Print or copy!

[Robert Reed]

In the past I have had the need to print directly from the screen, such as browser home page, various program windows, etc. Unsuccessful! I think it also goes under the name of "Screen Shot".
Now I have need to print a program window from IE or even copying it would do. I have tried the "Print Screen " key and to no avail. Various suggestions on how to import,export or open in different programs have failed. I have seen some of you do this on the forum, so whats the secret? I have Windows XP - service pack 3 and IE - version 7.
I

[CeaSaR]

Robert,

In successive versions of Windows, different keystrokes got you the PRNSCR,
or on mine, PrtSc. What this does is put a copy of the active screen in the clipboard.
If you do not have a shortcut to the clipboard, look for it under :
C:\WINDOWS\system32\clipbrd.exe
You cannot print directly from the clipboard, you must paste the screenshot into
another program such as Paint or Word. Then you may print your screenshot.

If you want to see if the PrnScr key is working, just open up Paint, hit the key and
then paste it onto the work area. You should have a copy of "Paint" in Paint! If that
doesn't happen, it may not be enabled. I do't know where to look for that.

CeaSaR

[Bigglez]

I have seen some of you do this on the forum, so whats the secret?

The 'secret' for me was the purchase of a utility called Print Screen Deluxe
from American Systems. Costs $34.95 for an on-line download.

Pressing the existing Print Screen dedicated key on any standard
PC keyboard launches a cursor to capture the visible screen, and
save it as a JPG image. It has multiple options, about half of which
I don't need or use for my simple needs. I like simple.

[reloadron]

Generally in Windows XP there are a few easy ways to take a screenshot. The first is the entire screen, the entire screen can be taken by doing a Windows Key + PrtScn (the Windows key is generally between the Ctrl and Alt keys). That should save the image to the clipboard. To paste the image in a document or paint program just use Ctrl + V (paste) or right click on the area to paste into and choose Paste. Next to get a screenshot of the active Window try doing a Alt + PrtScr to copy the active window to the clipboard then the usual Ctrl + V to paste it.

Also, versions of Windows Vista (I think only versions above Home Basic) has a cool little and useful feature called "Snip". Snip allows the user to draw an outline around the area to be copied to the clipboard.

In 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 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.

Snip will also allow you to very easily save the image in several formats. Pretty cool little tool. Snip also allows you to select text areas.

So there you have a few good options. Personally I use a feature in an old version of PSP 7 which offers more options like the little program Bigglez uses but the above methods all work fine.

Ron

[Bob Scott]

Shift-PrintScrn has always worked for me in Win 3.1, Win NT, Win XP.

[Bigglez]

Shift-PrintScrn has always worked for me in Win 3.1, Win NT, Win XP.

Great! Can you select the area that is captured with your method?

[Robert Reed]

Thank you fellas
All suggestions worked well, However as Ceasar does it, I just have to hit " Print Screen" only
and then paste it into WordPad. Trying to paste into Paint made a HUGE picture - so large it could not be E-Mailed as an attachment (over the server limit). I never could figure out the Paint program or its usefulness and for that reason never use it.

[SETEC_Astronomy]

...Trying to paste into Paint made a HUGE picture - so large it could not be E-Mailed as an attachment (over the server limit)...

When pasting and subsequently saving a screenshot in paint the default save format is a bitmap (uncompressed), if you save it as a jpeg the file size will be much smaller.

[Bob Scott]

Shift-PrintScrn has always worked for me in Win 3.1, Win NT, Win XP.

Great! Can you select the area that is captured with your method?

Of course. See here:

http://www.electro-tech-online.com/gene ... posts.html

You didn't know?

[Bigglez]

Of course. See here:
(Link deleted)
You didn't know?

Nope. My solution have worked flawlessly for years now.
Your link was ambiguous - does your method allow selective
copy with a cursor, or just the active window, or the whole visible screen?

Seems like a lot of work to me to follow the recipe given in your link...

[SETEC_Astronomy]

...Your link was ambiguous - does your method allow selective
copy with a cursor, or just the active window, or the whole visible screen?...

Does your method cost money? Why pay for what can be done for free with slightly more effort? I'm sure there's an open source version of the program should you choose to have yet another application running in the background but I personally couldn't justify it's use.

The same results your program provides could be obtained by pressing print sreen, opening paint, pressing ctrl+v, draging to select what part of the image you want, press ctrl+c, then goto edit, select paste new and save, done! Again more effort but I'd say the majority of us here use print screen far less than you. For an action only performed on a rare occasion I think the previous method would be sufficient.

I understand we all use computers in different ways so I'll say you have your method and we have ours, there's no harm in people proposing several solutions to a given problem.

[Bigglez]

Does your method cost money? Why pay for what can be done for free with slightly more effort?

Free market. Why handicap one's self to cut corners?
In my world time IS money.

Frankly, $35 over five years has cost me all of twelve cents
per month. Hardly a high cost for the convenience delivered.

I understand we all use computers in different ways so I'll say you have your method and we have ours, there's no harm in people proposing several solutions to a given problem.

Correct. I was unaware of "your method" so I inquired of the
expert using it to see how it compares to what I'm doing.

I'm still unclear if the method given earlier includes cursors to
set the size of the area captured (or if post-capture
manipulation is required before posting here).

[CeaSaR]

When using the Windows supplied PrintScreen, the 2 basic areas selected (by Windows)
are Full Screen - everything viewable on the desktop including any open windows, from
the top of the screen (including titlebars, menus, etc.) all the way down to and including
the taskbar, done by just pressing the PRNSCRN key; and Current window - just the
current highlighted window including everything that makes up that window from the titlebar
to whatever is at the bottom of the window, IE has an information bar by default and that
would be captured, done by pressing ALT and PRNSCRN keys simultaneously. Whichever one
you use, that screenshot is placed in the clipboard, which can be pasted into any program
that can receive that particular type of information (text, DIB, etc.), for screenshots it would
be in DIB format (bitmap). You would then paste this into Paint, Photoshop, whatever your
program of choice might be, and do as reloadron has said in his post. Just use that picture program
to select the area you want.

In my profession, I have to use images available from the web to interpret spacial relationships.
While your Print Screen Deluxe could be very useful, the Windows included PRNSCRN works better
because I have a full copy of the screen to refer back to, instead of having to go back to the web
to find the exact image situated in the exact way I was looking at it the first time around. From this
screenshot I can copy any part I want, or pare it down to just what I need in any number of programs.

But that's my situation. Your situation seems different, where you need to be able to grab a shot of
something you are working on to show someone exactly what you are seeing. Technical writing perhaps?
I can see where "PSD" can save you lots of time there.

CeaSaR

[Bob Scott]

Nope. My solution have worked flawlessly for years now. Your link was ambiguous - does your method allow selective copy with a cursor, or just the active window, or the whole visible screen?

Ambiguous? Bigglez, you need more reading lessons.

Seems like a lot of work to me to follow the recipe given in your link...

Ya, I guess it is.

Generally in Windows XP there are a few easy ways to take a screenshot. The first is the entire screen, the entire screen can be taken by doing a Windows Key + PrtScn (the Windows key is generally between the Ctrl and Alt keys). That should save the image to the clipboard. To paste the image in a document or paint program just use Ctrl + V (paste) or right click on the area to paste into and choose Paste. Next to get a screenshot of the active Window try doing a Alt + PrtScr to copy the active window to the clipboard then the usual Ctrl + V to paste it.

I did some experimenting in XP. PrintScr, Shf+PrtScr, Ctrl+PrtScr, and WinKey+PrtScr all do the same thing, copy the screen. Alt+PrtScr copies the active window. If the active window is in full screen, it does the same as the other combinations.

Edit: Just fixing a spelling error. I don' wanna get (sic)'d.

[reloadron]

Also for what it may or may not be worth if your curiosity ever gets the best of you and for some reason want to see what is on the clipboard Windows XP has a clipboard viewer. It's not exactly a program that jumps right out at you but it is in there. Sometimes people who run certain applications have a need to view the clipboard content. They are the primary users of the clipboard viewer. The file is located in C:\WINDOWS\system32 and is named clipbrd.exe. You can navigate to it (assuming C:\ is your OS drive and run it, you can create a desktop shortcut to it and run it or you can use a simple two like script to run it from the desktop. I use this in XP Pro. It is not the same in Vista systems. Anyway, if for any reason you have this curiosity to view the clipboard content there you go.

Ron