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Dated: Mar. 29, 2012

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There is a common misconception amongst many computer enthusiasts that they need some $50 gizmo software to take screenshots. However, that's far from truth. The fact is that your computer is fully capable of creating screenshots all on its own with needing to spend any money, or install some software to achieve this goal. That said, a quality screenshot software may add some neat options to taking screenshots that you may not already have.

What is a Screenshot?

First of all, let me simply get the newbie acquainted with what a screenshot is. A screenshot is an all-inclusive snapshot of what is on your computer screen, right now. Screenshots are time sensitive because what you see right now might be completely different than 5 seconds ago.

Why is a Screenshot Needed?

It can be difficult to communicate to others what our computer is doing, and how that's different from what we want it to do. Quite often, this is due to a limitation in language. A screenshot is a great way to say "look, that's what it's doing," and have the other person say "oh, I see now." This can be much more effective than a verbal description of the computer's behavior.

How Do I Create a Screenshot?

On Windows PC - This is a very easy task to accomplish, and it can be done by simply pressing the "Print Screen" button, which is located near the top of your keyboard, above the "Insert" key.

Once you have captured a screen shot (by pressing the Print Screen key), you can paste it into an e-mail or a document by choosing Edit > Paste or by simply using the CTRL-V combination on your keyboard. I usually use screenshots to create nifty graphics in Photoshop.

However, if you only want to take a screenshot of a single active window, try Alt+Print Screen simultaneously.

On an Apple/Mac Computer - This is also an easy process, which begins by simply pressing the "Apple" (also known as 'Command') button and the "Shift" keys simultaneously, plus the number 3. Similar to the Print Screen key, this takes a shot of the entire screen.

In addition to taking a screen shot to share computer errors with somebody else, if you have something on your screen that you want to save and you do not have a printer available and otherwise do not know how to capture this information and save it, a screen shot is a great tool to accomplish this task.

I hope this little tutorial has helped you. I know for sure Jake is reading this and probably making a screenshot of the tutorial .

Now that you've gotten free know-how on this topic, try to grow your skills even faster with online video training. Then finally, put these skills to the test and make a name for yourself by offering these skills to others by becoming a freelancer. There are literally 2000+ new projects that are posted every single freakin' day, no lie!

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