I find using the PrtScrn button on the keyboard unhelpful when capturing images or the screen as it includes everything, sometimes personal information, as demonstrated below. Well, to be honest, even this screenshot was edited…There is a simple alternative though.
Whenever I give a lecture and show how to capture data such as charts and tables using the Snipping Tool, it is definitely a crowd pleaser, despite it being so easy to use. I don’t think many students know about it, hence this blog post.
It saves editing a screenshot where the toolbar and icons are evident, and anything else you may have accumulated at the bottom of your screen. Windows instructions are captured below (naturally using the Snipping Tool), but on our system at the University of Lincoln, I go to Start> Accessories > Snipping Tool > Add New (a cross appears) > Scroll over screen / image > Copy > Paste into document. Remember to reference whatever you have copied if you’re writing an assignment. I regularly use the Snipping Tool for the blog as any image is so easy to capture, but I have to save the image to a file and insert the image (under Visual mode) as I’m using WordPress.
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/use-snipping-tool-capture-screen-shots#1TC=windows-7