Clipboard and Screen Capture
Many lack a clear understanding of the clipboard function built
into Windows(tm) operating systems.
Basically, the clipboard is a temporary storage area where you
can save and retrieve data.
The most well-known example would be when you drag the cursor
across text to highlight it, then right-click/copy or
right-click/cut. The highlighted text is saved into the
clipboard awaiting further use. Place the cursor in a new
location, right-click/paste, and the text appears in the new
location.
Generally the clipboard holds only one item at a time, and that
item will remain replaced. The clipboard is simple, works with
any text-based application (including web pages) and is easily
available when you need it.
Images can also be placed in the clipboard, but that requires
more work. Press the PrintScreen button on your keyboard and a
pixel-by-pixel image of your current screen will automatically
dump into the clipboard.
You can right-click paste this image into documents which can
receive graphical input, such as Microsoft Paint(tm) or even
Microsoft Word, but this function works only for the entire
screen display.
If you want to grab only a portion of the screen, most mortals
have to paste the screen shot into a graphics software such as
Paint(tm) or Adobe Photoshop (tm), then crop the image to ready
it for use. That is an example of inefficiency Poingo abhors.
Now, folks who like enhancing their documents with images have a
new tool which works with the same always-available simplicity
of the clipboard. It is called Lightning Navigator, and it is
one of the applications which comprise the Poingo Productivity
Suite (www.poingo.com).
Lightning Navigator runs
constantly in the background. You only
know it is there by noticing the little lightning bolt icon in
the "system tray", the little row of icons usually located at
the lower right corner of your screen.
With Lightning Navigator running, simply click Control+Alt+Print
Screen at the same time for on-the-fly screen capture. When you
do this, you will see a crosshair cursor. Left-click/drag it
across the screen area you want to grab. When you release the
mouse button, the image will load into the clipboard and you
will see a brief confirmation message.
Now you can right-click paste that image directly into your
document and impress your co-workers and friends with not only
the quality and clarity of your document, but also with the
speed with which you produced it.
You will also notice a refreshing difference in your work
process, as you grab and paste images into your documents with
the ease previously reserved for text.
Lightning Navigator has capabilities far beyond screen capture.
A general overview, screenshots and a free trial download of
Lightning Navigator are available at www.poingo.com. For a more
extensive discussion, visit www.lightningnavigator.com
By the way, almost all of the cropped screenshots in both
websites mentioned above were grabbed using the
Control+Alt+PrintScreen function of Lightning Navigator.
About the author:
Mark Meshulam offers the Poingo Productivity Suite, a suite of
simple software programs which make your work easier and much
more fun at http://www.poingo.com.
Also, see his blog at www.blog.poingo.com
Written by: Mark Meshulam
|
