by Abby Way

Created on: March 06, 2009

Taking a free screenshot is simple! You can even use the built-in tools in Windows or Mac OS X and avoid the hassle of downloading programs to do it.

WINDOWS PC
In Windows versions up to and including XP, the fastest way to capture a screenshot is to press the Print Screen button on your keyboard. This will not print it on your printer unless you're running DOS (if you don't know what that is, chances are good that you are not), but will put it on the Clipboard for you to paste into a program or directly into an email, Wordpad or Word document if you prefer. Here's how to do it:

-Find the Print Screen button on your keyboard. It is usually labeled "Print Screen", "PrtScn", "Prnt Scrn", or something similar, sometimes on the same key as "SysRq" and usually on the right hand side of the keyboard, near the arrow keys and Insert, Delete, Home, End, etc.

-Navigate to the page or part of your screen you want to capture, then press Print Screen. Nothing will happen, but this is normal.

-Go to your application of choice; we'll use Paint for simplicity (click Start menu, Programs, Accessories, then select Paint on most standard computers).

-Press Ctrl-V, or go to Edit and click Paste. The screenshot will appear like magic in your Paint document! You can also paste it into a Word document, WordPad document, and sometimes directly into your email.

-If you're in Paint, WordPad or Word and want to save the screenshot to send to someone else or look at later, click File, then Save As and name it something you'll remember.

- Remember that the Clipboard will only hold one image at a time, so make sure you paste and save an image before you take another!

That's all there needs to be! If you like, you can get a little more fancy.

-Try pressing and holding Alt while you press Print Screen (you can release them both at the same time), and it will capture only the active window. This is useful if you want to show someone your Internet Explorer window without showing them something else that's visible behind it on the screen.

MAC
If you are using a Mac, there are a few more keys required to take a screenshot, but it isn't difficult.

-Press and hold Command and Shift while pressing 3 (Cmd-Shift-3) and the entire screen will be captured. By default, it will save as Picture 1 on your desktop if there is no Picture 1 there already. If there is, it will save as Picture 2, and so on. (If you delete or move a numbered picture, the next screenshot will use that number, so be careful not to get confused!)

-Press and hold Command and Shift while pressing 4 (Cmd-Shift-4) and the cursor will change to a cross-hairs. Click and drag until you have highlighted the area you want to capture, and then release the mouse button and the picture will save in the same way.

-Press and hold Command and Shift while pressing 4 (Cmd-Shift-4), then release the keys and press the Space bar once to change the cross-hairs to a camera icon. Just move the camera until you have highlighted the window you want to capture (this will work even with your top menu bar or a menu you have open at the same time), then click once. The screenshot will save in the same way as above.

-If you press the Ctrl key additionally during any of these ways of capturing the screen, instead of saving to the desktop, the image will save to your clipboard to allow for easy pasting into the application of your choice.

Learn more about this author, Abby Way.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.