Capturing a screen image as a gif (Word 97)

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I’m trying to capture a screen image as a gif image so I can use it as a picture in a Word document. I’ve seen them in documents but I cannot find the way to do it. Anybody got the answer?

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http://www.techsmith.com

and download SnagIt

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If you hit the “Print screen” key, it copies the whole screen into the clipboard, and you can paste it directly into Wrod- or paste it into a paint program (eg Paint Shop Pro) and save it as a gif. “Alt + Print Screen copies just the active window.

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Just adding on to the other suggestions:

You can use the Paint application that comes with Windows.

Press the PrintScreen button on your keyboard to do a “screen capture”, then locate the Paint application (usually Start > Programs > Accessories).
Then Paste and the screen image will show up in Paint.

To save as a .gif, click on File > SaveAs, and you will have an option to save as a .gif at the bottom of the SaveAs dialog.

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Gary,

The paint program which comes with Windows (“Paint”) does not have a “Save as gif” option. I’d be glad if it did.

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I think you have been ripped off, just checked my copy of Paint and save does give gif (glad I’m typing this) as a save option. Sorry Help doesn’t give a version.

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Hmm, maybe this depends on which version of Windows – didn’t think of that.
I’m now working on Windows 2000, and Paint sure does have the save as .gif option. I never tried to save as a .gif from Paint back when I was using Win98 so am not sure.

See attached screensnap of the format options available in SaveAs (in Paint/Win2K).

Gary

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Gary,

I’m running Win95 at home, and WinNT at work. Neither have the gif version- though it’s possible old versions of Paint have carried through.

Regardless, it is still possible to paste the image directly into Word. Though, if it’s a bitmap, an dnot a gif or jpg, it may be much larger than necessary.

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It should be noted that many bitmap editors will not allow you to save a 24bit graphic as a GIF until you have downsampled it to 256 colours (8bit).

If your monitor is set to 256 colours then you will get a screen capture in 256 colours. If the monitor is set to more colours then you may not immediately be able to save the capture in a reduced colour format such as GIF.

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Windows 98 Paint has the GIF option.

Depending on the image size, pasting directly into Word, or using a reduced-color BMP file, often is more efficient. Since GIF is not a native Windows format, a large object container gets added into the document that often more than makes up for the compression.

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In addition to the PrintScrn that Geoff suggested, if you use Alt PrintScrn you will only get the active dialog box. For example, if you had the font dialog box open, PrintScrn by itself would give you the entire screen, including the dialog box; but Alt PrintScrn would only give you the font dialog box.

You then simply paste directly into your document.

I also use Snagit and it’s wonderful for when you want to show menus, toolbars etc with a mouse pointer.

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