Capturing a Screen

There may be times when you need to include a screen shot within your Excel worksheet. The easiest way to do this is as follows:

1. Set up your screen to look the way you want it to.
2. Press the PrintScreen key. This copies the screen to the Clipboard.
3. Start Excel (if it is not already started) and select the cell closest to where you want the screen to appear.
4. Press Ctrl+V to paste the contents of the Clipboard.

This action results in the entire screen being pasted in your worksheet. If you wanted, instead, to only copy and paste a single dialog box or the active window, simply use Alt+PrintScreen in step 2.

If either of these methods still does not fit your needs (for instance, you want to include only a small part of the screen), you can use the following:

1. Set up your screen to look the way you want it to.
2. Press the PrintScreen key. This copies the screen to the Clipboard.
3. Start the Paint accessory (or some other graphics program) and maximize the screen.
4. Press Ctrl+V to paste the contents of the Clipboard into the program.
5. Use the program's editing tools to change the image as desired.
6. When complete, press Ctrl+C to copy the image to the Clipboard.
7. Start Excel (if it is not already started) and select the cell closest to where you want the screen to appear.
8. Press Ctrl+V to paste the contents of the Clipboard.

You should understand that once the screen is placed in your workbook, you can move and manipulate it the same as any other graphic. Also note that adding quite a few graphics to your worksheet can dramatically increase the size of the file in which your workbook is saved.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2205) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Capturing a Screen.