TIPS & TRICKS: Screen Capture using built-in tools

Have you ever wanted to take a picture of what's on your screen to show someone what you're talking about? A basic feature of modern OS's is to be able to do just that.

In Windows XP:

1. Find the Print Screen or Prt Scn button usually located on the upper left side fo the keyboard.
2. Hit the key once.
3. Find and open Paint, usually found in Start>All Programs>Accessories.
4. Paste into Paint, either with CTRL V or go up to Edit and select the Paste option.
5. Finally save the file as a JPG by going up to File>Save As, making sure to change the file format to JPG before saving.
ADDITIONAL NOTE: You can also do a capture of just the current window, instead of the entire screen. In step 2, hit the ALT before hitting the Print Screen button. Then follow the rest of the directions as indicated.

In OS X (taken from OS X Help):

- To take a picture of the whole screen, press Command-Shift-3. (Command a.k.a. Apple Key)
- To take a picture of part of the screen, press Command-Shift-4, then drag to select the area you want in the picture.
- To take a picture of a window, the menu bar, the Dock, or other area, press Command-Shift-4, then press the Space bar. Move the pointer over the area you want so that it's highlighted, then click. If you decide you want to drag to select the area, press the Space bar again.
- If you press Command-Shift-4 and decide you don't want to take the screen shot, press the Escape key.
- Screen shots are saved as files on the desktop. If you want to put the screen shot in the Clipboard, rather than create a file, hold down the Control key when you press the other keys. You can then paste the picture into a document.
- You can also take pictures of the screen using the Grab application (in the Utilities folder).