Whats a good screen capture program so i can make a guide

[videocheez]

I want to start documenting some of the success stories that I have had while converting formats and encoding to DVD. I have been writing a little guide in notepad that I want to eventually paste into a thread up in newbie conversion. I thought I could add some appeal to the guide by capturing the program screens. This will obviously make the guide more likely to be understood by the readers of the forum. I want to know of a good screen capture program and also will I be able to paste the captured sceens into notepad.

Thanks in advance,

VC

[Conquest10]

you can just use the PrtScrn button on your keyboard.

[rhegedus]

you can just use the PrtScrn button on your keyboard.

Hit the nail on the head - simple and cheap!

[videocheez]

Thanks for the tip, i thought you guys were doing something special.

[Tommyknocker]

I use the Print Screen function and Paint to make images to be pasted elsewhere. But how do you plan to paste any images to Notepad? I was not aware it could be done.

[Quigonsean]

Yup, you can paste images in notepad at least you can in Rich Text Format. In fact if you select all the text on a web page and copy then paste. Then select the image copy/paste and goto your wordpad copy click where the image goes it will show an outline of the size of the image that goes there even if the text is clpse to the next parasgraph it will space it so you can paste it in in the correct space. I do it saving guides and stuff all the time.

With this in mind you should be able to make your owne doc and past to it. As for screen grabs. Use Priny Screen button. I would then past it in a editing proggie like PSP so you can crop, resize etc..., because doing that caps your entire screen area all thats visible on your monitor will be in that screen grab.

Sean

[pacmania_2001]

Just highlight the window you want to capture and hold down the 'Alt' key when you are hitting the "Print Screen" key. That way it only captures the highlighted window, not the whole screen. Saves some time in photo editing.

[videocheez]

By the way, how do I use the print screen button? I haven't done this for years and I have forgotten how to make it work.

Thanks

VC

[Conquest10]

press it, then go to your image editor, and click paste.

[MOVIEGEEK]

Gadwin Print Screen save as BMP,JPEG,TIF,GIF,TGA or PNG and it's free.
http://www.webattack.com/get/gprintscreen.shtml

[videocheez]

Thanks for the tip about Gadwin it works great.

[EddyH]

Notepad does rich text? Since when?

Must be one of those crazy windows XP things.

However, Wordpad does it fine, though that's no good for making a guide Have to just reference the pics instead.

Screenshots work well as GIFs, though Paint can really fugly up the colours if you do that! But.. it still works the same.

[videocheez]

What do you mean reference the pics? How would you guyz do a guide? I have been spending about a half an hour a day writing my guide. When it's all done I am planning to copy and paste it into a thread.
It's taking longer than I thought it would because i'm trying to make it complete and appealing like most of the guides that i read here. Also what is rich text?

Thanks guyz,

VC

[EricB]

I think someone is confusing Notepad with Wordpad. Any version of Notepad I have ever seen is text only (ASCII, Unicode, etc.)

Wordpad supports RTF which stands for Rich Text Format. It just means that formatting characters are embedded into the file that allow non-ASCII functions like underlining, bold, and other formats.

RTF is kind of like a universal format because it doesn't demand any specific editor like Word, Word Perfect, etc. The various versions of Windows all have Wordpad so you can rely on any user being able to open your RTF file.