Why doesn't that Print Screen (PrtScr, Print Scrn,
or something similar) key do anything?
The Print Screen button (as well as Scroll Lock
and Pause/Break) were carried over from the days of
mainframe computer networking. Back then, pressing
the button would send the lines of text displayed on
your screen straight to your printer. This method
worked nicely until the invention of the graphical
user interface.
To make Print Screen work, you must save an image
of what's displayed on-screen to the clipboard and
then paste it into a document where it can be
printed.
To do this, follow these directions:
- Maximize the window you'd like to capture.
- To capture the current window, hold down ALT +
Print Scrn at the same time. To capture the entire
screen, just press Print Scrn.
- Open a new document in MS Word or MS Photo
Editor.
- Paste the screen shot by holding down CTRL and
V at the same time.
- Print the document when you're finished
pasting screen shots.
