NWA-PCUG Newsletter Article
Print Screen Revisited ... and...
One Click PrintScreen in Windows 95
by Bill Shook - August 97
bshook1019@aol.com (click to email author)

Print Screen Revisited

So you want to make a printout of what's on your screen for future reference, by either yourself and/or your guru when you have a problem. (Someone trying to help you with a problem invariably asks "tell me exactly what the message on the screen was." This is not meant as a joke. There is a valid reason for the question.) Of course, few of us can remember the details of the message, so we print it out.

With DOS, we merely tapped the PrtScrn key, but with Windows, either 3.x or 95, it's a bit more involved. The normal methods to print screen from either Windows 3.x or Windows 95 require pasting from the clipboard to a .BMP or .PCX file in either PaintBrush (3.x) or Paint (95) and then printing. However, there is an improved print screen method for Windows 95 that makes it as easy as it is in DOS and provides more options (sizing, multiple copies, etc). It's called PrintNow*, by Greory A. Wolking of PC Magazine and is as follows:


One Click PrintScreen in Windows 95

Thanks to Gregory A. Wolking of PC Magazine we now have a Print Screen for Windows 95 that works as it did under DOS and better. It's called PrintNow, with the actual filename of Pntnow.zip and comes at a reasonable price -- IT'S FREE! Can't get more reasonable than that!

PrintNow was announced in the April 22, 1997 issue of PC Magazine, page 215. Highlighted in the article: "PrintNow is a 32-bit application that runs only under Windows 95. It lets you use PrtSc and Alt-PrtSc to send a screen capture directly to your printer, instead of just copying the image to the Windows Clipboard." (The article says most of PrintNow's features also work under NT 4.0 as well).

Installation couldn't be easier. Just unzip Pntnow.zip into your favorite folder (I created one of its own) and run Printnow.exe and viola -- there's your icon in the system tray (that little area in the right side of the taskbar). You may also want to put this in your startup group and/or create a shortcut on your desktop.

Once PrintNow is loaded, pressing the PrintScrn key to print the full screen or Alt-PrintScrn to just print the open window will display a dialog box prior to printing to allow changing printer settings, scaling the image (full page, 3/4 or 1/2 page), or canceling the print job. OK'ing out will print the job.

Pntnow.zip is available on the club's BBS under Misc Files. You can also get it on the Net at: (but it's a LOT easier from the BBS) http://www8.zdnet.com/pcmag/download/utils/pntnow-a.htm. The PrintNow PC Magazine article can also be downloaded from there.

Gregory A. Wolking is the primary sysop of the ZNT:TIPS Forum on ZDNet/CompuServe and moderator of the PC Magazine Utilities discussion area on the Web (www.pcmag.com/discuss.htm).

*On 18 Sep 00 we were informed that the name "PrintNow" is registered as a trademark of 'Case Technologies Development Inc.'

A search of

http://www.uspto.gov/web/menu/tm/html

reveals that the name was registered as a service mark granted on 25 Nov 97.

Click here to return to top



==================================================================