You found it, the corner of community that talks about fun tech. Today, let’s talk about a little tool that will help you take screen shots, highlight what you would like the person to see, and even write on the screen shot to make your point. That’s right, you can do all of this right from your pc. I know what you are thinking, and yes this is true, and it could not be simpler.
Let’s start with where you can get this free tool. If you click the picture below you will be taken right to the download page for Lightshot, my favorite of these.
Now that you have that on your computer let’s talk about what you can do with it. Have you ever sent a question to someone, maybe support at your favorite software company, and they ask if you can send them a screen shot? Your first thought is, how do I do that? I guess I will take a picture with my phone, attach that to the email and send it. Well with Lightshot there is no need for all those steps. All you need to do is press the print screen button on your keyboard. This is typically on the top row of your keyboard and will look something like this.
Once you do that you will see a dotted line box appear. You can drag the box bigger or smaller at the corners and in the middle of each side.
Now you may notice the tool bars on the bottom right side of the above screen shot. That is where all the cool things happen. The one I use the most is the square. You can click on that and then put a square around anything you would like to point out to the person you are sending this to. I did this above to show you the points you can use to enlarge or shrink the box and you will see it throughout this article when I am pointing things out on the pictures. The default color for this will be red, but if you click on the red square on the tool bar you will be able to change that to whatever color you would like.
You can also write or draw on the screen shot by clicking the pencil, the top icon, or the marker, which is thicker and good for highlighting things. And why not add some text to that too. You can do that just by clicking on the T.
Now that you know how to use some of the fun tools you are probably wondering how you save this and add it to that email for support at your favorite software. Well, that is simple too. You can do this a couple of ways. The first is to press the icon that looks like 2 pieces of paper. This will copy the screen shot and allow you to just right click on your email and paste this.
If you would like to save the screen shot, you can click the icon of floppy disk. This will let you choose where to save this on your computer. Then in your email you will just insert a picture and choose this one from your file.
Now the last thing I’d like to show you here is what to do if you make a mistake. And let’s be honest, this may be my most used tool. If you highlight something you don’t mean to, or make a mistake with your drawing, really anything you would like to get rid of, you can just press the arrow pointing to the left. This will undo the last thing you did. You can also press this more than once to continue to undo.
That is it. You are now an expert. The next time you are asked to send a picture of what is happening there will be no need for that moment of panic and trying to figure out what to do. Just press the print screen button and send away.
Check back for the next issue to see what fun tech tool I will be giving a shout out.
Until then, tech on.
Andrea Fahrenbacher