JLog: Screen Capture - a useful tool for genealogy research

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JL, 19 December 2006

Screen Capture

Recently I met a couple who didn't know they have a Print Screen button on their keyboard. In fact they swore up and down there was no such thing because if it was there they would have seen it. They've had a computer in their home for 20 years.

I'm not saying this is a rampant situation, but just in case...

The Print Screen button, such as it exists in Windows, is for taking pictures of your desktop. When you press the key it automatically copies a picture of your open screen to the clipboard. You can't see anything at this point so you have to go on faith. All you have to do now is open a graphics program or anything else that will let you paste it, and paste. Handy, huh? If you ever want to email a picture of the screen in front of you you can do that.

But there's even more fun to be had with a dedicated screen capture program where you have more options. You can take a picture of a smaller rectangular area or even a free-hand one and do other tricks to amaze yourself. They all do basically the same thing but are slightly different in their choices so after you use one for awhile you'll decide if one or the other suits you better.

Back in the day when I was looking for mine I tried about a half a dozen of them and finally settled on MWSnap. What I particularly like about it is that I can specify a default file type, choose a folder where the screen shot goes automatically, while it also copies it to the clipboard for immediate pasting somewhere else. I'm usually wanting one or the other so I don't have to choose each time. MW Snap does not do freehand captures. You can put borders on your pictures before (or after) saving or add cursors and other small icons. If you let it start up with Windows it will always be sitting in the system tray ready for this menu to pop up when you need it.

These days I'm scouring through the 1880 census records at Family Search. When I find one I want I take a screen shot of the record, name it and send it over to my digital Source Library. Can't beat it, really. For a specific area like this, I choose "Any area" from the options, drag my cursor across the area I want to capture, left click and I'm done. MW Snap makes a snapping sound and the picture is automatically in the folder I designated previously. (My Pictures/MWSnap for simplicity) Once you get the hang of it, tweak the settings. The default ones are not always exactly what you want.

Another one that I've added lately is FastStone Capture. Just to sit and enjoy how well this one is put together is almost enough. You can choose to send screen shots to the Editor, Clipboard, File or Printer. Choose which one before you begin, and then choose your capture type.

or you can have it riding on top of your screen like this

If you choose to have your screen shot sent directly to the Editor, you can then open "Draw" and add a border, text, freehand drawing or watermark before saving. You can open other pictures that you have and use the drawing tools; it doesn't have to be the present screen shot. It also has other simple editing functions. It's a marvel.

They're both free for personal use. It's too hard to choose so don't. It's Christmas time, go wild and have 'em both.

COMMENTS

21 December 2006

Hey,

Great JLog... a lot of useful software tips and reviews.

Just a suggestion, on all your links that our external, you might want to set them to open in a new window by using the blank tag, so that your JLog stays open while they go off to check the sites out for the items you are discussing.

Thanks,

Rick

Webmaster

Greathouse Point

www.greathouse.us

Greathouse Historian

John Greathouse Sr. and Sarah McDade

www.greathouse.us/johnsarah

21 December 2006

Thanks for your comment. It's great to know people are reading it and finding it useful.

The windows are fixed now. Thanks ... good idea!

JL

26 December 2006

hI,

I tried the screen saver and sure enough it's saved in clip board, but the print is so terrible you can't read your article and I can't seem to do any changes.

Is there something else I should of done?

this is the first time I have been to your site and the address came from Legacy newsletter.

Thanks

Eileen

26 December 2006

I'm trying hard to understand your question but I'm not sure that I do.

A screenshot will always come out the exact same size as the original. As long as you're viewing it at 100%. Did you scroll it down smaller? That would make the text blurry for sure.

JL

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