Re: Converting Mac screen dumps to PC

[George Mena <George -dot- Mena -at- ESSTECH -dot- COM>]

Factual clarifications and corrections for the list, for Mike Stockman
and for Melanie Gray:

1)  Command-Shift-3 is the hotkey sequence in the Mac environment.  This
is easily verifiable by reading the Macintosh Bible.

2)  Screen captures are numbered from Picture 0 through Picture 9
*ONLY.*   When you get to Picture 9, drag the files to diskette to save
them, then either delete the original Picture x files or save the next
batch of graphics in another folder on the Mac in question to avoid
accidentally overwriting the first batch.

3)  Mac-based screen captures are saved as MacPaint-formatted graphics,
NOT in PICT format!  After the captures are created, they need to be
converted to PICT before a Windows application like Photoshop can use
them.  The Mac version of Photoshop should work well here.  So will
ExpertDraw, which not only gives you PICT files but also EPS files.
It's $29US or something like that.

4)  MacPaint-based screen captures that have been converted to PICT
format can in fact be imported into WinWord documents, beginning at Word
6 and continuing to Word 97

5)  Graphics File Converter Gold for Windows (GCG3) supports 65 graphics
file formats, both bitmap and vector, including MacPaint.  GCG3 will be
able to convert the MacPaint graphics into TIFF, GIF and JPEG formats,
as they're all bitmap formats.  It should *also* be able to support the
PICT format easily.  Go to http://imsisoft.com for more details; this
product is published by IMSI Software of San Rafael, CA.  It's $50US or
something like that.  And yes, Lemke's Mac-based GraphicConverter is
also good.  So is a little-known piece of code known as Claris Graphics
Translator, which, while no longer for sale to the public, is still used
by Claris tech support to help convert different graphics files.  You
best know Claris as the folks who gave the world HyperCard, MacDraw and
FileMaker Pro.  But this little piece of code is also good if you can
get your hands on it. :D

6)  For definitive answers to Mac-related questions between the
Mississippi River and the Pacific Ocean, go to http://www.bmug.org,
which is the web site for the Berkeley Macintosh Users Group, Berkeley,
CA.  The friendly volunteers there are the most knowledgeable experts on
the Mac *in the world!*  They're *better* than Apple Computer's tech
support folks and have been for many years.  The site, also known as
Planet BMUG, also provides additional links to the Boston MUG, aka BMUG
(BMUG East? :D).  Remember, the original Apple I was created in Berkeley
by the Homebrew Computer Club in 1977 by, among others, two guys named
Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs.

George Mena

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mike Stockman [SMTP:stockman -at- JAGUNET -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, July 17, 1998 8:05 AM
> To:   TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject:      Re: Help!  Macintosh screen captures converting to PC
>
> On 7/17/1998 10:17 AM, Gray, Melanie A (Melanie -dot- Gray -at- NAVISTAR -dot- COM)
> wrote:
>
> >I need help.  We need to take screen prints from a Macintosh G3
> computer and
> >convert them to a usable format for the PC.  I have images saved to a
> disk,
> >but the PC doesn't recognize them as pictures (it does accept the
> disk,
> >that's not a problem).
> >
        [George Mena]  snip
>
> Melanie, you haven't mentioned what format you're using to save the
> graphics on the Mac, but I'll try anyway:
>
> If you're just taking screen shots using the Mac's built-in key
> sequence
> (command-shift-3 or 4), those are saved as PICT files, a format that's
> not commonly used in Windows. The Mac and Windows versions of
> PhotoShop
> can probably open them and convert them to another format for you, but
> it
> would be easier and quicker to batch-convert them on the Mac first.
> For
> bitmapped graphics, you'll want to convert them to TIFF, GIF, or JPEG.
> Be sure to put the correct file extension on them (.TIF, .GIF, and
> .JPG,
> respectively) before you copy them to the PC.
>
> There are a number of tools to use on the Mac for converting graphics.
> One of the best is Thorsten Lemke's shareware GraphicConverter, which
> you
> can find at <http://www.lemkesoft.de/>. This program has an excellent
> command called Convert More on the File menu that can batch-convert a
> bunch of files at once to just about any format you've heard of.
> GraphicConverter can also put the extension on the file name for you,
> too.
>