My home is not a place, it is people.
Cordelia's Corner for the Complete Noob: Part 4
Published on January 6, 2005 By Cordelia In OS Customization

Similar to the days of ancient Rome when the main sport was watching lions eat Christians, WinCustomize has it's own bloody coliseum called "Screenshots". This is a brutal and diabolical gallery where users fight to the death to attain the coveted status of premier skinner, and the losers are thrown to the dogs like yesterdays garbage. Surviving the gladiatorial sporting-ground of screenshots is the realm of only a handful of ultra talented warrior-artists, and even posting a screenshot requires years of toil and study; the intelligence of Einstein, the scholarly aptitude of Aristotle, and the patience of Buddha.

 

Or you could just follow these steps:

 

¨      Make your computer look like you want it to look to the best of your ability. I have not yet had the chance to guide you through icons, wallpapers or - well - anything else except WindowBlinds. (Keep in mind that making a screenshot is also helpful if you are having a technical problem and want to show someone what is going on.) For a proper screenshot you might want to have your start bar activated as that often shows off the skin you are using in better detail than just the task bar at the bottom (or the top, if you're trying to be ultra-cool).

 

¨      Hit the print screen button on your computer.

 

¨      Open a graphic design program like Photoshop or CorelDraw or even MS Paint.

 

¨      Click paste.

 

Save it as a .jpg file. I am running a screen resolution of 1024 X 768, so that's the size I'm going to save my screenshot. If you are running a Really Big Size you might want to scale it down a bit, but when you size down you will lose some quality.

 

There's your screen shot my friend! Now to Upload it to WinCustomize:

  1. On the left side of the web page there is a "submit a file" link. Click it. 

  2. At this point you can follow the directions provided, but I'll walk you through them: Choose Screenshots from the dropdown menu. Click Next

  3. Fill in the appropriate information. If you have your screenshot saved in - for example - your "my pictures" folder you can just browse to that folder and attach it.

  4. Be sure to give credit to anyone whose items you are using. 

So, let's see those screenshots - if you dare!

 

Here's my screenshot. It contains the following:

 

Synthek skin by DanilloOc

Tribal-DF wallpaper by MillaMeter

etched Clock widget by DHyral

SuperNova XXL by jalentorn

Cobalt Orion Icons by Mormegil (from the Orion Premium Suite)

 

 

Daily Hint for the Noob: If you want to look cool - and I assure you, you do - then you must have only "cool" programs open when you make your screenshot. If you are going to have your Start Bar activated when you make the screenshot, make sure it looks like you've been using cool programs. What are the cool programs? I couldn't possibly tell you; I am not yet cool.

 

Tomorrow's Article: IconPackager Basics

 

Upload a Scratch-n-Sniff screenshot and win a free link to WinCustomize.com!!!

(Offer not valid for vertebrates)


Comments (Page 2)
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on Jan 09, 2005
Cool, thanks wizmonster! So many programs to check out, so little time...
on Jan 25, 2005
Where do you find the print button?
on Jan 25, 2005
Cool program: TweakUI.
on Jan 28, 2005

Meowy: I don't know TweakUI, I'll have to check it out. Thanks!

clwoods: some keyboards are different. In my case the print screen button is located in a group of 3 buttons on the top right of the keyboard. After all the function keys (F1 - F12) it goes print screen, scroll lock and then pause/break. It is possible that the button won't say "print screen", it might just say "prnt" or something like that. Hope this helps!

on Jan 29, 2005
"TweakUI" Provides access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface. There are many settings and options that you can only set from Tweak UI. You can setup your mouse to your liking by setting click speed, hover sensitivity, etc. You can also customize many Explorer settings, taskbar settings, My Computer settings, and a wide variety of other settings.
Unfortunately, it has no tech support from Microsoft, even though they wrote it;
few know why for sure.
I used it and it does what they claim, but it is supposed to work only on Win XP.
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