screenshot

Lisa Du is director of ReadyTechGo, a service that helps people gain the confidence and skills to embrace modern technology.

Sometimes, you may see something on your screen which you wish to save as an image, exactly how it appears. This could be for future reference, or for sharing purposes. Oftentimes, it’s a lot easier to save a whole page of information in an image, than it is to write it down. Think of all the times you've made a booking whilst travelling, and needed the details on-hand at a moment's notice! Other times, you may just want to share your entire computer screen as it appears with someone, perhaps to demonstrate something to them on your screen.

This function is referred to as 'taking a screenshot'. You can save a snapshot of your entire screen as an image at a particular point in time, and you can do this on all sorts of devices!

On a Windows computer

  1. Go to the screen that you wish to screenshot
  2. Press the “Printscreen” key on your keyboard. This will take a screenshot of your entire screen
  3. To access this image, you can go into Paint, and then click on “Paste” or press and hold “Ctrl” and “V” on your keyboard
  4. Save the image in Paint to save the screenshot onto your computer.

Image 1 (4)

On a Mac computer

  1. Go to the screen that you wish to screenshot
  2. On your keyboard, press and hold down “Command”, “Shift”, and “4”
  3. Move your cursor to the very top-left corner of your screen, and click and hold down on your mouse while dragging the cursor to the very bottom-right corner of your screen
  4. Let go of your mouse
  5. The screenshot will automatically be saved as an image onto your Desktop

On an iPhone/iPad

  1. Go to the screen that you wish to screenshot
  2. Press your Home button and your On/Off button, for about 2 seconds, at the same time
  3. The screenshot will be automatically saved in your Photos.

On an Android

Activating this function will vary depending on the type of Android phone you have. Try out the different methods to see which one works on your phone.

  1. Go to the screen that you wish to screenshot
  2. Press and hold down your On/Off button and your Volume Down button at the same time OR
  3. Press and hold down your Home button and your On/Off button at the same time
  4. The screenshot will be automatically saved in your Photos. Check your photos to see if the screenshot was saved for whichever method you attempted.

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