XP comes with a built-in
capability for capturing screenshots, though it's
about as basic as screenshot capture gets. To
capture an entire screen, press the
Print Scrn button. To capture only the active screen, press Alt-Print
Scrn.
Pressing
those keys captures the screen to the
Clipboard [Hack #73], but
you'll have to paste the screen into a
graphics program in order
to save it. Use your favorite graphics program, such as Paint Shop
Pro [Hack #86], or use
XP's built-in Paint program by
choosing Start 
All Programs Accessories
Paint. Paste in the graphic, and then choose a format for
saving it.
All Programs Accessories
Paint. Paste in the graphic, and then choose a format for
saving it.
If you have
Microsoft Office, a
better bet than Paint is pasting the screen into Microsoft Photo
Editor (Start Programs Microsoft Office Tools
Microsoft Photo Editor). (Microsoft Photo Editor
doesn't come with all versions of Office, or might
not be installed by default, so it might not be available on yours.)
It offers more control over
file formats
when you save the screenshot. For example, you'll be
able to decide on the amount of compression to use on JPEG files, and
you can choose among several graphics color depths and palettes. When
you save a file, after you choose the format, click on the More
button, and you'll get options for saving in that
file format, as shown Figure 8-12. Of course, a
graphics program like Paint Shop Pro offers even more options.
Programs Microsoft Office Tools
Microsoft Photo Editor). (Microsoft Photo Editor
doesn't come with all versions of Office, or might
not be installed by default, so it might not be available on yours.)
It offers more control over
file formats
when you save the screenshot. For example, you'll be
able to decide on the amount of compression to use on JPEG files, and
you can choose among several graphics color depths and palettes. When
you save a file, after you choose the format, click on the More
button, and you'll get options for saving in that
file format, as shown Figure 8-12. Of course, a
graphics program like Paint Shop Pro offers even more options.
SnagIt
XP's built-in
capture tool, while effective, has several drawbacks. It
won't capture the
cursor or portions of the screen,
for example. To do that and more, get the ultimate screen capture
tool, SnagIt from TechSmith (http://www.snagit.com). It's
shareware and free to try, but it costs $39.95 if you decide to keep
it. In addition to letting you capture the cursor and any portion of
a screen, it will capture an entire scrollable area?such as a
scrolling web page?gives you a wide variety of options for
customizing file formats, and it will capture a screen and send it to
the printer or a web page.
First, choose what you want to
capture?the entire screen, the active window, a portion of the
window and so on. Also, configure whether to capture the cursor.
Figure 8-13 shows you the SnagIt menu options for
capturing a screen.
Next, set up the screen you want to capture and press
SnagIt's hot key for screen capture. (The default is
Ctrl-Shift-P, but you can change it.) If you've
chosen to capture an area of the screen, you'll be
able to define it using SnagIt's capture tools. If
you've chosen the option of capturing a screen that
scrolls, click on the scroll bar of the screen. Once you have the
area you want, you get a preview of the screen, as shown in Figure 8-14. You can zoom in and out on any area of the
screen to make sure it's what you want. When you
decide the screen is what you want, click Finish, select a file
format, name, and location, and you're done. To
customize your graphics
format?for example, to choose JPEG compression or change the
color depth?click on the Options button that appears when you
save a file, and make your choice.
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