Have you ever wished you could make a copy of what you see on your screen? A screen capture does the trick. It’s similar to taking a photograph of what’s on your screen.

How to make a screen shot on a PC

To capture the screen, hold down the Alt key and the Prt Scr key at the same time. The first is located to the left of your space bar and the second to the top right of your keyboard, above “Insert”.

You can’t see the image you just copied, but it’s in the virtual memory of your computer, waiting for you to paste it somewhere else.

Open an image processing software (like Photoshop or Photoshop Elements) and select File/New. Then Copy/Paste. If you don’t have image processing software, you could use the PC accessory called “Paint” which is located in Start/ Programs/ Accessories/ Paint.

How to make a screen shot on a MAC

To capture the entire desktop, press Command-Shift-3. The screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

To copy the entire desktop, press Command-Control-Shift-3. The screen shot will be placed on your clipboard for you to paste into another program.

To capture a portion of the desktop, press Command-Shift-4. A cross-hair cursor will appear and you can click and drag to select the area you wish to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screen shot will be automatically saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (The file is saved as PDF in Mac OS 10.3 and earlier.)

How to make a screen shot on an iPod/iPhone

Press the menu button then hold button.

Go to Pictures/Saved photos and you’ll find the screenshot there. You can forward it by email.