Number 200 - January 2000
Print Screen for Windows
by Bob Click, The Dealsguy, Greater Orlando Computer User Group
via Saginaw Valley Computer Assn's Dec 1999 Blue Chip News
    I saw a deceptive ad for a 400-MB Iomega Zip drive the other day. Being unaware of any such model, I looked closer. Very small print described it to be a 100-MB Zip drive with four 100-MB disks. They could have included more disks and made it a one gig drive, couldn't they!

    In fact, it could have been unlimited capacity (for more money). Read the small print in those ads and know what you're getting. Above all, do your homework, or ask about these things at your [next] User Group meeting. There are no stupid questions.

Print Anything On Your Screen!
    "Print Screen Works" (www.printscreenworks.com or www.silverlaketech.com) allows users to capture and print, e-mail or fax, anything on their computer screen simply by pushing the PrintScreen button. In the existing Windows 95/98/NT, to print what you see on the screen is a very tedious process: push the PrintScreen key, open a word processor, and finally, paste an image in the word processor. In addition, capturing and re-sizing just a portion of an image requires a variety of tools from other sources.

    "Print Screen Works" (PSW) makes it possible to both 'print what you see' and 'see what you print'. It enables a user to capture [the] full, or a portion of, any image on the computer screen. PSW is generally not visible during operation (resides in the system tray). It converts the PrintScreen button into a hot key that triggers the capture process. Once captured, the image may be printed or saved as a bit map (.bmp) or jpeg (.jpg). Easily capture, re-size, and re-shape images before saving or sending.

    PSW is loaded with features. It can capture images that fill the whole screen, an active window, or just a portion of it. There's more information about working with the images on the Web site, so take a look.
    I've used the original "Print Screen" and it did what it promised with no problems. A free [15 day] trial of Print Screen Works is available on their Web site. On the other hand, if this sounds like it's for you, the regular price is $29.95, but the Dealsguy column price is just $19.95 + S&H.

    To get this special price, call 1-973-259-9300 and ask for "Dante". S&H is FREE in both US and Canada. Print Screen Works is for Windows 95/98/NT, 32-bit only.

TOGGLE Editor's Notes:
    As many of you old timers know we (the editorial staff -Hah!) were late coming to Windows. Version 3.0 had become Version 3.1 and even the vaunted Windows 95 had turned into Windows 98 before we made the leap. As a result we have been pretty much beginners when it came to Windows smarts. We never became adept at capturing Windows screens, even though the PrintScreen key was supposed to make it dead simple. Our attempts at screen capture have been totally unsuccessful with Windows 98 until this little gem came to our attention, (see the author and newsletter attribution). Capturing the screen, or just a portion thereof, is a snap now. There are many other features still to be explored.

    Our librarian says that Compupic ($39.95) does the same thing, and more. While it appears to be a very complete program for manipulating digital image files, converting file formats, creating slide shows, etc., from our brief review of the documentation, we found that the PrintScreen key would capture the full screen and Alt+PrintScreen would capture the "open window", but could not find any mention of the appealing capability of capturing any "non-standard" area of the screen, defined by you, as does Print Screen Works. Perhaps that capability is there--we just couldn't find it.
  Number 200 - January 2000