Instructional Technology Quick Tips--Screenshots: One of the most effective ways to provide instruction about a software tool or a web site is to take screenshots and add commentary and then display the packaged sequence on your web site for students to follow. Here are some instructions for taking and using screenshots that were developed by the EOU webmaster, Gary Moses.

A brief description about how to use computer screen "captures" to a graphic file for use in your course.
Macintosh computers: Stage the computer screen with the menus, dialog boxes and settings you'd like to display. Use the Command key + shift + 3 to capture the entire screen, or, use the Command + shift + 4 to be presented with a "cross hair" cursor which allows you to quickly crop out only the part of the screen you intend to use by dragging diagonally. After using the above combinations, you should here an audible camera shutter sound coming from your Macintosh. That's a good sound to hear, you now know the snapshot has been successfully taken. Where to find your snapshot? If you open your harddisk icon and view contents by "name" you'll find a graphic titled "Picture1," "Picture2," etc. Your computer screen shot has been saved in the Mac file format "PICT" which can be opened and enhanced in any graphic program, or can be directly imported into Word (on the Mac) Generally you will want to "optimize" the graphic in some other graphic program to both change the file format. (The Tif (tagged Image File format.) is my favorite.) You can collect more than 100 images this way. The Mac will continue to append the number to the series of graphic files as you continue to use the keyboard clicks to "capture" your screen.
PC/Windows computers: Stage the computer screen with the menus, dialog boxes and settings you'd like to display. Press the "print screen" button on the key board. (upper right hand corner, 3 keys from the left.) The picture of your computer screen nows resides in the memory of your computer. (It's been "copied" to the clipboard.) Next open MS Word, MS Paint or any other program that works with graphics. Place your cursor on the page, or within a graphic program on a blank page and choose "paste" under the file menu. You'll see your entire computer screen displayed as a graphic within these programs. Now you have the option to crop, scale or enhance your "Screen Shot."

For additional information about taking and using screenshots, consult item #30 in the LTA Archive on "Screen Captures and What to Do With Them."

For more Quick Tips see theQuick Tips Archive.)