Compare Revisions

A user's guide to creating a screenshot of their problem for uploading to the support forum.

<!-- This article should be a guide for users who are trying to take a screenshot and upload it in the support forum. It should use "for" to separate instructions for Windows, Mac and Linux. The instructions should use the default, built-in tools and just focus on making and uploading an image. Resizing and annotating are not necessary. For reference on how to use the built-in tools see https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/Adding%20screenshots Note that until https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=718732 is fixed, Windows XP users will have to save their images as png (the default is bmp). --> A [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Screenshot screenshot] is an image of your computer screen or portion of the screen. On the Mozilla Support forum, we don't want people to be shy about adding screenshots. A picture is worth a thousand words and can go a long way to help explain a problem. {for win} = Creating a screenshot on Windows = Once you have the screen presented the way you want for the screenshot: #Press the {key Print Screen} or {key Prnt Scrn} or {key prt sc} key (depending on your keyboard). This key is usually found in the upper right section of your keyboard. To capture only the active window, hold down the {key Alt} key at the same time. # Go to the Windows Start menu and open up the Microsoft Paint program from the Programs list (look under Accessories). #Once Paint is open, click Paste and your screenshot will appear. #Save your image as a PNG file, in an easy-to-find location such as your desktop You now have a screenshot that you can add to your forum question by clicking the Browse button below the Post a Reply box. == Tools == * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Paint Microsoft Paint] (included with Windows) * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snipping_Tool Snipping tool] (included with Windows 7, Vista, Windows 8 and Windows 10) * [http://www.irfanview.com/ Irfanview] (Free) * [http://www.getpaint.net/ Paint .NET] (Free) * [http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html XNView] (Free) * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Screenshot_software More screenshot software] {/for} {for mac} = Creating a screenshot on Mac = Once you have the screen presented the way you want for the screenshot: *To capture the screen, hold down the {key command} key, as well as the {key Shift} key, as you press {key 3}. *To capture a specific section, hold down the {key command} key, as well as the {key Shift} key, as you press {key 4}; then select the area you want to copy. *To capture a specific window, hold down the {key command} key, as well as the {key Shift} key, as you press {key 4}; then press the {key spacebar}. You can then click on a window to capture it. As a result, there will be a PNG file on your desktop, called {filepath Picture 1}. You now have a screenshot that you can add to your forum question by clicking the Browse button below the Post a Reply box. == Tools == * [http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html XNView] (Free) * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Screenshot_software More screenshot software] {/for} {for linux} = Creating a screenshot on Gnu/Linux = Once you have the screen presented the way you want for the screenshot: *On Ubuntu, click the {menu Applications} menu, go to the {menu Accessories} folder, and select {menu Take Screenshot}. * In distributions using the KDE environment (Kubuntu, OpenSUSE, etc.), [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KSnapshot KSnapshot] * In distributions using the Gnome desktop environment (Debian, Trisquel, Fedora, etc.), [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnome-screenshot Gnome-screenshot] *In most other distributions, depending on your desktop manager, you may also use the {key Print Screen} or {key Prnt Scrn} key to capture your screenshot as follows: ** {key Print Screen}: whole screen ** {key Alt} + {key Print Screen}: current window ** {key Shift} + {key Print Screen}: selected rectangle on the screen ** {key Ctrl} combined with any of the above will copy the screenshot to the clipboard You now have a screenshot that you can add to your forum question by clicking the '''Browse''' button below the '''Post a Reply''' box. == Tools == * [http://shutter-project.org/ Shutter] is powerful screenshot tool available as a standard package in most Gnu/Linux distributions * [http://www.xnview.com/en/index.html XNView] (Free) * [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Screenshot_software More screenshot software] {/for}