![[ Figure A ]](ntp9915a.gif)
Do you get tongue-tied when trying to describe your Windows NT desktop to someone over the phone? Do words fail you when you attempt to explain a complex window layout? Let's face it, explaining how two windows are placed in relationship to each other on your desktop, specifying exactly how you arranged your icons, or describing how your display looks when a buggy application repaints the screen incorrectly, is a tough chore. Windows, after all, is a graphical user interface. If a picture is worth a thousand words, describing your desktop could fill volumes.
In the good old days when DOS ruled the PC, taking a snapshot of your screen was simple. When you needed to save a hardcopy version of whatever was on your screen, you could just turn on your printer and press the [Print Scrn] key. If you've tried this tactic under Windows NT, you already know the bad news—Print Screen doesn't work that way anymore. Conversely, the good news is that you can use the PrintKey utility to quickly add Print Screen functionality—and a whole lot more—to Windows NT. And even better, this application is yours free for the downloading.
The PrintKey utility is the creation of Alfred Bolliger and is available at no charge to everyone, from individuals to the largest enterprise. PrintKey works with 32-bit Windows systems—including Windows NT, Windows 95, and Windows 98—and sports an impressive list of features.
To get the latest version of PrintKey, point your Web browser to www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Bay/3053/ and follow the instructions to download the English version of the program. Move the ZIP file to a temporary directory on your Windows NT system and use a decompression utility, such as WinZip, to unpack the ZIP file. Using PrintKey PrintKey doesn't require any formal installation. To use it, either run the program from the Start/Run command, select it from inside Windows NT Explorer, or execute it directly at the command prompt. For convenient access, create a shortcut to PrintKey and add it to your Start menu or desktop, or put it in your Startup folder. Whether you load PrintKey automatically or manually, the only change you'll see on your desktop is the addition of an icon in your system tray—a small hand pressing a key.
To take a snapshot of your desktop, just press the [Print Scrn] key on your keyboard. Alternatively, you can double-click the hand icon in your system tray. When you do, you'll hear a camera shutter sound and the PrintKey window appears, as shown in Figure A.
Figure A:
You can edit, enhance, save, or print your screen captures from the PrintKey window.
The original MS-DOS Print Screen function simply dumped the text on your screen to your printer. But PrintKey is much more versatile, as you can see by the number of options and controls available in its window. The preview window shows a thumbnail version of the captured desktop. Clicking once on the thumbnail changes the image scale to full-size and activates scroll bars for moving the viewport around the image. If you just want to print the screen, select your printer from the dropdown list box, enter the number of copies you need, select Portrait or Landscape, and click the Print button.
A hardcopy of your screen isn't always the best choice. You might want to send an image of your desktop layout to a friend, mail a snapshot of a strange registry entry or error message to tech support, or use the image of your desktop as your wallpaper! To save the captured screen to a file, select the Save Picture As... command from the File menu. You can choose from JPG, BMP, or GIF file formats. The Picture Information status bar tells you the image resolution, color depth, and the amount of space the file will occupy on disk.
Of course, you won't need to capture the entire desktop in every situation. In many cases, you'll want to capture only the active window. The Define Hotkey Function pop-up menu under the Options menu allows you to choose PrintKey's default action to capture the full screen, active window, or any rectangular area. You can also select a different hotkey or send screens directly to the printer.
If PrintKey only captured and printed your screen shots, it would still be a handy utility. But it also allows you to manipulate images—both those it captures directly and those you load from files. You can adjust color depth from 24-bit true color down to 1-bit monochrome. Other options allow you to reverse or swap colors, create a mirror image, and exchange images through the clipboard. Cheap shot Whether you need to record your desktop layout, produce documentation for an in-house application, or nail down an elusive program bug, the ability to capture and print screens is essential. PrintKey is a great utility that's simple to install and run, easy to use, and free—what more could you want?
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