Easy screenshots

Ever wanted to embed a screenshot in a document or presentation? With Windows 7 this is now easier than ever to do.

Click on the Windows start button (bottom left of screen) and choose All Programs, Accessories and Snipping Tool. The screen will now go slightly pale and the cursor will change to a crosshair (+). Simply move the cursor to the top right of where you what to copy, then hold the left-mouse button down and drag the cursor to the bottom right.

When you release the mouse button a new window will pop up showing your screenshot. There are option to take a new screenshot (if your not happy with the results), save the screenshot (in PNG format by default) or copy the image ready for pasting into a document.

And remember if you think you’re going to use the snipping tool a lot then why not pin it to your start menu.

Scanning directly to the LB-Shared-Drive

Normally when you scan documents on the print/copiers the files are sent as email attachments. This is fine when there are only a few documents to scan or if your email still below quota. But what happens if you have lots of scanning or no room left in your inbox.

Fear not!

Simply log on to the staff printer/copier (or the one in the Academic Services Team) as usual. Then do the following:

  1. Press the scan button on the console (this had a rectangular symbol with a line coming out of it)
  2. Click on the Folder tab on the touch screen
  3. By default documents will be scanned as black and white TIFF files, if you want something different then click on Scan Setting on the touch screen and make your selection
  4. Click on [00001] Library button on the touch screen

Now simply put your document under the glass or in the document feeder and click the green go button. The results will be uploaded directly to the “Store – Interim” on the LB-Shared-Drive. Files are named with the date and time that the scanning was done.

When finished scanning please click on the MENU and log off as usual.

Manipulating scanned PDF files

Have you ever spent the best part of an hour scanning an item for the e-reserve only to find out that you have missed a couple of pages out, scanned one in twice, and one has some missing text? Or, have you used our photocopier/printers to scan to email and wondered how on earth you are going to get all the individual pdf files into a single document? Well, all your troubles are over because now you can take a quick squint at the ‘Manipulating scanned PDFs‘ guide to find solutions to these common problems.

Image editing software

Ever wondered what software to use for editing images you want to use in your presentations or reports? Why not give Microsoft Picture Manager a try! To help you familiarise yourself with the features it offers we have produced a basic guide to MS Picture Manager.
Picture Manager

Picture Manager

 When you are ready to start editing take a look at our post on Editing images for the Web and MS Office.

Scan to Email

When using the staff printer/copier to scan documents the default “email To” option is yourself. Whilst this can be changed (so as to email the scan directly to someone else) this isn’t recommended because:

  • It’s always a good idea to check the scanned image is readable before forwarding it to someone else, otherwise they will only contact you back to have the document re-scanned
  • Emailing it to yourself then forwarding it on means a copy of the document will be in your sent box in outlook just in case you need to refer to it (e.g. to resend in case the other person has deleted the email)