Learning how to take a screenshot on a laptop is an essential nowadays. You can use it to share information conveniently.
Screenshots are really useful. I sometimes use them to show tech support guys what’s on my screen. There are several ways to do this.
Taking a Screenshot of the Entire Computer Screen
The easiest way to take a snapshot of your screen is to just press the print screen button. Find the “PrtSc” and press it. Now you can paste and save it on MS Paint.
To do that, launch MS Paint. Open your search bar and then type “paint.” Click “Paint” among the options that come up.
On the MS Paint window, do a Ctrl + V keyboard stroke, which pastes your screenshot. And then hit save to save your work.
Taking a Snapshot of Your Active Window
Sometimes you don’t really need to share the contents of your entire screen. To take a screenshot of your active window, do an Alt + Print Screen keyboard combination.
The next step is to launch Paint and do the same steps as before. If you don’t want to use Paint you can use any image editing software you like.
Other image processing and editing software have more features than Paint. You can add brilliant highlights and other elements if you wish.
Taking Screenshots without Using Image Editing Software
When you’re in a hurry, you don’t have time to deal with image editing programs like Paint. To take a quick screenshot just press the Windows key + Print Screen.
Doing that will automatically take a snapshot of your entire computer screen.It will also save your screenshot image automatically.
After doing that you can move on to other important tasks. You can find your screenshot in the Screenshots folder inside the Pictures folder and work on it later.
Taking a Partial Screenshot
Sometimes you only need to take a screenshot of a part of your screen. You can do that by using the Snipping Tool.
Open your search bar and then type “Snipping Tool” inside the box. Click Snipping Tool in the options that come up.
The Snipping Tool window will come up on your screen. Click on “New,” which is the button on the left.
Your laptop screen will be slightly greyed out. You can drag the Snipping Tool window out of the way if you want.
You will also see a large cursor come up on your computer screen. Use it to select the area you want to capture.
You will see that section you selected once you release the cursor. Your snapshot image will then be displayed in the Snipping Tool.
Finally, you can put highlights on your snapshot and you can erase some parts too if you want. When you’re done, click the Save Snip button (i.e. the one that looks like a diskette).
How to Take a Screenshot Using a MacBook
Of course, MacBooks don’t have the same keyboard configuration as a Windows laptop. If you’re using a Mac, then you need to use the Command + Shift + #3 keyboard combination.
If you do that, you will take a screenshot of your entire computer screen. If you want to take a partial screenshot of your screen then use this keyboard combination instead: Command + Shift + $4.
Just like in the Windows Snipping Tool, you will also see a cursor. Use it to select an area you want to snapshot.
To save your selected screen area, all you need to do is to release the mouse. The selected area will then be saved on the desktop in PGN format.
Using Grab in Mac
You can also use the Grab utility in Macintosh computers. Click finder, and then click the Applications folder. And then select “Grab” under Utilities.
Go to the Grab menu bar. Select capture to run the capture mode. At this point you can now select and capture any part of the screen.
Conclusion
Those are your options on how to take a screenshot on a laptop. Note that some keystrokes may vary depending on the layout of your keyboard.