How to screen capture

Level of difficulty: Easy

Capturing the screen is also known as taking the screen shots. It is often required by computer users to take the screen shots or what we call capture the screen for future reference. The screen shots are also required by students to put in their project reports where they are required to show the outputs of their various programs. Any dynamic utility of the computer which can not be otherwise be depicted on paper can be depicted with the help of a screen shot. There can also be a chance that you require to save the error message and the error number that is being displayed on the computer but you do not have a pen or paper near you, in such a case also you can easily take a screen shot and save it and note it down later.

Materials Needed:
- One does not need any additional things software or hardware equipment for capturing the screen. One simply needs the Windows operating system to capture the screen. There is no exceptional skill level that the person capturing the screen should have. Even a layman can capture the screen very easily.
Step 1
It is a very easy procedure that needs to be followed. First step is to decide what is it whose screen shot is required. Open that application and then start the following steps.
Step 2
The second step is to locate a key on your keyboard which is meant to take the screen shots. This key has ‘PrtScn’ written on it. It also generally has ‘SysRq’ printed below it. Initially one would think that there is no such key on the keyboard as no one ever bothers to reach that corner of the key board. On most of the keyboards this key is present on the right hand side top corner, just besides the function keys. It is not very difficult to locate this key its just the first time that one will have to go hunting for it.
Step 3
There are two ways to take the screen shot. If the screen shot of the entire desktop is required then hold the Ctrl key and press the PrtScn key and if the screen shot of only the active window is required then hold the Alt key and then press the PrtScn key.
Step 4
This screen shot now lies in the buffer of the computer. To see the image or to use it go to that application where this image has to be embedded and then press Ctrl+v. the image can also be simply be pasted in the Paint application to save in the form of a picture.