Screen Captures

 
 

How to take pictures of your PC screen

Taking a picture of an active window on your PC (This is the window you are currently working in.)

  1. Hold down the  key and press

    2. (the first of 3 buttons to the right of the function keys located along the top of your keyboard).
  2. This saves an image of the active window onto the clipboard.

    3. ***Note: The clipboard can only hold ONE (1) image at a time. You must paste each screen capture BEFORE taking additional screen captures.
  3. Open the file in which you want to place the screen capture.
  4. Position your cursor where you want to place the screen capture.
  5. Go to the FILE menu and select PASTE.
  6. The image will now appear in the location you specified.
Taking a picture of the desktop on your PC ( all windows, background, icons, etc.)
  1. Press

    2. (the first of 3 buttons to the right of the function keys located along the top of your keyboard).
  2. This saves an image of the active window onto the clipboard.

    3. ***Note: The clipboard can only hold ONE (1) image at a time. You must paste each screen capture BEFORE taking additional screen captures.
  3. Open the file in which you want to place the screen capture.
  4. Position your cursor where you want to place the screen capture.
  5. Go to the FILE menu and select PASTE.
  6. The image will now appear in the location you specified.


How to take pictures of your Mac screen

Taking a picture of an active window on your Mac (For example, the contents of you disk.)

Note: a plus sign (+) means to hold keys down together.

  1. Press: 
  2. Then hold down and click on the window you want to capture.
  3. This saves the image to the clipboard.

    4. ***Note: The clipboard can only hold ONE image at a time. You must paste each image BEFORE taking additional pictures.
  4. Open the file in which you want to place the screen capture.
  5. Position your cursor where you want to place the screen capture.
  6. Go to the EDIT menu and select PASTE.
  7. The image will now appear in the location you specified.

Taking a picture of a portion of the screen on your Mac(For example, a select group of icons.)

Note: A plus sign (+) means to hold keys down together.

  1. Press:  (*make sure the caps lock is off.)
  2. A cross will appear. Draw a box around the section you want holding down the mouse button. Press before releasing the mouse button.
  3. This saves the image to the clipboard.

    4. ***Note: The clipboard can only hold ONE image at a time. You must paste each image BEFORE taking additional pictures.
  4. Open the file in which you want to place the screen capture.
  5. Position your cursor where you want to place the screen capture.
  6. Go to the EDIT menu and select PASTE.
  7. The image will now appear in the location you specified.

Taking a picture of the entire desktop on your Mac (all windows, background, icons, etc.)

Note: A plus sign (+) means to hold keys down together.

  1. Press: 
  2. This saves the image to the clipboard.

    3. ***Note: The clipboard can only hold ONE image at a time. You must paste each image BEFORE taking additional pictures.
  3. Open the file in which you want to place the screen capture.
  4. Position your cursor where you want to place the screen capture.
  5. Go to the EDIT menu and select PASTE.
  6. The image will now appear in the location you specified.

Student Computing Center
San Diego State University
(619) 594-3189