Making Screenshots
Windows users are usually familiar with the term 'screenshots'. Just about everyone knows that if you click on a thumbnail on a webpage you will get a larger picture to view.
But did you know why the page doesn't just display the bigger picture in the first place? There are several reasons for the practice of using thumbnails to click and get the bigger picture.
First and foremost, bigger pictures make a webpage load a lot slower. If a user is on a broadband connection, like cable or DSL, this doesn't matter so much. However, if the user is on a dial-up connection and there are an awful lot of folks who are, this is very important!
Second, a big picture on a webpage just doesn't look all that great. It is harder to make a large picture display just so on a webpage, while a thumbnail or thumbnails can be displayed in a more pleasing manner.
Many times while troubleshooting a problem for a user, the tech will ask the user to send a screenshot displaying the problem or what the user is doing when a problem occurs. This is sometimes a daunting task for users if they don't know how to make a screenshot, but it is really pretty easy to do.
Look at the upper right on your keyboard and you should see a key that has Print or Prt Sc on it. If you press this key, what ever is on your screen is copied to the Clipboard. Don't worry if you have never seen the Clipboard listed anywhere, it is in every version of Windows. Once the copied screen is on the Clipboard you can paste it into any graphics program, like Paint, which also comes with Windows. To make a screenshot of just the active window (not the entire Windows desktop), press the Alt key and Print keys at the same time. Here are the steps to making screenshots after you press Prt Scr (Print Screen):
Rather than make thumbnails to click, I made separate pages with the screenshots. You can make screenshots by following the instructions below, just click on Screenshot to get the pictures.
Once you have the captured screen in your graphics program, save it as a jpeg file. Now you can send it to the tech (or anyone else).
If you make a lot of screenshots (like me!), you may want to edit them with arrows, text messages, etc. This can be done with most graphics programs, but it can get tedious after a while. I use a wonderful program called Snagit for screenshots. It does a lot more than just make screenshots!
You can review Snagit on
Tech Smith's
site.