How to Make Screen Captures or Screen Shots

Here's how to take a screen capture, or a picture of what is on your screen, also called a "screen shot" or "print screen":

  1. To copy the entire screen as it appears on your monitor, press the "Print Scrn" or "Print Screen" button on your keyboard.
  2. To make a copy of the active window, press the following buttons on your keyboard: "Alt"+"Print Scrn".

Please note that after pressing the "Print Scrn" key, nothing will happen – you have simply stored an image of your screen to the clipboard at this point. You have several options on how to save the image you captured:
  1. Paste the image directly into the body of an e-mail
  2. Paste the image into a Microsoft Word document
  3. Use image editing software to save the image


Paste Image Into E-Mail

  1. Open a blank e-mail
  2. Right-click in the body of the e-mail
  3. Click Paste

  1. The image is now embedded in the body of your e-mail.

Paste Image Into A Microsoft Word Document

  1. Launch MS Word and go to File>New>Blank Document (or click on the New Document icon) to open a blank document
  2. Right-click in the body of the document
  3. Click Paste

  1. Click File>Save As to save your document with the embedded screenshot.

Use Image Editing Software To Save Screenshot
There are many available image editing applications; this tutorial assumes you will be using Microsoft Paint, which is typically accessible by going to Start>Programs>Accessories>Paint.

  1. Launch the Paint application as indicated above. The application will open with a blank "image"
  2. In the Menu bar, go to Edit and click Paste

  1. In the Menu bar, go to File and click on Save As to save your image