1.Click in the editor in the position where you want to insert the screenshot.

2.Select Screen Capture and then Take Screenshot in Project > Tools.

You can change the default hotkey (Print Screen) for screen capture here if you wish, for example if it conflicts with another program on your system. You can also choose whether you want to include the mouse cursor or not. The Delay option gives you 5 seconds to make changes on the screen before the capture starts.

3.Choose whether you want to include the cursor or not, then select Start.

4.Click on a window or window control to select it with the green border. Or drag with the mouse to select a free region.
Hold down the SHIFT key to maintain the aspect ratio of the capture box while resizing it.

5.Hold down CTRL and click in the selection to insert the screenshot in your topic and save the screenshot file.

Sometimes selecting with the mouse can be a little less accurate than you might like. It's often difficult to drag a rectangle to precisely the place you want. The capture tool also supports using the arrow keys on your keyboard for adjusting your selections one pixel at a time.

Maintaining the aspect ratio of the capture box

Hold down the SHIFT key to maintain the aspect ratio of the capture box while resizing it.

Single-pixel movement of the mouse pointer while selecting

While dragging to create a selection, hold down the mouse button, stop moving the mouse and use the arrow keys. This will adjust the selection one pixel at a time.

Adjust the size and position of your selection rectangles

Once you have made a selection you can adjust the size and position of the current selection rectangle with the arrow keys as follows:

CTRL + Arrow Keys:
Adjust the position of the current selection rectangle.

SHIFT + Arrow Keys:
Adjust the size of the current selection rectangle.

This feature makes it easy to always get the right size window for your capture. It can also be used to replace an image with a new screenshot with exactly the same size.

After starting the capture with the red START button, position the mouse over the window you want to capture and right-click to display the window resizer.

Enter or choose the window size you want, then select Apply Selected Size to resize the window. The menu gives you a lot of resize options and also remembers the last 5 sizes you used. You can then proceed to make the capture.

When editing documentation, you often need to replace an old screenshot with another one of exactly the same size. This is easy with the capture tool:

1.Select the image you want to clone in the Help+Manual editor and then start the capture tool.

2.Position the mouse pointer over the window you want to capture so that it is highlighted. Then right-click to open the Window Resizer. It shows the selected image size, which you can then accept for your capture.

3.Make the capture normally. You are returned to the topic editor and a dialog asks you whether you want to replace or keep the original image.

The OCR feature captures any text from the selection and inserts it in the current topic at the current insertion point position. (You need to click in the topic editor before capturing for this to work. Otherwise the capture will just be in the clipboard and you can then insert it with CTRL+V.)

Tip: You can also use OCR to extract text from any image in the Help+Manual editor. To do this right-click on the image and select Picture > Extract Text from Picture (OCR capture) in the context menu.

1.Click in the topic editor in the place where you want to insert the captured text.

2.Select the Screen Capture tool and choose the Capture Text option. This opens the capture dialog box with the OCR language option:

3.Select the language of the text you want to capture, then start the screen capture normally. You can select the languages installed in Windows as system languages. If only one language is installed there will be no additional choices.

4.When you complete the capture, any text included in the selected area will be converted to plain text and inserted both in the clipboard and at the current insertion point in the topic editor.

The capture tool supports making multiple rectangular captures at the same time, which are combined to a single image.

1.Start your capture normally and make your first capture.

2.Instead of using CTRL+Click, hold down the SHIFT key and click or drag to select an additional area. Repeat to select more areas.

3.When you are finished, hold down CTRL and click in the selection to insert the screenshot in your topic and save the screenshot file.

1.Start your capture normally.

2.Instead of selecting a capture area, click on the full screen icon shown at the top of the screen.

This unique tool, which use the graphics and animation engine from our HelpXplain tool, enables you to make little HowTo tutorials with just a few clicks. It combines a series of screenshots showing the steps you want to demonstrate and includes the animated mouse cursor. When played in your output, the screencast steps through the screenshots, demonstrating exactly what you did when you made it.

This simple example demonstrates how to use the word wrap feature in the Notepad editor included with Windows. It took 30 seconds to create.

Here's a screencast of how to make a screencast

Procedure

1.Make sure the program you want to document is set up and ready before you start. Click in the topic editor in the position where you want to insert the screencast. Then Create Screencast in in the Screen Capture tool in Project > Tools.

You can change the default hotkey (Print Screen) for screen capture here if you wish, for example if it conflicts with another program on your system. You should usually include the mouse cursor in screencasts as a way to show the user what to do.

2.Click on the red Start button. This doesn't start recording. It hides Help+Manual and displays the capture tools at the top of your screen and the green capture frame. Position the capture frame roughly around the window or area you want to capture.

Controls at the top of the screen

The controls for adjusting the capture frame to the program window are disabled during recording.

•Fit capture frame to window snaps the frame to the window beneath it

•Fit window to capture frame snaps the window to the capture frame

3.Click the Record button in the center to start. Screenshots are not made until you click. Then Operate the program normally. A screenshot will be made every time you click the mouse. Left-clicks, right-clicks, double-clicks and drag operations will all be recorded and represented.

•Press the Record button to pause/restart automatic screenshots. Press the hotkey (default: Print Screen) to make a manual screenshot. This also works when recording is paused.

4.Click on the Done tool in the icon bar to make the last screenshot and terminate recording. You will then be asked to save the .xplain file (give it a descriptive name) and the following dialog will be displayed.

•Show/Display switches instantly between the screencast slides. This is best for creating a "movie" of something happening on the screen.

•Move In / Pan animates the screenshots, moving them out of and into view like an image slider.