Author Topic: Some help needed with ScreenShotCaptor (Read 22,453 times)

PitrPaulus · « **on:** February 07, 2012, 12:58 PM »

Good day (Mouser),
I just upgraded to the newest version of SSC. Thanks for updating.

A few questions: where can i find ...

[MajorFeature] Super deluxe scrolling capture system
and
[MajorFeature] Easy watermarking menu and options

I've be looking everywhere but have not found it. (Maybe i need to buy a new pair of glasses $:-\$ ).

And:
A time ago i succeeded in making scrolling-captures, e.g. of a longer than the screen document.

The last time, i never succeed in making new scroll-captures.
I've been looking a the tutorial but still i couldn't make them.

I do Ctrl-Shift-PrtScr .. but nothing happens.
Sometimes i see the red border coming up, but what i do (click, click-right etc.) nothing happens.

Will you pls be so kind to explain it to me?

Thanks and greetings for Hippodrome

PitrPaulus · « **Reply #1 on:** February 07, 2012, 12:59 PM »

sorry, i meant to say ...

Thanks and greeting FROM Hippodrome ...

H.

kunkel321 · « **Reply #2 on:** February 08, 2012, 12:18 AM »

RE Scrolling Screen... Capture Menu >> Scrolling Screen, then once you Ctrl+Click on the window to be scrolled, the options dialog will pop up...

ewemoa · « **Reply #3 on:** February 08, 2012, 05:03 AM »

Quote from: kunkel321 on February 08, 2012, 12:18 AM

RE Scrolling Screen... Capture Menu >> Scrolling Screen, then once you Ctrl+Click on the window to be scrolled, the options dialog will pop up...

Perhaps also check out:

Screenshot Captor 3 - Window Object and Scrolling Capture Screencast Videos

Regarding watermarking, do you see anything relevant under the SpecialFX menu of Screenshot Captor's main window? IIRC, it used to be near the bottom of the menu, but I think it got moved near the top.

PitrPaulus · « **Reply #4 on:** February 16, 2012, 02:15 PM »

Thanks for the Help. I've been looking (and learning) the ScreenShotCaptor videos! Very interesting and now i can make the scrolling-screenshots!

Great.
Thanks for all. Have a nice day!

Hippodrome

peterlonz · « **Reply #5 on:** March 15, 2012, 07:39 AM »

I am having the exact problem & the answer seems far from intuitive.
Capturing several pages, of say a pdf file, in one action, is surely the object.

So in mt test case; I see most but not all of say page 1, & I know there are 3 pages to this datasheet.
Screen capture is running updated to version 3.
I select: Capture - Grab Object or scrolling window (looks like the most probable course of action).
Then I see a red frame & appear & I am asked to cntrl-click but doing so produces no result.
Not sure exactly where I go/point to cntrl-click.
Would have thought the presence of the material on screen would have been understood by the program to be the target.

So here I am with the most frequent & difficult task, for which I sought out Screen Capture, & I can't make it work.
Surely I don't have to watch an instruction video for something so fundamental?

Help please.

Mattes57 · « **Reply #6 on:** March 15, 2012, 12:15 PM »

When the red frame appears, it tells you what Window Object you chose, for example "MozillaWindowClass" if Firefox had the focus, or "ConsoleWindowClass", if it is a command prompt window. So be sure to select the proper object.
Then, use Ctrl-click. A menu should appear asking what to do. Option "3" will start auto-scrolling and capturing that object (after asking for additional options).

tomos · « **Reply #7 on:** March 15, 2012, 02:19 PM »

Quote from: peterlonz on March 15, 2012, 07:39 AM

So here I am with the most frequent & difficult task, for which I sought out Screen Capture, & I can't make it work.
Surely I don't have to watch an instruction video for something so fundamental?

You shouldnt need to:
Here, I press the Control key and left-click the mouse anywhere within the red square.

If that's not working for you, you must have found a bug (maybe you could give more details if it doesnt work).

I would recommend watching the videos for scrolling capture anyways - at the end of the day, you'll save yourself time, as it can be complex. But it works great ;-)

peterlonz · « **Reply #8 on:** March 16, 2012, 06:45 AM »

Thanks guys,
It simply does not work as you describe, & yes I have watched the 3 videos. This is not something that is easy to describe. However I used both Chrome & FF in-built features (NOT Screen Capture) to capture the multi-page datasheet which was displaying in both browsers as a pdf file. After a wee bit of trial & error: all done in less than 10 minutes, & I could now do it in a matter of seconds. Very clearly I have been attempting to use an unsuitable program in Screen Capture.
Despite that I have to say SC is so non-intuitive to use, in anything other than an obvious way, that I cannot see why so many rave about it.
With the greatest of respect to the talented author.

Ath · « **Reply #9 on:** March 16, 2012, 07:26 AM »

Please give 'names and numbers' for the browsers and pdf readers (that integrate into your browser(s)) you've used in your attempts, so others can replay and try to discover why it isn't working for you

peterlonz · « **Reply #10 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:23 AM »

"Names & numbers"- OK.
Remember that I have already concluded that SC is clearly not suitable for the use to which I intended to apply it.
But if it will help program development, or de-bugging, or simply anyone else having trouble, then I am happy to help.

1. Go here to see the datasheet (.pdf file) displayed in FF V11.0:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/57065/533534.pdf
As may be seen, this is a 4 page document, the first half page of which can be viewed on screen, the balance of the doc by scrolling.
2. To copy & save this in FF, I simply move my cursor towards the bottom of the screen where a print or save option is available. Select save, decide where to save, & save; all done (all 4 pages).
3. In Chrome V17.0.963.79 m, the same datasheet displays (.pdf file) in nearly the same manner as FF.
4. To copy & save in Chrome, I move my cursor to the screen bottom right until an options menu appears which includes print & save. Select save, decide where to save, save & all 4 pages are captured.
5. In both cases the saved file is a .pdf which is what I want.
6. I explored other save methods in both browsers:
a) In FF using Fireshot plug-in; which allowed me to save only the visible portion of the doc.
b) In Chrome using the tool “Save page as” & “Screen Capture option, neither saved anything useful.
c) In Chrome I used the zoom tool to shrink so that all the first page (plus part of page 2) was visible, then selecting the “Save page as” option successfully saved all 4 pages as a .pfd file.
Note that a similar approach in FF failed because I was unable to use the zoom tool on this display (reasons unknown to me).
d) In neither browser was I able to directly select a portion of the .pdf file & copy only that portion, so copying say a table from within the doc appears nigh impossible which I guess is why the file was posted in .pdf format.

I recognise that the save methods used for browsers may not be directly relevant to the utility of SC. But as I have said this simple vertical scroll capture should nevertheless be dead simple in SC or there is little purpose in learning how to use it; MHO of course.

On a positive note I was able to use SC to capture a selected portion of the pdf file first page. When saved as a .bmp I expected I would be able to subsequently magnify using a graphics editor, which proved to be the case, but the detail suffered, & was significantly inferior to the image available using the powerful “zoom in” feature of Chrome.

ewemoa · « **Reply #11 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:58 AM »

Thanks for providing these details

Ath · « **Reply #12 on:** March 17, 2012, 09:46 AM »

Quote from: peterlonz on March 17, 2012, 06:23 AM

"Names & numbers"- OK.

You didn't mention the pdf reader installed into Firefox?

Quote from: peterlonz on March 17, 2012, 06:23 AM

1. Go here to see the datasheet (.pdf file) displayed in FF V11.0:
http://www.vishay.com/docs/57065/533534.pdf

I just made a near perfect scrolling screenshot using Chrome 19 (build 1061-dev), only issue is that SSC didn't correctly auto-detect the right margin of the screenshot. but that was easily adjusted.

What version of ScreenShotCaptor are you actually using, it sounds as if you have a pre-3.0 version? The version number is in the About screen. If not version 3, then first upgrade and re-try

tomos · « **Reply #13 on:** March 17, 2012, 04:31 PM »

With browsers, mouser actually recommends using a browser add-on to capture large web pages.
This example is different again in that it's a PDF within the browser - presumably in Adobe Reader?
see the first minute of
http://www.donationcoder.com/screencasts/dc/3ds/sc21/sc21.html

In FF 10.0.2 I was able to get a good screenshot - but not easily:

I tested window & it couldnt scroll - recommended I click in the window & retest - that worked. I started the capture,
in the next dialogue, I clicked:

1. "START HERE: guess margins"
and
2. Guess overlaps... #2 gave me this message:

Quote

[Window Title] Screenshot Captor

[Content] ATTENTION:

The vertical overlap value could not be guessed. This means that either that the page
contents have no overlap, or, more likely, that the overlap was too small to
reliably detect or that the contents changed while scrolling.

Please check the stitched image and manually adjust the margin and overlap values.

Tip: After changing margins you might try pressing the "2" button to re-guess overlaps.

[OK]

I then had to change the Vertical value under "Trim & Show" (top-left in screenshot below)

[attachimg=#]

I've had that experience before - and this was the last value I tried changing (it isnt really covered by the suggestion in the message above to change "margin and overlap values" - to be honest I'm not sure what it is or does...). So, this time it was the first value I tried changing ;-)

tomos · « **Reply #14 on:** March 17, 2012, 04:40 PM »

Quote from: peterlonz on March 17, 2012, 06:23 AM

But as I have said this simple vertical scroll capture should nevertheless be dead simple in SC or there is little purpose in learning how to use it; MHO of course.

Thanks for the details peterlonz

FWIW I have heard that all (or almost all?) screen capture tools have problems with scrolling capture with one app or another. Which is why mouser developed this new scrolling capture. I dont find it particularly intuitive to use, but it has worked extremely well for me, with some quirks at times (like in my previous post).

Ath · « **Reply #15 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:12 PM »

Quote from: tomos on March 17, 2012, 04:31 PM

This example is different again in that it's a PDF within the browser - presumably in Adobe Reader?

Assuming you addressed me:
No, I don't have Adobe reader installed, but Foxit PDF reader. AFAIK that doesn't have a plug-in for Chrome (in contrary to FireFox), so I guess Chrome handles pdf display itself.

Only action I did to ease the capture, is I made sure I could scroll the pdf with the mousewheel, then did the capture, using the recommended test and everything auto-guessed, with the 1 correction I wrote about in my previous post.

tomos · « **Reply #16 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:26 PM »

Quote from: Ath on March 17, 2012, 06:12 PM

Quote from: tomos on March 17, 2012, 04:31 PM
This example is different again in that it's a PDF within the browser - presumably in Adobe Reader?
Assuming you addressed me:
No, I don't have Adobe reader installed, but Foxit PDF reader. AFAIK that doesn't have a plug-in for Chrome (in contrary to FireFox), so I guess Chrome handles pdf display itself.

Sorry for the confusion, Ath - that was directed at peterlonz's Firefox 11

tomos · « **Reply #17 on:** March 17, 2012, 06:48 PM »

I updated to FF11, and get the same results so far in any webpage or PDF file tried:

no response to a Control+Click within the red frame.

If I right-click the red frame/title and select "Capture selection now", I get the dialogue where I can choose scrolling capture.
Testing the window, so far, I always get this message:

Quote

Application being captured: firefox.exe (MozillaWindowClass)

ATTENTION: A number of methods were attempted to scroll the contents of the target window, but nothing worked.

Sometimes when this happens it simply means you have to first click inside the actual content area of the window to be captured.

You could try clicking inside the target window where the content is, and then click the "Re-test" button; or choose manual scroll method below.

Alternatively, if you selected a full application window, click the "Back" button and re-select a more specific scrollable content area.

clicking &/or scrolling within the window doesnt help.
I didnt take it any further.

so,
there does seem to be a bug in connection with FF 11

peterlonz · « **Reply #18 on:** March 18, 2012, 12:35 AM »

"You didn't mention the pdf reader installed into Firefox?"

Well in truth I just don't know, & the same applies to Chrome
I searched for a list of Add-0ns installed & I could see no .pdf reader listed.
The reader I have installed in order to open .pdf files is Foxit reader.

"What version of ScreenShotCaptor are you actually using, it sounds as if you have a pre-3.0 version?"
No I stated at the outset that I have SSC-V3 installed.

If there is a bug in SSC I'd suggest it affects both FF & Chrome & it would seem I am not alone encountering user problems.

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** March 20, 2012, 04:08 PM »

Still working fine here with Firefox 11.

tomos · « **Reply #20 on:** March 20, 2012, 04:37 PM »

Quote from: mouser on March 20, 2012, 04:08 PM

Still working fine here with Firefox 11.

My posts above were with version 3.
I just checked for updates and got 3.03.01, which did a perfect shot of this page, using "Test window" recommendations

tomos · « **Reply #21 on:** March 20, 2012, 04:42 PM »

Quote from: tomos on March 20, 2012, 04:37 PM

Quote from: mouser on March 20, 2012, 04:08 PM
Still working fine here with Firefox 11.

My posts above were with version 3.
I just checked for updates and got 3.03.01, which did a perfect shot of this page, using "Test window" recommendations

doesnt work though on the PDF linked above (I have Adobe Reader installed 10.1.2) - neither within Firefox, nor if I save the file and open it. Doesnt appear to work with Adobe Reader at all (here).

mouser · « **Reply #22 on:** March 20, 2012, 04:51 PM »

When you say it doesn't work -- have you tried ignoring what test window says, and just manually choosing to simulate pagedown key -- that should work in almost all cases. But you need to make sure that the target window is activated and you aren't in any kind of input field that would block the PageDown key from working.

Remember you can also try the method "Human user will manually scroll" if you are in a program that doesn't respond to page down keys.

You might have to increase the Inter-scroll delay as well to give it enough time to redraw the screen.

tomos · « **Reply #23 on:** March 20, 2012, 07:10 PM »

Sorry, I should have been clearer.
Ctrl+Shift+PrtScr has no effect when Adobe Reader is active window.
The SC tray icon goes red.
There was no red frame
BUT
now, after a reboot, there is a red frame, but Ctrl+Click has no response.

If I "manually" (via Right-click) start screenshot, "Test Window" works okay.
I get same message as in post #13 above, this time changing the two vertical overlaps gets it to show correct number of pages

mouser · « **Reply #24 on:** March 20, 2012, 07:17 PM »

Quote

but Ctrl+Click has no response

this can happen if you are trying to capture from an evil application that is intercepting keys it shouldn't be.
you could also try right hand ctrl key alone (no mouser click).