Product Overview

Screen Capture is a tool that is designed for capturing and future processing of windows and client areas. The usability is unlimited and it depends only on you. The tool has been created as a part of the archiving system and it was successfully used as a tool for capturing images for documentation.

What is new in the version 2.1? There is a new minimize button on the application dialog to enable users minimize Screen Capture also by mouse click. The same functionality is hidden under ESC key.

The second most important thing is a new updated mechanism for capturing mass images. For example, you want to capture 10 images but you don’t want to process them one following each other. Now this is possible!

The first thing needed to do is to change application configuration – Image Processing Tool to some more advance tool then MS Paint (for example Micromedia FireWorks). When you do it just use finding tool to capture as many pictures as you wish. All images will be temporally stored in FireWorks and you would be able to capture as many pictures as you wish. And at the end, you can modify and save them from FireWorks. Isn’t it cool? You can do all changes in one time not like in other products one following the other.

License

Screen Capture tool is FREEWARE for personal use ONLY. You can distribute it freely without let the author know. It can be used freely without a special license agreement but please do not modify the installation package information and copyright notes. If you use the tool for your own purposes please put the author name, the name of the tool and the company name in credits notes.

If you wish to use the tool as a commercial tool or as a business tool you have to obtain a license for. The license fee is €5 (150 Kč) per 5 users licenses. Please note that it means €1 (30 Kč) per one user. When you register the tools you will automatically obtain followings:

Lifetime free update
Customer support
Your company name / registered name in the title bar (instead of CompounDev)
Source codes for an additional fee of €50

For additional information and paying instructions please contact the company at http://www.compoundev.com.

The main application screen

This part contains a short description of the main ‘working’ part of the tool. Please check the picture bellow:

Figure 1 – Main application screen

Description:

To clipboard – when checked a captured image is stored in the clipboard for a future processing by any of the available tool
To editor and file – when checked a captured image is stored to the file. The file name is generated automatically from a caption of the captured area. After the image capturing the generated file name will be displayed by Output file name column. When a particular application configuration is used there is a mid-step between saving the image and continuing of the tool – preview of the image in an editor (for example MS Paint). The editor should be different then the default one (MS Paint). You can configure it under system application menu. This is quite useful if you wish to change a content of the image little bit. After that the image should be saved or copy to clipboard and use somewhere. Just for your interest – the picture above has been made by this option.
Finding Tool – it is the main part of the tool. When you click and hold the finding cross in the middle of the picture you can drag it above you selected client area / window. When you release the button (NOTE: we are talking about left button only) the operation that is set up by the check boxes described above is processed.

Example:

When you need to capture for example just a part of the menu, select that part and by dragging the finding tool above and release the button. In my case I wanted to capture a part of the menu in MS Word – here is the result:

System task tray icon

To help you wit using of Screen Capture the application generates s system task tray icon. You can find the icon in the system task tray toolbar that is usually located at the down right corner of your screen (it depends on your current system settings):

Figure 2 – system task tray toolbar icon

When you press the ‘ESC’ key or you double click the icon in the system task tray toolbar the application minimize itself to this icon. On the other side, when you double click the icon in the system task tray toolbar the application restores itself to the original position before minimizing.

So a new question arises – how to close the application?

Application menu

The application menu is hidden under the system menu (the top left corner of the application under the application icon) and it is fairy simple. It contains the basic functionality for manipulation with Screen Capture like:

Closing of application (Close menu item)
Configuring the application (Configure menu item)
About dialog (About menu item)

Closing of the application

There are three ways how to close Screen Capture:

Through the system menu item Close
Through the Alt-F4 key combination
Through the application close button (small cross) that is located at the top right corner of the application

Configuration dialog

The application configuration is quite complex. You can configure external application that will be used by the tool and tool behavior.

It is possible to configure the images processing tool that would be used by Screen Capture for post image processing. When you choose the option ‘To editor and file’ the application stores captured data to the file and straight forward launches the associated application for post-image processing for future processing the captured image. When you are ready with changing of captured data (some editing or changes, see Figure 1 for example) you save the file and return back to Screen Capture.

Figure 3 – configuration dialog

The configuration dialog is as easy as possible. The Image processing tool edit contains the full path file name to the executable that evokes the post-image processing tool. As a default the Microsoft™ Paint™ has been chosen.

There is also another edit box available – File path for storing captured images. The edit box specifies the folder that will be used by the application for storing of captured images.

The button at the right side of the edit is a browse button through that you can chose the appropriate executable. To confirm your changes press the OK button, otherwise the Cancel button.

To configure behaviour of the application there are two check boxes available:

Launch Image processing tool after capturing – when it is checked the pos-image processing tool will be launched straight after the image will be captured. By the post-image processing tool you should obviously modify the content of the image or apply some special features.
Default startup mode is Capture to the file – when it is checked the capture to the file functionality is used as default startup mode. It is very useful especially when you need some automation of the tool.

Release Notes

Please, if you have an idea how would you like to use this tool or improve it send the email on the author’s email. If you find some errors in the tool please contact the author too with a short description of the error. The description should contain: Your operation system, your graphics settings and your email for response. The author will remove the error as soon as possible and contact you with a new version. The new version will be stored and ready for download at CompounDev web site.

News

Version 2.1 – there is a new minimize button shown to enable minimize application by mouse. There are also update for captured images – try open for example some more advance graphic editor (e.g. Macromedia FireWorks) and then capture one image following another. All images will be placed in FireWorks so you can change them after all capturing you need to do (please do not forget to change Image Processing Tool under Screen Capture options to Macromedia FireWorks following this example).

Version 2.0 – there is a new configuration and automation available. Also, a translation to Czech and German is now available.

Version 1.1 – Screen Capture minimizes itself to tray icon. Also contains a new configuration that enables users to configure a user specific editor that would be used instead of MS Paint. This should be done through configuration dialog that is hidden under the system menu.

Version 1.0 – finished and closed.

End note

I would like to say Thank you to all my supporters and especially to http://www.codeproject.com for assistance and resource for my development.