How To Take Snapshot Of A Web Page

A very useful task a webmaster must learn to perform is how to take snapshot of a web page. It's uses are so multifarious that inability to be able to perform this task will more or less be leaving so much on the table that could otherwise have been exploited with consequent positive effect ultimately on the bottom line, albeit indirectly.

The many uses of conveying to others on the net, an image of what you see on your computer screen include the following:

Compliance with requests of various top affiliate programs for the sighting of copies of identity documents e.g. driver's licence, international passport.

Forwarding error messages reflected on the computer screen to maintenance specialists who will then be in a proper position to diagnose and solve whatever the defect to the system is.

Training aid to attach images of corroborative evidence in pictorial form to back up a particular topic.

How do we then take snapshot of a web page?

This can be done either by using various software or using basically the tools already available on your computer system. This article focuses on the latter i.e. using the tools already available on your computer system. The procedure differs between Windows and Macintosh computers and here again the focus of this article is on the procedures as it relates to Windows.

A common problem of using tools on the computer system is inability to capture the entire web page or a portion of it as desired, since the web page may not be an exact match of the browser window size. A simple solution to this however, is to first re-size the web page or portion of it desired, to fit the browser window size before taking a snapshot of the web page.

How To Take Snapshot Of A Web Page

Having identified the particular web page on the computer whose screenshot you wish to capture, you should first re-size it to fit the browser window by going to the drop down menu at the top of your browser window and clicking

View > Zoom > Zoom In Or Zoom Out (as applicable)

You should then go again to "View" in the drop down menu at the top of your browser window and click on "Full Screen" to show only the web page information, eliminating the toolbars on top of the browser window.

When satisfied that you have captured the entire content of the web page as intended, you then depress "Print Scrn" on your computer keyboard to save an image of the web page on the clipboard.

Now open an image editor such as "Paint" which you can access by clicking the start menu.

Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint

Go to "Edit" in the drop down menu of the "Paint" program and click paste which then copies the image saved on the clipboard unto the "Paint" screen.

Edit > Paste

Save this as an image on your computer system by accessing "File" in the drop down menu of the "Paint" program and click "Save As" and name as you desire.

File > Save As

Voila! An Image of your desired web page is now created and you can now go ahead to use it on any web page as you wish.