Screenshots for Koha Support Tickets and Bug Reports

by Nicole C. on Jan 25, 2013

A couple years ago I wrote a post about taking screenshots for bug and ticket reporting in Koha (or for anything). I have updated that post based on comments I got 2 years ago and things I have learned since. There are several options for taking screen shots. Most people on Windows machines stick to their print screen button and paste those images into documents. This method is not the most user friendly option out there and actually makes it hard for those trying to view the image (especially since it requires that you have specific software installed to open the image).

Instead try one of these options (all free of cost) to create image files which can be opened on any operating system or device (PNG, GIF, JPG) instead of using costly applications like MS Word that we don’t all have access to.

Built In

• On Ubuntu:
  • Use the Screenshot Accessory that comes built in. More here.
• On Mac:
  • Use Preview which comes built in and choose ‘Take Screenshot’ from the File menu. More here.
  • Command+Shift+4 will give you a cross hair to select the area you want a screenshot of and will save it as PNG. More here.
• On Windows:
  • Alt + PrtScn to capture the client area, then Paste into Paint (the free graphics package shipped with Windows) and save as a nicely portable JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, etc making it easy to save screenshots and requires no “specific software‚Äù to be installed.
  • You can also use the built in Snipping Tool

Open Source

• Greenshot
  Greenshot is a light-weight screenshot software tool for Windows
• Shutter
  Shutter is a feature-rich screenshot program. You can take a screenshot of a specific area, window, your whole screen, or even of a website , apply different effects to it, draw on it to highlight points, and then upload to an image hosting site, all within one window. Shutter is free, open-source, and licensed under GPL v3.
• ZScreen
  ZScreen is an open-source screen capture program that allows for region/window/full-screen screenshots.

Browser Extensions

• ScreenGrab! Firefox Plugin
  Screengrab! saves webpages as images
• Awesome Screenshot Chrome Extension
  Capture the whole page or any portion, annotate it with rectangles, circles, arrows, lines and text, and even blur sensitive info.

Free of cost

• Jing
  Take free screenshots and screencasts and share them online easily. Check out my video on using Jing for screencasts.
• MWSnap
  MWSnap is a small yet powerful Windows program for snapping (capturing) images from selected parts of the screen.