h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Say, how do you take a screenshot?

Also, I keep forgetting to ask my husband - my computer has a few OSs it can boot up in. How do you change the default?

In MacOS9:

command + shift + 3
Creates a picture file of the whole screen.


command + shift + 4
Creates a picture file of a specific part of the screen. After doing the key commands, hold click and drag to create a box of the desired area.


command + shift + 4 + capslock
Creates a picture file of a specific window. After doing the key commands click the mouse on the desired window.


Picture files get automatically stored in the HD folder (startup disc), labelled as Picture 1, Picture 2 etc.

If anyone knows how to override that I'd really appreciate it.

kea.

Cntrl alt print screen, then paste into ideally a picture editor, although you can use word as well I think.

Thank you muchly

I don't think you have to press ctrl+alt; just the print screen button works for me.

What program/bootloader are you using for your multi-OS system?

Linux..do I need to go see which one? I forget which my husband stuck on there - he's determined to make me a linux geek. What I actually use would be XP Pro.

It would be interesting to know what Linux you have, but try following these simple instructions:

1. Boot into Linux.

2. Open a terminal. You should be able to do this by clicking on the menu button on the bottom left of the screen (just like the Windows start button) if you are using KDE/Gnome. If you're not, try right-clicking or middle-clicking the desktop to access the menu.

3. Go to the Terminals section of the menu and select one terminal application from the list ('Konsole', 'Gnome terminal', 'Eterm' and others might be there. Any will do.)

4. Type 'su' and press Enter.

5. Type your root password if you have one. You may need to ask your husband for this if you don't know it. Note that the terminal will not display the letters you type as you do. After, press Enter. The terminal prompt should now end in '#' instead of '$'.

6. Type 'konqueror' or 'nautilus', whichever works. Tell me if neither of them do.

7. Press the 'up one level' button in the file manager until you can't go any further.

8. Double-click the folder called 'etc'.

9. Scroll down and double-click the file called 'lilo.conf' to open it in a text editor.

10. Scroll down the file and locate the entry that refers to your Windows partition. It probably says 'label="windows"'.

11. Back at the top of the file, change the 'default="linux"' line so that it reads 'default="windows"' or whatever the Windows entry is called.

12. Close the file manager, but not the terminal.

13. Type 'lilo' at the terminal prompt.

14. If the command finishes successfully, you should be able to reboot your computer and the default will be Windows. As an alternative, you could have changed the delay that it has before booting the default. To do this you would change the line in the /etc/lilo.conf file that reads 'timeout=x' to a higher number. Note that x is in tenths of a second.

In windows to take a sreenshot you just press 'print screen' and a picture will be stored in the clipboard, if you only want the active window then you press 'alt + print screen'.

Best thing to do Geek is to go to Google and search for 'free screen capture' programs. These are generally quite small and will allow you to do everything you wanted to do in your question including: the ability to save files to where you want them saved, to save files in a format of your choice (eg gif jpg tiff etc). You will also be able to do neat things like crop and rotate the pictures you capture as well as add text to them. Download a couple (there will be dozens available) and see which one suits you best.

best wishes and good luck,
mindsigh

Mac OS X, just for completion, saves "Picture 1, 2, 3..." to the desktop as a PDF (still [command] [shift] [3])

One just hopes that Mac OSX opens the pdf reader a hell of a lot faster than OS9 then

kea.