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Author Topic: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT  (Read 524 times)

ShiffDrgnhrt

Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« on: January 30, 2008, 08:48:10 am »
Hello!
 
 It has come to my attention that a number of players here do not know how to procure Screenshots, which are pictures of EXACTLY whats on you screen, hence, a Screenshot. Now, when I say exactly I mean EXACTLY, taskbar, windows, menues, whatever, and if you run NWN in full screen, that means ALL of NWN.
 
 Now, how to?
 
 [LIST=1]
  • If you have a PC laptop (running windows or Linux or something else) look at the keyboard. Next to the backspace button should be six buttons : Insert, Home, Page Up (top three/row), Delete, End, Page Down (bottom three/row). Now, keep looking to the right. There should be Three MORE buttons ALL by themselves ABOVE the "NUM Pad" (it looks like a calculator). These three buttons are: Print Scrn, Scroll Lock, and Pause/Break.
  • Hit Print Scrn. You don't need ANY special programs, rollers, ANYTHING! Just hit Print Scrn. Congrats You Have a Picture.... BUT its not saved yet.
  • Hit ALT+Tab OR Alt+ Enter, meaning hit Alt and Tab or Enter at the same time. This will minimize NWN (or it SHOULD) and bring you back to your Desktop (the thing with the icons on it).
  • Open up ANY Paint like Program. By that I mean a program you can create pictures on. Since there are SO many, PhotoShop, MS Paint, Corell Paint Shop Pro.... Blah blah blah... Just open it to a blank new file.
  • Hit Ctrl+V or Right Click and select paste. If you did everything right then POOF! your Screen shot will apear! YAY!
  • Next part should be common sense but....[SIZE=48]SAVE THE [/SIZE][SIZE=48]DARN THING! [/SIZE]
  • Won't miss that instruction, huh? Well now what, you saved the file, but you don't know how to post it. EASY! When you are making a new Thread for something, say a Soul Strand Reimbursement or Any "GIMME IT BACK" post for something like a lost item or what ever, Loo under `Additional Options. There is an option in there with a button that says Manage Attachments. CLICK IT!
  • Alright, now what? A window should open OVER the one with Layo on it. If one does not, check your browser's (the thing you view internet with) POP UP BLOCKING settings. Now, there should be three blank lines/area to type in, each followed by a button that says Browse. CLICK IT!
  • Now, another window will open! This should look like any other window you see when you select the OPEN option in any program. Go to wherever the file you saved earlier, and Select the file! then Click Open
  • You're almost done!!! It will say it needs to upload or something and you will have to wait a little while, but then your done! Type up whatever in the Post New Thread box, Click Submit New Thread and PRESTO! yer done!
I hope that helps. I'm about 90% sure this is almost exactly the same with Apple and Linux, but if not, PLEASE LEMME KNOW! Hope this HELPS!!!!
 
 
 PRINT SCRN Trivia!!!
 
 Did you know what the original purpose of Print Scrn was?  Well, back when computers required lines of code to be written into them in order to make it do anything, print scrn was used to print out said lines of code in order to check them over for errors.  (I guarantee Orth and Dorg now more about this then me so I'm sure I'll get corrected soon :p)
 
The following users thanked this post: Serissa, Pen N Popper, Spike, Lance Stargazer

Odranoela

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2008, 08:56:41 am »
Hrm.. A NWN screenshot when taken [ Print Screen Button ] is stored on your hard drive, simply dumped into the game's install directory directly with a filename such as NWN0000.tga, NWN0001.tga and so on, even when I used windows years ago, I never had to do anything other than just hitting Print Screen.
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2008, 09:01:55 am »
Thing is most people cant SEE TGA files without PhotoShop so finding The one you need can be hard for people that know little about computers.
 

Falonthas

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #3 on: January 30, 2008, 09:05:32 am »
same here just shift prtsc and its in the nwn directory but you need a viewer since its not default

i use an irf viewer to see my tga's
 

aragwen

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #4 on: January 30, 2008, 09:17:32 am »
There is a free tga viewer and converter available called xnview.
 
 Think you can download it at Free graphic and photo viewer - XnView - GRAPHIC VIEWER
 
 Just watch out from new keyboards, they have a FLock button with multiple functions on the Printscreen button. Sometimes the Printscreen does a printscreen or sometimes it is Insert on my keyboard depending if the Flock is on or not.
 
 Also would suggest that you hit the printscreen a couple of times, seen it happen more than once that the perfect shot did not take :)
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #5 on: January 30, 2008, 09:22:37 am »
I doubt im the only one this doesnt work for, but Hitting Print Scrn doesnt give me a file in my nwn directory
 

Falonthas

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #6 on: January 30, 2008, 09:39:52 am »
some keyboards you need to hit shift-prtsc if you have more then one function on the key
 

Script Wrecked

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #7 on: January 30, 2008, 10:37:50 am »
I use IrfanView to view and manipulate the screenshot TGA files, including brightening them up so they are actually viewable.

It seems that, although you have the option to increase the Gamma Slider (under Video Options) in NWN, the screenshots ignore this setting, and, most of the time, come out very dark, and sometimes unviewable.

IrfanView can fix that: Image->Enhance Colors->Gamma Correction between 1.5 and 2.0.

Hope this helps.

Regards,

Script Wrecked.
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #8 on: January 30, 2008, 10:39:50 am »
Mine always come out fine.  What I see is what I get...
 

ycleption

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #9 on: January 30, 2008, 11:25:58 am »
Just as a side note, GIMP GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program is a free image editing program that can open .tga files and convert them to .jpg or whatever you want if you need to post it online.
It's designed for geeks (imo), so the installation might be confusing, but it's a relatively simple program for an image editor.
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #10 on: January 30, 2008, 11:28:09 am »
It's Layo for Dummies for a reason!  :p  For people that aren't "PC Literate"!
 

Falonthas

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #11 on: January 30, 2008, 12:05:34 pm »
yes but perhaps a more politically correct term would be better

perhaps Layo for the Technologically Impaired
 

darkstorme

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #12 on: January 30, 2008, 01:19:56 pm »
Shiff - did you check the mapping of the Screenshot button in "Controls"?  It's possible that you've not got it mapped to PrintScreen.
 

ShiffDrgnhrt

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #13 on: January 30, 2008, 01:36:03 pm »
>.>  How did Me trying to be helpful turn into everyone trying to correct me?
 

darkstorme

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #14 on: January 30, 2008, 01:50:49 pm »
*chuckles*  Largely because your method of screenshotting is long and away more tedious and labour-intensive than the function built into the game by Bioware, and those seeking to "correct" you are just trying to give people the easy way to do things before they try your way? ;)

The Bioware screenshot utility pipes the output of the engine directly into a TGA file, which means that it's exactly what was on the screen, rather than the approximation that Paint can save as.
 

darkstorme

Re: Layo For Dummies - HOW TO SCREEN SHOT
« Reply #15 on: January 31, 2008, 11:51:17 am »
Addendum:

For those of you, who, like Shiff, would prefer to be able to see your TGA screenshots in Windows Explorer (rather than having to open them in an image editor), SourceForge provides:

ThumbView - See DDS, PCX, PNG, and TGA thumbnails in Explorer (+16 other image formats)