Taking Pictures (or Videos) of Your Computer Screen

What is the best way to take a picture of your computer screen? If you're trying to explain something to your students or colleagues, you know that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. We use screencaptures on this blog to illustrate steps in a process; you might want to show someone the right (or wrong) place to click; or you might need to take a picture of something that has gone wrong so you can submit a help ticket. For all of these reasons, capturing pictures or videos of your computer screen can be very useful. Here are the best ways to go about this.

Let's first look at the simplest ways to get screen captures:

• Use your phone to take a picture of the screen - It's simple and easy; usually comes out looking good; and doesn't interfere with what you're doing on your computer. If everything else fails, you can always do this! 
• Snipping Tool (Windows) - This is a tool that is built-in to Windows, so everyone already has it. Access it from the Start Menu.
• Keyboard Shortcuts (Mac) - Built-in to the Mac operating system. Use Command(⌘)-Shift-3 to take a picture of the entire screen; use Command(⌘)-Shift-4 to take a picture of part of the screen.

Some of you may be familiar with Snagit, a Chrome extension that was installed on your district computers. Sadly, Snagit's publisher TechSmith is no longer supporting this free extension. Here are three options to replace it:

• Clipular - Captures all or part of a webpage, including scrolling regions; allows for annotations including a variety of stickers; saves captures online or to your computer.
• Awesome Screenshot - Captures all or part of a webpage or another window on your computer; allows for annotations and blurring of personal information; saves captures online or to your computer
• qSnap - Captures the visible screen or an entire webpage; allows for annotations and blurring of personal information; saves captures to your computer

There are also a couple of extensions for creating screencasts, short videos that record the screen, either with or without your microphone or camera enabled.

• Screencastify - Record the current browser tab, the entire screen, or just your webcam. You have options to include your voice through a microphone, the audio playing on the computer, video from your webcam, or none of these. Recordings can be saved directly to your Google Drive, to YouTube, or to your computer. Free version is limited to 10 minute recordings and includes a Screencastify logo.
• CaptureCast - Record the screen, your microphone, your webcam, or any combination of the three. Recordings can be saved directly to YouTube, Vimeo, or to your computer.