Contents

  Getting Started

Introduction	First Time Users	Installation and Removal

Overview	Capture Sources	Image Destinations

  Tools & Techniques

Menus	Mouse Actions	Keyboard Actions

Dialog Boxes	The Tool Bar	The Status Bar

  Configuration & Technical

Configuration	System Requirements	The File List

Image File Formats	Release History

  Bright Ideas, Tips, Solutions etc...

Hints and Tips	Questions and Answers	Road Map

Feedback	Other Nildram Products

  The Legal Department

About Screen Thief	Shareware and the ASP	Ordering Screen Thief

Vendor Information


Introduction

Welcome, and thank you for purchasing Screen Thief for Windows, or evaluating it if this is the Test Drive version. We believe you have here the ultimate in screen capture technology for the Windows environment. Yes, capturing the desktop is no big deal under Windows - you simply hit the Print Screen key and take what you find in the clipboard. But if this is all you ever need, why the proliferation of screen capture programs? And not just stand-alone applications dedicated to this task, but also every image manipulation package which comes along. Obviously the user needs more.

Screen Thief for Windows offers more. Indeed, compared to packages of its kind, it offers more than any. We too can capture the desktop, a window, or a cut-out area formed by dragging with the mouse. But more than this, Screen Thief for Windows provides greater versatility and all those extra little features which make using it a pleasure. For example, whereas lesser programs allow you to choose a single hot key combination for 'kicking off' a capture, Screen Thief provides for up to eight. And while the rest expect you to re-enter some if not all of the details required for a screen grab, Screen Thief remembers it all for you.

And when we say all, we mean all. The last directory used, the previous page layout, the position and state of the application window, the disabled state of hot-keys etc., etc... Or how about the magnification window which appears while you drag out an area for capture? Add to this a few helpful niceties like the ability to abort and restart a drag with a single mouse click. And let's not ignore the fact that any Windows desktop can be captured this way - even if a menu is open.

We also believe Screen Thief for Windows includes three totally new and unique capabilities which are sure to become favourites. The first is found in the types of capture available - the suitably named 'Application Capture'. It's rather like a desktop capture but only those windows which belong to the active application are included. Magically, all other windows are erased from the picture. The second is Auto-Demote. Take a capture and it will automatically be reduced to the minimum standard resolution image required. Say good-bye to huge 24-bit image files when they only contain seven or eight colours!

And finally, take a good look at the Capture From Clipboard feature. Screen Thief can wait patiently for a bitmap to be placed on the clipboard. When one arrives it will pull it straight back out again and handle it the same as if you had captured the screen manually. This includes saving it to disk or immediately printing the image, so next time you curse the inadequate page setup features within Paintbrush or some other equally basic program, just load up Screen Thief and direct the printing through its Print setup dialog instead. Have we not mentioned the page setup features yet? You're in for a treat here, too...

We confidently predict that many of the current features in Screen Thief for Windows will eventually become 'standard' features in our competitors products. After all, wasn't it the original Screen Thief for DOS which broke new ground by being the first screen grabber which could capture any DOS screen, including games, by reprogramming the interrupt hardware? This brilliant idea was copied within a mere few months. Just remember who brought you these features first....


Help File Basics
Essential Reading for all First Time Users

Understanding how Help Files Work

If you are new to Windows or Help Files, the best place to start is by selecting the How to Use Help item in the Help menu above. This is WinHelp's own help system and will explain all you need to know about navigating through this particular help file. Whereas the majority of help files read more like a book, we have deliberately used hypertext jumps, popups and bitmap hotspots to the full - especially in the reference sections.

How this Help File is Organised

We have attempted to create a help file suitable for use in two ways. It was designed as both a reference and an introduction/tutorial as there are no other supporting documents of any real size - at least, not with the Test Drive version. Hopefully it does not fall between two stools and fit neither bill.

The Getting Started topics are light, easily digested and not at all technical. There should be enough information in this section to run Screen Thief for Windows using the default configurations. The remaining sections tend to be much more sober and consist almost totally of reference material. Some topics, such as the description of keyboard commands, are simply lists.

Because of the terse nature of some of the information provided, the indexing or key-word search facilities have had particular attention paid to them. In our experience many help files fall down in this respect, often with only one key word assigned to each topic. This help file has as many as ten key words attributed to each and comprehensive section titles too. Hopefully you can use the search facilities on just about any query and home in on the correct topic immediately. You will also notice the use of sub-titles throughout and that we have tried to keep topic sizes down to a comfortable level for even greater clarity. In many cases each page fits precisely one screen when running at 800x600 display resolution.

The Road Map, for Experienced Users

The Road Map is a hierarchical list of all topics in this help file. Originally used only in the planning of this help system, we found it so useful it has been left in. Experienced users may find the Road Map a faster way of locating the right topics rather than through key words or by starting at the contents page and working down. More so as you should find a Road Map button above, next to the browse buttons.


Installation
Installation and Removal

Manual Installation Instructions

Normally you will rely on the supplied setup program to install Screen Thief into its home application directory and to create a Program Manager Group and Program Items. To carry out this task manually you need to do the following.

Create a new directory in the place of your choosing, preferably called STWIN. Copy all the files on the distribution disk or contained in the archive to this directory other than the one-time setup specific files SETUP.EXE and SETUP.INF. If you want to verify that you have a complete and valid file set, refer to the File List topic. There's no need to decompress these files as they are supplied as originals. The Test Drive version will probably be supplied in a compressed archive, anyway.

If you want to create a Program Manager Group, this will have to be done totally by hand. You should refer to the Windows User Guide or the Program Manager help file for detailed instructions on this step. However, we envisage that many users will want Screen Thief loaded and ready for action every time they run Windows.

To achieve this - and it applies even if you installed Screen Thief through the setup program - you must add the STWIN.EXE command to the Load= line in Windows' WIN.INI initialisation file. Alternatively include Screen Thief within Program Manager, but add it to the StartUp Group. Again, if in doubt, find out how in the Windows User Guide. We suggest that you also load it in Sleep Mode, a feature you will learn about shortly.

Removing Screen Thief from your System

Should you find the Test Drive version of Screen Thief for Windows not to your liking you will need to remove it from your system (we would also appreciate knowing why you don't like it - see Feedback). This is a relatively painless process as we deliberately designed the program not to leave chunks of itself hidden in your Windows directories.

All files, including the STWIN.INI and STWIN.DAT files which were created the first time you ran Screen Thief, will be found in the home directory (the name of which you gave during installation). Simply delete all files and remove the directory. If you also chose to install a Program Manager group the second step is to delete the icons in that group and the group itself. Just highlight the items and press the Delete key for each, followed by Delete for the now empty group.

Finally, load the WIN.INI file into Notepad and remove the [Screen Thief] section and its single entry. If, in the meantime, you have forgotten where Screen Thief was originally installed, this line gives the home directory. It is included only so that any future upgrades can locate a current installation.


Overview

Screen Capture Basics

Screen Thief for Windows is all about capturing or 'grabbing' images from the screen. Whatever your reasons for wanting to do this, Screen Thief offers the flexibility to capture just what you want reliably and consistently. It may be just the whole desktop you're after, a specific window, or perhaps a rectangular area somewhere on the screen. All these options and more are available and will be described more fully in the following topics.

Deciding which part of the screen to grab is just one part of it. Screen Thief allows for several destinations which can receive a capture, either immediately or through user commands later. These are the printer, an image file, the clipboard or a separate child window displayed within the overall frame window. Again, these are discussed in greater depth in the following topic.

Screen Thief also provides several ways in which to invoke a capture. Many screen grabbers will only let you activate a capture through a menu item. Some allow you to invoke a grab after a preset delay, and others may even support a unique combination of keys which when pressed starts the capture process - also known as a hot key. Screen Thief, of course, supports all three methods either directly or indirectly.

Capture Styles

The three aspects of screen capture - where the screen grab comes from, the place it is sent to and the manner in which the capture is invoked - all come together in just about any combination to create what is called a Capture Style. What's more, Screen Thief is generous in providing up to eight unique styles for you, all of them fully customisable to your own requirements. Specific details on customisation can to be found in the Capture Style Configuration topic.

One of the benefits of having several styles is that individual settings can be carried over between captures - and even between Windows sessions - for each defined style. Most of this is transparent, and you only really appreciate the trouble Screen Thief goes to when confronted with applications which don't recall their last settings. This covers items such as the directory last used to save a capture image file and the file type. Printer settings also carry over, including the page setup and print quality. Even the last known position and size of the overall Screen Thief window can be recalled when it loads. Apart from the actual creation of your capture styles, many of these user settings are controlled by a single dialog which is described in the General Options Dialog topic.

This ability to retain your custom configurations is an important part of Screen Thief's overall design. It is of particular significance for those who use Screen Thief for Windows in a professional or business context. Freelance journalists, for example, may contribute software reviews to several publishers, each requiring screen shots in a particular format. How much easier it is to assign a capture style with its own unique file format and directory to each publisher, so the only conscious decision needed on your part is which hot key to press. Styles will also be found useful where several people use the same computer with Screen Thief installed. Each can have their own custom configuration within a named style.

Child Image Windows

Unless you configure your styles to always send captures to the disk, printer or clipboard, images will accumulate within Screen Thief's child image windows until saved, printed or ultimately discarded. This program is not and never will be an image editing package, but you can still view the images within their windows by scrolling or zooming in and out, or view the whole image in full screen mode. When zoomed in to a sufficiently high magnification the pixel grid becomes available. This shows each pixel distinctly and can be a useful aid in Windows development work (checking that what's supposed to be drawn on the screen actually is). The pixel position within the image is usually shown on the status bar, indicating which pixel relative to the top left is under the mouse cursor.

Selection Frames

From within an image window the selection frame dragging facility can be used to mark out a sub-image and copy this section to the clipboard or another image window, or to trim the current image down to a new size. The zoom and pixel grid features come in handy here too, and you will be pleased to know that a selection can be defined whatever the current image scale. Plus Screen Thief allows you to drag a selection larger than the visible window client area, the image scrolling accordingly. While a selection is being defined and for as long as it exists the normal pixel position information on the status bar is replaced with the top-left origin and extents of the selection. One further handy feature is that, should you accidentally remove a selection by clicking in the wrong place, this can easily be restored through one of the menu items or a single key press. For more details on defining and using selections refer to the Edit Menu, Keyboard Actions - Selection Frame Definition, Mouse Actions - Selection Frame Definition and Status Bar topics.

Automatic Image Naming and Numbering

Screen Thief provides a number of sophisticated automatic features. One of these assists in the naming and sequential numbering of image windows and ultimately of any image files saved to disk. The process depends on the application you are capturing, or in the case of a desktop, clipboard or area capture, the application which is active at the time of capture. The image window title is simply extracted from the application's caption. Capture numbers are assigned in order every time a screen is successfully grabbed, and although the combination of application name and capture may not always suit, for most times the default file name is quite sufficient. The option also exists to use purely numeric file names, again automatically incremented for each successive capture. An extra benefit of all this image naming and numbering is that regardless of the sequence in which captures are taken, the Window menu lists multiple images grouped by application name initially and then chronologically by number. In addition to the name, Screen Thief also extracts the application's icon and attaches it to the image window. Consequently, when reduced to icons, image windows do not all look the same.

Other Assorted Helpful Features

Screen Thief has a few other useful features. One of these is the ability to hide itself from view - to get out of the way while you work on something else, but still be ready to grab a screen at a moment's notice. We like to call this Sleeping, and in order to reactivate Screen Thief we have provided for a dedicated hot key combination called the Wake Up Call. This can naturally be changed to whatever suits your way of working, through the Wake Up Call Configuration Dialog. A further benefit is that apart from just putting Screen Thief to sleep and reawakening, the same hot key will bring it to the top of all other windows when buried far below.

One problem with putting Screen Thief to sleep is it's all too easy for captures to start eating away at your precious Windows system memory. At times you can actually forget that Screen Thief is loaded and waiting patiently in the background. For this reason we have included a memory monitoring system which can be set to trigger a warning message when memory consumption gets out of hand. In a similar vein, one of the Edit Menu options will allow you to empty the clipboard and free its allocated memory - which can be substantial when dealing with images.

The Status Bar at the bottom of the Screen Thief frame window also offers some helpful information. In addition to mouse and selection frame positions, the zoom ratio, the image size and memory consumption of the currently active image, it also shows the total free memory available, so manual monitoring of the system is possible. Above the Status Bar is the Tool Bar, another aid to speed and usability. Both the Tool Bar and Status Bar can of course be hidden, for maximum image window space.

Finally, we have the Auto Colour Demote feature which automatically counts the colours present in a capture and tries to reduce the image to one of a lower resolution. In many cases this will succeed as the majority of applications use only the base sixteen Windows colours. This allows you to run Windows in a high resolution display mode with all its obvious benefits and yet generate screen grabs of the smallest possible size.


Screen Capture Methods - The Capture Sources

From...

Screen Thief currently supports five different methods of obtaining an image and all are available for each of the Capture Styles you define, apart from the slight restriction that the clipboard capture method is only allowed to be used once. The From Desktop method simply captures the whole screen area, resulting in an image with dimensions equal to the display mode currently running. You can optionally hide all minimized window icons and include the cursor within the capture.

From Active Window takes the currently active window as its source and the rectangle which fully encloses the whole window is captured. Note that 'Active Window' does not necessarily mean the currently active application window, but the active top-level window having the input focus and its title bar drawn with the active window attributes. Consequently this method captures any message and dialog boxes which are currently visible. An option for this method is to capture only the client area, that is without the window frame and menu.

The From Active Application method is a subtle twist on the last one. Instead of capturing the top-level window, it searches back up the window hierarchy and captures all windows belonging to that application. This includes the main frame window, dialog boxes, floating tool boxes and so on. In addition, it also leaves out all other windows belonging to other applications and 'fills the blanks' with what would be painted on the desktop if those windows were not visible. You also have the option of capturing the whole desktop in this fashion, or only that region which encompasses the application windows plus any fixed size border.

The only method which generally requires your input is From User Defined Area. This method allows you to select a rectangular area anywhere on the screen by dragging the mouse. It also benefits greatly from a separate magnification window for accuracy, and unlike many other screen grabbers that offer an area capture, Screen Thief will quite happily allow you to grab a part of the desktop exactly as it was the moment you invoke the capture. This includes items such as menus and other short-lived windows.

Finally there's the From Clipboard method. This method defines a clipboard intercept which, when a suitable bitmap is placed on the clipboard, will automatically or with user confirmation remove the image from the clipboard and send it to one of the available destinations. The means by which the bitmap appears on the clipboard is irrelevant. It could be copied from another application, captured from the screen by Windows using the Print Screen key or loaded from file by the clipboard viewer itself.

Some of these methods may have additional configurations which modify their behaviour. Please refer to the Capture Style Configuration topic for details.


Screen Capture Methods - The Image Destinations

...And To

For all five methods of capturing an image there are currently four possible destinations.

The To Disk method allows you to save the image to one of the supported image file formats. This can either be immediate, using a preselected drive, directory and file type plus the default file name chosen by Screen Thief, or you may be prompted for all these details at every capture. A further option is to overrule the default file name and simply save captures using sequential numbering.

Sending the image To Printer is the second method. As with the To Disk method, the image can be printed using a predefined printer, page layout and copy count, in addition to other settings, or you can be prompted each time.

To Clipboard immediately copies the image on to the clipboard, along with the palette information. This does not conflict with the From Clipboard capture method.

The final method is To MDI Window. This creates a new MDI child window for the image which is displayed within Screen Thief. From here you may view the capture, zoom in and out, define a selection and trim the image down to this new size, copy to the clipboard, save the image to disk or print it out. In fact, all the things you can do with the other methods above but at your own leisure.

Some of these methods may have additional configurations which modify their behaviour. Please refer to the Capture Style Configuration topic for details.


The File Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting File..Save allows you to save the
current image to disk file through the Save dialog.


Selecting File..Close will close the current MDI Child image
window and remove it from the screen. Unless warnings are
disabled (See General Options dialog), you will be
prompted to save the image to disk if not yet done.


Selecting File..Print allows you to print the
current image through the Print dialog.


Selecting File..Exit will close all image windows and
exit Screen Thief. Unless warnings are disabled (See
the General Options dialog), you will be prompted
to save all images not yet written to disk.


The Edit Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting Edit..Copy will copy the current image or
contents of the selection rectangle onto the clipboard.


Selecting Edit..Paste will create a new MDI Child image
window and paste the contents of the clipboard into it. This
item will be greyed out if a suitable bitmap is not available
on the clipboard.


Selecting Edit..Empty will clear the clipboard of all data.
This is useful if memory is running short and the clipboard
contents are no longer required.


Selecting Edit..Open will run the clipboard viewer application.
By default this is clipbrd.exe, but can be changed with one of
the extended INI settings.


Selecting Edit..Reselect will restore the previous selection, replacing
any current one. This item will be greyed out if no previous selection exists.


Selecting Edit..Trim will trim the current image down to the limits of the
current selection. This item will be greyed out if no selection is defined.


Selecting Edit..Duplicate will create a new MDI Child image window
and copy the current image or contents of the selection rectangle into it.


The View Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting View..Normal will restore the image scaling to 1:1, or full size.


Selecting View..Enlarged will display a further menu, from which you can
select a zoom ratio of between 2:1 and 5:1. Any greater enlargement is only
possible through the Tool Bar Zoom In button and the Numeric + (plus) key.


Selecting View..Reduced will display a further menu, from which you can select
a zoom ratio of between 1:2 and 1:5. Any greater reduction is only possible through
the Tool Bar Zoom In button and the Numeric - (minus) key.


Selecting View..Full Screen will clear the screen of all other
windows and display the image at normal scaling in the centre of
the screen. Hit any key or mouse button to return to normal viewing.


Selecting View..Grid will toggle the state of the pixel grid. The grid
is only available when an image is enlarged by a ratio of 3:1 or higher.


The Screen Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting Screen..Delayed Capture will
launch the Delayed Screen Capture dialog.


Selecting Screen..Refresh Desktop will result in the whole
desktop being repainted immediately, including all windows.


Selecting Screen..Sleep will put Screen Thief to sleep.
The main frame window is hidden but Screen Thief is still able
to respond to hot keys and bitmaps placed on the clipboard.


The Options Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting Options..Tool Bar will toggle the Tool Bar on or off.


Selecting Options..Status Bar will toggle the Status Bar on or off.


Selecting Options..Capture Styles will display
a further menu, from which you can select a current
capture style or create a new style and run the
Capture Styles Configuration dialog.


Selecting Options..Wake Up Call will run
the Wake Up Hot Key Selection dialog.


Selecting Options..General will run the General Options dialog.


The Window Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting Window..Tile will reorganise all
MDI Child windows as non-overlapping vertical tiles.


Selecting Window..Stack will reorganise all
MDI Child windows as non-overlapping horizontal tiles.


Selecting Window..Cascade will reorganise
all MDI Child windows as an overlapping cascade.


Selecting Window..Arrange Icons will reorder
and equally space all iconic MDI Child windows.


Select one of the named windows from this
list to make it the currently active window.


Selecting Window..More Windows will
display the full list of MDI Child windows from
which you can select a new current window.


The Help Menu

To get help for a particular menu option click on the main menu bar below (File, Edit, View etc.) and then one of the drop-down menu items.


Selecting Help..Contents opens
up this help file on the Contents page.


Selecting Help..Search opens up the same key word search
dialog as the Search button on the Windows Help tool bar above.
Use this to find specific help from within Screen Thief.


Selecting Help..Hot Keys Summary
will run the Hot Key Summary dialog.


Selecting Help..About Screen Thief
will display the About dialog box.


Selecting Help..Registration Notice will redisplay the initial
sign-on registration notice dialog (Test Drive version only).


Mouse Actions

User Defined Area Captures

When an area capture has been invoked the normal mouse cursor is replaced by a pair of crosshairs. The starting point for your capture is where they meet. Place the centre over the screen pixel which is at one of the corners of the area you wish to grab. Note that the crosshairs are inclusive to the captured area. You are not just defining the area within the crosshairs but within and including them. Press the left mouse button and drag the mouse to the opposite corner of the desired area while holding down the left button. Depending on whether the Invert option is enabled, you will describe a rectangular box or fully inverted rectangle. The crosshairs are also displayed using inversion. This is particularly useful when dragging an area which precisely fits a black window border, as the inverse is white. It is very obvious when the crosshairs are directly over a black line.

Release the left mouse button when the area is fully defined and that section of screen alone will be captured. If you need to restart the area drag simply click once on the right mouse button. A second right click - or any single right click while you are not dragging an area - will abort the process completely. The magnification window should help you in initially placing and completing the area drag, either visually or at a precise pixel by referring to the x,y screen co-ordinates and area width and height. The speed and accuracy of selection can also be improved with the direction lock keys. Please refer to the Keyboard Actions - User Defined Area Captures topic for details on all the keyboard actions which apply.

Selection Frame Definition

Selection frames are defined by dragging a 'rubber-box' around an area. These frames are inclusive, that is the defined area includes the pixels overdrawn by the frame. At high magnifications, of course, the frame only overdraws a part of the expanded pixels. When the pixel grid is visible, the frame replaces the grid around that area.

You drag a frame by placing the mouse over the pixel which is at one corner of the area you wish to define. Depending on the current zoom ratio, you may or may not see this single pixel enclosed in a 1x1 frame. Drag the mouse to the opposite corner of the target area while holding down the button, and then release when the frame is fully described. To abort a selection frame drag either click on the right button, or release the left button immediately and click once to remove it. Note that Screen Thief does not allow a selection with an area of one pixel.

You will find it easier dragging an accurate selection at higher zoom ratios. Screen Thief will scroll the image automatically when the mouse is dragged out of the window, and the zooming and scrolling keys are permanently available. Please refer to the Keyboard Actions - Selection Frame Definition and ImageViewControl topics for details on the keyboard actions which apply.


Keyboard Actions and Shortcuts

Accelerators

The predefined accelerator shortcuts allow quick access to the many of the commands found in the menus and on the tool bar. They are listed here 'alphabetically', in the general order unshifted, shifted, Ctrl shifted and Alt shifted.

F1	Help. Opens the help file at the contents page.

PrtScr	Desktop Capture. Copies the complete desktop to the clipboard.

Tab	Next. Switches to the next MDI Child image window.

Shift+Tab	Previous. Switches to the previous MDI Child image window.

Shift+Insert	Paste. Alternative to Ctrl+V (old standard accelerator).

Ctrl+C	Copy. Copy the current image or defined selection to the clipboard.

Ctrl+D	Delayed Capture. Opens the Delayed Screen Capture dialog box.

Ctrl+E	Empty Clipboard. Empties the clipboard regardless of contents.

Ctrl+F	Full Screen. Shows the current image in full screen view mode.

Ctrl+G	Grid Toggle. Switches the pixel grid on and off.

Ctrl+K	Key Summary. Opens the Hot Key Summary dialog box.

Ctrl+N	Normal View. Restores the current image view to 1:1 scaling.

Ctrl+O	Open Clipboard. Runs the clipboard viewer program.

Ctrl+P	Print. Opens the Print dialog box for the current image.

Ctrl+R	Refresh Desktop. Repaints the whole desktop.

Ctrl+S	Save. Opens the Save dialog box for the current image.

Ctrl+T	Trim. Trims the current image down to its defined selection.

Ctrl+U	Duplicate. Creates a duplicate copy of the current image or selection.

Ctrl+V	Paste. Creates a new image and pastes the clipboard contents into it.

Ctrl+Z	Reselect. Restores the previous selection frame, replacing any current one.

Ctrl+F1	Search for Help. Find help on a subject using a key word.

Ctrl+F4	Close File. Closes the current image, prompting if required.

Ctrl+Num Enter	Wake Up / Sleep. The default key for the Wake Up Call and Sleeping.

Ctrl+Insert	Copy. Alternative to Ctrl+C (old standard accelerator).

Alt+F4	Exit. Close all windows and exit Screen Thief.

Alt+PrtScr	Window Capture. Copies the active window to the clipboard.

User Hot Keys

User-defined hot key combinations trigger the screen capture methods and put Screen Thief to sleep or wake it up again. Refer to the topics on Capture Style Configuration and the Wake Up Hot Key Selection dialog.

Image View Control

Images captured to an MDI child window can be scrolled, panned and zoomed in or out when that window has the input focus. The percentage page scrolling (vertical movement) and panning (horizontal movement) keys shift the image by 75% of the image in that direction, unless overridden by one of the Extended INI Settings. Normal scroll bar actions using the mouse also apply.

Arrow keys	Pixel Pan. Scrolls or pans the image by one pixel in arrow direction.

Ctrl+Arrow keys	Page Pan. Scrolls or pans the image by a percentage of that extent.

Ctrl+Shift+Arrows	Pan To Edge. Scrolls or pans the image edge to the window edge.

Page Up	Scroll Up. As Ctrl+Up Arrow.

Page Down	Scroll Down. As Ctrl+Down Arrow

Ctrl+Page Up	Scroll To Top. As Ctrl+Shift+Up Arrow. Aligns the image top with the window top.

Ctrl+Page Down	Scroll To Bottom. As Ctrl+Shift+Down Arrow. Aligns the image bottom with the window bottom.

Numeric - (minus)	Zoom Out. Reduces view by zooming out one step.

Numeric * (star)	Normal View. Restores the image to normal 1:1 scaling.

Numeric + (plus)	Zoom In. Enlarges view by zooming in one step.

Full Screen View Control

Images displayed in Full Screen Mode can be scrolled and panned in a similar manner to an MDI Child window when larger than physical screen.

Arrow keys	Scroll / Pan. Scrolls or pans the image in the arrow direction.

Tab	Next. Shows the next image in full screen mode.

Shift+Tab	Previous. Shows the previous image in full screen mode.

Any Other Key	Cancel. Closes the Full Screen View window.

User Defined Area Captures

Keyboard actions available during an area capture are as follows. Please refer to the Mouse Actions - User Defined Area Captures topic for details on the left and right mouse button and dragging actions.

C	Crosshair Mode. Cycles through the three crosshair modes in the magnification window. These are invisible, crosshairs only and crosshairs plus drag box.

G	Grid Mode. Cycles through the three grid modes in the magnification window. These are invisible, black grid and grey grid.

H	Horizontal Hold. Locks horizontal mouse movement. Available before and after the start of an area grab, but when the left mouse button starts the drag, horizontal hold is removed automatically. Press again to remove hold manually. Also removes vertical hold when set.

V	Vertical Hold. As with Horizontal Hold but for the Vertical axis.

Escape	Abort. Ends the Area Capture immediately without capturing.

Selection Frame Definition

Keyboard actions available before and during selection frame dragging are as follows. Please refer to the Mouse Actions - Selection Frame Definition topic for details on the left and right mouse button and dragging actions.

Space Bar	Edge Lock. When pressed while the cursor is within the visible extents of the current image, mouse movement is restricted to this visible area until the space bar is released or the left mouse button is pressed, initiating the selection drag process. This allows easy placement of the initial drag position when it lies on the extreme edge of the image.

Escape	Erase / Abort. When a selection is defined and visible, Escape removes it (saving it for possible reselection). During the selection drag process Escape aborts the drag action without defining a new selection.


Dialogs are in separate file DIALOGS.DOC


The Tool Bar

Click on one of the buttons for a description of its function.


  Save Button

This button is equivalent to the File..Save menu item and the Ctrl+S accelerator key stroke. It launches the Save dialog.


  Close Button

This button is equivalent to the File..Close menu item and the Ctrl+F4 accelerator key stroke. It closes the active image window, prompting for it to be saved if required.


  Print Button

This button is equivalent to the File..Print menu item and the Ctrl+P accelerator key stroke. It launches the Print dialog.


  Copy Button

This button is equivalent to the Edit..Copy menu item and the Ctrl+C accelerator key stroke. It copies the contents of the current image window or its selection onto the clipboard.


  Paste Button

This button is equivalent to the Edit..Paste menu item and the Ctrl+V accelerator key stroke. It creates a new image window and pastes the contents of the clipboard into it. This button will be disabled if a suitable bitmap is not available on the clipboard.


  Empty Clipboard Button

This button is equivalent to the Edit..Empty Clipboard menu item. It will clear the clipboard of all data. This is useful if memory is running short and the clipboard contents are no longer required.


  Open Clipboard Button

This button is equivalent to the Edit..Open Clipboard menu item and the Ctrl+O accelerator key stroke. It launches the clipboard viewer application, which by default this is clipbrd.exe. This can be changed with one of the extended INI settings.


  Trim Button

This button is equivalent to the Edit..Trim menu item and the Ctrl+T accelerator key stroke. It will trim the current image down to the limits of the current selection. This button will be disabled if no selection is defined.


  Zoom Out Button

This button has no equivalent within the menus, but is equivalent to the Numeric - (minus) key. It will zoom out by one step, visually reducing the image size. The maximum ratio is 1:10


  View Normal Button

This button is equivalent to the View..Normal menu item, the Ctrl+N accelerator key stroke and the Numeric * (star or multiply) key. It will restore the image scaling to 1:1, or full size.


  Zoom In Button

This button has no equivalent within the menus, but is equivalent to the Numeric + (plus) key. It will zoom in by one step, visually enlarging the image size. The maximum ratio is 20:1


  View Full Screen Button

This button is equivalent to the View..Full Screen menu item and the Ctrl+F accelerator key stroke. It will clear the screen of all other windows and display the image at normal scaling in the centre of the screen. Hit any key or mouse button to return to normal viewing.


  Toggle Grid Button

This button is equivalent to the View..Grid menu item and the Ctrl+G accelerator key stroke. It will toggle the state of the pixel grid. The grid is only available when an image is enlarged by a ratio of 3:1 or higher.


  Delayed Capture Button

This button is equivalent to the Screen..Delayed Capture menu item and the Ctrl+D accelerator key stroke. It launches the Delayed Screen Capture dialog.


  Refresh Desktop Button

This button is equivalent to the Screen..Refresh Desktop menu item and the Ctrl+R accelerator key stroke. It will cause the whole desktop to be immediately repainted, including all windows. The feature is rarely required and only after a User Defined Area capture where one of the background windows may have changed. Refresh can be forced on permanently through one of the Extended INI Settings.


  Sleep Button

This button is equivalent to the Screen..Sleep menu item and whatever hot key has been defined through the Wake Up Hot Key Selection dialog. It causes Screen Thief to go to sleep, hiding the main frame window but ready to respond to hot keys and bitmaps placed on the clipboard.


  Tile Button

This button is equivalent to the Window..Tile menu item. It will reorganise all MDI Child windows as non-overlapping vertical tiles


  Stack Button

This button is equivalent to the Window..Stack menu item. It will reorganise all MDI Child windows as non-overlapping horizontal tiles.


  Cascade Button

This button is equivalent to the Window..Cascade menu item. It will reorganise all MDI Child windows as an overlapping cascade.


  Arrange Icons Button

This button is equivalent to the Window..Arrange Icons menu item. It will reorder and equally space all iconic MDI Child windows.


  Help Button

This button is equivalent to the Help..Contents menu item and the F1 accelerator key stroke. It will open this help file at the contents page.


  Hot Key Summary Button

This button is equivalent to the Help..Hot Key Summary menu item and the Ctrl+K accelerator key stroke. It launches the Hot Key Summary dialog.


The Status Bar

Click on one of the status areas for a description of its function.


General Status Area

This area has several functions. When Screen Thief is inactive, or no image windows exist, it will display the product name and version as shown. While a menu is open it offers a short description of the menu item function. When the cursor is within the active capture image it displays the current mouse position in image pixels relative to the top left corner of the image. During a selection frame drag and while a frame is defined it displays the origin and extent of the selection.


Image Size Indicator

This area shows the width and height (in image pixels) of the current capture, followed by the colour content. The last value is the total memory use in kilobytes for the stored bitmap. During a file save this indicator is also used as a progress meter.


Zoom Ratio Indicator

This area shows the zoom ratio or scaling of the current capture window. It is presented as the ratio of original image pixels to screen image pixels; when the visible image is at double the size of the original the ratio is 2:1, and when reduced to a third of the original it is 1:3. You can see that by replacing the ':' with '/' a fractional value is obtained.


Free Memory Indicator

This area shows the count of free global memory resources in kilobytes. It is refreshed every second, even while Screen Thief is not the currently active application.


Configuring Screen Thief

The Configuration Dialogs

The majority of user configurations are set through dialog boxes. Screen Thief uses three at present - the General Options dialog handles various settings which all have sensible defaults; the Wake Up Hot Key Selection dialog allows you to change this important hot key; and the Capture Style Configuration dialog is where you design all your own, unique capture methods.

The STWIN.INI initialisation file

The [General Options] section is normally the responsibility of the General Options dialog discussed elsewhere, which handles most of this section. The remaining entries are automatic options which record the state of the Frame Window, Tool Bar and Status Bar.

The [Extended Options] section is purely optional. Screen Thief makes no attempt to create this section or its entries, but if present when it first loads any valid entries will be acted on accordingly. This section needs to be created manually with a text editor such as Notepad.

The [Delayed Capture] section is wholly concerned with saving the last settings entered into the Delayed Screen Capture dialog.

The STWIN.DAT user data file

All other run-time options, such as printer names, paper size and orientation, image file formats last used, directories and all the Capture Style Configuration settings are automatically saved to the STWIN.DAT file. This is a binary data file which can not and should not be edited. Although not catastrophic if deleted or damaged, you will lose all your current hot key, capture style and device settings when Screen Thief restores the defaults.

The STWIN.DAT file records directory and printer information for each independent capture style, plus for the overall frame and child windows. Saving or printing an MDI-based image does not affect any of the individual capture styles and vice versa. It also records less obvious settings such as the grid style for the area capture zoom window and the Wake Up hot key.

Note that both the STWIN.INI and STWIN.DAT files are always located in the same directory as the STWIN.EXE executable file. Although this affects networked operation, you should not be running Screen Thief for Windows in this fashion as it is only licensed as a single-user product. Customers in need of networking capabilities should contact Nildram Software to discuss a Site Licence purchase.


Configuration - The [General Options] INI File Settings

The [General Options] section of the STWIN.INI initialisation file is the responsibility of the General Options dialog, which handles the majority of this section. The remaining entries are automatic options which record the state of the Frame Window, Tool Bar and Status Bar. Normally there should be no reason to edit this section manually, but the valid entries are:

•	3DFrame=<boolean>

Specifies whether dialog and message boxes are painted with a 3D frame or with the original Windows 3.x frame style. If non-zero 3D frames are painted. If zero standard frames are painted, but the internal controls still use the 3D look.

•	KeepFramePos=<boolean>

Specifies whether the position or state of the Screen Thief frame window is saved at exit. If non-zero the frame state is saved and reinstated when next run. If zero the frame will always be shown in the default cascaded state.

•	FramePos=<"min" or "max" or num,num,num,num>

When KeepFramePos is enabled, this entry records the previous frame position or state. States are recorded as the two words "min" or "max", denoting minimized (iconic) or maximized (zoomed), or as the four absolute screen co-ordinates of the last frame rectangle position.

•	AutoDemote=<boolean>

Specifies whether the Auto-Demote feature is enabled (non-zero) or disabled (zero).

•	WarnOnClose=<boolean>

Specifies whether warning messages are issued when an image is closed which has not been saved to disk. If non-zero prompts are always issued, both when closing individual files and when closing down Screen Thief.

•	PrintedIsSaved=<boolean>

Specifies whether a successfully printed image is regarded as saved to disk (non-zero), and thus close-down warnings are blocked, or whether even printed images are regarded as not saved (zero).

•	LoadAsleep=<boolean>

When non-zero Screen Thief always loads in a hidden, sleeping state. Note that this overrides the FramePos= settings and when Screen Thief is subsequently displayed with the WakeUp Call hot key (or automatically through a capture), it will be in a default screen position.

•	MonitorMemory=<boolean>

Specifies whether memory monitoring is enabled (non-zero) or disabled (zero).

•	WarningLevel=<number>

When Memory Monitoring is enabled, this entry gives the memory usage level at which a warning should be shown. The value represents the percentage setting in multiples of 10%, so that 0 = 0%, 1 = 10%, 2 = 20% and so on. The value is in fact a zero-based index into the General Options dialog's drop-down combo box used for this setting.

•	Acknowledgement=<number>

Gives the capture acknowledgement message display time. The valid range of values is 0 through 8 inclusive, and represents the time in multiples of 0.25 seconds. Zero effectively disables the acknowledgement message. The value is in fact a zero-based index into the General Options dialog's drop-down combo box used for this setting.

•	ToolBar=<boolean>

Specifies whether the Tool Bar is visible (non-zero) or hidden (zero).

•	StatusBar=<boolean>

Specifies whether the Status Bar is visible (non-zero) or hidden (zero).


Configuration - The [Extended Options] INI File Settings

The [Extended Options] section of the STWIN.INI initialisation file is purely optional. Screen Thief makes no attempt to create this section or its entries, but if present when it first loads any valid entries will be acted on accordingly. You must create this section manually with a text editor such as Notepad.

•	ClipboardExecName=<path_and_file_name>

The executable file run when the Open Clipboard menu item, accelerator key stroke or toolbar button is used. This defaults to the standard Windows clipboard viewer clipbrd.exe, but can be changed if you use an alternative.

•	EmptyCBonTake=<boolean>

Specifies whether the Capture From Clipboard routine should empty the clipboard once it has taken the bitmap. The default action is to clear the clipboard after taking the contents. Add the line EmptyCBonTake=0 to prevent this. Screen Thief will then only take a copy of the bitmap just placed on the clipboard and leave the original intact.

•	ForceRefresh=<boolean>

Specifies whether an automatic Refresh Desktop command is issued following every User Defined Area capture. Set this entry to a non-zero value and the desktop will always be refreshed following every area capture.

•	ScrollSize=<number>

The amount by which the Page Up and Page Down keys scroll an image window. The default is 75% of the window extent in that direction. Override this by adding a ScrollSize= entry and a number in the range 0 through 100.

•	NoDriverWarnings=<driver_file_name>

If Screen Thief detects that your display driver may be one of those we already know is bugged or does not support some required feature, you will be warned every time Screen Thief loads. If you subsequently encounter no compatibility problems or General Protection Faults, or if Screen Thief is mistakenly recognising your display driver as a flawed one, this warning can be disabled. Add the NoDriverWarnings= entry followed by the file name of the display driver (as recorded in the display.drv=xxxxx.xxx entry of the SYSTEM.INI [boot] section). If you later install a different driver, the warnings are effectively re-enabled as the driver names will probably differ.

•	FullSelectionDims=<boolean>

During a selection frame drag, the status bar normally displays only the width and height of the selection formed so far. The origin of the corner from which the drag was started will have been displayed prior to the left mouse button being clicked. By setting this entry to FullSelectionDims=1 the status bar will report the image pixel positions of the click-down point and current cursor point in addition to the normal dimensions.

•	MonoDemote=<boolean>

Normally the Auto-Demote feature will recognise when a capture contains only black and white, and demote the image to 2-colour / monochrome. This causes problems when capturing screen items such as menus for inclusion in a Windows Help file. Rather than turn off Auto-Demote and capture these items in a 16-colour display mode, adding the entry MonoDemote=0 will prevent monochrome demotion and generate a minimum of 16-colour images only.


Configuration - The [Delayed Capture] INI File Settings

The [Delayed Capture] section of the STWIN.INI initialisation file is wholly concerned with saving the last settings entered into the Delayed Screen Capture dialog. Normally there should be no reason to edit this section manually, but the valid entries are:

•	Style=<number>

The Capture Style chosen from the list of currently defined styles, excluding any defined as Capture From Clipboard. The acceptable range of values depends on the number of styles defined, but will never exceed the range 0 through 7 inclusive. The value is in fact a zero-based index into the Delayed Screen Capture dialog's drop-down combo box. WARNING: This entry is not automatically updated when the type, number or sequence of Capture Styles are changed through the Capture Styles Configuration dialog. The next time the Delayed Screen Capture dialog is run, the style may well have changed.

•	Delay=<number>

The delay in seconds before the capture is automatically invoked. The acceptable range of values is 0 through 99 inclusive.

•	Frame=<number>

The action that the Screen Thief frame window will take when the Delayed Screen Capture dialog is closed through the OK button. The three acceptable values correspond with the three radio buttons and are: 0 - Leave Open; 1 - Minimize; 2 - Hide.

•	Restore=<boolean>

Specifies whether the Screen Thief frame window is restored once the capture is complete. A value of zero causes the frame to stay in its open, minimized or hidden state (the frame can still be restored with the Wake Up hot key). Any non-zero value results in Screen Thief reactivating on completion.


System Requirements

Screen Thief for Windows is designed to operate under Windows 3.1, and will not run with earlier versions. It must be run under Enhanced Mode and requires a 386 processor or better (the majority of the bitmap handling code uses full 32-bit addressing). There are no minimum or maximum requirements for the video hardware, but be aware that during development the standard VGA display was taken to be the baseline system.

Memory requirements are low for the actual program code. However, the capturing of screens and conversion of bitmaps between device-dependant, device-independent and image file formats can consume large amounts of memory. Even when the Auto-Demote feature is enabled and output is to the printer or direct to disk, immediate memory requirements can be over twice that required for the device-dependant bitmap which represents the screen area being captured. 4MB is the suggested realistic minimum.

Some shortcut keys require the IBM enhanced keyboard. The program is best served with a two-button mouse.


The Screen Thief File List
The Screen Thief File List (Version 1.01.0502)

The complete list of files which constitute the Screen Thief for Windows package are listed here. This information can be used to verify the integrity of your copy, both shareware and registered. If you have an unregistered shareware copy (the Test Drive version), all of the files listed below under The Shareware Package must be present and unaltered in order that it can be redistributed.

The Shareware Package

STWIN.EXE	[ 05/02/95  01:01  103,776 bytes ]	The main executable program file.

STWIN.HLP	[ 05/02/95  01:01  284,672 bytes ]	This help file.

NSLIB100.DLL	[ 05/02/95  01:10  102,608 bytes ]	Code library file.

NSIFA100.DLL	[ 05/02/95  01:00  16,288 bytes ]	Code library file.

NSXCD100.DLL	[ 29/01/95  01:01  35,248 bytes ]	Code library file.

README.TXT	[ 05/02/95  01:01  3,336 bytes ]	Initial pre-install introduction text.

SETUP.EXE	[ 05/02/95  01:01  25,600 bytes ]	Installation executable program file.

SETUP.INF	[ 05/02/95  01:01  673 bytes ]	Installation data file.

VENDOR.TXT	[ 05/02/95  01:01  5,547 bytes ]	Separate information for Shareware Disk Vendors.

FILE_ID.DIZ	[ 05/02/95  01:00  477 bytes ]	Bulletin Board description text.

Note: Please ensure that redistributed copies of this version are intact and when posted on a Bulletin Board are contained in an archive with the name STWIN101.ZIP (the ZIP extension will obviously depend on the compression tool used. The original Nildram Software release uses PKZIP 2.04g).

The Registered Package

STWIN.EXE	[ 05/02/95  01:01  98,064 bytes ]	The main executable program file.

STWIN.HLP	[ 05/02/95  01:01  284,672 bytes ]	This help file.

NSLIB100.DLL	[ 05/02/95  01:10  102,608 bytes ]	Code library file.

NSIFA100.DLL	[ 05/02/95  01:00  16,288 bytes ]	Code library file.

NSXCD100.DLL	[ 29/01/95  01:01  35,248 bytes ]	Code library file.

README.TXT	[ 05/02/95  01:01  3,336 bytes ]	Initial pre-install introduction text.

SETUP.EXE	[ 05/02/95  01:01  25,600 bytes ]	Installation executable program file.

SETUP.INF	[ 05/02/95  01:01  580 bytes ]	Installation data file.

The Run Time Files

STWIN.INI	A standard format INI initialisation file which holds the majority of user settings. It is created when Screen Thief runs for the first time and automatically set with default values.

STWIN.DAT	Created when you first run Screen Thief. This file holds all your Capture Style settings, printer configurations and current file and directory defaults. Corruption or deletion is not catastrophic as it will be recreated with the initial default settings.


Supported Image File Formats

Screen Thief allows you to save captures to several of the most popular image file formats. You will be warned if an image is of too high a resolution for saving to the Windows RLE Encoded or CompuServe GIF types.

•	Windows Bitmap (BMP, RLE)

The format used by Windows itself. All standard resolutions are supported - 1, 4, 8 and 24-bit. The RGB Encoded sub-format does not use data compression and can be used for all resolutions. The RLE Encoded sub-format uses run-length compression and only supports 4-bit and 8-bit images (16 and 256 colours respectively). Note that the RLE format can be saved with both the normal BMP file extension and with the specific RLE extension.

•	OS/2 Bitmap (BMP)

A variation on the Windows Bitmap format for use with OS/2 Presentation Manager.

•	CompuServe GIF

A widely used image format supported on many hardware platforms, although limited to a maximum resolution of 8-bits (256 colours). Screen Thief always saves GIF files in the most basic version 87a, non-interlaced sub-format.

•	ZSoft PCX

Another commonly used format. Screen Thief only saves PCX files in the version 5 sub-type. This is recognised by the majority of PCX-aware applications and avoids problems found with earlier types.

•	Aldus/Microsoft Tag Image Format File (TIFF)

A format used extensively in DTP and printing circles. TIFF files support all image resolutions, although at present Screen Thief only saves captures as base-level, uncompressed TIFF files.


Product Release History

Date	Version	Comments	Note: dates are in DD/MM/YY format.

16/12/94	1.00	Initial Release

05/02/95	1.01	Bug Fixes:

Cured loss of zooming, scrolling and panning keys following a full screen view which was closed with a key press.

Scrolling and zooming now blocked during a scroll bar thumb drag.

Following an Edit Trim, size indicator on status bar is correctly updated.

A number of other minor bug fixes and improvements to error traps and warning messages.

Enhancements:

Added Ctrl+Shift modifiers to arrow keys for top, bottom, left, right scrolling of image.

New capabilities provided within Full Screen View mode.

Added MonoDemote= entry to [Extended Options] section in STWIN.INI to block automatic colour demote to monochrome.


Dialog Boxes
Dialogs Boxes

Save

Print

Printer Selection

Paper Selection

Delayed Screen Capture

Capture Style Configuration

Wake Up Hot Key Selection

General Options

Hot Key Summary


Save Dialog

Choosing the File..Save menu item, pressing the Ctrl+S keys or clicking on the [image] button in the Tool Bar displays the Save Capture As dialog. It also appears when a capture is invoked through a hot key or delayed action and the associated Capture Style is configured for Select File At Capture.

From here you can save a capture to one of the supported image file formats. Select a drive and directory, choose the format, enter a file name by typing it at the keyboard or clicking on a current name, or simply accept the default file name provided. An error will be shown if the chosen format does not support the image resolution or if the file name already exists. Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details.


File Name

This control always displays the current file name or partial file type specification (wild-card), whether typed in manually, chosen from the File Type list or copied from the File List below through a double-click on the left mouse button. It will initially show the default file name suggested by Screen Thief, based on the executable file name of the active application when originally captured. If you enter a new file type using the wild-card characters '*' and '?', you must click on the OK button or hit return to register the new specification. The File List below will be updated.

Note that when a new image file type is selected through the File Type list, any current extension will be replaced with the default for this new type. If a name is entered with no extension and OK is pressed (or the Return/Enter key), Screen Thief will automatically append this default extension. In order to override this action and save a file with no extension you must add a trailing period (.) to the name, as in "picture." (without the quotes).


File List

If you want to overwrite an already existing file, or use a current file name as the basis for a new one, double click on one of the names in this list box. The list will be updated every time the drive:directory path changes and will show only those files selected through the File Type list or which match a wild-card typed into the File Name area above (hit return or click on OK if you manually enter a wild-card file specification).


File Type

This drop-down box lists the image file types available. When a different type is selected any current File Name extension is automatically replaced. If you need to save the capture with a non-standard extension you should choose the file type first and then enter the desired file name.


Path Name

While navigating through drives and directories this caption will describe the full path name. If too long to fit in the space allowed the name will be compressed by replacing one or more directories with '\...\'


Directory List

The easiest way to move through the directories on the currently selected drive is to double-click on one of the entries in this list box. The root is always at the top of the list, with lower level directories beneath.


Drive List

Change to a different drive by dropping this list down and clicking on a drive letter.


Print Dialog

Choosing the File..Print menu item, pressing the Ctrl+P keys or clicking on the [image] button in the Tool Bar displays the Print dialog. It also appears when a capture is invoked through a hot key or delayed action and the associated Capture Style is configured for Setup at Capture.

From here you can choose precisely how the image will be printed - the printer device to use, how the paper is orientated, where on the paper the image will print and at what size, and the number of copies to be printed. Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details.


Printer Name

The name of the currently selected printer.


Page Preview

The Page Preview shows in miniature a representation of how the printed page will look. It also acts as a positioning control. Using  the margin drag lines you can approximately set the individual margins. The target print area within these margins can also be dragged around the page. In combination with the vertical and horizontal centring buttons and the absolute margin entry controls elsewhere on the dialog you have complete control over the printed image.

A margin drag line is 'picked up' by placing the cursor on one of the ends and holding down the left mouse button. Drag it to another position and drop by releasing the left button, or click the right mouse button to abort the drag. The overall print area is similarly dragged by clicking within the margins.

Positioning by dragging is fairly accurate given the scaling, but it is only designed for placement by eye. Absolute accuracy is obtained by entering specific values in the margin edit controls. Note that although the page preview control employs a border, this is fixed and does not attempt to show the true printable limits for the currently selected printer and paper size.


Printable Area

This caption always displays the maximum extents of the paper which the printer can actually use. It will normally be slightly smaller than the current paper size. The area which you define with the page preview and margin controls is limited to this printable area.

Note that although the page preview control employs a border, this is fixed and does not attempt to show the true printable limits for the currently selected printer and paper size.


Keep Aspect

When this button is checked the page preview window and the image printed will retain the original aspect ratio of the capture. In other words, the ratio of width to height will be unaffected and will not cause either dimension to be stretched or shrunken more or less than the other.

It is important to realise that when Keep Aspect is checked the margins are not adjusted to meet the new image representation. The purpose of margin setting is to define a maximum printable area for this and subsequent printing jobs. When Keep Aspect is not checked all images will be scaled independently in both dimensions to precisely fit the margins. When checked the image is scaled in both dimensions by the same extent so that one dimension fits the margins, leaving the other centred within its margins.


Paper Margins

This group of controls display the current margins and printed image dimensions, and allows the entry of one or more specific sizes. The maximums allowed depend on the current complementary sizes, with the left and top margins taking precedence. The width and height (or length) of the target print area always adjust to fit the margins, unless it is these which are being changed, in which case the right and bottom margins are adjusted to suit. The recommended sequence for manual entry of margins is left, top, right and bottom or left, top width and height.

Note that any invalid or out of range values entered will automatically be replaced with the previous values when the control loses focus and without any warning other than an error beep. Unfortunately at this time Windows does not support automatic verification of edit controls or allow a message box to be shown without causing severe problems.


Units - Inches and Millimeters

These two radio buttons choose whether margins and extents are shown and entered in inches or millimeters. Note that due to small rounding errors, changing from one unit to the other and back may cause a permanent margin adjustment of one 100th of an inch.


Vertical Center

Click on this button to center the print position along the vertical axis, that is the top and bottom margins will be averaged and become equal.


Horizontal Center

Click on this button to center the print position along the horizontal axis, that is the left and right margins will be averaged and become equal.


Printer...

This button launches the Printer Selection dialog.


Paper...

This button launches the Paper Selection dialog.


Options...

This button runs the printer driver's Options dialog. If the currently selected printer uses Microsoft's Universal Driver (UNIDRV.DLL), you will receive a dialog looking something like the one below. From here you can usually select the degree of 'dithering' and the black level, that is how light or dark the printed image will be. Depending on the selected printer other options may include Letter Quality (not relevant to printing graphic images), Colour / Monochrome selection and the ability to print on transparencies.


Printer Selection Dialog

Clicking the Printer... button found on the Print dialog will display the Printer Selection dialog. From here you may choose the default or a specific printer from those already installed in your Windows system. This dialog also offers a means of calling the printer driver's own setup routines. Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details.

The printing routines will use this device until changed again through this dialog. Screen Thief remembers which printer you select even between Windows sessions. It also associates a printer with each Capture Style you define, plus the printer used for images captured to an MDI Child window and printed from the File..Save menu.


Default Printer

Click on this button to select the default printer. The default is installed through the Control Panel application. Note that selection of a different printer will usually reset all other options such as paper orientation and print quality to their default values.


Specific Printer

Click on this button to use a printer other than the default. The drop-down box will list all printer device and port combinations installed through the Control Panel application. Note that selection of a different printer will usually reset all other options such as paper orientation and print quality to their default values.


Driver...

This button runs the printer driver's Setup dialog. Although Screen Thief supports the majority of printer options through its own Print, Printer Selection and Paper Selection dialogs, a number of printers may offer additional features. A typical Setup dialog may look like the one below.


Paper Selection Dialog

Clicking the Paper... button found on the Print dialog will display the Paper Selection dialog. From here you may choose the paper orientation, size and source, the number of copies and multiple copy print method, the print quality and whether to print in colour or black.

Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details (options will be disabled if the printer does not support them). This dialog also offers a means of calling the printer driver's own setup routines. Screen Thief remembers your settings both between print runs and between Windows sessions.


Paper Orientation

This group of controls allows the paper orientation to be changed. In portrait mode the top of the page is the shortest side; in landscape mode it is the longest. The icon indicates the current orientation. Some printers, most notably dot-matrix, do not support the 'sideways' printing of landscape mode. In this case the radio buttons will be disabled and default to portrait.


Paper Size

Where a printer offers several paper sizes, one can be selected from this list. The range of paper sizes varies enormously between each driver, but all support one or more of the 'standard' sizes such as A4, B5 and Letter (8.5 by 11 inch). Note that where a printer allows a user defined size, Screen Thief will include this setting in the list of those available but will not actually change the paper size unless the Driver Setup dialog is used to choose the User Defined Size. The driver will then prompt for the absolute width and length of the paper.


Paper Source

Where a printer offers several paper sources (or 'bins'), one can be selected from this list.


Number of Copies

This control allows the count of copies, or pages, to be set. The same image will be printed on each copy, and at the same place on the page.


Fast Device Copies

When this button is checked multiple print copies are handled by the printer hardware itself. This results in much faster output as the bitmap image only needs to be sent to the printer once. If the driver does not support fast device copies (such as the majority of dot matrix and bubble jet printers), this button will be disabled.


Print Quality - Resolution

This drop-down box lists the output resolutions supported by the printer. Normally these are measured in dots-per-inch (dpi), although early drivers may report resolutions as simply High, Medium and Low with a possible fourth Draft resolution. Usually, the higher the resolution, the longer a page takes to print. Some laser printers may even run out of memory at the highest of resolutions.


Print Quality - Colour

When this button is checked the printer will output a colour image. When unchecked the output will be in monochrome (normally black). This button will be disabled if the printer does not support colour. NOTE: some printer drivers incorrectly report a colour capability on monochrome printers. Please just ignore this. Running the driver's own Setup dialog will usually confirm that colour support is, in fact, unavailable.


Delayed Screen Capture Dialog

Choosing the Screen..Delayed Capture menu item, pressing the Ctrl+D keys or clicking on the [image] button in the Tool Bar displays the Delayed Screen Capture dialog. From here you can manually run one of the already defined Capture Styles, either immediately (by setting a zero delay) or after any number of seconds. The main Screen Thief frame window can optionally be minimized or hidden.

Screen Thief remembers your new settings when accepted with the OK button and will recall them next time this dialog appears. Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details.


Capture Event Style

From this list you choose the style of capture to be invoked from those already defined through the Capture Styles Configuration dialog. All styles are available - even those which have their hot key disabled - apart from any style which defines the capture source as the clipboard.


Capture Event Delay

Enter the required delay in seconds within this control. As soon as the OK button is pressed Screen Thief will start to count down internally. At zero the chosen capture style will be invoked. Screen Thief always refreshes the screen before capturing the screen proper to ensure that a hidden or iconic frame window is not visible and any updates to other windows have been painted.


Frame Window

This group of three radio buttons is used to select how the Screen Thief frame window will be positioned when the OK button is clicked. Leave Open has no effect. Minimize reduces Screen Thief to a desktop icon. Hide removes the frame window from the desktop completely.


Restore After Capture

If this button is checked the main Screen Thief frame window will be restored as the active top-level window once the capture event is complete.


Capture Style Configuration Dialog

Choosing the Options..Capture Styles menu item and one of its sub-menus displays the General Options dialog. From here you can create new Capture Styles or modify the defaults.  Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details.


Style Name

Enter a descriptive name for the capture style here. This is shown as one of the Options..Capture Styles menu items and within the style selection list of the Delayed Capture dialog. It must be a unique name, but apart from that any characters are allowed. A warning will be given if you enter a duplicate name.


Style Hot Key

Enter one of the allowed hot-key combinations here which will be used to invoke this capture. This must be unique, not only with regard to the other styles you have defined but also the Wake Up hot-key combination.


Capture Style Configuration - "Capture From" Selection

This area within the Capture Style Configuration dialog comprises a drop-down list from which you choose one of the capture source methods, and underneath any options associated with that method. Click on any of the dialog controls in the pictures below for individual details.


From Desktop

The From Desktop method takes the complete desktop as its source. The resultant capture will be the same size as your current display mode.


Hide Icons

When this button is checked all minimized window icons will be hidden before the desktop is captured, unless that icon happens to represent the currently active window.


Include Cursor

When this button is checked the current cursor design is overdrawn at the correct position within the capture. If this happens to be outside of the capture extent the cursor will not be included.


From Active Window

The From Active Window method takes the currently active top-level window as its source. This could be a dialog or message box, so if you need to capture a complete application window with a dialog or message displayed, use the Active Application Group or User Defined Area captures.


Client Region

When this button is checked the From Active Window capture is modified so that only the client or user region of the window is captured. This is the generally white area which excludes the window frame, menu and any tool bar.


From Active Application Group

The From Active Application Group method includes all windows which belong to the active application in the capture. All other windows are not included - instead the desktop background is repainted beneath.


Limit Edges to Border

When this button is checked the Active Application Group capture is modified. Instead of the whole desktop area being included in the capture, only that area which encloses the active application's windows is used. This can be further changed by specifying a border size in pixels, which is added to this enclosing area.


From User Defined Area

The From User Defined Area method allows you to mark out a specific area on the screen to be captured. It is also benefits from a magnification window for precise area definition.


Invert

When this button is checked the User Defined Area capture employs a fully inverted block to mark out the selected area. Otherwise the area is depicted with a simple rectangular box.


From Clipboard

The From Clipboard method defines a capture style which differs from the rest. It monitors the clipboard and whenever a suitable bitmap appears, Screen Thief will remove this from the clipboard and treat as a screen capture. This is the only capture method which can only be defined once. It is also not allowed in combination with the To Clipboard method, for obvious reasons.


Prompt Before Taking

When this button is checked the From Clipboard capture method is modified so that the clipboard is not automatically emptied when a bitmap appears. You will always receive a message box first which asks for confirmation.


Capture Style Configuration - "Send To" Selection

This area within the Capture Style Configuration dialog comprises a drop-down list from which you choose one of the image destination methods, and underneath any options associated with that method. Click on any of the dialog controls in the pictures below for individual details.


To Disk

The To Disk method sends the captured image directly to disk for saving in one of the image file formats supported by Screen Thief.


Select File at Capture

When this button is checked the To Disk method does not immediately save the captured image. Instead the Save Capture dialog is shown allowing you to choose a drive, directory, file type and name.


File Setup

Unless the Select File at Capture button is checked, the Setup button will run the Save Capture dialog. All choices you make will apply to all captures taken with this style.


Numeric Naming

When this button is checked the normal To Disk method of using a default file name is overridden and all files captured through this style will use sequential, numeric naming


To Printer

The To Printer method sends the captured image directly to the printer.


Setup at Capture

When this button is checked the To Printer method does not immediately print the captured image. Instead the Print dialog is shown allowing you to choose a printer device, paper size, copy count and to position the image at a specific place on the page.


Printer Setup

Unless the Setup at Capture button is checked, the Setup button will run the Print dialog. All choices you make will apply to all captures taken with this style.


To Clipboard

The To Clipboard method sends the captured image directly to the clipboard, along with any associated palette information.


To MDI Window

The To MDI Window method saves the captured image within a Screen Thief MDI child window. From here you can view, trim and copy the image as required, ultimately saving it to disk, printer or clipboard from the menu commands.


Wake Up Screen Thief

When this button is checked the main Screen Thief frame window is reactivated and brought to the top after every capture using the To MDI Window method.


Next / Previous Style

These two buttons take you through the styles already defined in either direction. If only one style exists these buttons will be disabled.


New / Delete Style

These two buttons allow you to create a new style or delete the one currently on display, respectively. The maximum number of styles is eight. When all are defined the New button will be disabled. Similarly, when only one style exists the Delete button will be unavailable as at least one style must exist.


Style Disabled

If this button is checked the capture style is temporarily disabled. Use this option when you no longer require a style but prefer not to delete it yet, or if you need to run a package which uses this style's hot-key combination and you would rather not change the hot-key setting.


Wake Up Hot Key Selection Dialog

Choosing the Options..Wake Up Call menu item displays the Wake Up Hot Key Selection dialog. From here you can choose a suitable hot-key combination which puts Screen Thief to sleep and reawakens it. When asleep the main frame window is hidden from view, but Screen Thief is still active in memory and will respond to capture hot-keys and bitmaps appearing on the clipboard.

You should opt for a hot-key combination which will never conflict with another application. By default this is Ctrl - Num Enter (i.e. the Control and Numeric Enter keys simultaneously). On a standard IBM AT keyboard these are conveniently placed at the two bottom corners.


General Options Dialog

Choosing the Options..General menu item displays the General Options dialog. From here you can decide how most of Screen Thief's optional features and operating modes are to be configured. Click on any of the dialog controls in the picture below for individual details.

Apart from those current settings which are automatically saved, and the Capture Styles defined elsewhere, the rest of Screen Thief's optional features are of no relevance to the majority of users and must be configured manually. Please refer to the Extended INI Settings topic.


3D Dialog and Message Box Frames

When this button is checked all dialog and message boxes will be shown with a 3D frame (or border). When unchecked the dialog controls are still drawn with the 3D style but the frame and caption retain the original Windows 3.x look. Some users prefer this frame style as otherwise multiple dialog boxes can tend to 'merge' into one another on the desktop.


Load Screen Thief in Sleeping State

When this button is checked Screen Thief will always load in its sleeping, or hidden, state. This is particularly useful when you elect to have Screen Thief permanently installed through the Load= or Run= lines in WIN.INI or as a member of the Program Manager StartUp Group.


Keep Frame Window Position between Sessions

Check this button to keep a record of the last frame window position in the STWIN.INI file, and to restore Screen Thief to the same position or state when next run. This option is overruled when the previous option is active (Load Screen Thief in Sleeping State).


Demote Suitable Captures to 16/256 Colour Palette

Check this button to enable Auto-Demote. This feature automatically counts the colours present in a capture and if less than or equal to 256, 16 or 2, will demote the image to this resolution. The immediate advantage is that less memory is required to store the image (when compared with the equivalent 15, 16 or 24-bit image). A secondary benefit is that image files are far smaller and you can use any of the supported image file formats. This allows you to run Windows in a high resolution mode at all times without having to switch to a lesser display mode every time a screen capture is required.

A slight  disadvantage is that the colour counting algorithm for display modes higher than 256 colour uses only 15 bits of significance, that is only 5 bits from each of the red, green and blue colour components. In most circumstances this is irrelevant as the purpose of the feature is to prevent wasted bitmap and file space when the applications being run are not using the full gamut of colours anyway.


Warn before Closing Captures not Saved to Disk

Unless this button is checked no warnings will be displayed when you close a captured image window or exit Screen Thief and images have not been either saved to disk or printed (as controlled by the next option, Printed Captures Regarded as Saved).


Printed Captures Regarded as Saved

When this button is checked any captured image which is successfully printed will be flagged as saved. No warnings about data loss will be shown when the image or Screen Thief is subsequently closed.


Monitor Memory and Report

When this button is checked Memory Monitoring is enabled. Monitoring is essential when Screen Thief is used primarily in sleep mode and captures are being collected within MDI child windows. It is very easy to consume a large part of the overall memory resources, and so monitoring can provide an early warning.

The level at which a warning is issued can be chosen from 10% through 90% of system memory. When this level is exceeded a single warning message is displayed. No more warnings will be given until memory use drops below this level and once again exceeds it. Note that the cumulative usage only accounts for the main bitmap allocation and excludes all small memory blocks and the space required for the Screen Thief code modules.

Total usage by bitmaps is compared against the sum of linear memory pages, that is physical RAM plus permanent swap file space. Because of this monitoring will be ineffective where a temporary swap file is in use. It also means that a high setting may never result in a warning being issued even though memory allocation error messages still appear, due to memory used by Windows itself and other applications.


Capture Acknowledgement Time

Following every capture, other than those which reactivate Screen Thief, an acknowledgement is shown briefly. This will indicate either success or failure of the capture. The length of time this is displayed can be adjusted between zero seconds (acknowledgements are disabled) and two seconds, in quarter second intervals.


General Defaults

Click on this button to reinstate the default settings for all options.


Hot Keys Summary Dialog
Hot Key Summary Dialog

Choosing the Help..Hot Key Summary menu item, pressing the Ctrl+K keys or clicking on the [image] button in the Tool Bar displays the Hot Key Summary dialog. This summarises the currently defined hot keys by listing their names and key combinations. The Screen Thief wake-up hot key - the combination which hides and reactivates the Screen Thief frame window - is also shown.


Tips on using Screen Thief
Hints and Tips on using Screen Thief for Windows

•	Although the User Defined Area capture routine has a magnification window, accurate area grabbing can still be cumbersome. Rather than attempt a precise capture first time, drag the area frame around a slightly larger area and trim the image down within Screen Thief using the zoom in facility.

•	Don't forget about the vertical and horizontal hold keys 'V' and 'H' when grabbing an area. That way you only need concern yourself with one direction when initially placing the cross hairs or dragging the area box. See the User Defined Area Captures section under Keyboard Actions.

•	When dragging a selection frame over a part of an image, do remember that Screen Thief allows you to define a selection at any image scale. Plus, even while you are dragging the rectangle, the scrolling, panning and zooming keys are still available. See the Image View Control section under Keyboard Actions.

•	The Capture From Clipboard feature has many possible uses. For example, the Paintbrush application which comes bundled with Windows is handy but its file save and print features are minimal. You could configure Screen Thief so that bitmaps pasted on the clipboard are saved to disk. From within Paintbrush, rather than doing a file save, select the whole picture and copy to the clipboard. This will effectively add the RLE, GIF and TIFF image file formats to its repertoire. The same goes for its printing capabilities. By routing the image through the clipboard you have the full power of Screen Thief's page setup facilities. What's more, the settings are retained for next time, unlike most other Windows applications.

•	The Open Clipboard command (Ctrl+O, Edit..Open, [image] button) may be a seldom used feature for you. However, if you change the executable file name associated with this command through the Extended INI Settings, any application which you regularly use alongside Screen Thief can be instantly loaded (or brought to the top if running the application again causes the first instance to reactivate).

•	Screen Thief can be useful for image comparison. Although it has no file loading capabilities, you can import the two files you want to compare through the clipboard (preferably using CF_DIB clipboard format data, as any CF_BITMAP format images will need to be at the same resolution as the current video mode). Maximize the two image windows and using the zoom and scroll features position the two in synchronisation (the unshifted arrow keys scroll and pan a pixel at a time). By holding down the TAB key Screen Thief will rapidly alternate between the two, the rate being dependant on the speed of your video hardware and whether any palettes need to be resolved in 256 colour mode.


Questions and Answers

My hot keys won't work when running a DOS program in a Window. I have to make a true Windows application active before any hot keys are recognised. How can I get round this?

Because of the way Windows is implemented, each DOS session runs in a completely separate 'virtual machine'. One effect of this is that key strokes do not pass through the normal Windows application hooks, and so Screen Thief has no way of detecting one of its hot keys and responding normally. The only method available while a DOS window is active is capture through the clipboard by pressing the Print Screen or Alt+Print Screen key combinations. If you have a Capture From Clipboard style defined Screen Thief will respond correctly, otherwise you will need to switch focus to Screen Thief and paste from the clipboard manually. The alternative method is simply to switch to Screen Thief and use the Delayed Capture facilities.

When I click on the Cancel button to abort a print run, the button does not respond for up to several seconds. I always have to click a number of times before printing is aborted.

This is a deficiency of the Windows system, unfortunately. The click is in fact registered, but the button down message sits in a queue waiting for Windows to return from spooling the current block and pop it off the message stack. We could write the printing routines to send the image in several strips (or 'bands' as Windows calls them), but this has two side effects. The overall printing time is increased and, depending on how the image is handled by Windows and the printer driver, it can cause perturbations in the dithering which show as definite interference patterns.

Help! Every so often I put Screen Thief to sleep but when one of my other applications loads it seems to steal the Wake Up hot key. How can I restore the window?

Just load Screen Thief again and rather than two copies running the original copy will be reactivated, just as if you had pressed the Wake Up key. In fact, Screen Thief will never allow you to run two copies. It just doesn't make sense, as they would be fighting for the same hot keys!

The automatic image numbering system seems to get out of sync sometimes. I grabbed a DOS box running QBasic and the captured image was named QBasic #2. What happened to grab #1?

Quite simply, you must have grabbed another DOS box running a different DOS program beforehand. This is a limitation of the automatic naming and image numbering scheme. If we only had to cater for Windows applications there would be no problem. But, as you have discovered, the application name and window title do not always match when grabbing a DOS session.

Screen Thief names the captured image using the title of the currently active window. With a DOS box this is specified within the PIF file, or it takes the name of the application if you try to run a DOS program directly. However, image numbering (and ultimately the default file name for a file save) relies on the executable application name. All DOS boxes appear to Screen Thief as WINOA386.EXE. We had to work it this way round or the capture image titles would in most cases be meaningless to the user.

Closing down Windows through Program Manager always reactivates Screen Thief if any images need to be saved, but when I try to choose a different file type the combo box refuses to work correctly.

This is a known problem. During the close-down sequence Windows always sets the active application as System Modal. This means that you can't switch to another application until you have addressed the warning prompts - usually a request to Save File? or Save Settings? Unfortunately this System Modal attribute is passed on to the drop-down list of the File Type combo box in the Save Capture dialog, and it doesn't like it at all. We can do nothing about this other than turn off the System Modal setting - something we are loathe to do as it alters the expected behaviour of Windows. The only solution is to press Cancel in the prompt message box, and Windows will abort its close-down sequence. Now make Screen Thief active, save the image as normal and then exit Windows.

I like the background effect of the Full Screen View so much I decided to capture an already captured image displayed this way. But every time I hit the capture hot key, the screen disappears!

The only way to capture the screen shown by the View Full Screen command is through the clipboard, as the Print Screen key does not cause the window to disappear. However, there is a caveat attached here. If you display an image with more than 236 colours (for example, just about any which started out as a photograph) and when running in a 256-colour mode, Screen Thief disables the Windows system palette in order to achieve a near perfect image with negligible best-fit colour matching.

When the full screen view is closed, the system palette is restored. Unfortunately Windows takes this change as a signal to modify the palette information stored in the clipboard, and the result is a corrupt image when you paste it into any application. It is essential therefore that you set up a Capture From Clipboard style without setting the Prompt before Taking check button, so that when you hit the Print Screen key, Screen Thief automatically takes the clipboard contents while the full screen view, and hence the modified system palette, is still in force.

During particularly busy capturing sessions I have noticed occasional image painting problems. Instead of all the capture windows being redrawn, some display black and red patterned blocks.

This is Screen Thief's way of telling you that not enough memory is available to correctly repaint the image. It applies only when memory is getting very tight, and rather than trouble the user with a message box (which may not appear correctly due to memory shortages, plus when it is cancelled we would still have to repaint what was underneath), this simple red on black diagonal pattern is drawn. The same pattern is used within the Print dialog's Page Preview area under precisely the same circumstances.


Road Map

Getting Started	Introduction

First Time Users

Installation and Removal

Overview

Capture Sources

Image Destinations

Tools & Techniques	The File Menu

The Edit Menu

The View Menu

The Screen Menu

The Options Menu

The Window Menu

The Help Menu

Mouse Actions

Keyboard Actions

Dialog Boxes	Save

Print

Printer Selection

Paper Selection

Delayed Screen Capture

Capture Styles Configuration	"Capture From" Selection

"Send To" Selection

Wake Up Hot Key Selection

General Options

Hot Key Summary

The Tool Bar

The Status Bar

Configuration & Technical	Configuration	[General Options] INI Settings

[Extended Options] INI Settings

[Delayed Capture] INI Settings

System Requirements

The File List

Image File Formats

Product Release History

Bright Ideas, Tips, Solutions	Hints and Tips

Questions and Answers

Road Map

Feedback

Other Nildram Products

The Legal Department	About Screen Thief

Shareware & the ASP

Ordering Screen Thief	United Kingdom

France

Europe

USA, Canada & Mexico

Japan

Australia & New Zealand

Rest of the World

Vendor Information


Feedback - Requests for New/Changed Features
Feedback - Request for New or Changed Features in Screen Thief for Windows

We like to think Screen Thief is the already the best, most practical means of capturing images under Microsoft Windows 3.1. However, the best ideas always come out of real use and that's where the you come in. In order that we can improve Screen Thief for Windows we need your bright ideas, experiences and even complaints.

So no matter how simple, obvious, wacky or seemingly impossible your request, print out this page, fill it out and mail it now. Even if you are evaluating the Test Drive version we still appreciate your comments. After all, if you are not going to register your copy, we want to know why.

Name

Company

Address

Post/Zip Code & Country

Which version are you using?	1.01.0502

How do you rate Screen Thief?	excellent [   ]   good [   ]   fair [   ]   poor [   ]

And what is your bright idea / request / complaint?

Print out this form and mail to Nildram Software, 82 Akeman Street, Tring, Herts, HP23 6AF, United Kingdom, or fax it to us on +44 (0) 1442 890303. Alternatively, copy it to your word processor, fill in the blanks and email the text file to sales@nildram.com.


Other Nildram Software Products
Other Nildram Software Products available as Shareware

  Screen Thief for DOS

The companion to Screen Thief for Windows, and the original industry favourite. Designed to capture any DOS screen which the standard VGA adapter is capable of displaying, it also boasts the following features:

•	Capture directly to GIF, BMP, PCX and TIFF image files, plus three text formats.

•	Low level techniques ensure that even games which intercept the keyboard can be captured.

•	Handles all of the VGA's special registers and features - split screens, soft fonts, pixel scrolling and so on.

•	Support for several common SVGA chip sets.

•	Automatic image file naming and numbering.

•	On-line help, easily customised, minimal memory use and much more...

  Top Draw 2.01

Top Draw is a powerful yet easy to use object-oriented drawing program. Ideal for desktop publishing, illustrations, logos, brochures, and much more. Some of the great features of Top Draw are:

•	Gradient fills, textures, calligraphic pens.

•	Text on a line or curve.

•	Bezier curves.

•	Sophisticated Shape palette.

•	Multi-level undo.

•	Context-sensitive help.

•	Awarded "Best Graphics Package" at the 1994 Shareware Industry Awards.

Top Draw requires a 386 or higher processor with minimum 4MB RAM running Windows 3.1 or above.


About Screen Thief for Windows

Screen Thief for Windows v1.01.0502

"The ultimate screen capture system for Windows"

Copyright

The Screen Thief for Windows program and library code, help file and documentation are Copyright © 1994-1995 Nildram Software, All Rights Reserved. Copying and distribution of the registered version or of an incomplete or altered Test Drive version is prohibited under national law and international treaty. Reverse engineering and duplication of the code in whole or part is not permitted.

Trade Marks

"Screen Thief" and "Screen Thief for Windows" are trademarks of Nildram Software. All other trademarks and registered trademarks mentioned in this document are acknowledged.

Disclaimer

Users of Screen Thief for Windows must accept this disclaimer of warranty:

"SCREEN THIEF FOR WINDOWS IS SUPPLIED AS IS. THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES,  EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND OF FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. THE AUTHOR ASSUMES NO LIABILITY FOR DAMAGES, DIRECT OR CONSEQUENTIAL, WHICH MAY RESULT FROM THE USE OF SCREEN THIEF FOR WINDOWS."

Credits

The Screen Thief for Windows program and documentation were conceived, designed and written by Jim Hoggarth. For those who get excited about these things, the programming tools used were Zortech C++ 3.1, Microsoft Assembler 6.0, Borland Resource Workshop 1.01, Microsoft NMAKE 1.11, Microsoft Word for Windows 2.0, Microsoft Help Compiler 3.1, Borland Brief 3.0 and various other utilities such as PaintBrush, SHED, GREP and RC (collectively they're not exactly the last word in programming tools, but our preference is stability, not the latest and greatest way of hanging your PC or introducing bugs). The accolade of Chief Beta Tester must go to the one and only Colin Swan. Thanks, Colin.


Regarding Shareware and the Association of Shareware Professionals
Regarding Shareware and the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP)

The Shareware Concept

Shareware is a distribution method - not a type of software, as many mistakenly think - which lets users evaluate software before buying. If you try a shareware program and continue using it, you must register and pay for it. Copyright laws apply to both commercial software and shareware.

Shareware authors are accomplished programmers just like commercial authors and the programs are of comparable quality. In both cases there are good programs, and there are bad programs. The main difference is in this method of distribution. The shareware system makes fitting your needs easier because you can try before you buy. Because overheads are low, prices are also low. Shareware has the ultimate money-back guarantee - if you don't use the product, you don't pay for it.

Please understand that if you have already paid a small duplication and handling fee to receive the Test Drive version of Screen Thief for Window from a disk vendor, you have not paid for the product itself or the right to continue using it after the 30-day test period. You still need to register!

The Association of Shareware Professionals

This program is produced by a member of the Association of Shareware Professionals (ASP). The ASP wants to make sure that the shareware principle works for you. If you are unable to resolve a shareware-related problem with an ASP member by contacting the member directly, ASP may be able to help. The ASP Ombudsman can help you resolve a dispute or problem with an ASP member, but does not provide technical support for members' products. Please write to the ASP Ombudsman at 545 Grover Road, Muskegon, MI 49442, USA or send a Compuserve message via Compuserve mail to ASP Ombudsman 70007,3536.


Ordering Screen Thief for Windows
Ordering Screen Thief

Registration Benefits

Registration is a requirement if you are to continue using Screen Thief for Windows after the initial 30-day trial period. For your payment you receive several registered user benefits. These include the latest version of the software, no reminder screen when you first run Screen Thief, removal of all watermarks on captures, a printed manual, major upgrades at discount prices and free life-time support by telephone, fax or email.

Order Forms

Please click on the country or continent name below which best describes your location. The order form which appears will detail the costs, purchase method and dealer address for that country. Print it out, fill in your details and mail it with your payment to the given address and you will receive the full registered product as soon as your order can be processed. Thank you for you appreciation of Screen Thief for Windows.

United Kingdom

France

Europe

USA, Canada and Mexico

Japan

Australia and New Zealand

Rest of the World


Registration - UK
Registration - United Kingdom
Press [Alt+F], [P] to print this form.

Screen Thief for Windows United Kingdom Order Form

I wish to register my copy of Screen Thief for Windows. Please send me the latest registered version along with a printed manual for which I enclose full payment.

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The registration price is £19.95 plus VAT (£23.44 in total) and may be paid by cheque, VISA card or MasterCard. Please make cheques payable to Nildram Software. Also available is Screen Thief for DOS (£29.95). Normally priced at £49.90, you can get both versions for just £39.95 plus VAT (£46.94 in total).

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Registration - France
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Screen Thief for Windows - Bon de Commande Europe Francophone
LICENCE d'UTILISATION & MANUEL

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[     ]  Screen Thief for Windows & DOS	430F HT	510F TTC

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Paiement par chèque (bancaire ou postal), Eurochèque, mandat-lettre, ou carte bancaire. Carte bancaire: indiquez ici les 16 chiffres et la date d'expiration.

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Les sociétés peuvent nous consulter pour des licences multipostes ou des licences multiples.


Registration - Europe
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Screen Thief for Windows European Union Order Form

I wish to register my copy of Screen Thief for Windows. Please send me the latest registered version along with a printed manual for which I enclose full payment.

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Diskette Size	[     ]  3½"   [     ]  5¼"

The registration price is 21.95 Pounds Sterling plus VAT (25.79 Pounds in total) which includes airmail shipping and may be paid by EuroCheque, VISA or MasterCard / EuroCard. Please make cheques payable to Nildram Software. Also available is Screen Thief for DOS (31.95). Normally priced at 53.90 Pounds, you can get both versions for just 41.95 Pounds Sterling plus VAT (49.29 Pounds in total).

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Mail, Fax or Phone your cheque or Credit Card details to:

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United Kingdom

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BBS: +44 (0) 1442 891109

Email: sales@nildram.com

Please write, telephone or fax for Site License details.


Registration - USA, Canada and Mexico
Press [Alt+F], [P] to print this form.

Screen Thief for Windows USA, Canada & Mexico Order Form

I wish to register my copy of Screen Thief for Windows. Please send me the latest registered version along with a printed manual for which I enclose full payment.

Name

Company

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Diskette Size	[     ]  3½"   [     ]  5¼"

The registration price is $29.00 including shipping (add $10 for FEDEX if required) and may be paid by check, VISA card or MasterCard. Please make checks payable to FormGen Inc. Also available is Screen Thief for DOS ($39.00). Normally priced at $68.00, you can get both versions for just $49.00.

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Registration - Japan
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Screen Thief for Windows Japanese Order Form

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Registration - Australia & New Zealand
Registration - Australia and New Zealand
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Screen Thief for Windows Australia and NZ Order Form

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The registration price is AUS $49.00 and may be paid by Cheque, VISA, MasterCard or Bankcard. Please make cheques payable to Budgetware. Also available is Screen Thief for DOS (AUS $65.00). Normally priced at AUS $114.00, you can get both versions for just AUS $99.00.

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Registration - Rest of the World
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Screen Thief for Windows International Order Form

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The registration price is 24.95 Pounds Sterling including airmail postage and may be paid by EuroCheque, Sterling Cheque, VISA or MasterCard / EuroCard. Please make cheques payable to Nildram Software. Also available is Screen Thief for DOS (34.95). Normally priced at 59.90 Pounds, you can get both versions for just 44.95 Pounds Sterling including airmail.

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Shareware Vendor Information

This section provides information for Shareware Distributors, Disk Vendors, BBS Sysops and Computer Clubs who wish to distribute the Screen Thief for Windows package. These details are also available in the separate shareware distribution file VENDOR.TXT.

Program Name, Category

Screen Thief for Windows, Utility (Windows, Graphics, Screen Capture/Presentation)

Preferred File Name for BBSs etc.

STWINxxx.ZIP, where xxx is the version number. For example, version 1.01 would be STWIN101.ZIP. Of course, other file name extensions are perfectly acceptable when compression programs other than PKZIP are used.

Long Description

Screen Thief for Windows v1.01 - The ultimate screen capture system for Windows. Whatever your reason for wanting to capture a screen or just one part of it, Screen Thief can handle it. The feature list makes other screen grabbers look primitive in comparison, as in addition to the expected desktop, window and user defined area captures this program adds a couple of new twists.

You can capture a complete application including all of its windows but not, amazingly, all the other windows or icons littering the desktop, plus you can 'hijack' the clipboard every time an image is placed there. Captures can then be sent to the printer, automatically copied to the clipboard, saved to disk in one of several popular formats or held in an image window for further manipulation.

The program offers tremendous flexibility by allowing up to eight different combinations of capture and destination type, each with several user options and every one available through a programmable hot-key. Captures can also be started after a short delay. The area capture is particularly nice to use due to the 4X magnification window, which allows the borders of a capture to be chosen with absolute precision.

Images captured to a window may be zoomed in and out and cropped down to an exact size, and the page preview feature allows easy image positioning by simply dragging with the mouse. Another unique feature is automatic colour reduction so that image files are always as small as possible. Supported formats are BMP, RLE, GIF, PCX and TIFF. Requires Windows 3.1, 386. <ASP>

Short Description

Screen Thief for Windows v1.01 - The ultimate screen capture system for Windows. Features include: Up to 8 user defined capture configurations each with hot-key invocation;  Capture from desktop, active window, active application, defined area and clipboard; Send capture to disk; printer; clipboard or MDI window; Zoom in/out; Crop images; Auto colour reduction; Page preview; BMP, RLE, GIF, PCX TIFF file formats. Requires Windows 3.1, 386. <ASP>

Registration Information

Costs vary and depend on country. Please refer to the relevant registration section. The benefits of registration include the latest version of the software, removal of watermarks, a printed manual, free lifetime support and reduced price upgrades.

Author/Publisher Information

Please feel free to contact Nildram Software at any time if you have any questions, comments or suggestions.

ASP Associate (Disk Vendor) Member Information

Vendors who are ASP Associate Members in good standing are hereby given permission to distribute Screen Thief for Windows. ASP Associate Members (often called "ASP Approved Vendors") in good standing do not need to request permission to distribute this package. This permission is in effect until or unless we notify you otherwise, in writing. ASP Associate Members in good standing will receive free upgrades for all shareware products developed and distributed by Nildram Software.

Other (Non-ASP) Disk Vendor Information

Shareware Distributors and Disk Vendors who are not ASP Associate Members but who wish to distribute Screen Thief for Windows must comply with the following restrictions. In order for us to ensure that only current versions are distributed, we request that you contact your local Nildram Software representative before distributing any of our products. You may not list any of our products in advertisements, catalogues, or other literature which describes our products as "FREE SOFTWARE".  Shareware is "Try-Before-You-Buy" software, it is not free.

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We would appreciate copies of anything you print regarding Screen Thief for Windows.  Please send us a copy of any reviews, articles, catalogue descriptions, or other information you print or distribute regarding the Screen Thief for Windows package. Thank you for your time and assistance and for supporting the shareware marketing concept.


Nildram Software

82 Akeman Street

Tring

Herts

HP23 6AF

United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 1442 891331

Fax: +44 (0) 1442 890303

BBS: +44 (0) 1442 891109

Email: sales@nildram.com


Default File Naming
Default File Name

Every capture is given a default file name by Screen Thief. In most cases this is based on the name of the application which was active at the time of the capture, i.e. had the input focus and a caption bar drawn with the active window attributes. This includes any Capture From Clipboard images as it is assumed that the currently active application is the one which placed the bitmap on the clipboard. The only exceptions are when you duplicate a capture within Screen Thief (using Edit..Duplicate or the Ctrl+U accelerator key stroke), in which case the new image takes the default name from the original; when a new image window is created by manually pasting the contents of the clipboard (using Edit..Paste or the Ctrl+V accelerator), and in this case the default file name begins with "noname"; and when the file naming process is overridden by specifying Numeric Naming for this capture (which only applies to captures direct to disk).

For captures to disk and when saving MDI Child images to disk, the default name is created by taking the first six characters from the executable file name of the active application, or less if the name is shorter than this. To this is added a two digit number which is incremented for each capture you take when this application is active. For example, if you grab the desktop while the Windows Calculator is active, and its executable file name is C:\WINDOWS\CALC.EXE, the first default file name would be CALC01.ext with the 'ext' ultimately being replaced by the extension associated with the chosen image file format. When the counter reaches 99 it simply 'rolls over' to 00 and starts incrementing again, regardless of possible conflicts with already existing files. Should a file by that name already exist a warning will be given and the opportunity to chose another.

Captures taken directly to disk with no interim dialog, however, are handled differently. The naming process is identical apart from two differences: the initial number chosen always starts at 01 and increments until a unique name is found (or the process fails because the one hundred possible names are already in use); and the number assigned does not affect the normal capture numbering scheme. If you envisage capturing over one hundred images directly to disk, you should use the Numeric Naming method.

Note that the default file name and captured image's MDI Child window title, although both based on the active application at capture time, are in fact different. See the Image Window Title description.


Image Window Titles
Image Window Title

Every image captured to an MDI Child window is given a default title by Screen Thief. In most cases this is based on the title of the application window which was active at the time of the capture, i.e. had the input focus and a caption bar drawn with the active window attributes. This includes any Capture From Clipboard images as it is assumed that the currently active application is the one which placed the bitmap on the clipboard. The only exceptions are when you duplicate a capture within Screen Thief (using Edit..Duplicate or the Ctrl+U accelerator), in which case the new image takes the window title of the original; when a new image window is created by manually pasting the contents of the clipboard (using Edit..Paste or the Ctrl+V accelerator key stroke), and in this case the title is "Pasted Image"; and when the active window has no title and so the name of the executable file is used instead.

Screen Thief does not use the full title. It strips off any characters which appear to have been added to the application's name. This includes the dash and child window title added to an MDI frame window when child windows are maximized, and usually any version numbers, sub-titles and so on. This base title is completed with a hash character and the two-digit capture number allocated by Screen Thief.


Numeric File Naming

When capturing images using the To Disk method and the Select File at Capture option is off (that is, images are saved directly with no prompting dialog), the option exists to save files with a purely numeric eight digit name, plus the default extension for that file type. Although this produces anonymously named files, it does have the advantage that automatic naming is highly unlikely to 'roll over' and fail. See the Default File Name description for an explanation on why this can happen.


MDI Frame and Child Windows
MDI Frame and Child Window

The terms MDI Frame and MDI Child come from the method of displaying Child data windows within an overall application Frame window. MDI stands for Multiple Document Interface. Screen Thief uses the MDI method for organising its capture images not sent to any other target such as the printer, clipboard or direct to a disk file. The main Screen Thief window which holds the menus, Tool Bar and Status Bar is referred to as the Frame window. Captured image windows are often referred to as MDI Child or simply Child windows.


Selection Frame Rectangle

All capture image windows allow one current selection to be defined, plus Screen Thief will record any previously defined selection for you in case it is needed again. A selection is formed by dragging a rectangular box or frame within the limits of the image. This sub-image can then be duplicated, trimmed down or copied to the clipboard independently. However, it is not possible at present to save this selection to disk. You must duplicate the selected rectangle into another child window and save to disk from there. For more details on defining a selection refer to the Mouse Actions - Selection Frame Definition topic


Clipboard Formats
Supported Clipboard Formats

Screen Thief recognises two base clipboard formats - Device Independent Bitmaps (CF_DIB) and Device Dependant Bitmaps (CF_BITMAP). In the latter case any palette information (CF_PALETTE) is assumed to match the CF_BITMAP data. Where no palette information exists the current system palette is used (in the unlikely event that the bitmap has a different colour resolution than the system, the results are undefined). CF_BITMAP data having a different format than that of the screen device, other than simple monochrome, is not within Screen Thief's specification.


Screen Image Scaling / Zooming

Screen Thief can display images at several scales, from 1:10 at the smallest extreme (one screen pixel for every ten image pixels) all the way to 20:1 at the opposite extreme (20 screen pixels = 1 image pixel). Scaling is always integral. Note that from the menus you are limited to the range 1:5 => 5:1. Further down and up scaling is only available through the Tool Bar buttons and the Image View Control keys (Numeric '+' and '-').


Auto Colour Demote

This feature automatically counts the colours present in a capture and if less than or equal to 256, 16 or 2, will demote the image to this resolution. The immediate advantage is that less memory is required to store the image (when compared with the equivalent 15, 16 or 24-bit image). A secondary benefit is that image files are far smaller and you can use any of the supported image file formats. This allows you to run Windows in a high resolution mode at all times without having to switch to a lesser display mode every time a screen capture is required.

A slight  disadvantage is that the colour counting algorithm for display modes higher than 256 colour uses only 15 bits of significance, that is only 5 bits from each of the red, green and blue colour components. In most circumstances this is irrelevant as the purpose of the feature is to prevent wasted bitmap and file space when the applications being run are not using the full gamut of colours anyway.


Refreshing the Desktop

The method used by Screen Thief to ensure it can capture all possible screen components in the User Defined Area Capture mode - including open menus - could result in changes to windows not being drawn to the screen. This is usually down to window repaints controlled by timers and other asynchronous events. The problem can be demonstrated by emptying the clipboard, starting an area capture and pressing the Print Screen key (any Capture From Clipboard will be disabled). Although the clipboard now holds a bitmap, the Paste button on Screen Thief's tool bar will not change. Abort the capture, press the Refresh Desktop button and the Paste button will repaint. The Screen..Refresh Desktop menu item, Ctrl+R accelerator keystroke or Tool Bar button can all be used to invoke a refresh. Alternatively one of the Extended INI Settings can be added to STWIN.INI in order to force a refresh following every area capture.


Area Capture Magnification Window

During a User Defined Area capture the 17x17 block of screen pixels centred under the crosshairs are displayed in a separate floating window, magnified to four times actual size. The crosshairs are normally visible in this window but can be hidden if confusing. The four 'bips' around the edge of the magnified view still indicate where the crosshairs would be and can be used to find the central pixel. The grid which divides individual pixels is also optional, or can be displayed in black for contrast with a predominantly white screen area or grey when selecting a pixel within a mainly black region. Refer to the User Defined Area Capture sections within the Mouse Actions and Keyboard Actions topics for more details.

Beneath this the current screen pixel position is displayed, that is the pixel immediately underneath the crosshairs. It is measured with respect to the top left of the screen with 0,0 as the origin. Once an area drag is started this changes to the width and height of the rectangle so far selected.


Bitmap Image Memory Consumption

The memory used by a captured image is tied to the internal format Screen Thief employs. All bitmaps are stored as device-independent multi-channel images with one byte per pixel per channel. Therefore three images which share the same width and height but having resolutions of 2, 16 and 256 colours will all consume the same amount of memory as each occupies one colour channel (although stored as indices into a palette). 16- and 24-bit images will always occupy three channels for the red, green and blue components.


Full Screen Mode

In order to view a complete captured image at 1:1 scale, Full Screen Mode opens one single image window on top of all other windows with no frame, caption or menu. The image is displayed on a cross-hatch background and within a separate thin black border to easily distinguish where the image ends and where the background starts. Return to the normal Windows desktop by pressing a key other than those which control the full screen image (See Keyboard Actions - Full Screen View Control for details) or by clicking on a mouse button.


Cursor Pixel Position Display

While the mouse cursor is within the window region occupied by a image (and no selection frame is defined), the current pixel position is displayed on the status bar represented as an x,y coordinate. It is important to realise that this coordinate refers to the actual bitmap image pixel underneath the cursor, not the image window screen pixel. It is independent of the current scaling and measured in respect to the top left of the image using zero-based offsets. That is, the pixel at the absolute top left corner is at 0,0 and the one at the bottom-right of a 640x480 image is at 639,479. Although this can be confusing at first, it is the 'standard' way of describing a pixel's position in a bitmap and the one adhered to by Screen Thief.


Entering Hot Key Combinations

When a hot key entry control has input focus the majority of keys are available for selection as a hot key combination. This is defined as the Alt, Ctrl and Shift keys in combination plus one other non-shift key such as a character or function key. Some keys are obviously disallowed as they are reserved by the system. Alt+Space, any combination using Escape and any use of the Tab key are all blocked and result in a short beep if pressed. Any combination which uses the Shift key alone is also blocked as this must be used in tandem with Ctrl, Alt or both. You should obviously not try to change focus to another dialog control by pressing its accelerator key stroke while the hot key control is active, as this will be regarded as a new hot key selection.

The use of Alt is not actually recommended as this is a 'live' key under Windows which can cause screen changes immediately when pressed. If you do use Alt and want to capture menus, for example, the method required is to perform the action which relies on Alt and keep it held down until the capture hot key combination is pressed. The capture will then be invoked and you may release the Alt key.