How to Make and Save a Computer Screen Capture Using Paint

Have you wanted to save a confirmation message that pops up on your computer screen for future reference without writing it down? Do you need to create instructional or informational documents that include screen captures without spending money on special software? With windows comes a free accessory application you can used to do this quickly and easily, it is called Paint.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Window operating system with Paint application
• Computer screen to capture

1. 
   Screen in Maximized Window

   Display the computer screen to be captured as a picture file. Maximize the window containing the screen to be captured. Maximizing may eliminate the need to remove background items later.
   
   When the screen you want to capture fills the window, press the Print Screen (PrtSc) button located on the upper right of computer keyboard.

2. 
   Paint Window

   To save and review the screen capture, open Paint window (by clicking Start on Windows bottom toolbar then select from menu All Programs, followed by Accessories, then select Paint).
   
   Then Paste the captured screen into Paint using your preferred method of Ctrl + P on keyboard or Edit, then Paste from menu bar. If Paint offers "The image in the clipboard is larger than the bitmap. Would you like the bitmap enlarged?" Select Yes as your answer.

3. 
   Save As Window

   Paint will place dotted lines around screen capture picture to indicating it may be moved, copied, or edited. Once screen capture is in Paint, you may cut parts of it out to save as individual reference files for your document or save the entire screen as a file. You may save either the entire screen capture using option A below or only a portion of it using option B.
   
   A. If you wish to save the entire screen capture as a file, from the Paint menu bar, select File, then Save. When the Save As dialog box appears, select the desired disk and directory location in the Save In field, then enter a File Name for the screen capture. Then click the Save button.
   
   B. If you prefer to save a portion of your screen capture, from the Paint toolbar on the left side, select the Rectangular Selection (dotted line rectangle) button. Then use the selector to draw a box around the portion of the screen you wish to save. After it shows a box around desired portion, from the Paint menu bar at top, select Edit, then Copy To. When the Copy To dialog box appears, select the desired disk and directory location in the Save In field and enter a File Name for the saved portion of the screen capture. Then click the Save button.

Tips & Warnings

• Once screen captures are saved, you may place them in in most Microsoft Office files using the applications menu option of Insert, Picture, From File by locating and selecting the saved file. For steps on inserting pictures in files, you may want to see article “How to Add, Move, and Size Graphical Images in Office Files.”

Resources

• How to Add, Move, and Size Graphical Images in Office Files
• How to Learn More than You Need to Know About Office Toolbars
• How to Create a Simple Graph in Excel using the Chart Wizard
• How to Change Stationery or Backgrounds in Outlook Emails
• How to Create GIF or JPEG file for a Banner or Ad using PowerPoint
• How to Work with Large Blocks of Text in Word