Enterprise Nation

There are lots of reasons why you might want to capture your screen to share with others. Maybe you've come across an error you want to show your web designer or technical support. Perhaps you need to include a website in a document or a presentation. Or maybe you just want a keepsake of a video chat! Whatever the reason, it's a lot easier these days to take a screenshot. So, whether you're using Windows or Mac, this quick tip should come in handy.

You're probably familiar with the 'Print Screen' button on your Windows keyboard. Pressing it captures an image of your screen and copies it to the Clipboard, ready to paste into a document or into Microsoft Paint. It's not the easiest way to take a screenshot and you usually end up with a big file size somewhere or other, which becomes a nightmare to e-mail.

Using Windows' Snipping Tool

If you're using Windows Vista or Windows 7 the whole process is a lot easier. You can use the Snipping Tool, which comes in all versions of Windows Vista and 7 (except for Home Basic).

1. To open it, click the Start menu, type 'snip' and click Snipping Tool.
2. Choose from Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip or Full-screen Snip (you can experiment with these to see what they do).
3. Save your 'snipped' image or paste it into another open application.

Using Mac OS X's Grab

1. Find Grab in the Utilities folder in Applications.
2. In the Capture menu choose from Selection, Window, Screen and Timed Screen - all of which pretty self-explanatory!
3. Save your selection! The only problem with this method is that it only saves to the TIFF format, which typically generates a large file. It's a good idea to open your TIFF file in a graphics programme, like Photoshop, and convert it to JPG.

Using Screenshot Plus Dashboard Widget

On my Mac computer, I use the free Dashboard Widget Screenshot Plus, which saves selections as JPG files, which skips another step!

San Sharma
San is community manager at Enterprise Nation, as well as the voice of @e_nation on Twitter.