Printscreen button – Full screen to clipboardĪlt + PrintScreen – select a program window then it’s saved to clipboard. Win + Shift + S – take image from a screen region to clipboard. Modern Windows has a excellent shortcut which lets you draw a rectangle over the part of the screen you want to copy. From the clipboard, you can paste the image into an Office document, Outlook email or image editor. A keyboard shortcut will take an image of the whole screen and put the image into the Windows clipboard. Windows itself has tools for getting a copy of the entire screen.

Some third-party products have their own image editors giving you the choice to have each new screen image added directly into the picture editor. Cloud storage apps with automatic image upload (Apple, OneDrive, Dropbox etc.) will automatically copy the screen shots to online storage, just like photos taken with the devices camera. On portable devices, screen shots are usually added to the list of recently taken images (e.g. This option is great if you want to take a series of quick images to edit later. The screen image will be saved to a predetermined folder. The other main alternative is saving direct to a file. Remember that Office has some image editing tools, like cropping, that can be very useful. It’s the fastest way to get from screen image into a document or email. From there you can paste the image into any picture editor or document you like. Clipboard or File?Īfter taking a screenshot, the image will be placed somewhere for you to work on, either the clipboard or a file. Windows Paint has basic tools to hide personal info. Use whichever suits you and is available in the image editor you use. It’s possible to take an image of the entire computer screen but it’s rarely helpful. As you might imagine, at Office Watch we take a lot of screen shots across many computers and devices. The main use for screen shots is for computer support or teaching about software. Taking a quick screen image of an order or other reference number on a web page … just temporary until an email arrives as a more permanent record. There are other opportunities for screen shots. Taking screen shots should be taught in all beginners computer classes. It’s truly a case where a picture is worth a thousand words … and a great time saver. Instead of trying to describe what is happening, an image of the problem or error message is usually very helpful.

More people should use screen shots when they’re asking for computer help. Taking an image of what’s on your computer screen is something everyone with a computer should know novice or experienced. Here’s a guide to some of the many screen shot options available on Windows, Mac, Apple iPhone, iPad and Android devices.

Print screen mac windows 10