can also hide the Wink window.

Plus, you can customize scren size, current mouse position, and timed capture rate (capture a continuous animation), while input-driven capture (used to create tutorials) can be taken at a mouse click or key press.

Once a tutorial or basic animation is complete, you can customize it by adding text boxes, images, preset shapes, previous or next button, goto URL or goto frame button, by removing the mouse cursor etc.

In addition, when you create multiple tutorials by using the same pattern, you don't have to redefine it every time. Just create a template and save it.

A file can be exported as HTML, PDF or PostScript, but it's simpler to save it as a Flash file if you plan on using it on websites.

The size of your output file will depend on the FPS (frames per second) and the multitude of colors you are using.

System memory resources are moderately consumed when Wink is running.

To sum things up, Wink is an excellent program for recording animations and tutorials, and we haven't encountered any problems with it. But the best part about it is that it's free!