PrintScreen: not working as expected in Windows 7. Workaround?

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Has anyone had problems using PrintScreen in Wiindows 7? I can do PrintScreen and paste the image into a Word document. But, I can no longer copy it from the Word document and paste it into either Windows Live Mail 2011 or Windows Mail (I have both working with Windows 7). I can do “Paste” but I get a blank page. If I move the cursor over the area where I “pasted,” the cursor shows the crossbars which indicate something’s there, it’s just invisible to me. If I attempt to highlight it the area where it should be shows as blue, which means something’s there. But beneath the highlight it’s just plain white.

I know you can’t do printscreen and paste the image directly into the body of the email. You couldn’t do that with Outlook Express and Windows XP either. The way it worked then was to first paste the image to a word document. Then select the image on the word document page, copy it, and paste it right into the body of the email. Now, with Windows 7, that second step no longer works. I have to save the word document and then attach it to the email, is a useless waste of disk space (I know I can delete it, but save-attach-delete is annoying).

Does anyone have a workaround so that I can once again do PrintScreen, paste to a blank Word Doc and then copy/paste to the body of an email?

I didn’t know whether to post this under email or Windows 7 but figured that it seems like more of a Windows 7 issue than an email issue.

Kelliann

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I don’t think this is a Windows 7 issue. I can paste an image into Outlook, no issues.

Instead of using PrintScreen, have you ever thought of using the Snipping Tool (you can find it All Programs -> Accessories)? You can select what to capture, then copy it and paste it anywhere. I can paste it directly in Outlook without issues – with my default message text format, which is HTML.

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Have you tried PrtSc, paste to Paint, then save the image as a .jpg or .png image and pasting that image to the word document. I realize this seems a long way around, but unless something else crops up it might work.

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Ted –
I hadn’t thought of how to turn it into a jpeg. Well, I *vaguely* thought of it but didn’t get as far as thinking about exactly how to do it! . I will keep Paint in mind for that conversion.

Kelliann

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Ruirib – thank you! I just tried the snipping tool and it worked – I pasted what I outlined with the cursor into the body of a Windows Live Mail.

Played with the highlight and the pen, too. I didn’t realize that existed.

Kelliann

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Ruirib – thank you! I just tried the snipping tool and it worked – I pasted what I outlined with the cursor into the body of a Windows Live Mail.

Played with the highlight and the pen, too. I didn’t realize that existed.

Kelliann

Another tool to add to your arsenal, then. I am glad it worked :).

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Another tool to add to your arsenal, then. I am glad it worked :).

I was just sitting here wondering whether they took that copy/paste function away in order to make us use their new snipping tool. Hope they are not planning to take away our clipboard and make us use an app for copy/pastes.

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I was just sitting here wondering whether they took that copy/paste function away in order to make us use their new snipping tool. Hope they are not planning to take away our clipboard and make us use an app for copy/pastes.

No, they didn’t. This tool was initially offered with XP Tablet Edition (where I first used it and found it very useful) and then it was integrated with mainstream versions in Vista and was kept in Windows 7. The clipboard has worked normally in all these versions. Actually, you use the tool and need to choose copy, to add whatever was captured to the clipboard, and then you can paste it anywhere. So the clipboard is actually very much needed if you don’t want to go through the intermediate step of saving whatever you may have captured to a jpeg file (which you can also do from the tool).

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No, they didn’t. This tool was initially offered with XP Tablet Edition (where I first used it and found it very useful) and then it was integrated with mainstream versions in Vista and was kept in Windows 7. The clipboard has worked normally in all these versions. Actually, you use the tool and need to choose copy, to add whatever was captured to the clipboard, and then you can paste it anywhere. So the clipboard is actually very much needed if you don’t want to go through the intermediate step of saving whatever you may have captured to a jpeg file (which you can also do from the tool).

So when you choose copy and add what you captured to the clipboard, you are adding it as an image, not as editable text, right?

I didn’t use Vista much. I got a new laptop with Vista and instead of using it, I stayed with the old laptop and XP. Once in a while when I needed extra browser tabs open beyond what the memory of the old one could handle, I’d use the newer one with Vista. Then I put Windows 7 on it eventually. I have a different version of windows 7 on the newest laptop.

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So when you choose copy and add what you captured to the clipboard, you are adding it as an image, not as editable text, right?

Yes, the captured screen is pasted as an image.

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Yes, the captured screen is pasted as an image.[/QUOTE

OK thanks. I like that snipping tool. I’m sorta greedy – I’d like to have print screen work the way it used to too. I’d like to have it ALL.

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Ruirib – thank you! I just tried the snipping tool and it worked – I pasted what I outlined with the cursor into the body of a Windows Live Mail.

Played with the highlight and the pen, too. I didn’t realize that existed.

Kelliann

The Snipping Tool is a good tool, however, this is not helpful, if I need to take a snapshot of a window which shows an expanded menu navigation. The moment we navigate away from that menu window, it collapses to normal and snipping tool cannot grab that screen. The normal Print Screen helps to capture as is window.

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Print Screen then paste into Windows Live Mail 2012 new message worked for me using Windows 7.

Jerry

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Print Screen then paste into Windows Live Mail 2012 new message worked for me using Windows 7.

Jerry

Hi Jerry – In Windows 7 I have WLM 2011, and paste printscreen didn’t work for me, either as a direct paste, or, by passing it through Word first. I didn’t even know there was a WLM 2012. When did that come out? What does it do that 2011 doesn’t do or doesn’t do without a lot of aggravation?

Kelliann

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OOps, I just checked and it is Windows Live Mail 2011, not 2012. But Print Screen/paste worked for me. Print Screen copies as an image as well. The main advantage the snipping tool has over Print Screen is that you can define what area of the screen you are copying. The only option you have with Print Screen is the whole screen or the active window with Alt Print Screen. So you don’t lose anything with the snipping tool.

Jerry

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This is a very OLD thread, and I would have thought that by now I would have posted to it, but apparently not.

I do screen captures as often as once a day or more. It used to be a really big problem (years ago) untill my Software Guru put me on to a little program from France, called “Photo Filtre” (nope, I spelled it correctly).

It’s a photo editing program with features that would rival Photo Shop.

I installed it and put a shortcut to it in my Task Bar (Quick Launch toolbar, in XP).

So when I want to capture a screen, (everything on the screen but the mouse cursor), I just press the “Print Scrn” key on the upper row of my keyboard which copies the screen to the Windows Clipboard.

Then I click the Photo Filtre shortcut icon in the Taskbar which opens the program, and then in the center of the new screen, I right click and select “Paste as a New Image”. Voila, there is my captured screen. Now using the tools in PF, I can resize the picture,(right click menu) crop the picture or add text to the picture before I save it. Then I can copy it into any email, or attach it to an email, etc. with no problem, and since I saved it to my Hard Drive, I can use it over and over again.

Almost anything is possible, when you have the right tools. “With enough time, tools and materials, I could build a city the size of Rome and populate it myself” Quote: Wade Lentner, Harley Davidson dealer. RIP

Cheers Mates and Happy Holidays!
The Doctor 😎

PS: Those interested can download the basic (FREE) Photo Filtre here:
http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/pf7-en.htm

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It does appear there might be a beta WLM 2012, but I am not convinced of the download site so I am not posting it.

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Another problem, which I found by chance, Print Screen will only work on Screen #1 of a two screen set-up. I don’t think there is a work around, any ideas?

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Another problem, which I found by chance, Print Screen will only work on Screen #1 of a two screen set-up. I don’t think there is a work around, any ideas?

Fuzzy. I don’t have any ideas except to make sure that what you want to use PrintScreen / the Snipper for is on monitor #1 instead of 2.

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I use W-7 Home and Thunderbird email.

Print screen works fine — I can paste it right into an email

Mel

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Another useful free screen capture program that I like is PicPick.

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Have you tried pasting to Paint and saving your image as JPEG? In this way you can export your image to any other application afterwards very easily.

However Windows 7 have built-in image capturing tool, why don’t you try that? It is very easy to use, just open that tool and drag your mouse around the area which you want to capture.

You can also view http://www.techyv.com/questions/screen-capture for more information.

I hope it would be of some help.

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It is possible but unlikely there will be any 2012 version of the Windows Live Essentials programs. With the release of Windows 8 just around the corner the focus is on WLE replacements. Microsoft could bundle some fixes together and call the release WLE 2012 but I believe that there will not be any new development for WLE.

Joe

--Joe

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Joe I think I asked this before, but I forget the answer other than that someone didn’t know yet….so what are they going to do for an email program on the person’s desktop or laptop?

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They are pushing the Windows Mail Metro app. Recognize that Windows is an OS and is not responsible for application development. They add and drop included applications at will. Note that Mozilla is stopping future development of its Email program Thunderbird. I suspect both Thunderbird and Windows Live mail will be available for the forseeable future but will no longer be enhanced.

Jerry

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Why do you say:

Note that Mozilla is stopping future development of its Email program Thunderbird. I suspect both Thunderbird and Windows Live mail will be available for the forseeable future but will no longer be enhanced.

I can find nothing on getsatisfaction about future development of Thunderbird being discontinued, and the new version 14.0 was only issued yesterday!

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Why do you say:

I can find nothing on getsatisfaction about future development of Thunderbird being discontinued, and the new version 14.0 was only issued yesterday!

See the blog post from Mitchell Baker the chair of the Mozilla foundation – http://blog.lizardwrangler.com/2012/07/06/thunderbird-stability-and-community-innovation/.

Joe

--Joe

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Thank you for this link – I’ve never previously seen that blog, which seems principally aimed at developers rather than users.
However, I think that jwitalka is being unduly alarmist in implying that Thunderbird is going to be frozen as it now is.
Looking at:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Proposal:_New_Release_and_Governance_Model,
which is a link from that blog post it says “we are proposing to adapt the Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that allows both ongoing security and stability maintenance as well as community driven innovations for the product”.
My reading is that they are stopping innovation, but continuing maintenance of Thunderbird. Unless there is any major change in email, I do not think there is much innovation needed, but, like any program, it does need maintenace, which they say it will get for the foreseeable future.

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Thank you for this link – I’ve never previously seen that blog, which seems principally aimed at developers rather than users.
However, I think that jwitalka is being unduly alarmist in implying that Thunderbird is going to be frozen as it now is.
Looking at:
https://wiki.mozilla.org/Thunderbird/Proposal:_New_Release_and_Governance_Model,
which is a link from that blog post it says “we are proposing to adapt the Thunderbird release and governance model in a way that allows both ongoing security and stability maintenance as well as community driven innovations for the product”.
My reading is that they are stopping innovation, but continuing maintenance of Thunderbird. Unless there is any major change in email, I do not think there is much innovation needed, but, like any program, it does need maintenace, which they say it will get for the foreseeable future.

The ZDNet article’s author seems to be of the opinion that this means that development will no longer be supported by the Mozilla Foundation. With a huge community of users and a large community of developers, Thunderbird could go Open Source as a Community Project, the way Eudora OSE and LibreOffice have done. This would be my hope.

And as I remember the events, Eudora OSE was largely responsible for prodding Qualcomm to resume development of their paid Eudora after they had said they were abandoning further development. Mozilla might find similar inspiration if “Thunderbird OSE” were to take off. One can hope, anyway.

There isn’t anything definite about any of this, so everyone is entitled to read the tea leaves as they wish.

-- rc primak

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Maybe a dead issue now, but FWIW, I can paste directly to email or go through Word without saving. Win7 WLM 2009

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Maybe a dead issue now, but FWIW, I can paste directly to email or go through Word without saving. Win7 WLM 2009

gpeyton, I found WLM 2009 to be a lot friendlier to the user than WLM 2011. WLM 2009 was simpler, retained more of an Outlook Express look, without the crazy exploded menus of WLM 2011 and it also let you pick the file size for a photo that you wanted to attach to an email whereas WLM 2011 doesn’t, and, 2011 also tries to get you to send pictures to the cloud for recipients of your email to view there. I am not surprised that there’s no problem attaching an open Word doc to WLM 2009. There wasn’t with Outlook Express, either.

I believe MS is attempting to change the basic way we use our computers so that all storage is on the web. Mail on the web, docs on the web, Office on the web…. you name it. Just why they don’t want us to store stuff on our own computers is something I don’t know. But given that internet access is not always reliable or fast, and the web is not always secure, I think it’s a stupid idea.

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Windows 8 has a Metro mail app. You can also use any of the existing clients for the desktop (Outlook, Thunderbird).

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Also see http://www.zdnet.com/mozilla-scraps-thunderbird-development-email-client-not-a-priority-anymore-7000000469/

Jerry

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Snipping Tool can capture menus.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/snipping-tool-faq#1TC=windows-7

cheers, Paul

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