screen grab

[jimcorrigans]

Hi Folks,
I am trying to print a series of screen shots showing how to open and close programmes etc. My 80 year old pal is considering a career change and bought herself a laptop. She is struggling with the learning curve and wants a Jack and Jill bouncing ball sort of instructions.
I am running Vista and have tried the snipping tool but when I try to grab the screen shot I lose it as soon as I click on the sniping tool. Anyone got any suggestions? I have spent ages loading FREE screen grabbers and then after loading them you learn that you have been hoodwinked. They are 30 day trial, or a limited number of uses.
To sum up,
Anyone know of a real FREE screen graber program.
Is there a manual on the snipit tool.
Regards
Jim

 

[breezer]

dont know about vista, but have you tried


printscreen>start>programmes>accesories>paint>edit>paste

 

[Spark123]

When you click on the Snipping tool the screen should turn a lighter shade. Go to the top left of what you want to capture, click and hold the left mouse button and move the pointer down and right to select the area you wish to snip.
When you release the button the save as dialogue box should be displayed.

or

When the screen is displaying what you want to capture, press Prt Scr on your keyboard. Open your drawing package such as paint and select the edit menu followed by paste.
Alt + Prt Scn works in a similar way but just captures the active window.

 

[JohnD]

where are you trying to put the screen copies?

I use ALT-PRINT SCREEN to copy them, and then paste them into an MSWORD document.

You can then type your instructions above and below the screen images, grab corners to resize, put in page breaks etc

This is a common method for making User Guides (which is what you are up to)
It is useful to put in carriage returns above and below each image before you paste it in, as it is different to do it later

p.s. you can also use the F11 key to get full-screen before copying it, to reduce irrelevant bars.

 

[jimcorrigans]

Thanks for your help, I am going to give all your suggestions a whirl,

I will keep you posted.

Regards
Jim

 

[mattylad]

You can try alt-printscreen to grab, as said above, and then find yourself "gimp" a free editor to enable you to trim & chop what you want from the pasted image.

Google brings up this which is freeware & may work.

 

[HectorTheSpecta]

Snagit is one of the best tools on the market... You will not be dissappointed and I have used it for over 10 years. We use a licensed version at work so not sure if it is freeware available.

http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp

 

[Diyisfun]

I use 'Screenshot Captor v2.37.03 by DonationCoder', its free & good.

 

[WoodYouLike]

Try ScreenSteps - a perfect solution to create any type of manual, lessons etc. Has the added benefit of printing single lessons or single chapters (containing various lessons) or the whole manual

Plus various output options: PDF, weblog, HTML. Only around £30 ($59.95)
I wrote a review about it (using the software to create the article)

 

[tim west]

Noticed folk suggesting Alt-Printscreen but i find just pressing the printscreen key (PrtSc) works for me, i then just open paint and then paste to it. Does Alt give added advantages?

 

[HectorTheSpecta]

Noticed folk suggesting Alt-Printscreen but i find just pressing the printscreen key (PrtSc) works for me, i then just open paint and then paste to it. Does Alt give added advantages?

Yes, it'll allow you to print-screen only the active window and not your entire desktop. give it a go.

 

[tim west]

Thanks for that