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Make Screen Shots
Chapter 2: Capturing A Specific WindowYou can also capture specific Windows (again, this method
may not work with some programs,
particularly some games (particularly games that use
DirectX) and multimedia programs -
to get round this, see Chapter 4 of this
tutorial).
Here's how to do it:
- Make sure your screen is set to the same
color depth as you want the screen shot.
For example, if you want a 256 color screen shot, set your screen to 256
color mode.
You can do this, by right clicking on the Windows desktop, picking
Properties... on the pop-up menu that appears, and then going to
the Settings tab.
Please Note: If you plan to put the screen shot on your web site, or in an
eBook,
then you should save the screenshot as
GIF or PNG.
While more sophisticated paint programs
generally support both of these formats, the Windows Paint accessory only supports
GIF. Anyway, the key point is, if you plan
to save the screenshot as GIF, you'll need
to set your screen to 256 colors or less, as
GIF only allows a maximum of 256 colors.
- Bring the window that you want to capture to the front by clicking
on it's title bar.
- When you're ready to capture the window, hold down the Alt key
and press the Print Screen key (in other words press Alt+PrintScreen).
This copies the current window to the Windows clipboard.
- You're now ready to paste from the clipboard into your
painting software.
Start the paint program.
More sophisticated paint programs usually have an option to create a
brand new image from the content of the clipboard. Look for an option
called something like New from Clipboard (on the File menu),
or Paste as New Image (on the Edit menu). Select the option,
then Save the image, and you're done.
(Don't forget to save as GIF or
PNG if you want to use your screenshot on
your web site or in an
eBook).
If you only have the Paint accessory program that comes with Windows, then
do this:
- Start Paint.
- Click Attributes... on the Edit menu, and change both the
Width and Height of the image to 1
pixel,
then click OK.
Paint will now look a little odd, with a very tiny (1 by 1 pixel
image).
- Click Paste on the Edit menu.
A message box will appear saying
"The image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap. Would you like
the bitmap enlarged?". Click Yes in response to this message.
- Paint will now contain an image that is the exact same size as your
capture. Save your work, and you're done.
(Don't forget to save as GIF if
you want to use your screenshot on
your web site or in an
eBook).
Here's an example of a window that I captured using this techique:
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