BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Just jump right in.
SEE ALSO
77 Convert Between Image Formats
If you need to capture a screen from your PC and use it on a web page, XP includes only a very primitive, awkward tool. To do it in XP, first press Shift+Print Scrn . That action captures the entire screen to the Windows XP Clipboard. Then you can open a graphics program such as Paint. (To open Paint, click the Start button, choose All Programs, Accessories, Paint .) When Paint opens, paste the screen from the Clipboard into it by choosing Edit, Paste from the menu. Now that the screen is in Paint, you can save it.
There are several problems with this process, though. When you save a screen this way, you can only save the entire screenyou can't save a portion of one. You also don't get a wide range of graphics formats to which you can save. And the whole thing is very awkward and kludgy.
76. Capture a Screenshot
There's a better way. Use downloadable software to save screens. The best for the purpose is SnagIt, as you'll see in this task.
1. | Download and Install SnagIt Go to www.snagit.com and click the Download button at the top of the page. Follow the instructions for downloading and installing the program. NOTE SnagIt is shareware, which means that you can try it out for free, but if you continue to use the program, you're expected to pay $39.95. You can pay directly on the website. |
2. | Run SnagIt and Choose Your Profile Double-click the SnagIt icon on the desktop, or choose it from the Start, All Programs menu. When SnagIt runs, you'll see a list of what the program calls Basic Capture Profiles . Each profile allows you to do a different kind of screen capture. For example, the first one, A Region to File , lets you capture a portion of a screen and then save it as a file in a wide variety of graphics formats. The Entire Screen profile captures your entire screen to a file. To find out the details about a profile, click it and look in the Capture Settings area on the right side of the screen for information about that profile. You'll see the following information for each profile: NOTE A particularly useful feature of SnagIt is its capability to specify a delay time before the screen is captured (for example, if you want to arrange windows or menus before the screen is captured). To use it, click the Timer Setup icon (it looks like a stopwatch) at the bottom of the right side of the screen and fill in the form.
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3. | Take the Screenshot Arrange the screen in whatever manner constitutes the screenshot you want to capture (for example, a website). Press the SnagIt hotkey, which by default is Ctrl+Shift+P . If you've chosen to capture an entire screen or the current window, the SnagIt Capture Preview window appears, letting you preview your file. If you want to save the capture, click the Finish (File) button in the toolbar at the top of the window, navigate to the place on your hard disk where you want to save the file, give the file a filename, and click Save . If you've chosen an option such as capturing a portion of the screen, a cropping tool appears, letting you define the portion of the screen you want to capture. After you stop dragging the area to crop, the Capture Preview window appears. Save the screenshot as explained in the previous paragraph. |
4. | Create a New Profile To create a new profile, go back to the main SnagIt screen (the one that lists all the profiles). Click the Add New Profile Wizard button at the bottom of the list. A wizard runs, first asking you what type of capture mode you want to use. Make your selection and click Next . The wizard will walk you through every step of choosing all the options for a new profilethe options described in step 2 of this task. In the final step, you'll be asked to name the profile and to choose a hotkey for it. Make sure that you choose a hotkey that isn't used by any other program or by Windows XP. Don't forget to give the profile a descriptive name , as well. |
5. | Use Your New Profile To use your new profile, minimize the SnagIt window (click the Minimize button in the upper-right corner of the title bar) and go to the screen you want to capture. Press the hotkey you've defined for your new profile, and use SnagIt as outlined earlier in this task. |
6. | Use Your Screenshot After you've saved your screenshot, you can use it as you would any other graphics file; for example, in a newsletter, in a report in a Word document, to send as an email attachment, and so on. |