Screen Shots and Screen Recording

Problem: You want to take a picture of your desktop that you can immediately save as a normal image (like a jpeg). You might also want to save video recordings of your desktop activity, perhaps in an effort to include it in a tutorial or presentation.

Solution: Try Debut Video Recorder for free from download.com (safe downloads, I use it all the time).

For those out there looking for a way to take screen shots, of course there is always the "Print Screen" button on the standard keyboard right above the "insert" button. However, once you take the screen shot, you have to paste it somewhere, and well it takes more steps than I'd like.

So if you want a program that saves your screen shots as pictures, try Debut Video Recorder. I got it off download.com, which I like to go to for safe and free software downloads.

But here's the best part, you can also record your screen activity! I love it! It's not the best resolution, but for free, you can save videos of a tutorial for a presentation, and if your computer has a microphone, it will record sound as well!

*BEST PART* you can create key commands with the program so that you can record, take a screen shot, and more. This way, you don't have to manually start/stop with the program before recording what you like--instead, you simply minimize it and then use your customized command (mine is "ctr + r" for record, for example).

Here's the link:

http://www.download.com/Debut-Video-Recording-Software/3000-13633_4-10684791.html?tag=mncol&cdlPid=10895856

From Download.com:

"Debut is a simple, easy to use video recorder that lets you capture video files directly on your PC using a webcam (video camera), or capture device (from video). This software can also capture and record almost anything that can be played or displayed on the computer screen. The program saves the video on your hard drive as avi, wmv or many other file types. Version 1.34 fixed some Video Render issues (for old DirectX versions and Windows 2000 and earlier)."



*Caveat*
This information is provided to you to utilize at your own risk. I am not responsible for any consequences that result from the use of the information I provide on this blog.