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I'm trying to capture some screen shots to include in a tutorial for users of a CMS. The problem is, when I press Print Screen on my keyboard and paste into an image editor (Photoshop, etc.) I lose the cursor. This is important to capture because I want users to know where to click.The "tooltips" (if any) do print.

partial screenshot with missing cursor

* There is supposed to be a cursor over the photo icon here.

I've tried Google, and I've tried (as a guess) holding CTRL, ALT, or SHIFT but the cursor always disappears. I have the Screengrab Firefox addon installed, but that doesn't help either.

I'd like to avoid installing even more third party software on my computer if possible for this small feature (browser addons I'm happy to install), and I'm really only interested in what's in the browser viewport. Is there any way to keep the cursor and print the screen?

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I also figured out that if you paste into Microsoft Word or hit "print screen" while in word, the cursor will show up. Didn't want to add this as an answer because it still is a hack. I never use Word, so not sure how to extract the full quality screen shot. – Wesley Murch Sep 23 '11 at 23:08
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4 Answers

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If you want to include the cursor, you'll need to use some third-party screen capture software like zScreen.

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I installed this, but it was not immediately clear how to use it. Looks like some sort of social media tool. – Wesley Murch Sep 23 '11 at 18:36
It's quite advanced, but if you want to save a screenshot to a file then you'll have to select "File" as an output under the "Main" tab and make sure "Show cursor in screenshots" is checked. Pressing PrtScr would make a fullscreen screenshot and save it. – sim642 Sep 23 '11 at 19:14
I also use ZScreen and although it looks little bit complicated, after defining that target for images is file and some selected folder, everything works perfectly. In fact, I only use the quick actions to get the image file, no internet uploads etc. Perfect tool for building tutorials etc. – Juhele Sep 23 '11 at 19:38
I gave this another opportunity, I definitely like it a lot more than the dated UI of the Faststone product, and it's got a lot of useful options. Thanks for the suggestion. – Wesley Murch Sep 23 '11 at 21:07
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up vote 2 down vote

I'm sorry, but, I don't know a way to do this without third party software.

Faststone Screen Capture has an option that you can turn on to do this.

enter image description here

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I'm sorry too :) Thanks for the link, I tried this out and it works, they just want $20 after 30 days supposedly, and it's more limited-use software to install. It's baffling that print screen will print my highlighted selection but not the cursor. Oh well, this beats adding my own cursor in Photoshop. Thanks William, going to leave this open for the day in case anyone has another solution. – Wesley Murch Sep 23 '11 at 2:35
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up vote 2 down vote

You might want to try Problem Step Recorder. It can be accessed in Windows 7 by entering psr into the search field in the start menu. It's primary use is to record what happens when someone is having a problem by taking screenshots and putting them in an HTML file (hence the name). But you can take use the pictures or edit the html file. Here is a link that gives a little insight into the Problem Step Recorder: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/How-do-I-use-Problem-Steps-Recorder

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This is pretty cool, thanks for sharing. This could almost be used as the entire tutorial, since it captures every click (does show the cursor) and every screen, with text descriptions (but the screen shots are understandably low quality, didn't see settings for that). It's a workaround, but an interesting one. Aside from my usage, this is a great tool I never knew about. – Wesley Murch Sep 23 '11 at 18:24
It's a wonder that psr can capture the cursor, but we apparently need third party tools to do it with the standard "print screen". – Wesley Murch Sep 23 '11 at 18:35
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up vote 1 down vote

When I am setting up tutorials for users and it includes screen shots in which I need to show them where to click I simply paste the screen shot into MS Paint, add graphics (arrows, circles, etc.) showing them where to click, and then copy that altered screen shot into the tutorial. This may be your best option if you do not want to pay for 3rd party software. Thanks!

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