How to Create a Screen Capture

SnagIt

A screen capture is a picture of a computer screen. Screen captures (also called screen shots) are useful for presentations and how-to guides and can easily be placed in documents.

1. First you must select what you want to capture.

The options are:

• Screen – captures the full Windows desktop (image, text, video captures)
• Window – captures all of selected window or part of it (image, text, video captures)
• Active Window – captures the active window (image, text, video captures)
• Region – captures the rectangular region of the input screen you select (image, text, video captures)
• Fixed Region – captures the rectangular fixed region you select. The dimensions and location can be typed in screen pixel coordinates. (image, text, video captures)
• Object – captures windows objects and gives you better control over exactly what is captured (image and text captures)
• Menu – captures drop-down menus (image captures only)
• Shapes – select one of five different shapes on screen to capture (image captures only)
• Advanced – advanced options for capturing (image captures only)
• Multiple Area – captures more than one selected area at the same time (image captures only)
• Include Cursor – includes cursor in capture (image and video captures)
• Auto Scroll – captures the extended contents of a window containing horizontal or vertical scroll bars (image and text captures)
• Record Audio – captures audio in “real time” (video captures only)
• Fixed Address – captures web images from a specified address (web captures only)
• Prompt for Address – captures web images from an address to be specified after the capture has started (web captures only)

2. Now select where you want the image you capture to be sent.

This is called Output. Click on “Output” on the menu bar and select of the options.
The options are:

• Printer – prints capture to default printer
• Clipboard – saves capture to Window’s clipboard (use paste to place image in a document)
• File – saves image to a file format. The format changes depending on the type of capture you are performing (ie video, text, web)
• Send mail – sends image to e-mail client
• Catalog – sends image to SnagIt catalog folder
• Web Output – sends to a web server
• Studio – sends image to SnagIt Studio for editing
• Preview Window – allows you to view image before selecting output
• Multiple Output – allows you to send image to multiple destinations

3. Now you are ready to create a screen capture. Simply press the SnagIt hotkey or capture button!

• Note: A hotkey is a key shortcut to create a capture. To create a hotkey go to Options > Program Preferences then select “Hotkeys”

4. Upon completion a Preview Window will pop up. You can decide to discard the image or keep it. Keeping the image will send it to the output destination.

 

Annotating an image

To include annotations to an image caputured by snagIt, do the following:

1.	Open snagIt by clicking: start -> programs-> snagIt 6-> snagIt.
2.	Capture the image you want, click on Effects then Annotations.
3.	Type in your text, click options to modify the text and choose the location of your annotation.
4.	click ok.
5.	Click finish.

Creating a screen capture on a Windows platform

1. Open and setup the windows you want to capture and leave them up on the screen.

2. On the right side of your keyboard you should see a group of three keys. The lower set of keys usually is a group of arrow keys. Above that is usually a set of some six keys that are labeled “Insert,” “Home,” “Page Up,” etc. Above that should be three keys that have rather odd labels – like Pause/Break and ScrLk. One of those keys should be labeled PrtScrn/SysRq. (Note: if you are using a laptop, the PrtScrn/SysRq button may be in a different location; usually in the upper right handcorner of the keyboard).

3. If you press PrtScrn/SysRq, nothing will appear to have happened. However, your computer just took a snapshot of its screen and stored that picture on its clipboard, like the information that you copy and paste.

4. If you now open up Word, or some other word processing program, you can paste the image into it by pressing the keys Ctrl + V or by simply selecting “Edit” from the toolbar and clicking on “Paste.” You can also paste the image into a graphics editing program like Adobe Photoshop and crop/resize your image.

Creating a screen capture on a Mac platform

There are two ways to create a screen capture on a Mac platform:

• Press the keys Shift+Cmd+3. This captures the entire screen and stores it as a picture (that opens as a simple text document) on the root of your Macintosh hard drive. Once done you can open the picture in a graphics program for editing.

• Press Shift+Cmd+4. This will bring up “crosshairs” that allow you to select what you want. Then, you can select any area of the screen and your selection will be stored as a picture (that opens as a simple text document) on the root of your Macintosh hard drive. Once done you can open the picture in a graphics program for editing.