Why would you want to take a snap shot of some part of your computer screen? It is very useful for showing students where to point and click if they are using an unfamilar program. It is also a convenient method for placing on your web site some drawing, structure, that you have created in a program that cannot be used on the web.
SnagIt is a program that allows you to capture regions of your screen to save to a file for display on the web. SnagIt is shareware that can be downloaded from http://www.techsmith.com The cost is $39.95 to register a downloaded copy. There is a 45 day evaluation period for SnagIt, after which, it expires. The image below of the SnagIt program was captured with SnagIt!
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Using SnagIT to Capture Part of the Screen
When SnagIT is first
started, it starts you with a Wizard to help you begin. Click Next.
Click the Radio button
marked Region to select part of the screen. Click Next.
Click the Radio button
marked Graphics file to save your selected area to a file. Click Next.
The default keys that
activate SnagIT are the Control key, Shift key and the p key. Leave the defaults active.
Click the Finish
button.
From the Output menu,
select Properties.... From the Image File tab, select Gif. Click OK.
Now, press and hold down
the Control, Shift and p keys. The cursor changes to a hand. Identify a part of the screen
you would like to capture. Click and drag the mouse from top to bottom to select an area.
Release the mouse button.
The preview screen shows
your image. Click the green button to save the image. Give the file a name, with a .gif
ending.
The image is now ready
for the web.
An Easy Way to Capture an Image from the Win95/Win98 Screen
An inexpensive way to capture the entire screen is by pressing the "Print Screen" key. Pressing Print Screen transfers everything on the screen to the Clipboard (memory) of the computer. We can see the clipboard contents by doing the following:
From the Win95 Start
Menu, select Accessories.
Select Paint.
From the Edit Menu,
select Paste.
The contents of the
clipboard are now displayed in the Paint program.
Use the rectanglar Select
Tool in the upper left corner to select part of the screen image you want to
save.
Then from the Edit
Menu, choose Copy to copy just the selected part of the image.
From the File Menu,
select New to create a new place to paste the selected part.Paint will ask you
whether you wish to save your original screen. If so, select Yes and give your
screen a name.
Now, from the Edit
Menu, select Paste to paste the part of the screen you selected. You can
save this selected part of the screen by choosing Save... from the File Menu.