I was asked about this and thought it would made a good addendum to the last two posts. How to you take a shot of what is on a computer screen and how do you edit it? I answered this question a while ago in this post, but you can also edit the screen shot in MS Picture Manager.

Here's how:

Make sure the screen image is as you want it to appear and press the Print Screen (Prt Scr) on your keyboard - usually to the right of the main keyboard and above the insert key.

Go in to MS Picture Manager and choose Paste from the Edit menu. The image will be pasted into whichever location is selected in the Shortcuts panel on the left hand side. To find the pasted image click on the selected folder under Shortcuts and search though the contents to find your screen shot. When you have found it, double-click and the image will come up in the central pane. Now you can edit it as described in this post. Make sure you click on Save to make the edits permanent.

In my last post I introduced you to the editing features of Microsoft's Picture Manager software that comes with Office 2007.

Today we will look at how we can use the programme to organise our pictures and send them to other people.

File management

You can easily do some file management while using this programme. To delete images simply click on the image in the central window, and choose the delete button up in the top toolbar represented by a large cross symbol. You will be asked if you are sure you want to delete the file. Click Yes. The image will now be deleted. To move an image from one folder to another, make sure that you have both folders listed in the shortcut panel on the left. Find the image you want to move, click and drag it over the destination folder on the left and when that folder is highlighted, release the mouse button. A copy of the file is now placed in the destination folder. Check it is there before you go back and delete the original. Another way of moving a file is to right-click over the original, choose cut, move to the destination folder and click on paste. The image will be cut from the original folder and pasted into the destination folder.

Inserting images into emails and documents

Usually in a programme like MS Word, or any of the other office programmes, you can choose Insert-Picture, and file manage to your image in Windows. Another way of inserting images is to have the document open and insert it from Picture Manager. Select the image you want to insert, go to File and choose Send To - Microsoft Office (see right). You should see the open document listed so click on the Send button and it will insert the image where the cursor is placed in the document. Alternatively, when sending to a blank Office document, choose which programme you want to insert the image in, and click on Send (note that if you click on the Options link you will be able to change the size).

You can email your image by going to File-Send To and choosing Email. You will be given the Email Task Pane on the right of the screen. Complete the options and click on Create Message. The selected image should then be inserted into an empty email ready for you to address and send.

If you find these features greyed out it means you didn't select an image to send!

I hope you find that a useful summary of software that you may not have used before. 

I came across the MS Picture Manager recently and was reminded what a useful tool it can be, especially if you don't have access to an image editing programme. The next two posts will take you through some of the handy features.

First we will look at exploring the windows. Below you will see a screen shot of the main window:

The panel on the left hand side is the shortcuts panel. To hide it, click on the Shortcut's button just above it. Click again to get it back. By default you will see the image files saved in your My Pictures folder in My Documents. Your ICT department may have changed the default settings, but this is the standard before any customisation.

If you have a folder of images saved elsewhere you can click on 'Add Picture Shortcut...' , find the folder containing the images and then click on Add. You should see the folder listed in the Picture Shortcuts panel and the contents of the folder displayed in the middle window.

You can change how large the images appear in the central window by using the slider at the bottom right (note this does not change the actual size of the image). You can also change how the images are viewed by clicking on one of the three buttons in the top left corner of the central pane.

Editing an image

Use the shortcut panel to find the folder that contains the image you want to edit, and click on it to show its contents. When you see the desired image double-click on it and it should fill the middle window. You can hide the shortcuts panel if you wish by clicking on the Shortcuts button at the top left.

On the right hand side of the screen you see the task pane. Here I have clicked on the Properties task pane from the drop down arrow at the top of the pane (see left) and you can see the size of the file, where it resides and even what model of camera took the photo!

If you choose the Edit Pictures pane from the drop down, you will see a list of editing tools to change the colour, contrast, cropping, and a few other options that are very useful. Experiment with each one in turn. Move the sliders to see the effects on the image in your main window. When you want to try the next edit option click on Back to Edit Pictures at the bottom of the pane.

Resizing and cropping

Note the difference between cropping and resizing an image. Cropping will slice off the edge of the image that you identify. Move your mouse over the handles around the edge and drag inwards. The shaded area will be cut from the image. To retain all of the image but make it smaller you need to resize. The easiest way to choose the resize option and to insert a percentage less than 100 in the fourth option down. Otherwise, if you know the dimensions you want in pixels you can enter the numbers in the box for custom width x height. The Predefined width and height option offers some standard dimensions which might be useful.

When you have finished making all your changes, click on Save to ensure that the changes are made to the original image.

In the next post I will cover file management and sending images by email, from MS Picture Manager.