The first time step-by-step guide
'Movie/Video' capture guide
'DirectX/Screen saver screen' capture guide

'Capture Editing' guide

'Resizing, Zooming, and Cropping' guide

'Auto-email' guide

'Auto-scroll' guide

'Automatic file naming' guide
'Smallest file size' guide

'Auto-capture' guide
'Scheduled and recurring' capture guide
Clipboard guide
'DOS full screen program' capture guide

'Web capture' guide
Multi-object,  submenu capture guide
'Wysiwyg Printing' guide
'Non-rectangular area' capture guide
'Specific window' capture guide
How to make a transparent round image (new)
 

The first time step-by-step guide

The ScreenHunter Main Window is made up by top buttons, three tabs, and a sidebar for tasks. The three main tabs are 'From', 'To' and 'Advanced'. The 'From' tab is for assigning how and what you want to capture and, what to add. The 'To' tab is for assigning how you want to do with the capture. The 'Advanced' tab provides more options to further customize your ScreenHunter.

The first example is to capture a part of screen with the mouse pointer, save it to a JPEG file and copy to the Clipboard.

[Step #1: Choose Hotkey to Start]

• A hotkey is the key you press to actually capture. You can choose to use a single hotkey for all captures or, use different hotkeys for different captures.
• In this example, in the 'Start' section, choose 'Single hotkey' and click the hotkey button beside to choose F6 only as your hotkey.

[Step #2: Choose What to Capture]

• In the 'Capture What' section, select 'Rectangular area' and check 'Adjustable'.
• In the 'Add' section, check 'Mouse pointer'.

[Step #3: Choose Where to Save Capture]

'Movie / Video' capture guide

Some systems have graphics hardware which can do a hardware overlay of video on the screen that can bypasses the normal Windows display. As a result, screenshots may be all black. In order to capture movie and video screens, here is a step-by-step guide,

1. Select 'Movie' in the 'Capture what' section on the From tab and only check Viewer on the To tab. (Check File only if you need to save right away.)
2. Press the hotkey to capture while the movie is playing. You may see the movie screen disappearing when dragging the mouse. That's alright. Keep dragging and selecting the area. 
3. If nothing (only black screen) has been captured in Viewer, pause the movie, set the focus to the movie screen (click the movie window once), and try again.
    
4. If you still cannot see the capture after Step 3, uncheck "Overlays" in your player.
    

   	[Media Player] Uncheck 'Use overlays' Click the pictures for details.	(Click the picture to enlarge) Media Player 11
   	[WinAmp] Disallow overlay. Click the picture for details.
   	[RealPlayer] Disable optimized video and overlay. Click the picture for details.

5. If you still cannot see the capture after Step 4, disable "Hardware Acceleration" in your player and pause to capture again.

   [Media Player] Change the "Hardware Acceleration" slider to None on the following dialog box. 

   [Media Player 6.4 and earlier] View>Options>Playback
   [Media Player 7 to 10] Tools>Options>Performance
   [Media Player 11] Now Playing>More Options>Performance

   [RealPlayer] Open View>Preferences. On the "Performance" tab, uncheck "Use optimized video display".
   
   [QuickTime5] Edit>Preferences>QuickTime Preferences... Select "Video Settings" from the drop down list and uncheck "Enable DirectDraw Acceleration".

6. If you still cannot see the capture after Step 5, disable your machine hardware acceleration and pause to capture again.

   [Windows 98] Open "System" on the Control Panel. Click the "Graphics..." button on the "Performance" tab. Change the "Hardware acceleration" slider to None and click OK. 
   
   [Windows NT 4] Open "System" on the Control Panel. On the "Performance" tab, change the "Boost" slider to None and click OK. 

   [Windows 2000/XP] Open "Display" on the Control Panel. Click the "Advanced..." button on the "Settings" tab. Find the "Troubleshooting" tab and change the "Hardware acceleration" slider to None and click OK. 

   
   
       Click the image to enlarge

   
   You may need to restart Windows to take effect.

Some machines can capture movie / video screens by using step 4 or 5 only. Since disabling hardware acceleration will slow down many applications, you may want to put the settings back after taking screenshots.

Note: if it's played from a DVD player, it is possible that it is protected as per DVD copyright protection format.

'DirectX/Screen saver screen' capture guide

Using ScreenHunter to capture DirectX game or screen saver screens is just a 3-step process. Here is an example to capture a DirectX or screen saver screen with no delay.

[Step-by-step Example]

'Capture Editing' guide

ScreenHunter Image Editor is a versatile imaging and editing tool. You can edit your captures right after capturing -- by coloring, zooming, cropping, adding text and advanced image processing.

[Step-by-step Example]

1. On the From tab, choose F6 only as my hotkey, and select Object to capture. On the To tab, check the Viewer/Editor checkbox to copy the captures to Viewer/Editor.
2. If you need to load the editor automatically after capturing, check on 'Show Image Editor after capturing' on the Advanced tab.
3. Click 'Stand By', you're ready. Now, press your hotkey F6 to capture an object. The capture should be loaded in ScreenHunter Image Editor. Also, doubling clicking an image in Viewer will load the image into the editor.
4. The image editor works in a 'pick-a-tool-and-apply-an-action' fashion.
   
   [E.g. to draw a freehand line in red color]
1. Pick a red color from the color tool, and press the Pen tool to select.
2. Change the pen width by selecting the width from the Pen Width list. 
3. Draw a freehand line on the image using the pen.

If you want to undo the change, click the Undo tool in the toolbox.

'Resizing, Zooming, and Cropping' guide

Resizing, zooming and cropping are used to modify the capture to suit your needs. 
There are two ways to zoom a capture.

• Use auto-scale. Check 'Auto-scale' on the To tab and set up the way you want your captures scaled in the Auto-Scale Options dialog. All captures will be automatically scaled according to your settings.
• Use ScreenHunter Image Editor to zoom and resize.
  
  

[Step-by-step Example]
I want to resize a capture to 50%, keeping the aspect ratio. 

• Pick the selection tool from the toolbox .
• Click anywhere on the image and drag the selection rectangle until the figure is the desired size. 
• Click the Resize tool button (the left most on the second row) to show the 'Resize Image' dialog box.
  
  
  Choose 'Resize', 'Keep aspect ratio' and 'Percentage'. Enter 50.
  Check 'Zoomed' if I want the whole image zoomed to this size.
  Press OK.
  
  [Note] If you need to have smooth zooming, check 'Smooth zooming' on the Editor.
  
  
  
  
  
  (Click the picture to enlarge)
  
  [Other Options]
  If you need to crop, take a particular part out, you can use the selection tool to assign the part and then click the Resize tool to show the dialog. In the dialog, select 'Crop to selection rectangle', uncheck 'Zoomed' if you don't need the whole image zoomed to this size, and press OK.
  
  If you want to undo the change, click the Undo tool in the toolbox.

'Auto-email' guide

ScreenHunter can send your capture directly to the default email outbox without human intervention. 

If you want to monitor your PC activities every minute, you can use auto-capture to capture a screen every minute and send email using the auto-emailing feature. So you can monitor your PC activities anywhere in the world.

[Setup Check]

From your IE, you can check to make sure which email program is set up, e.g. Outlook email program is used.

[Step-by-step Example]

You have Outlook on your machine as you regular email. You want to send captures automatically.

1. When ScreenHunter is started, it checks to see if an email manager is installed on your machine. If it is, when Email is selected on the To tab, email settings on the Email tab will be enabled. If the PC is not set up to use email, all email related controls will be disabled. 
   In Outlook, set to Send/Receive messages every minute.
2. In order to use email, check File and Email on the To tab to send a capture as an email attachment. On the Email Options dialog, choose 'Send automatically' to tell ScreenHunter to send email right away. Click the 'To...' button to pick email recipients from the address book or type email addresses in the To and CC field. Enter a subject and message.
   You can send a test email to see if it works with your settings. Clicking 'Check and Send a test email' will check and send an email with a sample attachment to your email outbox.
3. If the above works, click 'Stand By', and you're ready. Click your hotkey to capture a screen.
4. After capturing, the capture should be sent to the Outlook outbox. Since you have set Outlook to send email every minute, the email will be sent automatically.

'Auto-scroll' guide

This feature is used for capturing a scrollable area that is currently outside of the viewing area of the window. You can set to auto-scroll vertically or horizontally.

Auto-scroll is available when 'Object / Window' is chosen. It starts from the current window scrolling position.

Because scrolling is application-dependent, auto-scroll may not work with all applications, such as windows that contain constantly changing elements. The scrolling speed also depends on the machine and content of the window. According to the window you're capturing. you may need to adjust the scroll interval on the 'Auto-scroll Options' dialog.



[Step-by-step Example]

You want to auto-scroll and capture a long web page.

1. On the From tab, choose F6 only as your hotkey and select 'Object / Window' to capture. 'Auto-scroll' will be enabled and make sure it's selected. On the 'Auto-scroll Options' dialog, start with a default auto-scroll interval 200 milliseconds, which is the time to allow the scrolled part to appear properly after each scroll. It can be shorter for fast machines. And pick Vertical to scroll a web page.
2. On the To tab, check 'Viewer / Editor'. (It's not necessary to have 'File' checked at the same time.)
3. Click 'Stand By', and you're ready. Now, press your hotkey F6 and use the mouse to find a scrollable object. A scrollable object is a child window, which is the smallest window containing the scrollable content.
4. Press the left-mouse button to start auto-scrolling. If the window is not scrollable, a warning message is displayed. If the window contains large complex content, or the machine is slow, changing the auto-scroll interval to a longer one could help scrolling.
   
   [Controlled Scroll/Cancellation]
   Press the ESC key or right-click the mouse button to stop auto-scrolling and capture the scrolled part so far. You can use this to control where to start and finish in order to capture a specific part of a large scrollable window.

'Automatic file naming' guide

The automatic file naming feature is to save captures with automatically generated file names, so you don't have to stop each time you capture and you can capture as many as you like.

[Step-by-step Example]

1. On the From tab, choose F6 only as your hotkey. On the To tab, check 'File' to save to a file. (the file related controls are enabled. It's not required to check Viewer or Clipboard at the same time.) Select to use Fixed file type to JPEG and select 'Automatic' for Filename. This is to tell ScreenHunter to save your captures automatically with a generated filename. 
2. The current filename format is shown on the button at right. click that button to show the 'Automatic File Naming Options' dialog.
   
   
   
   Check Number of digits and choose 2 that if you want to have a fixed number of digits, 01, 02, etc.
   Highlight an item in the Order list box and use the up and down buttons on the right to change the text sequence.
   
   [Note] The Prefix or suffix can be set in any sequence. E.g. the prefix can be in the middle and suffix can be in the front.

   Select 'Never overwrite (generate a new filename)' that when a newly generated filename already exists in the current folder, it always generates a new filename automatically.
    

3. You need to tell where the files will be saved. In the Folder area on the To tab, click the folder button next to the path field, and pick, such as the Desktop as your capture location.
4. Click 'Stand By', and you're ready. Now, press your hotkey F6 to capture an object. Go to your desktop to find your capture.
5. Option to show file name. On the Advanced tab, in the 'When capture is complete' section, check 'Show the saved file name' to display the file name and location.

'Smallest file size' guide

Use this feature to let ScreenHunter figure out which file format will have the smallest file size for your capture and save the file in that format.

[Step-by-step Example]

1. On the To tab, select the 'Smallest file size' in the File type section. If you want ScreenHunter to compare all JPEG, PNG, GIF types, check all of them.
2. 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. That means ScreenHunter will compare the JPEG file with quality factor 90 against the PNG and GIF file.
3. For GIF files, since you capture a screen on a true color machine and a GIF file can only take a maximum of 256 colors, it needs to be converted to 256 colors. Choose the Solid color option with 'Closest match' conversion algorithm that consistently produces high quality images, regardless of the image content.
4. Set the filename options and click 'Stand By', and you're ready. Now, press your hotkey F6 to capture a screen. Go to the folder and pick up the file.

'Auto-capture' guide

Use the Auto-capture feature to capture automatically at any given interval. The timer is also flexible to set up duration, so you can monitor and record your PC activities in a sure way. 

[Step-by-step Example]

1. On the From tab, choose F6 only as the hotkey, and select 'Active window' to capture. The auto-capture option will be available when 'Active window', 'Full screen' or 'DirectX' is selected in the 'Capture what' section. Check 'Use timer' and select 'Auto-capture'. Choose to capture every 10 seconds and select the 'for' radio button to set duration for 10 minutes. Auto-capture will stop when the duration is reached. (Or, choose the 'forever' radio button to stop manually.)
   
   
    
2. On the To tab, check 'File' to save to a file. Select to use Fixed file type to JPEG and select 'Automatic' for filename. The 'Ask me' radio is disabled when using auto-capture.
3. Click 'Stand By', you're ready. Now, press your hotkey F6 to capture. You will notice the system tray icon is changed to show that it has started auto-capturing.
4. Ways to cancel auto-capturing when it has started.
   • Press the hotkey again 
   • Open the main window and press the 'Stop' button on the From tab.
   • Press the stop button on the toolbar in Viewer.

Note
If the interval is set to less than 10 seconds, no messages are displayed after each capture. 
It's recommended to check 'Stop auto-capturing when errors occur" on the Advanced tab to avoid problems.

'Scheduled / recurring' capture guide

You can use ScreenHunter Scheduled capture feature to set up any date time to capture your screen in the future.  It is available when 'Active window', 'Full screen' or 'DirectX' is selected to capture. It can combine with the auto-capture to start auto-capturing at any given date and time, or taking screenshots periodically -- recurring.

[Step-by-step example, a fixed area of screen]

1. On the From tab, choose F6 only as the hotkey, and select 'Active window' to capture. Check 'Fixed area' and click the fixed area button at right to set up the area. Check 'Use timer' and select 'Auto-capture'.
   
   
   
   Check 'Start at' to set date and time. Click the drop-down to select the date. Type or press up and down arrows to set the hour, minute and second.
   
   If you want to take screenshots periodically, check 'Recurring'.
   [Note] 'Start at:' and 'Recurring' are mutually exclusive options. Only one can be checked at a time.
   
   Recurring captures can be set at any starting time, and you can choose timing options on the Recurring Options dialog,
   
   
    
2. On the To tab, check 'File' to save to a file.
3. Click 'Stand By'. The ScreenHunter icon in the system tray will change to hand with a clock. This indicates the scheduled capture feature is turned on.
4. When 'Start at' is checked, ScreenHunter will start capturing at the 'Start at' date and time. If it's recurring, it will take screenshots periodically.

Clipboard guide

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]

1. 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 Viewer or File checked at the same time.)
2. Click 'Stand By', you're ready. 
3. Open a normal MS Word document. Press my hotkey, F6, to capture any rectangular area. Then, press Ctrl+V or click the menu 'Edit - Paste', to paste the capture into the Word document.

'DOS full screen program' capture guide

DOS program screens can be captured and saved in the following steps.

1. 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.
2. Click 'Viewer/Editor' on the sidebar of ScreenHunter main window and click the 'Paste As New Image" button on the Viewer's toolbar. You may edit the DOS image by double-clicking the image.
   
   Note: For Windows NT, 2000, and XP, click this Microsoft PrintScreen key article (Q140399) for more information.

 'Web capture' guide

ScreenHunter Web capture provides a convenient way to search and download images related to a website on the Internet. It saves images locally on your hard drive until you are ready to view them.

[Before Web capture]
Make sure your PC is connected directly to the Internet. There should have no proxy server in between.

[To run Web capture]

1. Click 'Web Capture' on the main window on the sidebar to show the 'Web Capture' dialog. 
2. Enter the public website URL, such as 'www.wisdom-soft.com/sample' in the URL edit box and the folder location where all downloaded files are stored.
3. Press 'Start' to start Web capturing. The current status is displayed in the status box at left.
4. You can press 'Stop' to stop at any time.

Multi-object, submenu capture guide

1. Select 'Multi-object' in the 'Capture What' section to capture more than one object, such as menu blocks, buttons and windows.
2. When capturing multiple objects, click the left mouse button to add an object, and press Enter or Space to finish. 
   
   
   [Note] Not available when 'Auto-scroll' is checked.
   
   
   
   

'Wysiwyg Printing' guide

In ScreenHunter 5 Pro provides a 'Wysiwyg -- What you see is what you get' printing feature that shows the actual image that will be printed on paper.

You can also send the capture directly to the printer.  There're 2 ways to set print options and print.

1. You can click the Print button in Viewer to show the print dialog.
2. For automatic printing, check the button beside the 'Printer' on the To tab.

 

[Note] This screenshot shows the Print dialog originated from the Viewer with an actual image. If it is originated from the To tab, it will show a sample image which will be replaced by your capture in the future.

Print in original image size
Select to print the image in the original image size, pixel by pixel on the page. Since the normal image captured on the screen has a resolution of 96 dpi (dot per inch) or 120 dpi, and a printer can have 600 dpi or more, the image may look small in the original size. To find your display information, right-click on the desktop screen and choose Properties.

Fit to page
Select to zoom the image to the page size, keeping the aspect ratio.

Zoom to
Select to print the image zoomed to your choice. The maximum will be the size that fits to the page.

Smooth zooming
Check to use high quality zooming when zoomed. It's not available on Windows 95/98.

Printer Settings...
Click to set up and change the printer.

Print Now
Click to print directly to the printer using the current settings.
This button is only available when loaded from the Viewer.
 

[How to setup the default Printer settings, such as Portrait or Landscape]

'Non-Rectangular area' capture guide

Non-rectangular capture options include Freehand, Ellipse, Round Rectangle and Polygon.

1. Select 'Non-rectangular area' in the 'Capture What' section. And click the 'Option' button at right to choose options.
   
   
   
    
2. Hotkey is available when 'Multiple hotkeys' is selected in the Start section on the From tab. Select a shape form Freehand, Ellipse, Round Rectangle and Polygon. Background color is used to mask a shape and multi-object capture.
   
   E.g. select 'Polygon' with 4 sides.

Once you're done with the options, you can use the same way as rectangular area to capture.

'Specific Window' capture guide

You can use ScreenHunter to lock-in a specific window and capture even it's minimized. This is useful when you need to capture a specific window periodically, and it's sometime minimized that you may work on other things. Click here for scheduled capture.

Once you're done with the options, you can use the same way as in Active window to capture.

How to make a transparent round image?

Scenario: "What I want is to take a snippet of an image, e.g. taking a cloud out of a sky image, and have only the cloud as a final image, masking everything out. So I use the "non-rectangular" capture options, but the result is always rectangular. I want the result to be round. I don't want the rectangular background. How do I do that?"

Here is a step-by-step guide,