I really do not remember when I wrote my first article on the topic of making screen captures back in the 80’s within the Commodore GEOS™ operating system. A revised version started appearing in CEBUG’s newsletter (The CEBUG Swatter) during the 90’s for users of PC systems and the Windows™ environment. Here is the latest incarnation of this article freshly updated for the year 2008! As is usual in articles of this type, defining what is meant by a screen shot or capture will help as a beginning. This is an image file (JPG, GIF, or PNG) of whatever is visible on the display screen of a computer at a given time. Within the Question & Answer segments of our monthly meetings, we often ask people dealing with problems to make a screen shot so we can see what they are talking about on their machine. Those writing reviews for software often find including a screen capture to highlight a function of it helpful. Game players have long made screen shots to brag to others about their high scores, or ‘kill’s within the game environment. With a fair understanding of the value behind screen shots, let us turn our attention to how to create one!
The Windows Only Method
The technique that most people learn how to use first involves functions and tools built into every version of 
Windows. Similar methods exist in most other operating systems though the exact keys used and so forth will vary. On Windows machines, the key used is called the [Print Screen] key, which is often abbreviated on the keyboard to PrtScn. It is usually located in the upper-right portion of the keyboard, near were the Home, Page Up, Page Down, and similar keys are found. How that key is designed to work is much like the button of a camera that takes a picture, in that – when pressed – it copies whatever is showing on screen to the Clipboard. (Dedicated area of memory on a Windows machine used in copy-paste kinds of activities.) Keep in mind, however, that keyboards are reprogrammable devices. These means that how a function key like the print screen button works will vary depending on the driver installed or software in use at any given moment. There may be a special kind of function key dedicated to that keyboard type to ‘toggle’ reprogrammed options on or off, or pressing an additional key – like the SHIFT, CTRL, or ALT key – at the same time as the print screen key is required. If a first try in obtaining a screen capture does not work, experiment with those keys.
Windows Paint Program
I hope that your image capture is now in the Clipboard and the only remaining thing to do is to turn it into an image file so you can share it. Every version of Windows includes a program called Paint located in the Accessories section of the Start menu. To paste the image into Paint, do one of the following: click on the Edit menu and select Paste, or press the CTRL+V keyboard shortcut.
Now, click on File, and Save As to begin the file save process. Click on the down-arrow in Save as type section, and choose the JPG format.
Windows Paint - Save As function
Give it an appropriate file name and save to whatever location you use to store your files. You can then include it within a message post on our forum, or attach it to an e-mail message.
Other Screen Capture Methods
Most programs designed to work with digital photos have screen capture functions built into them. People like me, who making screen captures on an almost daily basis, may find a dedicated screen capture program to be a time saver. All of the screenshots showing in this article, for example, were made within Techsmith’s SnagIt as I wrote it. 
Techsmith's SnagIt basic profiles
SnagIt offers a variety of basic capture profiles pre-installed. Building a custom profile for specific situations is not hard either as the program can ‘learn’ as it goes. The built-in editor contains a variety of tools to re-size and image, sharpen it, add a border, and a variety of annotation and callout additions very quickly. However, the fundamental process described above as the Windows Only Method is something every computer user should know. Once mastered, this technique can be used on any Windows machine, as it requires no special tools to use. Irene M. Kraus is a writer, web developer and award-winning multimedia production expert with more than 20 years experience. In addition to running her own consulting firm Design Works Internet, she serves as the President and Webmaster for heads up Computer Erie Bay User Group (CEBUG) based in Erie County, Ohio. 
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 Unported License.
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