Mastering the complexities of the PrtScrn key

By: Don Edrington - North County Times | Sunday, March 26, 2006 8:19 PM PST ∞

A reader called to say he had centered a Web page on his desktop, turned his printer on, and pressed his PrtScrn (Print Screen) key, whereupon nothing happened. He mentioned that doing this on an older computer always generated a printout of his screen display.

Right ---- before the advent of Windows, when computers did mostly text, the PrtScrn key actually did print whatever was on the screen. Nowadays, this key copies the screen display onto the "invisible Windows clipboard," where it waits to be pasted somewhere.

If multiple items are on your Desktop, holding down Alt while pressing PrtScrn will copy only the most forward item. Then you can open, say, MSWord and Paste the copy onto a blank page with Ctrl+V or by clicking Edit>Paste Special>Device Independent Bitmap, since the copied display has been converted to a bitmap. Finally, MSWord's Print command will send the image to your printer.

Alternatively, you can paste the image into a graphics editor, such as Windows Paint, where it can be edited like any other picture. When pasted into such an editor, the image will be full size. When pasted into a word processing page, however, the image will be shrunk to fit within its margins. I always paste into Irfanview (free from www.irfanview.com) since this is the easiest program I know of for working with images.

As for Web pages, they can be printed directly from Internet Explorer, using File>Print. By using File>Print Preview, you can see if the page will fit on standard paper. By choosing File>Page Setup>Landscape, the page will be printed "sideways," in case it's too wide for a normal upright print.

If you use Firefox or Netscape, you can opt for File>Page Setup, Shrink to Fit, whereupon a Web page will be made smaller. However, doing so can make small type difficult to read.

Speaking of Web pages, there is one that will display an aerial photo of your house, along with its estimated appraisal price. Another click will give a comprehensive description of the house (square footage, number of rooms, etc.) and tell when it was built. Zillow.com is where you'll find this free information, along with similar data on all the houses in your neighborhood ---- or just about anywhere.

Although iPods are generally associated with youngsters listening to pop music, they and other MP3 players are now being used to hear news stories, along with many other types of audio content. These "podcasts" can be downloaded from many different Web sites and copied onto your player, whereupon they can be listened to while, say, commuting to and from work.

Much of this content can be found at www.podcastdirectory.com.

Video podcasting is also available for those who have portable video players, mean non-driving commuters can have visual content to help pass the time.

Probably the most remarkable thing about podcasting is that anyone can now create his/her own "radio or video show," put it on a Web site, and have it seen or heard anywhere in the world. More about this soon.

Additional PC tips can be found at www.pcdon.com and calls are welcome at (949) 646-8615.