Screenshot

A screenshot is a picture of the current view of a computer's visual output. Common output formats are JPEG, BMP, or PNG.

Mac OS X

Entire screen

To take a screenshot of an entire screen in Mac OS X, follow these instructions:

1. Hold down the apple key and the shift key.
2. Press and let go of the number 3 key.
3. The screenshot that you have taken, will appear on the desktop as a PNG file. It acts like a picture file.

Selected area

To take a screenshot of a selected area, follow these instructions:

1. Hold down the apple key and the shift key.
2. Press and let go of the number 4 key.
3. Instead of having an arrow as your cursor, a selection crosshairs will appear.
4. You then will hold down the mouse and drag the mouse until you have highlighted all the material you want in your screenshot.
5. Once you have let go of the mouse, the screenshot that you have taken, will appear on the desktop as a PNG file.

Windows XP/Vista

Entire screen

Take a screenshot of the entire screen in Windows XP or Vista by following these steps:

1. Press the Print Screen key. This will copy the screenshot to the clipboard.
2. Open an image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop.
3. Create a new document in the image editing application of choice.
4. Paste the contents of your clipboard into your new document.

Single window

Take a screenshot of a single window by following these steps:

1. Bring the window you would like to take a screenshot of to the front.
2. Hold the Alt key and press the Print Screen key. This will copy the screenshot of the selected window to the clipboard.
3. Open an image editing program such as Adobe Photoshop.
4. Create a new document in the image editing application of choice.
5. Paste the contents of your clipboard into your new document.

Utility

For added flexibility and functionality, you may also use a third-party utility, such as FastStone Capture or to take screenshots.