RE: "usable" screen captures

["Hemstreet, Deborah" <DHemstreet -at- kaydon -dot- com>]

There is another archaic method which I used successfully in manuals and
online help that received awards in STC competitions. It is a bit
cumbersome for some - but gives you FULL control. Pre-requisites - you
need a good screen capture software and video card on your computer to
assure top quality screen captures.

1. Get the screen capture of your SW screen/dialog box, etc.

2. Save it as a *.png file (though I found that *.jpg worked just as
well)

3. Insert picture into a blank PowerPoint Slide.

4. Use PowerPoint drawing options to place callouts, text, etc. (as
little text as possible if will be translated).

5. Take a screen capture of the slide - at the magnification you want to
insert the picture in your document.

6. Save the capture as a .png and then insert+link into Word document
There are many better ways to do this - but I have found that if you are
limited in resources and management will not buy you the necessary
tools, this works quite well. The main advantage was that I had full
control over the appearance and placement of my callouts.
When people looked at my manuals, they were stunned to learn that most
of my custom graphics were created in this manner.

I hope this tip is helpful to those who have limited resources.

Deborah



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