OT: freeware screen capture

[carollovesyarn]

We were discussing how to capture screen images easily the other day when I shared the Jackson Pollock link. I normally use hello (hello.com), which is free. Today though my dad (the freeware maniac) turned me on to FastStone Capture. http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm

I've been using it for all of 5 minutes and I think I'm in love. It'll capture the whole screen or just the window or just a freehand selection or a rectangle. It'll also let you magnify what's on your screen easily (click and hold and drag) - from 1.5 to 3X.

I love things like this.

[Jan in CA]

That's very cool! You can also just hit the print screen button on your keyboard for a standard screen capture if you won't want to download something.

[EssenceRose]

I just use Alt + print screen. It saves you from downloading a bunch of un-necessary software that just takes up space on your computer. You can do the same thing (re: resizing) by just opening the image in photoshop/paint shop pro in only a matter of seconds.

Keep in mind, I have a degree in IT and I'm a total and utter computer technical know how nerd so I'm biased! LOL

[carollovesyarn]

That's very cool! You can also just hit the print screen button on your keyboard for a standard screen capture if you won't want to download something.

True! But I always like bells and whistles if they improve performance and aren't too complicated.

What I liked about this was you have the choice of the whole screen or the window...or a portion of the window, either in a rectangle or freeform.

And the magnifying! Oh the magnifying!!!

I am loathe to download things too from bad past experiences, but I think this was probably recommended by one of dad's lists and they always have tons of people downloading things and trying them (or trying to break them IYKWIM). So I'm fairly confident in recommending it.

[Ellen Edwards]

I love the site you just were talking about--I had no idea you could capture a screen and print it or save it. They say save to clipboard in one place on there--I have notepad and wordpad--what's Clipboard??

I'd LOVE to know all the computer stuff youall seem to know!! Just things like linking to things--I don't even know how to do that!! :crying:

[boyforpele13]

omggggggggggggggg i wish i had this yesterday!!!!! this is FREAKIN AWESOME! i spent hours compiling a training document using Alt-PrtScn and Ctrl-PrtScn, then resizing and cropping in Word, which was just ridiculous. THIS IS FABULOUS! Thanks for sharing! :-D

[Virtuella]

Thank you very much!!!

[Virtuella]

We were discussing how to capture screen images easily the other day when I shared the Jackson Pollock link. I normally use hello (hello.com), which is free. Today though my dad (the freeware maniac) turned me on to FastStone Capture. http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm

I've been using it for all of 5 minutes and I think I'm in love. It'll capture the whole screen or just the window or just a freehand selection or a rectangle. It'll also let you magnify what's on your screen easily (click and hold and drag) - from 1.5 to 3X.

I love things like this.

I love it, thank you!
Please let your father share more!

[carollovesyarn]

I love the site you just were talking about--I had no idea you could capture a screen and print it or save it. They say save to clipboard in one place on there--I have notepad and wordpad--what's Clipboard??

Clipboard is where things go when you copy or cut them - they are placed on the virtual clipboard until you paste them somewhere or copy or cut something else over them. There are freeware programs that let you see the last 12 or so things that you cut or copied, which is really handy if you copy one thing and forget to paste it before copying something else over it.

I'll look up the name of one of those clipboard pgms my dad uses - I'm drawing a blank on the name right now. I used to use it all the time, but when I got my new computer last year, I never put it back on.

[brownishcoat]

The coolest free thing I know of is OpenOffice.org. It's a freeware Office document-compatible suite and includes some of the tools that don't come standard with Office, like a database program and a full-featured graphics program.

There are also free antivirus and spyware programs and even operating systems.