Ever wondered how people (like me) are able to show you a picture of how their computer screen looks at any given time? Like this screenshot of Picasa:
Or maybe you do already know about the ‘PrtScn’ key on your keyboard that will take a snapshot of your screen. But then what? Pressing the PrtScn key captures everything on your screen and puts it on your clip board, the same place any ‘Cut’ or ‘Copy’ text or objects go. Then, you still have to open some application where you can ‘Paste’ it before you see anything. It’s a rather involved process.
With Picasa 3, you get instant gratification! With Picasa open, you can view any screen possible on your computer – your desktop, your email program – whatever is showing on your screen will be captured when you press the PrtScn (or Print Screen on some computers) *and* it will instantly become a picture file in the ‘Screen Captures’ project folder of Picasa!
Now you can use that picture like any other, crop it, print it, email it etc
This tip brought to you by Geeks on Tour
Geeks on Tour is a membership website with hundreds of Tutorial Videos on topics of interest to travelers, such as managing digital photos with Picasa, Route-Planning with Streets and Trips, and sharing your travels with a website using Blogger or with friends on Facebook. You can subscribe to our free e-newsletters, or become a paid member and be able to view all of the videos in the Learning Library.
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22 Responses to “Picasa Tip: Screen Captures”
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If you will take a printscreen in picasa, you MUST have Picasa-3 on, then minimize, and then you can take the screen which is on. It will directly be seen in upper map.
Hi,
I installed Picasa, I used to do screen captures …I cancelled everything and now I can t do it anymore..can you please help me?I open picasa..then the page i need I press prtsc and nothing happens..why?
Thank you!
what do you meant by prtscn key I didn’t get that
screen captures I take by Picasa always .bmp
can I change it to .jpeg ?
Ah yes, it’s actually windows that makes the screenshot as a .bmp. When you see it in Picasa, you can File Save and it will become a .jpg
Alternatively, you can just Export the screenshot. This lets you resize the image if you want, and the exported image is a jpg.
.bmp files are piled up as much as .jpeg were save.
Any way to directly get it in .jpeg format ? or Windows can be set for the purpose ?
print screen shift or ctrl no longer moves the capture to the open picasa download. I don’t get the bar allowing open, there is no image on picasa print screen album.
How can I restore it.
1. Picasa stores snaphots at own filesown picturesPicasarecorded videosscreen captures (or similar names, my Windows is German) – but Picasa makes bad snapshots (always full page, no jpg etc.), so:
2. Get “Gadwin Print Screen”, you’ll love it for screenshots!
[…] of the current screen becomes a picture in your [Screen Captures] folder. See past article on Screen Captures for more […]
Picasa takes Screen captures every second the Application is running and its a menace , it doesn’t stop , takes up too much of space on my hard drive unnecessarily . Cant find a way to make it stop. If anyone knows a way , please do let me know …roshanvinayan at gmail dot com
To turn off Picasa’s screen capture I write protected the file where thescreenshots go. Described in German at http://blogabissl.blogspot.de/2012/02/picasa-davon-abhalten-screenshots-zu.html – Fritz
Picasa Screenshots are – with permission – a nuisance. They are careless full screen captures, ca. 3 MByte each, as if JPG hadn’t been invented nor smaller rectancles than the full screen. The worst: You can’t turn the feature off. I hate being enslaved by software. I use Gadwin PrintScreen, a beauty, and would like to send Picasa’s screen capture to the waste basket. Fritz
Great Tips…Picasa really is a Marvel.Why don’t you use Google for Blogging? They seem to go hand in hand.
Wanted to try the Screen Capture with the prt sc button and Picassa open but couldn’t find where “project folder” was in order to retrieve it. Is there something I’m missing? Possibly, but I enjoy the articles.
CHECK ALL THE GEEKS ON TOUR MESSAGES GOT A LOT OF GOOD INFO FROM THEM , THANKS
IN FACT I THINK I GOT PICASA FROM ON OF YOUR G ON T MESSAGES….
Have tried to use screen capture in the past, sometimes with success, but using picassa makes it easy. I so LOVE picassa, and your classes at FMCA were so beneficial. Thank you.
Chris and Jim, you always give us such neat tips! We tried Windows Live Writer and it worked like a dream, once we figured out how how to get it into operation. We didn’t use pictures or links this time — that’s still to come.
Thanks!
Hi, Chris,
Can you tell me if it’s possible to make a gift CD with a music track to accompany it? I believe there are music rights issues that prevent anybody from using just any music?
Thank you.
Patrick
Our son gave us Cradlepoint for Christmas in anticipation to our 1st 5 month motorhome tour. Even for novice geeks, it has worked wonderfully!