Computerworld 1996 March

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GrabIt Professional Version 3.1 ------------------- A Screen Capture Program for Microsoft Windows(tm) (c)Copyright 1990, 1991, 1992 Software Excellence By Design Inc.* All Rights Reserved Software Excellence By Design Inc.* 107 East Paradise Lane Phoenix, AZ 85022 (602)375-9928 Voice (602)375-9928 Fax Our BBS #'s Are: (602)375-0531 12-2400 (602)375-9945 9600 V32 V42 (*formerly Moon Valley Software) Table Of Contents Page ----------------- ---- Introduction............................................................. 1 GrabIt Pro Procedures --------------------- Capturing A Window....................................................... 2 Capturing The Window Client Area Only.................................... 2 Capturing A Selected Area Of The Screen.................................. 2 Capturing The Entire Desktop............................................. 2 Capturing A Selected Area Of A Child Window.............................. 3 **Special Note On Child Window Capture................................... 3 Capturing Menus With GrabIt Pro.......................................... 4 Loading A Bitmap From Disk............................................... 4 Saving A Captured Screen To Disk......................................... 4 **Converting From One File Format To Another............................. 5 Copying An Image To The Clipboard........................................ 5 Pasting An Image From The Clipboard...................................... 5 Printing A Screen Or Bitmap.............................................. 5 **Image Scaling When Printing............................................ 5 **Problems Printing A Bitmap Or Screen Capture........................... 6 How To Obtain Technical Support.......................................... 6 Software License Agreement..............................................7-9 Registration Information.................................................10 ** Denotes Items Of Special Information. Please Take The Time To Read This Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page i Introduction ------------ Thank you for taking the time to evaluate GrabIt Pro. You will find a great many uses for this program. It is both a screen capture program and a marvelous utility for working with your favorite graphics program. By using GrabIt Pro to capture and save the images you have created, you will save many megabytes of hard disk space since only the crucial information about your bitmap is saved to disk. This results in very small bitmap's that load faster and are much easier to view and store. Please keep in mind that GrabIt Pro is being distributed as Shareware. This gives you the opportunity to "try before you buy", just as a test drive in that new car you always wanted. But just as the car dealer needs to be paid for his efforts so do we! New Features In Version 3.1 --------------------------- -> GrabIt has a new name: GrabIt Professional We felt that the many improvements made to this version warranted a new name. -> The program now uses the Multiple Document Interface so that you may work with a large number of screen captures at the same time, each in its own child window. -> You can now save a bitmap in both BMP and RLE format. -> Convert color images to monochrome -> View the attributes of a graphic before you open it. -> Capture a single window, client area only, or the entire desk top with a single command from the GrabIt Pro Menu. This is in addition to the standard selected area capture in version 2.01. -> Mark selected areas of child windows and create a new image from the capture without changing the original screen capture. -> A more complete Windows help file that should answer any question that may arise. -> The number of screen captures is limited only by your available system resources. The following files should be contained in your GrabIt Pro Archive: GRABPRO.EXE ----------> The Windows Executable Program. EBDCNTRL.DLL ----------> Our Custom Control DLL GRABPRO.DOC ----------> The program documentation (This Document) GRABPRO.HLP ----------> The Windows Help File REGISTER.FRM ----------> The shareware registration form. README.TXT ----------> Important information. REGISTER.TXT ----------> Registration Information VENDOR.TXT ----------> Shareware Vendor Information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 1 GrabIt Pro Procedures --------------------- Capturing A Window Only ---------------------------------- To capture an entire Window follow the steps outlined below: 1. Select Entire Window from the Grab menu or press Ctrl + W 2. The GrabIt window will disappear and the cursor will change into a net with a crosshair. 3. Move the cursor to the Title Bar of the Window you wish to capture. 4. Click on the title bar. 5. The window capture will be displayed in a child window. Capturing The Window Client Area Only ------------------------------------- To capture the window client area only (no caption bar) follow the steps outlined below: 1. Select Client Area from the Grab menu or press Ctrl + C 2. The GrabIt window will disappear and the cursor will change into a net with a crosshair. 3. Move the cursor to the client area of the window you wish to capture. 4. Click on the client area. 5. Your client area capture will be displayed in a child window. Capturing A Selected Area Of The Screen --------------------------------------- To capture a portion of the screen follow the steps outlined below: 1. Click on Selected Area from the Grab menu selection or press Ctrl + M 2. The GrabIt window will disappear and the cursor will change into a crosshair. 3. Move the cursor to the UPPER LEFT HAND CORNER of the area you wish to capture. 4. Press and hold down the LEFT mouse button. 5. As you move the mouse you will see that the area you are marking will be changed to inverse video. 6. When you have marked the area you wish to capture release the left mouse button. 7. The Image will now be displayed in a child window. Capturing The Entire Desktop ---------------------------- To capture the entire Windows desktop follow the steps outlined below: 1. Select Desktop from the Grab menu or press Ctrl + D 2. The GrabIt window will disappear 3. The GrabIt window will re-appear 4. Your desktop grab will be displayed in a child window. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 2 Capturing Selected Areas Of A Child Window ------------------------------------------ You may need to capture only a portion of a screen grab or file opened from disk. Follow these steps to capture a portion of a child window. 1. Move the mouse cursor to the UPPER LEFT HAND corner of the image that you want to capture. Press and HOLD THE LEFT MOUSE BUTTON DOWN. 2. Drag the crosshair cursor to invert the area. 3. When you release the left mouse button the area you marked will remain inverted. 4. Press Ctrl + Ins to copy that area to the clipboard. 5. Now press Shift + Ins to copy the new image into a child window. 6. That's all there is to it! You now have a window that contains only the area you selected. 7. Save your new image to disk -> Special Note On Child Window Selected Area Captures <- --------------------------------------------------- When you mark an area of a child window the inverted rectangle will remain visible until you either click on the window again or select another window. You must clear the inverted rectangle in any child window before performing another screen capture operation. The program has set the focus to that rectangle so that you may copy and paste it. If you don't clear it before attempting another screen capture, it will be transferred to the windows desktop and become an inverted area in that window. So just remember to clear the inverted rectangle from the current child window before you do any further screen captures. Remember to clear it all you have to do is click anywhere on the child window where the rectangle is located, or click on any other child window. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 3 Capturing Menus With GrabIt --------------------------- You may need to capture the pull down menus of another application for inclusion in program documentation or training manuals. Follow these steps to capture a menu. 1. Display the menu you wish to grab. 2. Press the Print Screen Key on your Keyboard ( Print Scrn) 3. Now switch back to GrabIt. 4. Press Shift + Ins to copy the entire contents of your print screen into a GrabIt child Window. 5. Now move the mouse cursor to the UPPER LEFT HAND corner of the image that contains the menu you want to save. Press and HOLD THE LEFT MOUSE BUTTON DOWN. 6. Drag the crosshair cursor to invert the area containing the menu. 7. When you release the left mouse button the area you marked will remain inverted. 8. Press Ctrl + Ins to copy that area to the clipboard. 9. Now press Shift + Ins to paste the new image into a child window. 10. That's all there is to it! You now have an image that contains only the menu you wanted to capture. 11. Save your new image to disk Loading A Bitmap From Disk -------------------------- To load a bitmap from disk select File from the main menu and choose Open, or press CTRL + O. You can select a bitmap from the listbox, enter the drive and path to the bitmap you wish to load, or use the directory listbox to change to the directory where your bitmap is located and then select it from the listbox. To open the bitmap either select it from the listbox and click on Ok or press Enter. Alternately you can just double click on it to load the image. Saving A Captured Image To Disk ------------------------------- Choose File Save from the main menu. Enter the file name of the bitmap in the edit field. You can convert between various formats by choosing the Options Button on the save dialog. The options are as follows: Bitmap Options Color Options Windows 3.X Bitmap Monochrome OS/2 2.0 Bitmap 16 Color 16 color RLE 256 Color 256 Color RLE 24 Bit Color For users making screen shots for documentation and other presentations, You can convert your screen shoots to monochrome on the fly by choosing the monochrome option when saving your screen grabs. The radio buttons are only functional for legitimate combinations of image and color options. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 4 -> Please Note The Information Below ------------------------------------- *** File Conversions *** Converting from one format to another. Don't convert 24 Bit or 256 color **bitmaps to monochrome when you are using a 256 color driver. This may result in a loss of portions of the image and could turn the image to solid black. You can safely convert 16 color bitmaps to monochrome when running a 16 color driver. You may have other conversion gremlins depending on the graphics card you have. Actually its a function of the drivers that came with your card that may cause you a problem. I use the standard 800X600 windows driver anytime I want to convert graphics from one format to another. This will eliminate many of headaches in the long run. Copying To And From The Clipboard --------------------------------- To copy text or graphics 1. Select the area or the child window you want to copy. 2. Choose Edit Copy or press Ctrl+Ins. 3. Choose Edit Paste or press Shift+Ins. To paste text or graphics 1. Choose Edit Paste or press Shift+Ins. If the clipboard is empty you will receive an error message. 2. The pasted image will be displayed in its own child window. The title bar will say pasted, and will list the size of your pasted image. Printing A Screen Or Bitmap --------------------------- Laser Printers With GrabIt Pro you can print a screen or portion of a screen immediately after you have captured it. In addition you can load from disk and print any Windows bitmap. GrabIt Pro will render to shades of gray all of the colors it can to give you an accurate representation of your captured screen. This grey scale dithering applies to Postscript and PCL printers. Image Scaling ------------- GrabIt Pro will size the image currently in its client area to the size of the current page defined in your printer setup. This means that very small bitmaps will be enlarged to 8 1/2 x 11" if that is the current page definition. This is done so that on full screen captures and images loaded from disk you will get a 1:1 aspect ratio printout. If you wish to print images in a smaller format, simply change your printer setup to reflect a smaller page size. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 5 Printer Problems If you have a problem printing a bitmap, and you are using a HP LaserJet printer be sure that you obtain the new windows 3.1 HP Laserjet driver that is on the windows supplemental drivers disk. Technical Support ----------------- If you are having trouble with GrabIt you have the following help options available to you. Shareware Evaluation Users -------------------------- There is no voice tech support available for shareware evaluation users. 1. You can get help by calling our BBS at 602-375-0531 (2400 Baud) or 602-375-9945 (9600 Baud). Leave a message to the sysop stating your problem. You will have an answer in a few days. 2. You can Fax us with your problem at 602-375-9928. We will return your answer by Fax only so be sure to include your fax number with your tech support question. 3. You can leave a message in our compuserve mailbox. Our CIS ID number is 72200,576 Registered Users ---------------- You can use the options outlined above, and you can get direct phone help. Before you call for help YOU MUST HAVE YOUR REGISTRATION NUMBER READY. It will be the first thing we will ask you for when you call. The tech support phone number is 602-375-9928 and is available from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm Monday - Friday. Please Note: Arizona is on Mountain Standard Time All Year Long. When daylight savings is in effect we are the same time as the West Coast. The rest of the year we are on the same time as Denver, 1 hour later than the west coast. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 6 GrabIt Pro License Agreement Effective 09-22-92 --------------------------- License Agreement ----------------- No part of this document or the program documentation may be reproduced, transmitted, transcribed, stored in a retrieval system, or translated into any language (natural or binary), in any form or by any means, except as described in the following license agreement or without the express prior written consent of Software Excellence By Design Inc. The use of GrabIt Pro is subject to the following terms and conditions. Title To The Licensed Software ------------------------------ Title to the licensed software is NOT transferred or sold to the end user. The end user is granted a non-exclusive license to use the software on a SINGLE computer or computer work station. EACH computer or computer work station must have its own licensed copy of the software. Copyright Protection -------------------- GrabIt Pro is copyrighted material. It is protected by the copyright laws of the United States, the State of Arizona, and other proprietary rights of Software Excellence By Design Inc. You may not make any changes or modifications to GrabIt Pro or this manual. You may not decompile, disassemble, or otherwise reverse-engineer the software in any way. You may make copies of GrabIt Pro only under the terms of the section entitled "Limited License To Copy The Licensed Software". You may use GrabIt Pro on a fourteen (14) day trial basis only, provided you do not violate the protection afforded the licensed software by the copyright laws, and you agree to the terms of the license agreement. If you use GrabIt Pro past the 14 day evaluation period you are required to purchase it. Limited Warranty ---------------- Software Excellence By Design does not warrant that the licensed software will meet your requirements or that the operation of the software will be uninterrupted or error free. The warranty does not cover any media or documentation which has been subjected to damage or abuse by you or others. The software warranty does not cover any copy of the licensed software which has been altered or changed in any way. In other words there is no warranty either implied or expressed. ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES INCLUDING ANY WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE LIMITED TO THE TERM OF THE EXPRESS WARRANTIES. Some States do not allow limitations on how long an implied warranty lasts, so the above limitation may not apply to you. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 7 Other Warranties ---------------- The warranties set forth above are in lieu of any and all other express or implied warranties, whether oral, written, or implied, and the remedies set forth above are the sole and exclusive remedies. Limitation Of Liability ----------------------- Software Excellence By Design Inc. is not responsible nor liable in anyway for any problems or damage caused by the licensed software that may result from using the licensed software. This includes, but is not limited to, computer hardware, computer software, operating systems, and any computer or computing accessories. End user agrees to hold Software Excellence By Design Inc. harmless for any problems arising from the use of the software. Software Excellence By Design Inc. SHALL NOT IN ANY CASE BE LIABLE FOR ANY SPECIAL, INCIDENTAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, INDIRECT OR OTHER SIMILAR DAMAGES ARISING FROM ANY BREACH OF THESE WARRANTIES EVEN IF Software Excellence By Design Inc. OR ITS AGENTS OR DISTRIBUTORS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. Some states do not allow the exclusion or l imitation of incidental or consequential damages, so the above limitation or exclusion may not apply to you. In no case shall Software Excellence By Design Inc.'s liability exceed the license fees paid for the right to use the licensed software, or a sum no greater than one Dollar ($1.00), whichever is less. Limited License To Copy The Software ------------------------------------ You are granted a limited license to copy GrabIt Pro ONLY FOR THE TRIAL USE OF OTHERS subject to the terms of this software license agreement described herein, and that the conditions described below are met: GrabIt Pro MUST be copied in an unmodified form and GRBPRO.ZIP MUST contain the following files: GRABPRO.EXE ----------> The Windows Executable Program. EBDCNTRL.DLL ----------> Our Custom Control DLL GRABIT PRO.DOC ----------> The program documentation (This Document) GRABIT PRO.HLP ----------> The Windows Help File REGISTER.FRM ----------> The shareware registration form. README.TXT ----------> Important information. REGISTER.TXT ----------> Registration Information VENDOR.TXT ----------> Shareware Vendor Information -> No fee, charge or other compensation may be accepted or requested by anyone without the express written permission of Software Excellence By Design Inc. -> Public Domain Disk Vendors May NOT CHARGE a fee for GrabIt Pro itself. However you may include GrabIt Pro on a diskette for which you charge a nominal distribution fee. The purchaser of said diskette must be informed in advance that the fee paid to acquire the diskette does NOT relieve said purchaser from paying the Registration Fee for GrabIt Pro if said purchaser uses GrabIt Pro. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 8 The statement of shareware registration requirements MUST be printed on a label, or other form, that is directly attached to the distribution media. -> Operators of electronic bulletin board systems (Sysops) may post GrabIt Pro for downloading by their users without written permission ONLY AS LONG AS THE ABOVE CONDITIONS ARE MET. A fee may be charged for access to the BBS AS LONG AS NO SPECIFIC FEE IS CHARGED FOR DOWNLOADING GrabIt Pro files without first obtaining the express written permission from Software Excellence By Design Inc. to charge such a fee. The above constitutes the license agreement for GrabIt Pro. It superceeds any and all previous license agreements. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 9 Registration Information ------------------------ Thank you for taking the time to find out how to register your copy of Grabit Professional. Please use the registration form enclosed. It is the register.frm file. When you register you will receive the following: 1. The most current version of the program. 2. Printed documentation. 3. You will be notified of any future upgrades by mail, and will be eligible for discounts on our other programs. 4. No more of those "pesky nagware screens". 5. You will be able to tell your computing associates that you like the program and that you registered it. In order for new and higher quality shareware to become available end user support is vital! 6. Get a one year free membership on our BBS at registration time if you remember to ask for it at the time you register. That's $120.00 worth of online time FREE!!! The registration fee for GrabIt Pro is $34.95 + $3.00 shipping in US Funds. We welcome Visa, MasterCard, checks, money orders, and foreign checks drawn on a US BANK. Total registration price is $37.95 Questions or correspondence should be directed to: Software Excellence By Design Inc. 107 East Paradise Lane Phoenix, AZ 85022 Voice (602) 375-9928 Fax (602) 375-9928 BBS (602) 375-0531 2400 Baud BBS (602) 375-9945 9600 Baud V32, V42 CIS 72200,576 To register your copy of GrabIt Pro, please use the file called REGISTER.FRM that is supplied with the program. If you wish, you can phone in your order using your Visa or Master Card Monday - Friday 8:00 am - 4:00 pm MST. The order phone number is 602-375-9502 The registration fee is $34.95 + $3.00 Shipping -> $37.95 Total Any correspondence should be addressed to: Software Excellence By Design Inc. 107 East Paradise Lane Phoenix, AZ 85022 USA ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- GrabIt Pro User's Guide Page 10