IT People - Quick!!

[WolfpackWife]

I've got to find a good, reliable screen capture tool to download for use in a project I'm working on for my class. The screen caps I need are mostly of PDFs or websites - I don't need any voice or video recording capabilities.

My professor suggested SnagIT, which was allegedly available for download free through my university, but the IT Help Desk are being total wangs and I can't for the life of me figure out how to download it. My prof mentioned "other freeware screen capture tools" that are available online - but which do you recommend?

Are there reliable free versions? Cam Studio?

Thanks!

[poky]

Wait, you don't need video, just screenshots? This is for a PC? Is there some reason you can't just use the printscreen button and then paste to an image editor? Alt-printscreen, if you just want the active window instead of the whole desktop... then just open photoshop or whatever else you have that can open/save images, and create new and then paste and save. As long as you're not needing a TON of shots, that should be simple enough.

[alotofyarn]

Can you just use the Snipping Tool on Windows? That's what I always use. Or press the print screen button, or alt + print screen to just get the active window.

[WolfpackWife]

I'm actually not entirely sure why he is advising against simple screen shots. I think because we're going to need to capture different sections of the PDF pages, not the entire pages. Also to avoid the entire screen being present? I don't know if that makes sense...

Allison - I'm not working with Windows and am new to this so I'm not sure what I'd used on a Mac but am sure I could google and find something.

Our objective is to create a comprehensive research tool comprised of various sections of our readings, scanned notes, PDF readings, etc. as a "textbook" of sorts. Part of that is to include the important parts of the texts that we've used...the objective being that we can look back on it in a year and use it as reliable, understandable reference tool for conducting research in various methods. And he requires it to be in Word...so I'm envisioning the need to perhaps "snip" a section of a PDF that pertains to the section at hand - instead of taking a screen cap of the entire screen displaying the PDF after which I'd have to manipulate and resize to isolate just the paragraph or section. Does that make any sense?

Plus if I can avoid the screen shots, I feel like it would be a "cleaner" look anyway.

[alotofyarn]

I tried to ask my husband, who is the Mac user in our house, and he basically said JFGI. Umm, thanks.

Anyway, I found this: http://lifehacker.com/123130/snipping-on-macs

[WolfpackWife]

I tried to ask my husband, who is the Mac user in our house, and he basically said JFGI. Umm, thanks.

Anyway, I found this: http://lifehacker.com/123130/snipping-on-macs

Thanks - I probably would have caved and ended up googling it anyway. I just though maybe someone could recommend a screen capture tool a la SnagIT so I could at least feel like I've got the software he "requires" for this assignment (even if something else is completely capable of suiting my needs). Hopefully the Mac snipping tool will work out - I'll give it a try right now

[Sheherezade]

On Mac just use Preview. Under file, you can select "take a screenshot". You can then convert to many file types.

[SoonerTexan]

I'm a little confused--are you using a Mac or PC?

If a PC, you can download Screenhunter, though SnagIt has features that are nice

http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/...unter_free.htm

If Mac, then pressing Command+Shift+4 will give you the ability to take a screenshot of a selected area of a screen

[GreyhoundsRUs]

I'm a little confused--are you using a Mac or PC?

If a PC, you can download Screenhunter, though SnagIt has features that are nice

http://www.wisdom-soft.com/products/...unter_free.htm

If Mac, then pressing Command+Shift+4 will give you the ability to take a screenshot of a selected area of a screen

I think it's command+shift+3??? When you open it in Preview, you can then crop it to remove anything else you don't need.


Wife of a PGY-4 Orthopod

[SoonerTexan]

command+shift+4 allows you to do the selection part immediately and not have to crop out

[WolfpackWife]

command+shift+4 allows you to do the selection part immediately and not have to crop out

I'll have to try that when I get home. I'm on a PC at work, but this project will be done on my Mac at home. I just can't work with entire screen shots - I need snippets of text from various sites and PDFs. I am now confused about why he suggested SnagIT if we don't need video/recording capabilities. Oh well.

[GreyhoundsRUs]

command+shift+4 allows you to do the selection part immediately and not have to crop out

Ohhhh! Fun


Wife of a PGY-4 Orthopod

[SoonerTexan]

I am now confused about why he suggested SnagIT if we don't need video/recording capabilities. Oh well.

Get it if you can. It does much more than video. It allows you to select screenshots in lots of different ways and edit before you save the screenshot. It will save you a lot of time.

[WolfpackWife]

Get it if you can. It does much more than video. It allows you to select screenshots in lots of different ways and edit before you save the screenshot. It will save you a lot of time.

That must be why - the problem is my university IT "Help" Desk (I use the term help loosely) literally cannot figure out what e-forms I need to fill out to get the free download. My prof made it sound so straightforward but according to the IT people, I'm asking them to move hell and earth.

[SoonerTexan]

Know anyone in the IT Dept?