Screen Shots
Instructions for Taking and Editing "Pictures"
Of What You See On Your Computer Screen

Robert E. Wood, Professor of Sociology, Rutgers-Camden

Why Would You Want To Do This?  It is often helpful to be able to take a "picture" of what you see on your computer screen.  That picture will convey exactly what you saw when you took it, including, if you wish, tool bars, drop-down menus, etc.  This is particularly useful if you are trying to provide directions for using a particular program.  It is also helpful when you have generated a result--say, a data table--that you want to save in the form on the screen (which is likely to look quite different than saving it as a text file).  Or perhaps you want to discuss the design of a webpage and want to include an image of the web page in your document.  For these and many other reasons, there are often occasions where taking such a picture--called a screen shot--may be very useful.  Screen shot images can be incorporated into word processing documents or placed on websites.  

How Can I Do This?  There are basically two steps in the process.  The first involves placing a record of what was on the screen in the memory of your computer.  The second involves bringing that record into a graphics program, editing it if you wish, and then saving it.  Graphics programs vary enormously in terms of their cost and sophistication.  The directions below apply to PCs running on Windows, and use the Paint program, included in all versions of Windows, to edit and create the image file.  The example below will involve a screen shot from the MicroCase data analysis program, but the same procedure applies for a screen shot of a webpage or any other image on your computer screen.

1. Call up on your screen whatever you want to "shoot."  Then press the Alt key and the Print Screen keys at the same time.  It will appear that nothing has happened, but in fact you have entered an image of what was on the screen into your computer's memory.

2. Now click on Start, then Programs, then Accessories, then Paint.  The Windows Paint program will open, probably with palettes on the left and bottom and a blank screen in the middle.  Now click on Edit, then Paste.  Like magic, your screen shot of your original computer screen will pop into view in a moment.  For example, I've just pasted a screen shot from MicroCase into the Paint program, and my screen looks like this:

If at this point I want everything that just popped in (indicated by the dotted line above), all I need to do is save the image in the manner described below.  But suppose I only want the table--I don't care about the rest.  Make sure that the cropping option (the rectangle next to the star) is highlighted, as it is above, and then position the cursor where you want to start cropping.  Move your cursor in a diagonal way until it includes everything you want.  Then click on Edit, as in the image below:

As you can see the table is now selected for cropping.  Click on Copy.  Now click on File, New.  If you are asked whether you want to save the previous file, say No.  You will now have a blank Paint screen again.  Click on Edit,  then Paste, and you will see this:

Now click on File, Save As, and indicate where you want the image saved and what you want its file name to be.  Paint will save it as a bmp file, which can be incorporated into either word processing programs or webpage.  When you insert that file, it will look like this:

Does reported happiness increase with income?  Hopefully your happiness will too as you learn useful little tricks like this.