How to take a screenshot when you catch a politician, or pundit, lie.

[brainshrub]

This is for those of you following the DU Journal - Brainshrub: Best. Journal. Ever! (Tips for political bloggers.)

Today we are going to discuss what to do when you catch a politician, pundit or public figure lie or say something unbelievably stupid online. The first step is to save the page to your computer by clicking "file" --> "save page" on the browser.

However, what you really need to do is get a good screenshot so that people can see what the page looked like before you exposed them. Google's cashe can be cleaned a lot faster than you think if the webmaster knows what she's doing.

As a case study, we are going to use the recent Kaloogian photo because I noticed that my site was the only one that managed to get a good screen capture before they changed it. (Thus illustrating how important it is to do this quickly and correctly.)

I will be using the Firefox browser because it offers a number of features that help with getting good screen captures. If you still use Microsoft's IE - tough. Switch to a real browser already!



The basic way to get a quick screenshot is by hitting Ctrl + Print Screen, then open your favorite image editing software and hit Ctrl + V.

Before doing so take the following steps:

A: Keep the screenshot under 500 pixels across in order to encourage people to post it their blogs and forums. An actual-size screenshot takes a long time to load and may ruin the layout of the page. What I do is hit the "Restore Down" button in the upper-right and play with the edges so that the window approximately the size it needs to be. Then I move the window to the bottom-right for the time-stamp. (See step G.)

B: Make darn sure that your watermark is on the page! If the story catches on, you want people to know it was your blog that caught it.

C: Make sure the entire URL can be seen.

D: The tab feature in Firefox gives you an extra opportunity to promote your site. Use it.

E: Resize the text so that people can make it out clearly BEFORE you take the screenshot. Resized text in PhotoShop looks blurry so it's better to have the text at the right size first.

F: In order to have a time-stamp for the image, hold your mouse over the clock in the taskbar so that the date shows up.

G: Showing the taskbar gives an extra assurance that this is a real screenshot, and not a PhotoShopped job. (All this can be faked, and that's why I subliminally acknowledge this fact by displaying the PhotoShop icon with the screenshot. It forces people to ask themselves "Is this real?" before they are told what to think by their favorite pundit.)

H: A quick description.

There is an extension in Firefox that you will also find useful. It's called: ScreenGrab, and you can download it here: http://andy.5263.org/screengrab

ScreenGrab allows you to take a picture of the entire page without the scroll bar. Simply right click like this:



Then you will have something that looks like this: (I resized this so it would fit as a thumbnail, but you should get the idea that the ENTIRE front-page of Brainshrub.com was captured.)



While this is too small to make out, it would make a great button for a hyperlink for the full-sized version.

Here is another example of a screenshot I've taken:



I predicted that Willis would remove this when I exposed him, so I prepared the screenshot - but didn't post it. Sure enough, when the page was taken down, I was able to embarrass him again with the actual evidence.

God I love being a blogger!

So what do you think DU? Any advice you'd like to share if you catch a conservative lying on the internets?

[starroute]

1. There's a freeware program I've found useful

FastStone Screen Capture
http://www.faststone.org/FSCaptureDetail.htm

I haven't used it a lot, but it seems to be faster and easier for some purposes.

Your tips are great though, and I'm going to be saving this page for reference.

[pnorman]

7. Me too!

n/t

pnorman

[Greyskye]

13. thanks for that link

it seems to be a nice, free, full-featured screen cap app. :thumbsup:

[Richard D]

2. Great info

How do you get the watermark on the page?

[brainshrub]

3. I use Photoshop

I simply add text.

Note that I don't post the entire address of where the picture can be found. I'm more interested that the Brainshrub "brand" stick to the viewers mind - not the URL.

[displacedtexan]

4. I use Gadwin.

I click Print Screen, see if I need to adjust the image, and click Continue Capture.
The pic is saved automatically in my Screen Shots folder.
I open it in LView or Photoshop (or even in MS Publisher) to crop or
resize.
Then I save it, upload to Photoshop and paste it.

[brainshrub]

6. Very sweet.

I'll have to look into that.

BTW: I notice you also have the Abe Vigoda extension. I know it's silly and useless, but it's my favorite extension. I make it a point to include it on the screenshots.

[FSogol]

5. Useful info, thanks. Kicked and recommended. n/t

[Richard Steele]

8. That screengrab extension sounds great!

I've been resisting switching to firefox, but that just put me over the edge.

THX BrainShrub!

[brainshrub]

10. Every time someone switches to Firefox:

God gives the world a puppy.

You are going to love Firefox.

[Richard Steele]

12. I'm running it right now- took 5 whole minutes to switch! nm

[brainshrub]

15. Go ahead and click on any link with your mouse's scroll-wheel.

The link will open in a new tab.

Here is your puppy:

[stop the bleeding]

9. Any tool that helps us fight the war of disinformation is a good one

Nominated!

[Brundle_Fly]

11. on mac...

you can grab your entire desktop by hitting Apple Key, shift, 3

or by selecting a window Apple Key, shift, 4

or using a camera on a window Apple Key, shift, 4, then spacebar

[htuttle]

16. Another easy way to do that on a Mac (10.3+) is to print it to a PDF

Select 'Print' in Firefox/Explorer/Safari (even if you don't have a printer), then click 'Save as PDF' on the bottom of the Print dialog.

You can just open this PDF in Preview, select the square you want to re-post on the web somewhere (using the selection tool in the upper right-hand corner of the screen) to crop it down, copy the selection, choose 'New from Clipboard', then Export as a JPEG.

And bada-bing, bada-boom, Bob's your uncle.

[brainshrub]

17. I don't like PDFs, they play havok with my browser.

Having said that, I stopped having problems with them once I installed a Firefox extension called "PDF Download" that makes your browser ask you if you want to open a PDF as HTML first.

You can download that little treasure here:

http://www.rabotat.org/firefox/

[htuttle]

18. Oh, I never open PDFs with a browser either

However, I do *create* PDFs from a browser using the Print->Save As PDF method I described above. I only open PDFs in Preview (and sometimes Acrobat for really long documents).

[bvar22]

14. Cool!

[troubleinwinter]

19. Nice info., sort of....

Could have done without the 'attitude':

"If you still use Microsoft's IE - tough. Switch to a real browser already!"

People do not have to switch. Most people use Internet Explorer for a variety of reasons (not computer tech, it's what is on the computers at work, etc.)

Fact is, IE can do the same thing... "Ctrl + printscreen" and paste it into whatever graphics program they are familiar with.

I would imagine that most people who are just learning to save a screen shot do not have blogs that need promoting.

Firefox is not the only one that stamps the time, IE does the same, as is shown here by my capture of your post:



I think rather than telling non-firefox users (90% of DUers?) "tough", and that they are out of the loop, it would be better to explain that it is simple to do on IE, too.

It will benefit all of us to have all of our "eyes" and "screen capturers" out there and knowing how to use the tools they have at hand.

[brainshrub]

20. You're right, I shouldn't be so hard on people who still use IE.

You're right, I shouldn't be so hard on people who still use IE.

I should have made that clear that you do screen-captures with any browser.

I wasn't trying to be elitist about it, it's just that those of us who have made the switch love Firefox so much that we get a bit evangelistic about it.

When you switch to Firefox, it's like discovering the hammer after having to insert nails into wood with a rock.

[troubleinwinter]

21. I tried FireFox,

The problem I couldn't get over was that the 'visited' links wouldn't change color, and that was misery, particularly on DU.

I think I still have it installed here, just don't bother with it because of that.

I don't quite get "what's to love", though I know that many people are very devoted to it.

Maybe I'll give 'er a go again in the next coupla days, but I saw nothing special. ????

[brainshrub]

22. When you start Firefox, do this:

Go to Tools --> Options --> Click the "General" icon in the upper-left of the box that opens up --> Click on the "Fonts and colors" button --> You should now see the settings to change the color of visited links.

Let me know if there is anything else I can help you with.

:thumbsup:

[troubleinwinter]

23. I did try that. But I will give it another go! Thanks.

[file83]

24. You mean like my Kaloogian screenshot, that ended up at Newsweek?

Check it out:
Here's my original screen shot I saved at my website (file83.com):
http://tinyurl.com/oedz7 (big picture, so I tiny url'd it)

Here it is in PDF form at Newsweek (notice the same Google task bar 'pop-up blocker' count of 114?):
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12068773/site/newsweek/

Here is when I first posted it here at the DU (probably how Newsweek got a hold of it!):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=776401&mesg_id=780301
(this was before I thought of giving it a 'tiny url'. It was a big photo so I didn't want to link the image directly into DU 'cuz it would screw up the formatting for everyone.)

Newsweek could have also gotten it from the Wikipedia article someone made (wasn't me!), using my screen grab :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Howard_Kaloogian

Screen grabs rock!

[satya]

25. I use Firefox's Scrapbook extension, which also lets you save snippets and

add comments.

https://addons.mozilla.org/extensions/moreinfo.php?id=427&application=firefox

[gordontron]

26. for a mac

apple(command)+shift+3 generates a screen shot of everything on the screen, just fyi

[brainshrub]

27. Updated version:

Since Journals are locked from editing after one hour, I've corrected spelling errors and cleaned up the grammar here:

http://www.brainshrub.com/screenshot