Old Li2-Crystals

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I’ve had occasions lately when I needed to help someone figure out what was wrong with their computer. The problem is that I had to do this over the phone. If you’ve ever tried to help somebody work out a software problem, you’ll agree that it’s a thousand percent easier if you can actually SEE what the screen looks like…. The error messages, settings and so on.

The problem is that when helping people that are “Technically Challenged”, asking them to send you a screenshot is almost always out of the question because they don’t have the first clue HOW to make a screenshot, let alone send it to you. Thus was born this obvious solution: A brief “how to” that explains screenshots so that the “Technically Challenged” can learn how to take screenshots.

What’s a screenshot?

It’s a way of taking a picture of what’s showing on your screen at a particular instant.

Ok, how do I do this?

It’s really easier than you might think. You do NOT need to run out and buy any new program for this, Windows already has the ability built in.

Look for a key on your keyboard that says “Print Scrn” on it. Most keyboards have it next to the scroll lock key in the same neighborhood as the arrow keys.

Press the “Print Scrn” key once. The picture of your screen at that moment is now stored on the Windows clipboard as a graphic image.

How do I turn that into a picture I can send to somebody?

That’s easy. You’ll need to start a graphics program. Almost any such program will do, for this example I’ll walk you through using Paint, a graphics program that comes with windows. Start it up by clicking on the start button, then click “run”, in the box that appears type “mspaint” (without the quotes) and click “OK”.

When the program appears, click on the edit menu, then click on Paste and the screenshot will appear in paint. Now all you have to do is save the file. Click on File, then click on Save. The file save box will appear and you will have to type a name for the file in the “file name” box. I find that it’s better to use a filename that does not have any spaces in it.

Unless you have changed it, the picture will be saved in your “My Documents” folder in a subfolder called “My Pictures” and it will have a .bmp file extension.

At this point, it’s now possible to send an email to somebody with that picture as an attachment. All you need to do is set up an email to the person you’re sending it to and then attach the picture file.

How do I attach something to an email?

In most email programs such as Thunderbird, on the compose message window there is a button that is labeled “Attach” and has a picture of a paper clip on it. Click on it, then use the “look in” dropdown on the file open box that appears to find your “My documents” folder and the “My Pictures” folder within it. Then you click on the name of the screenshot you just saved and click “open”

The mail program will do the work of attaching a copy of that picture to the email. All you have to do is address the email like you normally would and write something in the email explaining what you’re sending a picture of and any other information they might need to help figure out the problem.

Technorati Tags: graphics program, tutorial, how to, attachment, ms paint, screenshot, email, picture

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