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Taking Screenshots

There may be times when you want to explain or show something that's happening on your computer screen or mobile device. Knowing how to take a picture of the screen can be handy in a variety of ways, like:

when you'd like to capture an error message to show tech support.
helping someone find something on their computer by showing them what to look for.
if you'd like to save the confirmation number of a purchase, rather than printing it or writing it down.

Screenshots are captured by a screenshot application or through keyboard shortcuts. There are a few screenshot options available, depending on how much of the screen you want to capture. You can screengrab the entire screen, the active window, or part of the screen.

Taking screenshots in macOS

Using the Application

From your desktop, click the Launchpad. This will bring you to your applications. The app you're looking for is called Screenshot. (If you don't see it right away, check in Other).
Once the application is in use, you'll see a toolbar pop up. You can choose from Capture Entire Screen, Capture Selected Window, and Capture Selected Portion mode.
If you want to take a picture of your entire screen, select this mode in the toolbar. Your mouse's arrow will turn into a camera icon. Click anywhere on the screen, and you'll hear the sound of a camera clicking.
The screenshot will automatically save to your desktop. If you want to take another picture, you'll need to reopen the application.
If you want to capture a selected portion of the screen, click this option in the toolbar. You can change the screenshot’s dimensions by clicking and dragging its corners.
Once you’ve selected the portion you’d like to screengrab, click Capture in the toolbar. Once again, the screenshot will be saved to your desktop.

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

Shift+Command+3: This takes a screenshot of the entire screen.
Shift+Command+4: The mouse changes into a plus/crosshair icon.

Using the Shift+Command+4 shortcut, you can then choose from two options:

Click and drag the plus/crosshair icon to take a screenshot of part of the screen.

Taking screenshots in Windows

Using the Application

Find the Snipping Tool or Snip & Sketch in your Applications. When you open the application, the screen will darken.
In the application's toolbar, you have the option of taking a "Rectangular Snip," a "Free Form Snip," where you can draw the edges of your picture, a "Window Snip" in which you focus on a specific window, or a "Full Screen Snip." Let's say you want to take a Rectangular Snip.
After clicking this option in the toolbar, click and drag the plus icon (or "crosshairs" icon), holding the left button on your mouse.
Drag it across the area you'd like to screengrab. Upon release, a picture will be taken, and you can see it automatically in the application's preview.
You can use the different editing functions in the toolbar, and click the Save button once you are finished. Select a name, file type, and the pathway where you will be saving your screenshot (like the desktop).

Using Keyboard Shortcuts

When taking a screenshot in Windows, you'll use the Print Scrn key in your keyboard shortcuts. The image will copy to the clipboard. It's important to note that only one image at a time can be copied to the clipboard.
Print Scrn: This copies the entire screen.
Alt+Print Scrn: This copies the active window or dialog box.
Once you've taken a screenshot, you can use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+V to paste it into applications like Microsoft Word, Google Docs, Paint, and Photoshop. You can then edit and save the image.

Taking screenshots on mobile devices

APPLE MOBILE DEVICES

To take a screenshot on newer Apple mobile devices, all you have to do is press the Volume up button and the Sleep/wake button at the same time. This will take a photo of what's on your screen, and the image will save to your camera roll (in the Photos app). If you have an older iPhone, you will hold the Home button and the Sleep/wake button at the same time.

ANDROID MOBILE DEVICES

To take a screenshot on most Android mobile devices, just press the Volume Down button and the Power button at the same time. This will take a picture of your screen, and the image will save to your gallery.

Finding your downloads

By default, most computers will save downloaded files in a specific folder, known as the Downloads folder. If you're having trouble finding a downloaded file, this is the first place you should look...

Using the Downloads folder in Windows

Open File Explorer, then locate and select Downloads in the Navigation pane. A list of your downloaded files will appear.

Using the Downloads folder in macOS

Locate and select the Downloads folder on the right side of the Dock. A list of your downloaded files will appear in a Stack above the folder.

How to Print

Let’s cover the basic steps for how to print, along with a few helpful pointers.

Make sure your printer is set up and that it’s turned on. If you need help setting up your printer, check out our lesson in the tutorial Basic Computer Skills.
Find and open the file that you would like to print.
Regardless of which program you’re using, Print is always located under File in the upper toolbar. Usually it’s toward the bottom of the drop-down menu.
In the pop-up window, simply click the Print button once. This will print one copy.

Some extra tips

Be sure to double-check the length of your document. If you only need to print a few pages, you can adjust the page range in the pop-up.
If you notice the printer you’re using isn’t listed, that means it isn’t set up yet, or it isn’t connected to your WiFi network.
If it’s offline and you keep trying to print, you’ll see the print jobs start backing up into what’s called a queue. You might need to clear the queue and then restart your printer. That way you don’t end up with a bunch of copies you don’t need.

Working with Zip Files

Another advantage of zip files is that they are compressed, which means the total file size is smaller. If you're emailing a zip file to someone or posting it to the Web, it takes less time to upload—and your recipients will also be able to download it more quickly.

What is a zip file?

A zip file is a way of grouping, or archiving, multiple files so they act like one file. For example, let's say you want to email a folder of Word documents to someone. You could attach each file individually, but it would take a long time—especially if there are a lot of documents. A better solution would be to put all of the files into a zip file, and then attach the zip file to your email.

*Some file formats, like MP3s and JPEG images, are already compressed. You can still zip these types of files, but the file size may not get much smaller.*

(Zipping Files helps a lot when you trying to send an email with a bunch of documents, images and videos at the same time. Trust me!!! I used this now days when I worked with a lot of word documents and videos)

Opening a zip file in Windows

Double-click the zip file.
The zip file will open. You can now double-click any file to open it.
Because Windows makes it easy to work with zip files, there's generally no need to unzip them. However, if you would prefer to unzip them you can simply right-click the zip file's icon and select Extract All.

Opening a zip file in macOS

Double-click the zip file.
A folder will be created with the same name as the zip file. You can double-click the folder to open it.
You can now double-click any file to open it.

Create your own Screencast

Screencasts are one of the best ways to teach people how to use their computers. A screencast is just a recording of the computer screen combined with narration. You don't have to be a pro to create a screencast, and it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be.

Why would you want to create your own screencast? Here are just a few examples:

You may have a relative or friend who has trouble using their computer. You can use a screencast to show them how to access their email or use a specific program. Whenever they need a reminder, they can just watch the screencast again.
You could create a screencast at work to show employees how to use the company software. This is especially useful if they work in a different office and you're not able to train them in person.
You may know a lot about a specific program (like Photoshop) and want to share your knowledge with other people.

The first thing you'll need is screencasting software. There are many different programs that you can use, including Camtasia and ScreenFlow. Some programs are free, but others can cost several hundred dollars. You should be aware that creating a screen recording takes a lot of computing power, and some of the free programs may produce choppy, low-quality videos.

Edit and Merge PDFs

Adobe PDF documents are one of the most commonly used file types today. If you've ever downloaded a printable form or document from the Web, such as an IRS tax form, there's a good chance it was a PDF file. You may already have Adobe Reader on your computer for viewing PDFs. One reason they're so popular is that they can help to preserve document formatting, which means PDFs look exactly the same on any device.

If you can't afford PDF editing software, or if you just don't need all of the features it offers, there are many free online tools you can use for simple PDF editing. We've done our best to weed though these sites to bring you a short list of the most reliable and trustworthy tools.

DocHub

If you want to make simple annotations to a PDF, such as highlighting text or adding comments, DocHub is one of our favorite tools. It also allows you to add text to documents, which means you can use it to fill out PDF forms. However, you cannot edit or remove any existing text from the file. Do note that you will have to create an account to use these features.

Office Online

If you need to edit the actual text of a PDF file, we recommend Microsoft's Office Online suite. Office Online is a free, simplified version of Microsoft Office that you can access from any web browser. One of its best features is the option to convert a PDF to a Word document.

SmallPDF

SmallPDF is really powerful tool. For example, you can upload multiple PDF files and then download a combined version as a single PDF file. You can also break up a larger PDF file into multiple documents, compress to make your PDF files smaller, and even convert a PDF to a Microsoft Word document (or vice versa).

Clean Up messy Formatting

Let's say you're typing an email to a prospective employer, and you want to list some of your skills and experience. Since you already have them listed in your resume, you decide to copy and paste the text into your email. But something doesn't look right—the font and font size are different from the rest of the email, making it look inconsistent:

What happened?

When you copy text from one program to another, your computer also copies much of the formatting, such as font, size, color, and more. Sometimes, this is a good thing. However, it can also cause problems.

If the formatting doesn't match, it can cause the text to look inconsistent or otherwise wrong. There's an easy way to fix this: Remove the formatting before pasting it. We're going to show you an easy way to do this with your computer's built-in text editor.

Opening the text editor

To get started, you'll need to open a text editor. Every computer has a built-in text editor, but they're different on Windows and Mac:

In Windows, the text editor is called Notepad, and you can search for it quickly by typing the name in the search bar in the toolbar.
If you're on a Mac, you'll use TextEdit. You can find it by clicking the Spotlight icon (the magnifying glass in the top-right corner) and searching for TextEdit.

After you open TextEdit, look at the empty window—if you see formatting options at the top of the window, such as font and alignment, that means TextEdit is set to edit Rich Text files, which isn't what we want. You'll need to set it to edit plain text by clicking Format > Make Plain Text.

The technique

Paste the text into your text editor, and it will automatically remove all of the formatting and turn it into plain text. Then, you can copy the plain text and paste it wherever you want. Below are the steps that you'll need to take:

Open the file that contains the text that you want to copy (for example, a resume).
Select the text and press Ctrl+C on your keyboard to copy it. If you're using a Mac, you'll press Command+C instead.
In your text editor, press Ctrl+V (or Command+V) to paste the text.
Make sure all of the text in the text editor is selected, and press Ctrl+C (or Command+C) to copy it.
You can now paste the text wherever you want (using Ctrl+V or Command+V), and it will take the formatting of the surrounding text. For example, you could paste it into an email, document, spreadsheet, or any other program that uses text.

Why does this technique work?

Text editors remove the extra formatting simply because they don't know what to do with it. The one thing that they do know how to work with is text. So they will preserve letters, numbers, and many other characters, while removing the colors, fonts, and other formatting.

Save time by Batching Computer Tasks

Many computer tasks are a lot like baking cookies, and most people don't always take advantage of the fast way. By learning different ways of batching repetitive tasks, you can save a lot of time and increase your productivity. Below are just a few examples of tasks that can be batched.

Mailing bulk letters

If you have to send out a form letter, it can take a long time to customize each letter with a different recipient, not to mention printing all of the addresses on envelopes. Instead, you can use Microsoft Word's mail merge feature to automatically replace the names and addresses so you can print them all at once. For more information, check out this lesson.

Selecting multiple files

If you want to move, copy, delete, or otherwise work with multiple files, you'll usually want to select all of them first. In Windows, the keyboard shortcut for Select All is Ctrl+A. For Mac OS, you'll use Command+A instead.

Moving multiple files

If you need to move 200 files from one folder to another, do you drag each one individually, or select all of them and drag the entire group? The second option will be much faster. You can use any of the methods above to select multiple files, then just click and drag one of the files into the new folder. The entire group will automatically move to the new folder.

Deleting text

If you need to delete large amounts of text, it's quicker to select that portion of text and delete it than it is to hold down the Backspace or Delete key. Simply click and drag to highlight the text you'd like to delete, then press the Backspace or Delete key.

You can also delete all of the the text in a document using the Select All shortcut. Just press Ctrl+A (or Command+A on a Mac) to select the text, then press Backspace or Delete.

To highlight a word, double-click it, then press the Backspace or Delete key.

If you want to highlight a paragraph, triple-click it, then press the Backspace or Delete key.

Batch uploading

If you need to upload multiple files to an online service like Google Drive or OneDrive, you can often upload all of them at once. If the service has a drag-and-drop screen, simply select all of the files that you want to upload. If the service uses an upload dialog box, you may be able to select multiple files from within the dialog box. Keep in mind that not all services allow you to batch upload files.

Replace all

Let's say you have a large document or spreadsheet that mentions a specific company numerous times. If the company changes its name, it could be very time consuming to change every instance of the name. Instead, you can open the Find & Replace feature.

Safety & Security

This video will help you how to create passwords that are easy to remember and somehow difficult to guess for other people. It is very helpful I used this video to create multiple good passwords for everything that I use.

Creating strong passwords

You'll need to create a password to do just about everything on the Web, from checking your email to online banking. And while it's simpler to use a short, easy-to-remember password, this can also pose serious risks to your online security.

To protect yourself and your information, you'll want to use passwords that are long, strong, and difficult for someone else to guess while still keeping them relatively easy for you to remember.

Backing Up your Files

External hard drives

One of the easiest ways to back up your files is to copy them to an external hard drive. You'll need to purchase an external drive to get started. Western Digital, Lenovo and Seagate produce some of the most popular external hard drives.

Backing up Files in a HARD DRIVE

Backing up files manually

If you only want to back up certain files, you can copy them directly to an external hard drive. This is an easy way to protect your most important files and folders, like certain documents or an important project.

Backing up files automatically

While it's easy to copy files and folders to an external hard drive, it's also easy to forget. You never know when you might need to access your files, so you'll want to back them up regularly to make sure you always have a copy of the most recent version. To simplify the process, most computers can automatically back up certain files or even your entire hard drive.

Using Windows
Windows Backup (also known as File History in Windows 8) allows you to create automatic copies of certain files or folders. You can also use Windows Backup to save a system image, which creates a backup of your entire hard drive, including your files and any applications you have installed. Check out Windows Backup and Restore from Microsoft to learn more.
Using Mac OS 11
When active, Time Machine automatically creates a backup of your entire hard drive, including your files and applications. If something goes wrong, it's easy to restore your computer to a previous date and pick up right where you left off. Visit Mac 101: Time Machine from Apple to learn more.

Backing up your files ONLINE

Even if you back up your files regularly on an external hard drive, it's still possible to lose your data. For added security, you can also back up your files in the cloud.

Backing up files manually

If you want to back up a few files or folders online, you'll need to sign up for an account with a cloud-based storage service. Most services will give you a small amount of free storage, which should be enough to store your most important files. You can also buy additional storage for a monthly fee.

The most popular cloud-based storage services below:

Dropbox
Dropbox is a simple way to back up your most important files online. Dropbox offers 2GB (gigabytes) of free storage and allows you to share files and even entire folders with anyone you choose.
Google Drive
Google Drive is a cloud storage service from Google, offering 15GB of free storage. From Drive, you can also access Google Docs, which allows you to create, share, and collaborate on documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. Visit our Google Drive and Docs tutorial to learn more.
OneDrive
OneDrive (previously called SkyDrive) is a cloud-based storage service from Microsoft, offering 5GB of free storage. You'll also have access to Office Online, a free online version of Microsoft Office that includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote. Visit our OneDrive and Office Online tutorial to learn more.

Backing up files automatically

The amount of storage provided by these services varies, and you will have to pay a monthly or annual fee for adequate space. While these options may seem expensive, they often cost the same as an external hard drive while offering the added security of storing your files in the cloud.

The most popular online backup services below:

Carbonite
If you don't want to think about backing up your files, Carbonite's automatic backup service ensures that all of your files are always up-to-date and there are no limits on the amount of storage you can use.
iCloud
Unlike Carbonite, iCloud is specifically designed to back up Apple apps, including documents created with iWork applications (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), as well as content downloaded from iTunes and the App Store. Any apps, music, movies, or TV shows you purchase are automatically backed up if your computer is lost, damaged, or stolen. You can also use iCloud to back up your content and settings for any iOS devices, such as iPhones and iPads. Initially signing up for iCloud, you'll receive 5GB of free storage.

Sharing Photos Online

Sharing photos privately online

If you need to share a photo privately, you can simply attach it to an email message. It's important to realize, however, that email isn't too convenient for sharing lots of photos. Because photos are usually large files, you won't be able to attach more than a few pictures to any given message.

*Rather than sending multiple emails with lots of attachments, you can upload all of your photos to a cloud-based storage service.*

To share photos from Google Drive:

In the example below, we'll share a gallery of photos with a specific group of people from Google Drive, one of the most popular cloud-based storage services available today. The process will be relatively similar for other services.

Upload the desired photos to your Google Drive (if you haven't already), and move them into a folder.
Click the folder to select it, then click the Share button at the top of the page.
The Share with people and groups dialog box will appear. In the Add people and groups field, type the email address(es) of the people you'd like to share the photos with.
Click the drop-down arrow to decide whether they can edit, comment or just view the folder. If you give them permission to edit, they'll be able to add and delete photos from the folder.
Once Notify people is checked, you can type your message in the field. When done with your message, click the Send button.
If you want to change who has permission to access the folder, select the folder then click the Share button at the top of the page.
Beside each person's name is a drop-down arrow, click it. Then, select the option you want from the list.
When you are finished making changes, click the Save button.

Other ways to share photos privately.

Some of these sites mentioned below may require a paid subscription plan.

Shutterfly
In addition to sharing photos privately with the people you choose, Shutterfly gives you the option to purchase high-quality prints of the pictures you upload.
Dropbox
If you only plan to use cloud-based storage to share photos, Dropbox provides a simple interface and sharing options.
Google Photos
If you take a lot of photos, you may want to consider using a photo managing application, such as Google Photos. Because it's made by Google, you'll have all the same sharing options as you would in Google Drive.

Browsing Privately

I used this video to have a better understanding of Private browsing and now I can use it for my own good! I hope it helps you in having a better understanding too and you can use it for your own favor too!!

Private browsing

You may be wondering why you would need to browse in private. You could choose this option when you're shopping for a gift, researching a sensitive subject. Basically, it makes sense to enable private browsing anytime you want to keep your browsing history confidential.

Understanding private browsing

Private browsing only prevents your web browser from saving your browsing history. This means anyone else who uses your computer will not be able to see your online activity. Unfortunately, it doesn't guarantee security—your activity can still be tracked by websites. We'll talk more about tracking later in this lesson.

Turning on private browsing

Private browsing is available for most web browsers.

Microsoft Edge: Click the three dots icon to see Settings and more. Select New InPrivate window from the drop-down menu.
Chrome: Click the three dots icon, then select New incognito window from the drop-down menu.
Firefox: Click the More button, then select New Private Window from the drop-down menu.
Safari: Click the File menu, then select Private Browsing from the drop-down menu.

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