Windows Print Screen Feature

Print Screen function provides basic screen capture functionality that enables you to capture the entire screen or an active window in a few steps. The captured print screen image can be manipulated using any image editor.

Steps

• Press the Print Screen key on your keyboard. The screen print is saved onto the Windows clipboard.
• Paste it into Wordpad or Word document.
• If you have multiple windows open and to capture the screen image of the active window, hold the [Alt] key down and press Print Screen.

• A specific region or part of an image cannot be captured as the screen print dumps the entire screen or an active window.
• Cursors cannot be captured nor can you have pointers, call-out boxes, or text areas.
• The captured screen print requires an external editor for manipulation resulting in additional work and time.

Screen Capture Programs

There are several screen capture programs available that offer good features. A few of them are listed below:

SnagIt: This is the most popular screen capture program offering a wide range of features. that include:

• Modifying images similar to an image editor. You can Rotate, Flip, Sharpen, or apply special effects.
• You can capture Windows Objects such as Folders, Icons, Buttons etc.
• Batch Processing capabilities.
• Capture Regions, Pull-down menus, scrolling windows with ease.
• Video recording capabilities.
• Save output as a file or to your clipboard.
• Printer Capture feature enables to capture the printer output as an image file.
• Using add-ins you can use SnagIt from Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Internet Explorer, and Adobe FrameMaker. More on their website.

Hypersnap: One of the popular screen capture programs is Hypersnap. Provides several features such as non-rectangular screen capture, auto-scroll feature to capture long web pages, button capture, and much more. More on their website.

Screen Hunter: Provides the basic version of its screen capture program, Screen Hunter 4.0 absolutely Free. This version provides features that should suffice if you are not looking for advanced options. Features include:

• Capture a Region, Active, window, or the full screen.
• Timed Capture capabilities.
• Capture Cursor position.
• Capture to Clipboard or as a file. Supports Bitmap, JPEG, and GIF modes.
• Visit their website for details.

Related posts:

1. Using Screenshot Feature in Word 2010