How to Take a Screenshot
November 9th, 2010
- Keyboard Shortcut Method
- Images Saved as Files to Desktop
- Images Placed into the Clipboard
- Altering the default location of the saved files
- Grab Utility Method
- Video
Windows
In Windows XP
- Find out what key(s) on your keyboard you need to press to take a screenshot. It may be just pressing PrintScreen, PrtScrn, or pressing Fn or Ctrl then pressing another key.
- Press the screenshot keyboard shortcut that your keyboard uses to take a screenshot.(On the page that you want to take a screenshot.)
- Open Microsoft Paint or Microsoft Word. To do this, click Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint. Click inside the white part of the screen.
- Go to the Edit menu and click Paste or you can press and hold "Ctrl" and tap V. Then you may crop if you like.
- Click File > Save As. In the box that pops up, change the "Save As Type" to PNG or JPG. Type in a file name for your image. Choose a place to save, like the Desktop, and click save.
- If you want to send your image to somebody, simply attach the .png file that you just saved to an email and send it along. Alternatively, you can upload it onto the internet by visiting a site like TinyPic.com and uploading it.
In Windows Vista
- In Windows Vista (except in Home Basic), there is a tool called the Snipping Tool.
To open it, click on the start menu, type snip, then hit enter (the latest version of Windows Vista updates the search results as you type each letter). - Click on Snipping Tool.
- The Snipping Tool opens, and a white mask is applied on the screen. In the drop-down menu for the 'New' button, choose from a free-form snip, rectangular snip, window snip, or full-screen snip.
- In free-form snip mode, draw around the area you want to be captured. Drag a rectangle in rectangular snip mode. For window snip mode, select the window you want to capture. In full-screen mode, just selecting it from the drop-down menu makes the capture.
- The snipped image is then opened within the Snipping Tool, but is also copied to the Windows clipboard for use in other applications.
In Windows 7
- If you want to take screenshots in Windows 7 it comes with little program called Snipping Tool, which can be found in the Start Menu/All Programs/Accessories.
- You can take a screenshot of the entire screen, a window or just a selection of the screen, that you select.
- In Windows 7, you can also take a screenshot by pressing Alt, Print Screen. You must hold down alt when you press print screen. I think this is easier to take a screenshot than the snipping tool if you want the whole screen.
Video
Tips
- If you want to take screenshot of just the active window (usually the one that's in front of all the others and activated), press "Alt – Print Screen". This means, you should hold down the Alt key and then press the Print Screen key.
- A quicker way of accessing Microsoft Paint can be achieved by pressing the Windows key (Between "Ctrl" and "Alt" on many keyboards") and "R", then typing 'mspaint' in the box that appears.
- Many laptops, to conserve keyboard space, have mapped the "PrtSc" key as a primary or secondary function on a shared key. To take a screenshot with "PrtSc" mapped to a key as a secondary function, you will need to locate your notebook's function key (usually labeled "Fn" and located along the bottom row) and engage it before touching "PrtSc."
- Depending on your version of Windows, Paint will allow you to save the screenshot in different formats.
- BMP is the default option (a lossless uncompressed format)
- PNG is a lossless compressed format which also supports transparency
- JPEG is a lossy, compressed image format, specifically developed for photographic images. For these images, it allows for the smallest file size with a good quality.
- GIF just supports a limited number of colors. This format is outdated and shouldn't be used anymore.
- If you plan on putting your screenshot on a website, be sure it does not exceed a suggested size limit
An unsuccessful attempt
- It is also possible to pause an internet video and make a screenshot of it. In this way you can create a still from a video, e.g. from Youtube.
- As a rule your video player allows to make the video full screen and high quality, and to stop at the frame you want.
- This capturing method may not work if you play the video from version 11 or newer from Windows Media Player.
- You can use additional software to simplify process of screenshoting.
- For some computers all you have to do is to press the print screen button, then the picture goes straight to your hard drive.
Warnings
- Saving a screenshot in some file types (such as bitmaps) will result in a very large file. Because of this it's highly recommended to use the PNG format.
- Some people will be annoyed if you email them a large attachment, remember to crop and convert.
Mac OS X
Keyboard Shortcut Method
- Hold down the COMMAND [Apple/Clover Leaf] and SHIFT keys
- Press 3 for a screen shot of the entire screen
Hold both
and 
and Press 
- Press 4 to get a "Crosshairs" so you can select just a section of the screen you want a screenshot for!
Hold both
and 
and press
- Press the space bar after you press 4 if you want it to automatically size the screenshot so that it perfectly matches the window it's over. After you press the space bar, a camera icon should come up.
- Know that the resulting file will be placed on your desktop, named Picture X.pdf for versions of 10.3 or earlier and Picture X.png for 10.4 and later (could also end in .jpg).
- Press Esc to cancel.
Images Saved as Files to Desktop
- Command – Shift – Option-3: Screenshot of full screen placed as file on desktop. Saves it to the desktop
- Command – Shift – Space Bar-4, then drag and drop mouse over selected area: Screenshot of selected area as file on desktop.
- Command – Shift – 4, then space, then click a window: Screenshot of selected window placed as file on desktop.
Images Placed into the Clipboard
- Command-Control-Shift-3: Screenshot of full screen placed in clipboard.
- Command-Control-Shift-4, then drag and drop mouse over selected area: Screenshot of selected area placed in clipboard.
- Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Screenshot of selected window placed in clipboard.
Altering the default location of the saved files
By default the files are placed from the Screencapture tool to the desktop as PNG files. This is not the best method and fills your desktop if not managed. The easiest way to solve this is to make a location folder. For this example we will use a screenshots folder on the desktop.
- Create a folder called screenshots (or whatever you wish to call it).
- Open a terminal screen and copy the following:
- defaults write com.apple.screencapture location #**/Users/myname/Desktop/screenshots
- Replace the /myname/ with the your username on your Mac.
- If you are unsure simply copy: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location into the terminal then drag the new screenshots folder into the terminal and the path will automatically be written.
Grab Utility Method
- Click on Finder > Applications > Utilities and look for a program called Grab.
- Open the Grab application. You will see the menus shown, but no windows will open.
- Click on Capture > Screen, or just use the keyboard command Apple key + Z. A window will pop up telling you where to click, and letting you know that the window will not appear in the shot.
- Perhaps play around with some other options, such as "Selection" and "Window".
- When you've taken your screen shot, the snapshot will appear in a new little window of its own. When this window is selected, you will be able to "Save", or "Save As" with a new name to a more appropriate location if you want to – but it can only be saved as a .tiff file. The file is not automatically saved.
Video
Categories: Setup Guides
