Hello,

I would like to create more "how to" articles. It would be very helpful if I could get screenshots on websites, and than circle or somehow indicate the action you have to take. ie. clicking the mousel on an "Install" icon. What program would I use to do this? Do I simply save an image on a website and than use a photo editing program? Any help would greatly be appreciated. Thanks so much for taking the time to read my post.

Chris H.

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Internet Security 101

print screen on your keyboard [PrntScrn] .. then use any good photo editing software to do the markups.

Thanks so much for your help. Do you know of any free or fairly inexpensive photo editing programs?

Chris H.

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Internet Security 101

Which OS are you using ?

I am using Windows Vista.

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Internet Security 101

Well Vista has a free tool [Windows Snipping Tool] installed on it already, but image quality is rather low, but you can maybe give it a try ...

http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Win...605b41033.mspx

If you are interested in making a video by screen capture, I recommend the http://www.camstasia.org screen capturer, it's the one I currently use.

That is not my site or a site I'm trying to promote, I use it for my youtube videos

Thanks David and awjm for the info. I am looking for still pictures for my blog. I'll check out both sites though. Thanks again.

Chris H.

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Internet Security 101

A couple of free image editing programs you could try are Paint.NET and GIMP. Both of these should let you do what you want, and a whole lot more besides. (At a pinch, you could even use MS Paint to crop images.) My feeling is that GIMP is more powerful, while Paint.NET is probably easier to get to know. Though that verdict is largely based on a heady mix of looking at screenshots and reading the odd article (I'm a Photoshop user), so your mileage may vary.

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Pole Exercise - Pole dancing evolved

I use Photoscape now. It's free and I like it. Haven't tried to do very complicated things though. They also have nice little tutorials to explain how things work. Really easy to use.

Found it through one of the threads here. Thanks guys...

Thank you everyone so much for the responses. Thanks to you I did manage to capture a screenshot and crop a couple of parts of a screenshot for my blog using MS Paint. Will be sure to check out the other photo editing software suggested. Thanks again. Cheers

Chris H.

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Internet Security 101

For capturing screen shots it is hard to beat Lightscreen. It is free, very easy to use, enables several types of captures, and saves to any folder you want (easy to change for work on projects) and saves in several formats. And, of course, it has hot key access to capture features.

You can check out Lightscreen here.

I use it for captures even though I have several other graphic programs that could be used. It is just so much faster and easier to use. It is another great project of sourceforge.net.

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Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."

Thank you James. I've downloaded it and look forward to checking the program out. I'm amazed at all the different free graphic editing programs. Thanks again. I did do a screen capture the other day with the PrtSc key, pasted it onto MS Paint, and cropped the part of the screen I wanted to paste on my blog. Worked out quite well actually. Would be great though for a program with more functionality than MS Paint. Thanks again James.

Chris H.

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Internet Security 101

I'd like to second that thanks. I've just downloaded Lightscreen too - it's great that I can now capture arbitrary rectangles and get pngs instantly, rather than having to go via Photoshop or similar. Almost like having a Mac in fact...

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Pole Exercise - Pole dancing evolved

Lightscreen is great for captures, as noted.

You will need another program for doing other graphic work. Many people recommend GIMP as a free program and the price is certainly right. I do not find it as user friendly as I would like but I think it is a good program.

For years I've been using Paintshop Pro (now version X2) and find it to be an inexpensive alternative to Photoshop that has essentially all the same features. I can heartily recommend it. There will be lots of people who think only Photoshop can do the job. It is good if you can afford it, I'm sure, but if not (or if you are just cheap as my wife says I am) Paintshop Pro Photo is great.

BTW, I am not really cheap! It's just that if all else is pretty much equal I would rather have money in my pocket than someone else's.

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Good Success!

Douglas County Master Gardeners
"We don't always get what we want, but we always get what we expect."