Screen shots used as images in RoboHelp 2019

[Kaye242539505661]

Any suggestions as to methods to make screen shots used as images in Robo Help 2019 appear more professional and consistent?  I only have access to basic graphic tools (Paint and other defaults supplied by Microsoft). I have been capturing the screen shots then importing them into Paint.  Any pointers would be appreciated.

thank you

[Peter Grainge]

See the screenshots in the RoboHelp Tour on my site. All done with Snagit from Techsmith. 

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.

[Amebr]

Snagit is also very affordable, which I know is often a consideration. Also, it makes it much easier to get screenshots of dialog boxes, windows and menus, and lets you easily add markup, borders, etc to your images when necessary.

I would also personally recommend not to take screenshots with the application maximised - the more you have to resize the image the worse the quality will be. I resize the main window to as close to the size of the final help image as I can get without cutting off information in the application, or causing unfortunate wrapping, if the application content wraps. Then I take all my screenshots with that window size (or close to) for consistency.

The other reason I don't take the screenshot maximised is the window edges usually give nice definition to my screenshot - I don't feel I need to add a border or anything to define the edge of my screenshot. This isn't always possible of cource, especially for web (browser) applications.

Alt+Print Screen will take a screenshot of the active application window, if you aren't aware of that keyboard shortcut, whereas Print Screen alone grabs the entire monitor. Less cropping is good, imo. 🙂

[Peter Grainge]

@Amebr Agreed but if you do have to resize, Snagit is the best tool.

One trick that I have found is not too well known is when you start the screenshot and the lines appear, use the up/down/left/right keys to get the shot pixel perfect.

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My site www.grainge.org includes many free Authoring and RoboHelp resources that may be of help.