A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words

Summary: Nothing beats a screen shot when you are trying to convey information about using the computer. With just a couple of easy shortcuts, you can add screen shots to your documents. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, Word 2003, and Word 2007.)

If you have ever tried to explain computer configuration or processes to someone over the phone, you know the process can be quite frustrating. You are never quite sure if the person on the other end is looking at the same thing on their screen that you are.

A quick way to ease this predicament is to write up your instructions and include pictures. Word, in conjunction with Windows, makes this quite easy. Try this the next time you are faced with this task:

On your computer, walk through the steps you want to explain.
At appropriate times, capture the entire screen or a single dialog box to the Clipboard. (You do this by pressing the Print Screen key to capture the entire screen, or Alt+Print Screen to capture the active window or dialog box. This works in both Windows XP and Vista.)
Paste the captured screen information into Word by pressing Ctrl+V.
Add any explanatory text necessary.
Repeat steps 2 through 4 until you are finished.
Save your document.

At this point you can e-mail the document to the remote site, or you can transmit it in some other way, such as printing or by disk.

Tip #1272 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003 | 2007

Add a Professional Finishing Touch! Word includes great tools that allow you to add professional-grade finishing touches to your documents. You can add indexes, tables of contents, and other special tables by using the detailed information available in this volume.

Check out WordTips: Indexes and Special Tables today!

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A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words