Windows Print Screen Tutorial
The Windows Print Screen Key can be a powerful tool if you know how to use it to its full potential. There are some who initially think that when they press the Print Screen Key that it will literally be sent to the printer! That's okay, we've all been there, done that. Just don't tell anyone! Actually, if you are using DOS, it will be sent to the printer.
The key may appear differently depending on the manufacturer of your Windows keyboard. The standard position would be at the upper right hand corner of your keyboard and may appear within this sequence of keys...
F9 F10 F11 F12 Print Screen Scroll Lock Pause/Break
The sole function of this key is to take a snapshot or picture of your computer screen and copy it to the clipboard (the clipboard is an invisible holding area for content that is copied). Its the same thing as if you copied something from a document and it is now on your clipboard waiting to be pasted in its final destination. Its that simple.
Now, how do you get to see those Screen Captures or maybe even send them to someone? The quickest and most effective method is to have a graphics editing program handy (* Every windows OS has build in Paint. You can find Paint using this path: Start/Programs/Accessories/Paint). After you open Paint click on edit and from drop down menu choose paste, then click file and save as (name it whatever you wish and usually you can find it in MyDocuments/MyPictures. By default it will give you option to save in .bmp but for smaller file chose .jpg. If that is not an option, you can open your favorite word processing program and create a new document. Position your cursor
at the beginning of the document or wherever at the beginning of the document or wherever you want the
Using your keyboard, press Ctrl + V which will Paste the screenshot in your open document. Now you can Save (Ctrl + S) the document to wherever you wish, make sure to name it appropriately so you can easily find it.
You can now send this file to anyone via email, use it in a presentation, create your own little book of screenshots showing how to perform a specific task, etc. The possibilities are endless.
Windows Alt Print Screen
Now, for those who have read this far, I am going to share another neat little feature of the Windows Print Screen Key. Pressing these keys
...will take a screenshot of the currently selected window, not the entire screen like the normal screenshot function. This allows you to target that specific window that you have open and nothing else. No more cropping those screenshots to grab the content you were after!
I use the Windows Print Screen Key regularly. You probably will too once you get the hang of it!
