Take a picture of your screen and send it
Show somebody exactly what is on your screen, instead of trying to describe it down the telephone.
“It says something about a certificate, and there is a yellow triangle, and a button I do not want to press.” Half an hour of that, and nobody is any wiser.
A picture of your screen ends the conversation in ten seconds. It is called a screenshot, and every computer made in the last twenty years can take one.
Hold all three down together, then let go. The screen goes slightly gray, which is the computer waiting for you to draw a box.
Key points
- Take a picture of part of your screen with Windows, Shift and S
- Use Cmd, Shift and 4 on a Mac, where it lands on the desktop as a file
- Choose between copying it to the clipboard and saving it as a file
- Paste it straight into an email so somebody can see what you can see
What to remember
- Capture only the part that matters. A picture of the whole screen makes the important bit tiny.
- Draw the box around only what you mean to share. It is the simplest privacy habit on a computer.
- A picture pasted into a message goes inside the message. An attachment sits underneath it. Both work.
Try this
Press Windows, Shift and S on your own computer and drag a box around anything at all. Then open an email to yourself and press Ctrl+V.
Practice: Take a picture of your screen and send it. Your first lesson is free, with no account or card; the rest are part of a Lantern plan. Interactive lessons require JavaScript.