How to Repeatedly Capture and Save Screenshots

A screenshot is just a photo of whatever happens to presently be displayed on a screen. This picture can then be saved and referenced at a later date. The screenshot captures any images currently displayed on a screen but does not necessarily capture everything. What this means is that if you are observing a webpage that spans several pages and requires scrolling, the screenshot will capture what you are currently viewing but will not have the scroll ability to see the entire webpage. Screenshots have transcended from general computer use to tablets, smartphones, and mp3 players. As screenshots are fairly well-known, having the capacity to take them has become a standard characteristic of nearly all platforms. Windows comes with a preinstalled program referred to as the snipping tool. This can be found by going through the Start button and searching for snipping tool in the search box. Using the snipping tool will create a slight haze over your screen with the exception of hazing the snipping tool program. This indicates that your screen is not presently in use. The snipping tool then features a drop down menu that enables the user to pick four different screenshot options: free-form, rectangular, window, and full-screen. A free-form screenshot is simply a picture of whatever you outline on the screen. A rectangular screenshot shows a box that can be resized and the screenshot will contain anything visible in the box. A window screenshot will take a picture of any browser or system window that is clicked on. For instance, taking a picture of a webpage displayed in Chrome. Finally, a full-screen screenshot is identical to the earlier discussion: a picture of everything presently shown on the screen. These screenshots are then saved to a location on the computer. Additionally, screenshot capability can be done through a keyboard shortcut. Present keyboards come preprogrammed with a button labeled ‘print screen'. This button acts in the same fashion as the ‘print' command within a word processing program, such as Microsoft Word. Using the ‘print screen' button will capture a picture of the screen and paste it to the clipboard. To utilize this picture, first you must open a paint file and paste the picture. From this point, the picture can be printed. Not only is this procedure extensive and complex, it doesn't provide any proof of whether a screenshot was taken. This leaves the user to find out if the screenshot was done or not when they paste in the paint file. If it happens that a screenshot wasn't done, you've now sacrificed a sizable amount of time. Fortunately, a program is available from www.hothotsoftware.com that shortens the screenshot process substantially. By searching for ‘Automatically Take Screenshots and Capture Screenshots for Windows PC', you will find a downloadable program that is exceptionally user friendly. The program features a standard user interface, so any computer user will have the ability to comprehend it. The whole process only requires three steps and provides numerous screenshot options. The first step is to specify the directory to store the screenshots. This may be in the common ‘My Pictures' folder or to a different location. Secondly, a time interval may be selected if you wish for screenshots to be taken on a standard basis. This sort of function may be useful to execute regular computer-use monitoring for public or private computers. The next step is to determine the format of the picture, .jpeg or .bmp. The difference between them is negligible except to an advanced user. Finally, the last step is to begin the program. There is one possibility to only capture a screenshot at that moment and another option to start the regular screenshots at selected intervals. This choice is completely dependent upon your needs.