BleepingComputer.com: looking for specialized screen capture software

My wife has a counseling practice & uses specialized software to help her schedule and keep track of client billing. Most of the time, she just prints out a receipt for them after a session. Occasionally, she needs to e-mail clients receipts for her services & for their insurance needs.

This specialized software allows you to only print the receipts directly to your printer. There is no option or way to "save" the receipt to her PC (Word, PDF, etc.) so she can then attach it & e-mail it to clients. Therefore, if she needs to e-mail a receipt, she has to basically first print it out and then scan it back into the PC as a PDF file. She can then attach this PDF file to an e-mail and send it this way.

Is there any software out there that can somehow screen capture the receipt portion only on the computer and then save this as a certain file (Word, PDF, etc.). I thought about the screen capture feature within Windows XP, but this won't work as she doesn't need the whole screen to be included. Only the receipt part that is on the screen.

Basically, take a pop-up window (the receipt) and make it some sort of file (Word, PDF, etc.).


Any suggestions?

I think your scanner software should help. But to convert to PDF open up the new adobe reader when connected to the internet and use their PDF creator. should be on the menu bar somewhere or on a toolbar

This post has been edited by jeffman1: 10 June 2011 - 12:24 PM

Well, I'm actually trying to take out & avoid the scanner process altogher. Simply turn the pop-up window (aka, a receipt) into some sort of file so it can then easily be e-mail.

I don't have any fancy software.

I just use the freeware Irfanview, easy to install, easy to use; best to get the plugins at the same time.

http://www.irfanview.com/

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1. Press Print Screen on keyboard
2. Open Irfanview
3. Select Edit / Paste
4. Draw a box round the 'receipt' with the mouse
5. Select Edit / crop selection
6. Select File / Save (lot of choices in the drop-down box)
Done.

I save the selections as JPGs, so they are small for emailing.

They will also save as PDFs, (I've just discovered); you need the Irfanview plugins for this.
You enter a password to stop anyone modifying the file.

If the 'receipt' is covering the whole screen, just paste it into Irfanview (first three steps) and save.
(about 92KB for a one page PDF).

I expect you will now get many responses, saying there are much better ways, so I'll start you off
with this suggestion, while you're waiting and best of all, it's free.

A couple more suggestions, you may prefer a dedicated program rather than the method above.
These programs install themselves as a printer, which you select instead of your default printer.

Free

CutePDF Writer

http://www.cutepdf.com/products/cutepdf/writer.asp

Not free

PDF-XChange 4.0

http://www.guthcad.com/pdf-xchange/pdf-xchange.htm

PDF-XChange is installed to the list of Windows printers on your system.
To create a PDF document simply select File | Print | PDF-XChange 4.0.
(but instead of going to the printer your document is converted to a PDF document.)

(I know that the PDF XChange programs work well; I have an old version, which was given
away free for a limited time, some time ago).

This post has been edited by petewills : 11 June 2011 - 03:46 AM

Which operating system is in use? Win7 and Vista come packaged with a Snipping Tool that should accomplish what you want to do with the screen capture.

I use FastStone Capture v5.3 (older, free version) for my WinXP Pro system. It can do exactly what you described.

TulsaRose

FastStone looks good and simple; probably worth looking at first.
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I should just mention that you can also use Irfanview itself for screenshots (Options / Capture / Screenshot) - from the helpfile

Capture/Screenshot

Click on the Options Menu, then Capture/Screenshot. A dialog allows you to capture portions of your screen.

Capture area:

Use the option buttons to capture from your Whole screen - all monitors, Whole screen - current monitor (monitor where mouse cursor is located !!!), a Foreground window, a Foreground window - Client area (window without caption, menu and status bar) a Custom region/rectangle area (selected by the mouse after you press the Start button, or hotkey: CTRL + Print) or an Object (like button, window) selected with the mouse.

Note: if Custom region/rectangle or Object capture is used, no timer will be started.

Note: if Object capture is used, the object under the mouse will be highlighted with a frame rectangle. Press left mouse button to capture it, ESC to stop capturing. You can restart it again using the defined hotkey. Press right mouse button to bring a background (partially visible) window to foreground.

Note: if Object capture is used, the Auto-Scroll option may not work with all objects/windows, e.g. like web browser windows, Acrobat Reader, Word etc. but it should work pretty good with many standard system windows/objects.

Capture method:

You can capture with a self-defined hotkey or use the automatic capturing. For automatic capturing set a timer value. The value will be the number of seconds apart the viewer will take "snapshots" of the screen or window. One hotkey is valid for the duration of current IrfanView session.

Capture options:

If you want to see the mouse cursor in your screenshot image, check Include mouse cursor option. The Auto-Scroll option can be used with many objects/windows, but not all support it.

Saving method:

You can display each captured image in the main window of IrfanView or you can save it directly to disk.

If you use Save captured image as file, you can set:

• Filename for images. You can set a fixed name, or use some time stamp patterns. Default is: capture_%d%m%Y_%H%M%S. This will generate a file name with a system time stamp, like "capture_29112005_123620". %d = day, %m = month, %Y = year, %H = hour, %M = minute, %S = second.

• Destination directory for images. Type in a directory path or use the Browse button to find the directory you want to use.

• Save as box lets you choose which image format will be used to store the screens on your disk drive. Click the arrow and select one of the formats to change from the default JPG. The Options button brings up another dialog box with special options for certain file types. (Info: PNG is a very good format for most screenshots.)

Click Start to start capturing or Cancel to exit.

After start, the IrfanView window is minimized. Now use the defined hotkey (if hotkey capturing used) to capture any foreground/activated window or desktop. You can make several shots using the hotkey.

Note: Click again on the Options Menu and then Capture/Screenshot to stop any eventually started capture timer.

This post has been edited by petewills : 11 June 2011 - 10:00 AM

It's not free, but there's a program called SnagIt that can do both screen shots and video captures. I use it, and it works pretty well once you know how to use it.

I echo petewillis' suggestion of a "Print to PDF" program. Since they appear as normal printers to all programs, all programs that print can use them without any fuss.

mcf57,

You say that the Windows screen capture feature "Print Screen" won't work as it will capture the whole screen. You can simply print screen and open it in Windows Paint (which is standard in all Windows suites) or another image manipulator (photoshop, etc). Then simply crop the image. It only takes a second to crop it. Simply drag a window around the receipt and press Ctrl-X to cut it. Reopen this in a new window and you've got it. Then save this as a jpg or whatever. You now have the image saved so that you can attach it to an email. You can get to Windows Paint under Start > Programs > Accessories. I don't see a benefit to downloading a new third-party program when you can do it in Windows to begin with.

That's how I would do it anyway...

No special software need, simply select the window you want a print screen of, than hold the ALT key while you press the print screen button. Holding the Alt key will only copy the active window to your clip board, not your entire desktop. This way you do not have to crop anything.

Hope this helped.

I use a very simple freebie for screen captures. It's called EasyCapture. You can download it at http://www.easy-capture.com/download/easycapture_setup.exe

You can also use Ctrl-PrtScr (hold down the Control key and then press the Print Screen key on your keyboard). It copies your entire display onto the clipboard. Then you will have to paste (Ctrl-V) it into your image editor and crop it.

Murtle the Turtle, on 16 June 2011 - 10:12 AM, said:

as stated above, if you use alt+prnt screen it only captures the current active window...no cropping required

Sweet tip Stewie! I've been going through the extra step of cropping the image for literally years... Nbd, but that's a nice tip.

Cheers!