What
is a hotkey?
A hotkey is like a shortcut key, a combination of keyboard strokes that you press on your keyboard
to do a task. E.g. the hotkey combination "Ctrl+C", pressing the Ctrl
key and C key together on your keyboard, is commonly used to copy.
In ScreenHunter, by default, to start capturing, the F6 key is the hotkey. That
is, you can press the F6 key on your keyboard, not on the screen, to start
capturing.
If
you want to change this key, you can click the hotkey button on the screen and choose any
function key, Print Screen key or other key combination.
What is the system tray?
ScreenHunter 6 can be set visible or invisible. There are options on the
Options tab where you can set.
You can choose the Minimize and Close
options to be visible or not on the Taskbar, sitting in the system tray, or
Exit the application.
ScreenHunter will always be available from your
system tray. The system tray is located in
the Windows Taskbar, usually at the bottom right corner next to the clock. It
contains miniature icons for easy access to running programs such as clock,
sound volume and ScreenHunter. Double click or right click on an icon to view
and access details.
To end ScreenHunter, you need to Exit
the program.
To do that, click
the Exit link at the bottom of the main window or in the
Tasks group on the
Tasks tab, or right click on the hand icon the System tray and choose Exit.
|
General Capture |
|
How do I capture
a long web page?
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
How
do I capture
a movie / video screen?
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
Cannot capture from the second monitor?
 ScreenHunter
6 Pro supports multiple monitors. Please make sure to check
"Multiple monitors" in the "Add" group on the From tab (main window).
Make sure you have your
extended monitor connected to your main PC before using this feature.
Setup
example.
|
How do I cancel a capture?
Right-click the mouse button to cancel.
When you have started capturing and Zoombox is shown or auto-scrolling,
press the Esc key on your keyboard to cancel.
To cancel auto-capturing,
|
How
come auto-scroll doesn't scroll my window?
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
How can I capture a DOS full screen program?
Not all DOS program screen can be
captured. However, there are a couple of ways you can try,
[1] Run your DOS program in
a window and then use the regular means in ScreenHunter to capture, such as
Rectangular area and Full screen.
To run your DOS program in a window, press Alt-Enter
key to toggle between full screen and window modes.
[2] Use Windows built-in compatibility:
-
Open the DOS box by
choosing MS-DOS Prompt from the Start/Programs. Run the DOS program.
Press the "Print Screen" key found beside the F12 key. Press
Esc to
stop the DOS program.
-
Click Image Editor at the bottom
of ScreenHunter main window
and click the New Image on the toolbar, and paste.
For Windows XP, click this Microsoft
PrintScreen key article (Q140399) for more information.
|
How do I capture submenus?
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
I
captured a window using 'Text' capture. How come it only takes the title bar
text?
Text capture
is to capture an object's text label instead of image, such as taking a button's
label and a window title.
Since text capture is window
dependent, it is possible some objects and windows content may not be captured
and converted to text as desired. For example, it may take the entire text
in Notepad, but for many windows, it only takes the title
bar text.
I want to capture a
translucent window, but it disappears. How come?
To capture a translucent window,
make sure to check Translucent windows in the Include group,
and select Active Window, or Full screen in the
Capture What group on the From tab.
If the above is not working, you may use the Advanced Full screen
capture, and crop from the whole image.
How do I get rid of the red text on my capture?
It might be the Caption that you can check on/off in the
Add Effects group on
the To tab.
You can click the settings button on the side to change the format of the text
appearing on your capture.
On Vista and Windows 7, screen increases when capturing. How
do I fix?
This is a Vista & Windows 7 vs. XP font compatibility issue.
Please download and use the latest version that is compatible with Vista and
Windows 7.
How do I capture tooltips?
Tooltips are application dependent. That is, depending on
the target application you want to capture, it may not work with the
standard capture.
If the rectangular capture doesn't capture your tooltips, you
may use Full screen and Advanced in the Capture What group to capture.
In some cases, checking Mouse pointer and Translucent
windows in the Include group may help.
|
|
I'm
running other programs while capturing DirectX full screens.
Sometimes the hotkey doesn't work. Why?
It's possible that the hotkey you chose has
been taken by other
programs without notice.
To make sure, restart ScreenHunter. To restart,
open the main window and click Exit at the bottom right. Then,
run ScreenHunter again from the Windows Start. This will try to set
your hotkey. Then run your DirectX program right away to capture.
If it still doesn't work, it's possible that the hotkey is conflict with the
same key defined in the DirectX program. Changing your hotkey may solve the
problem.
I
captured a game screen, but it's blue or green only. How come?
Game and DirectX programs change the
screen quickly, especially in games. There is a very good chance that at the
moment the hotkey is pressed, the screen is switching memory buffers. To make
sure you catch the real screen, press your hotkey several times to capture more
than once.
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
How do I take a webcam screenshot or scan image? And what
is a driver?
You can take webcam screenshot by choosing
Webcam / scanner in the Capture What group on the From
tab. Then, capture it by pressing the Capture Now button or your
hotkey. Make sure to select
the webcam driver from the Select Source list by pressing the settings
button on the right. A driver is a piece of software that
enables you to use a hardware device. Sometimes it comes from the hardware
manufacture, like a printer/scanner driver, and sometimes it's included in
Windows, like built in webcam driver.
You can press the Capture button on the dialog to actually capture.
Depending on the webcam or scanner driver, the Add
Effects items you choose on the To tab may not be allowed. In this
case, the webcam screenshot or scanned image will be copied to the Image
Editor.
|
|
Timed
capture |
|
The Auto-capture radio button is disabled, why?
The
auto-capture is available when Fixed area, Active window, Specific window or Full screen capture is
selected in the Capture What group. And if the interval is set to less
than 10 seconds, there will be no messages after capture.
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
What are
ways to cancel auto-capture when it has started?
Click here to see how.
Click
here
for the step-by-step auto-capture feature guide.
|
I want to capture my PC screen at
midnight, is it possible?
Yes. You can use the ScreenHunter
scheduled or recurring capture feature.
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
|
Saving,
clipboard, printing |
|
Can I save a capture to PDF?
And how do I use it as a PDF maker?
Yes. You can save any capture to a
PDF file.
You can check to save it right away on the To tab, or save/convert it from the
Image Editor.
Click here for
a step-by-step guide to turn a Word document (DOC) to a PDF file.
Can I change the file folder when saving a file from
Image Editor?
ScreenHunter has
two ways to
arrange your file folder.
-
If you want to use one
fixed folder
to save all captures and never need to change the default, you can set the folder on the
To
tab and, uncheck Use the last used folder
in the Folder Settings dialog.
-
If you want to use the last
saved values you picked on the File Save As dialog as the default
path, check Use the last used folder
in the Folder Settings dialog.
What
is the automatic file naming feature. How do I use it?
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
How do I efficiently use the Clipboard feature with Microsoft Word?
When you're working with a Windows program
supporting the standard Windows Clipboard, such as MS Word or MotionStudio,
you can use the clipboard feature to take any capture and paste into the
program without leaving it.
Example when using MS Word:
On the From tab, choose F6 only as the
hotkey
and select Rectangular area to capture. On the To tab, check the
Clipboard checkbox. (It's not necessary to have Editor or files checked
at the same time.)
Press the hotkey, F6 on the keyboard, to capture any rectangular area. Then, go
to MS Word, press Ctrl+V or click the menu Edit - Paste, to
paste the capture into the Word document.
|
How is the printed image size determined when I print a capture?
Use the Wysiwyg Print dialog box to set up the way you want your
capture printed.
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
Why "Fit to page" printing is slow on my printer?
On some modern printers, the
default resolution for printing is high (high dpi). Because it takes time to
zoom the capture to the high resolution, it can go up to 30 seconds.
However, if the printer is set to "pool printing', when waiting for the
print out, you can still keep doing your tasks on your PC.
This is part of the printing settings that is not controlled by
ScreenHunter. To speed up printing, you can reduce the dpi to 600 and lower.
Click the following for how,
|
What is the JPEG quality factor and
what are PNG and GIF good for?
For JPEG files, the file size will depend on
the quality factor you use. You can pick a file size vs. image quality tradeoff
by selecting a quality factor from 1 to 100. That is, 1 for the smallest JPEG
file with lowest image quality, and 100 for the biggest file with highest
quality. Arguably, quality factor 75 is about the lowest you can go without
expecting to see defects in a typical image. We recommend to set it to 90 as you
want your capture to have good quality.
GIF files have small file size,
however, a GIF file can
only take a maximum of 256 colors, it needs to be converted to 256 colors from a
true color capture.
ScreenHunter 6 comes with high quality converter for GIFs.
Here is more.
PNG is a relatively new format that has loss-less compression which means
you have the highest screen quality and also with a small file size. It's
recommended by many graphics experts.
When I save as a GIF
file, the 'Closest match' conversion seems slow. What are the speed/quality
comparisons?
The fastest algorithm to convert to a solid 256
color is Median cut. However, Closest match has the best quality in most images.
Here is the conversion algorithm comparison. These statistics are for the most
cases. The actual image result may vary.
|
SOLID
COLOR |
Closest
match |
Median
cut |
Neural |
|
Speed |
Fast |
Fastest |
Faster |
|
Image Quality |
Best |
Good |
Better |
|
DITHERED
COLOR |
Error
diffusion |
Floyd-Steinberg |
Uniform |
|
Speed |
Fast |
Faster |
Fastest |
|
Image Quality |
Best |
Good |
Better |
|
|
Image Editor |
|
How come the Image Editor is showing up each time I capture?
If you want to show
or hide the Image Editor after each capture, you can check/uncheck the option checkboxes
on the Options tab.
How do I get the most of Image Editor?
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
|
How do I make a text
label?
You can enter text in
any of these objects: rectangles, round rectangles, ellipses,
bubbles and shapes.
Click
here
for how.
What if I need to zoom/resize a capture?
There are two ways to scale/zoom/resize a capture.
-
Use auto-scale. Check Auto-scale
in the Add Effects group on the
To tab and
set up the way you want your captures scaled in the Auto-Scale Settings dialog. All captures will be automatically scaled according to your settings.
-
Use ScreenHunter Image
Editor to zoom and resize.
 |
On the Tools Panel |
Click
here
for a step-by-step guide.
What is a SHF file?
The ScreenHunter File (SHF) format is a
native ScreenHunter created file that keeps all objects editable when you load
next time. It is available when
you save your capture (bitmap) and drawing objects in Image Editor. The file
extension is .shf.
The Bitmap and objects are kept in the original quality that you can change and
export to other image formats, such as JPEG, PNG, GIF of PDF.
Click here for more on other formats.
In the Image Editor, the bitmap image will remain in its original quality and
all objects will remain in the SHF format that objects are editable even you
export (save as) to other format, such as a JPG file. If you want to load the
saved JPG file, you need to load the JPG file from your hard drive.
You can always convert drawing
objects to bitmap if you need to.
|
In
Image Editor, how to select an area accurately?
You can zoom the image first, then use the selection
tool to select.
To zoom, choose the following menu item,
You may want to uncheck Smooth Zooming in the View menu to avoid confusion in pixel
selection.
|
What is the maximum number of images can be loaded in Viewer?
When
Keep only the last 30 images is checked on the Options tab, it
keeps the last 30 images or text, and discards the old ones to reduce the memory usage.
If the checkbox is unchecked, the maximum number of images can be loaded is 100.
However, if you use files to save your images, there is no limit on how many
images are saved to your hard drive.
|
How do I set to open an image in IE? When I view in IE 6, it's
resized. How come?
You can tell Windows to use IE to open an image file all the time. To do
that, right-click the image file on Windows Explorer (press Windows + E to
launch Explorer). And select Open With in the menu, and Choose Program...
in the submenu.
On the Open With dialog, highlight IE and check Always use the selected
program to open this kind of file.
Click OK. From the next time on,
double click the image file will open IE to view.
When you don't want IE to resize your image, you can turn off Automatic Image Resizing
in IE.
From IE 6, choose Internet Options from the Tools menu, and uncheck the
item.
|
|
Emailing |
|
I
use Microsoft Outlook. How do I send multiple captures in one email?
-
Check Email on the To tab to capture.
And select Show the default email dialog on the settings dialog.
-
Press your hotkey to capture.
When the Outlook email dialog box comes up with a capture, click
the Save button on the toolbar to save. Then, close the Outlook dialog by clicking the
close button on the title bar.
-
Keep on capturing using the above step.
-
Open Outlook and go to Inbox. You will find all captures are saved in a
separate email.
-
Make a new email and drag all captures
from the saved emails to this one and
send.
|
Why is the Email checkbox disabled on the To tab?
ScreenHunter needs an email management program that follows the MAPI standard
installed on your PC. Outlook is an example which follows the standard.
When started, ScreenHunter uses the generic MAPI logon procedure to logon to
the default email manager on the PC if the email manager exists. This is to
initialize the auto-emailing feature. If it doesn't support, the checkbox will be disabled.
To check your machine to see the MAPI component is installed.
-
Using RegEdit to check your registry to see whether it has a "MAPI" key,
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE => SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows Messaging Subsystem
-
Is "MAPI32.DLL" found in your Windows system folder?
If not, you need to install the component.
|
When
set to send an email, there is a message saying "Either there is no default mail client ..." from Outlook.
How do I set Outlook as my default email client?
Use the following steps to set Outlook as the
default email client:
-
Run Internet Explorer and choose Internet Options... from the
Tools
menu,
- Or -
Right-click the Internet
Explorer Desktop icon, and then click Properties in the menu.
-
On the Programs tab,
click to select Outlook in the E-mail list.
-
Click OK to close the window.
|
|
Web
Capture |
|
How do I capture an
image from the Web?
A couple of ways,
|
What if I need to capture a website that uses Secure
Sockets Layer (SSL)?
For security and legal reasons it's
prohibited to capture information from SSL sites.
|
|
Other |
|
How do I use
ScreenZoom & ScreenDraw in my presentation?
You can enlarge the entire screen
anytime by pressing a hotkey on your keyboard. It's very useful when you want to
show something better.
Click here for a step-by-step guide.
I'm a
developer, how to use ScreenHunter 6 Pro from my program?
To run ScreenHunter from your program, you can find
ScreenHunter 6 Pro program location in Registry. You also can use commend line switches to
run ScreenHunter 6 Pro from your program.
To find
ScreenHunter 6 Pro program
Key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Wisdom-soft\ScreenHunter\6Pro
Item
Program
Command line switches
Make sure ScreenHunter is not running
when using these commands.
|
Command |
Details |
|
/{image file full path} |
To load an image in Viewer
automatically.
|
|
/C |
Execute "Capture Now" right away using the current settings.
It's like pressing the Capture Now button.
|
|
/CX |
Execute Capture Now and Exit ScreenHunter.
Only Fixed area, Active window, Specific window and Full screen
in the Capture What can be selected.
|
|
/H |
Execute pressing your hotkey using the current settings.
It's
like to press the hotkey.
|
|
/X |
Exit ScreenHunter if found.
|
|
/D |
To run more than one instance of ScreenHunter.exe
Note: This may cause one
ScreenHunter to lock other ScreenHunter instances. It's only for
advanced users to use temporarily.
Click the image to enlarge.
|
|
/R |
To reset
all options to the initial default values.
|
|
How do I
install 6 Pro after running 6 Plus, or vise versa?
ScreenHunter 6 Pro and 6 Plus has different license keys. Although they both
can be installed on the same machine at the same time to run side-by-side, but
it's not recommended. For greater performance, one has to be
un-installed before the other is installed.
1. Check the current version. Double click to open the ScreenHunter main
window.
Title: "Wisdom-soft ScreenHunter 6 Pro", that's the "Pro" version.
Title: "Wisdom-soft ScreenHunter 6 Plus", that's the "Plus" version is
currently running.
2.
Exit and make sure no ScreenHunter is running.
(Check the Windows
taskbar in the
system tray
that there should have no ScreenHunter icon showing).
3. Uninstall all ScreenHunter programs. From Start/Programs/Wisdom-soft
ScreenHunter/Uninstall. Click the Start/Programs again to make sure no
ScreenHunter exists.
4. Run the install pack:
"6 Pro": setupscreenhunter.exe
"6 Plus": setupscreenhunterplus.exe
|
How
do I
get back to use all default options?
|
| |
