Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
A screen shot is an image of your entire computer screen and it is fairly easy to capture this image.
What's a screen shot and how do I make one?
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A screen shot, or screen capture, is a way to "take a picture" of your computer screen.
Why?
Say that you're trying to explain a computer problem to a technical friend of yours and you're trying to describe what you see on the screen - the dialogs, the buttons, the messages, whatever. You're not sure of the terms to use and your friend is having a difficult time understanding your description of what you see.
You know what they say: "A picture is worth a thousand words." And it can go a long way to eliminating miscommunication.
Let's take a picture of your screen and email it to your friend.
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Ever wonder what the PrtScn key is for? A long time ago, it did what you might think. Push it and your printer would print an image of whatever was on your screen. It was kinda cool.
But that's not what it does in Windows today.
When you press the PrtScn key, an image of your screen is placed on your clipboard. Now, rather than printing it, you can do something with it.
Like email it to a friend.
First, we need to make a file out of it. After you've pressed PrtScn, fire up your favorite image editor or use the Paint program that comes with Windows by pressing Start, All Programs, Accessories, and then Paint. Now in Paint (or your equivalent), hit Edit, Paste, and you should now have an image of your screen within the image editing program.
Now, save this image to a file. Typically, that means File, Save As.... Give it a file name that you'll remember. I'd also suggest selecting either a JPEG or PNG file format instead of the default bitmap; they're smaller in file size.
Hopefully, you can see the value. You're presented with a complex situation or a huge, long error message that you don't want to re-type and just wish that you could show someone. Press PrtScn, paste it into your paint program, save it to disk, and email the picture as an attachment.
A couple of additional notes:
PrtScn takes a picture of the entire current screen.
ALT+PrtScn takes a picture of the currently active window only.
PrtScn does not work on blue screens. The Windows operating system provides the PrtScn functionality and if the operating system has crashed, the function's not there.
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Have a Mac? Check out How to take a screen shot out at Mac Help For Mom.
Article C2080 - June 22, 2004
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
I like Total Screen Recorder,which could record webcam video,desktop video and upload the video to youtube freely.It could record the video as long as you wish. Not like the other screen recorder, which just let you record one minute or with large watermark on the video.http://www.totalscreenrecorder.com/
Posted by: totalscreenrecorder at March 23, 2010 9:51 PMPrntScrn button is not the best way, especially if taking screenshots is a part of work =)
Posted by: Amely Johnson at April 14, 2010 8:37 PMThere are dozens of good screen capture tools and web-sites in the net. As for me, I prefer programs, cause a site can lose a shot from the game and you'll never restore it. My favourite one is SnapaShot, it's small (no installation), quick and easy (you can work with only 2 buttons, if you hava Vista or Win 7). You can try a free version here: free screen capture software
Thank you Leo, I think that the information that you provide on your site is very informative and helpful.
I just wanted to say thank you and keep up the great work.
Sincere,
Imoni
Posted by: Imoni at October 30, 2011 11:09 AMAnother way to save a screen shot... open a Word window. After pressing "Print Screen", go to your Word window and press Control-V and ta-da, your image appears there. The nice thing about this is you can then "re-size it by clicking on the image and extending the boarders. I often use this when the print in something is too small to see or if there is something too small to see clearly in an image. I can make it larger (not more clear, sadly) and more easy to decipher!
Posted by: Roger-Cyndy Wilber at January 7, 2012 4:33 AMThe Windows 7 Snipping Tool is a nice included update of the PrintScreen method.
Posted by: chesscanoe at February 5, 2012 7:31 AMhttp://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/snipping-tool