More Tips and Tricks for Posting Screen Grabs on EE

In   How to make screen grabs and post them to EE, member Darr247 described the basics of how to take a snapshot of the screen for use in posting on EE.  In brief,
I have a few things to add to that earlier article, including some things that are a bit more subtle but can make your screen shots more useful in EE posts and (especially) when writing Articles here.

First, on my system, pressing the [PrintScreen] key by itself does not capture the screen.  I use
   ALT+PrintScreen
to get the current active window and
   CTRL+PrintScreen
to get the entire desktop.  Your system may use the same or other keystrokes.  A bit of experimentation will set you right.

A full-screen capture  can be problematic if you have a two-monitor system.  On mine, CTRL+PrintScreen will generate an enormous 3120x1052 image.   In such cases, I then use MsPaint to clip the image to just the portion that I need -- some combination of the two or more windows that I'm trying to display.

To clip an image in MsPaint:
Here are my additional tips and hints related to posting screen grabs -- these come into focus once you've done it a number of times.
 

1. Use the JPG file format

A screen image is often used mainly to provide a context for the reader; that is, the specific words etc., are less important than the overall image.  In such cases, it is a slight waste of storage to use a PNG format.  

I use JPG format (a slightly "lossy" option) and it typically saves at least 25% over PNG.  Also, in such cases, it is possible to collapse the image itself (in MsPaint, Edit>Select All, then Image>Stretch/Skew, to say 75%,75%) and that can cut file size and bandwidth usage considerably -- and still be perfectly legible to the reader.

2. Work [i]with[]/i] EE 'thumbnailing', not against it

Since EE is the destination, I also keep in mind that when the image is larger than about 560 pixels wide, EE shows a "thumbnailed" or "size-compressed" version of my carefully-prepared image.  Since it retains the proportions, that means that a wide image ends up being squashed in two directions.  
The result is that the reader can't see details anyway (unless he double-clicks the image to load it into a viewer).  Thus, using MsPaint to *clip the image* to a width less than 560 lets me show the exact/intended image in one glance.

3. Collapse unnecessary 'whitespace'

Look at your image:  Is there a huge gulf of whitespace in the middle of it that is not contributing to the image and causing it to be too wide or too high?   It is possible to use the MsPaint selection tools to drag the bottom (or right side) up (or over) to get rid of some of that empty space.
You might also consider resizing the window and re-doing the screen dump.

4. Use callouts to focus attention

While I've got the image in MsPaint, I ask myself,  "Do I want to draw attention to some particular part of this image?"  If so, I use a thick red brush to draw an ellipse (oval) around that part of the image.   I might even put together a sort of "callout" using a thick red line and a text box.

5. Carefully check for personal information!

There is one serious "gotcha" to avoid.  When you do a CTRL+PrintScreen, your entire desktop is shown -- including desktop icons, quick-launch icons and running programs in the Taskbar.   Even if you are pure-in-heart (and there are no "BrittnyNaked.jpg" icons on your desktop), there can be any number of other things that you don't want to reveal to the entire world -- what BitTorrent client you favor, what accounting program you run, what multi-player game you waste your life playing, and so forth.  

So carefully review the image while you have it in your paint program.  If you make screen shots often, you might want to create a secondary Windows User who has a sanitized desktop, and snap your images there.  Also, look out for email addresses, Social Security Numbers, or other personal items within the snapshot image (For instance, in figs. 3 and 4, I have obscured my email address).

6. Other screenshot tools

The windows built-in screen dump facility is limited in several ways.  You can't grab a screen with a menu dropped down and it hides the mouse cursor before taking the snapshot.  Some people use a dedicated screenshot utility program -- SnagIt and ScreenHunter -- are often mentioned, and there are any number of shareware programs available. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=- =-=-=-=-=- =-=
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