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Print screen smoke screen
Why haven't computer keyboard manufacturers renamed the "Print Screen" key "Copy Screen"? That is what it does. Calling it "Print Screen" is still baffling and upsetting many computer users, even those who have been using computers a long time.
A recent incident at a meeting I attended has led me to write this letter. The two people opposite me were chatting before the meeting began and one of them put a photograph of a screen on the table to show his friend the problem he had with his computer, apologising because, as he said, it's difficult to take a good photograph of a screen. When I said that all he needed to do was press the "Print Screen" key, he immediately said, quite logically, that he had, but that nothing had happened. When I told him that it copies the screen and all one has to do is paste the picture into a document or graphics program he remarked "I've been using computers for fifteen years, but no-one's ever told me that".
Jean Elliott
As an IT Tutor one of the most commonly required skills is that of printing a screen to provide evidence for tests etc. We spend hours revising this simple process - the time has come for a renaming of the key.
Posted by David Green | November 4, 2005 7:46 PM
For those of us who have been using IBM compatible PCs since before Windows, the print screen key did just that, it dumped your screen to the connected printer.
Posted by adrian | November 4, 2005 9:21 PM
You may all laugh, but as an experienced user, I still cannot work out how to use the “Print Screen” facility.
Perhaps, someone will be kind enough to enlighten all of us who do not know how to perform this activity; a step by step guide would be helpful.
Please note that I have a MS Wireless Multimedia Keyboard; there are 3 functions on the Print Screen key – “Print Screen”, “SysRq” & “Insert” – is there a need to press the Shift, or some other key at the same time as pressing the Print Screen Key.
I am sure others are equally as confused on this subject
Posted by Brian | November 5, 2005 8:29 AM
Pressing 'Prt Scr' on its own at any time copies the view on the screen (or screen shot) to memory. Then open a graphics application, Windows Paint will do, but you could equally open MS Word, for example. Whatever your chosen application, click the Edit menu and then click Paste. The screen shot will be pasted to the application, then modified as desired in the limitation of that application.
If you want to take a snap-shot of just a particular "window", such as a an open folder on the desktop that has the "focus", i.e. it has a blue title bar and is in front of other open windows, press and hold down either of the ALT keys and tap the 'Prt Scr' button once. Now open the chosen application as before and using the menu's (or keystroke CTRL+V) to paste the window into the application.
Using Shift or CTRL or any of them in any combination with 'Prt Scr' does nothing.
Posted by Andrew Burrell | November 5, 2005 1:47 PM
Thanks Andrew - Problem solved - I am sure others will appreciate
Regards
Brian
Posted by Brian | November 5, 2005 3:10 PM
Thank You Andrew. I didn't know you could press Alt and then "print scrn" to take a screen of the current window!
For years I've just pressed "print Scrn" and then cropped the image in a graphics editor!
It'll certainly come in handy when I'm creating user guides (I'm an I.T Technician)! Thank You
Posted by Sarah | November 23, 2005 10:50 AM
I've found this nifty little application to take screenshots and auto save them, i bought a copy and used it for my Uni course work and it worked a treat, for those of you who cant be botherd with the whole copy paste majig, just get this tool, well worth the investment for the ammount of time saved.
http://www.aszune.co.uk/index.asp?action=printscreen
Alan.
Posted by Alan | February 29, 2008 7:59 AM