Converting 'screen print' to a bitmap or jpg

[Guest]

Hi all

I have to take screen prints from Word, Excel and Outlook (dialog boxes etc)
and save them as bitmaps or jpg's. I have never done this before and the
only way I can think of is to copy/paste into Paint. However, when I do that
it copies the whole screen, ie. the Word screen and the dialog box?

As I don't use Paint to any degree, I am presuming there is a 'crop' feature
in there so I can remove part of the image that I don't need.

Is this the only way to do it or Is there an easier way??

Thank you.

Louise

 

[Stefan Blom]

Press and hold the ALT key and then press the Print Screen key; this
should limit the screen shot to the dialog box which has the focus.

 

[Guest]

Hi Stefan

Thank you for your speedy reply! Is Paint the easiest function to use for
what I am trying to do?

Louise

 

[Stefan Blom]

Note that there are probably better products to make a screen shot
than Print Screen and Paint. One such application which I have heard
about (but never actually used myself) is SnagIt from Techsmith (see
http://www.techsmith.com). Alternatively, you can search the web.

 

[Stefan Blom]

Hi Stefan

Thank you for your speedy reply!

You are welcome.

Is Paint the easiest function to use for
what I am trying to do?

Probably not. See the other response.

 

[Guest]

Thank you, I'll see what else I can find.

Louise

 

[Graham Mayor]

SnagIt is outstanding - and there is a demo. All the screen shots on my web
site were made with SnagIt.

--
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Graham Mayor - Word MVP

My web site www.gmayor.com

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[Amedee Van Gasse]

Stefan Blom shared this with us in microsoft.public.word.docmanagement:

Note that there are probably better products to make a screen shot
than Print Screen and Paint. One such application which I have heard
about (but never actually used myself) is SnagIt from Techsmith (see
http://www.techsmith.com). Alternatively, you can search the web.

I have used the trial of SnagIt and it is excellent if you only need
screenshots.

Also good are yer usual image manipulation programs like:

* PhotoShop (too expensive, too combersome);
* Paint Shop Pro (cheaper and excellent for about 90% of all image
manipulation you'll ever need to do);
* The Gimp (featurewise comparable to Paint Shop Pro but this is
Free(libre) Software)

I have used all three. Google Is Your Friend for other software.


One last recommendation about the file format:
* bitmap (bmp) images are good quality but too big (several megabytes
for a fullscreen screenshot)
* jpeg (jpg) images are either too blurry for screenshots or too big
(depending on compression)
* gif is very good for screenshots (good quality, small size) but
limited to 256 colors
* Portable Network Graphics (png) is comparable to gif for quality and
file size, but supports up to 16M colors (true color)

If you are interested, I advise you to google some reading material on
the various image formats, and also google up the difference between
lossy and lossless compression.

 

[Stefan Blom]

SnagIt is outstanding - and there is a demo. All the screen shots on my web
site were made with SnagIt.

Good to know.

 

[Guest]

Thank you all for your input. That should keep me busy for a while!

Louise

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I use SnagIt for the illustrations on my Web pages as well. It is easy to
use and offers a lot of useful editing tools and special effects. Although
it is not intended as a full-fledged photo editing or illustration program,
it does have the ability to save in a lot of file formats, and I've used it
some for file conversions and editing.

In addition to being able to capture anything you can see on your screen,
SnagIt can capture things you can't see, such as scrolling menus and list
boxes, scrolling Web pages, and even animations. You can save your capture
to the Clipboard, to a file, or to the printer.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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