To take a screenshot in Windows simply press the print screen (prt scr, prnt scrn) button to copy it to your clipboard.

And for MacOS

Hold down the APPLE [Command] and SHIFT keys then press 3 for a screen shot of the entire screen
the resulting file will be placed on your desktop, named Picture X.pdf or Picture X.png.

After taking a screenshot (see Screenshot Basics) you can use the most common method which is opening "Paint" (Start>All Programs> Accessories) and pressing Ctrl+V. Windows Xp paint does not have a crop tool like Vista, so in Vista just select the tool that looks like a a cross ( -|- ) then select the region which you would like to keep
and right click inside the region and select "Crop"

Note: You may also use the image snipping tool

Taken From ElderScrolls, as he does a much better job explaining then i would.


1. Start Paint (comes with Windows XP under Start Menu, All Programs, Accessories)
2. From the menu, click Image, Attributes, change both Width and Height to 10. This will make the blank image very small.
3. Close Paint and don't save the blank image. (it will remember the 10x10 size for new images from now on)
4. Find your file and right-click on it and open with Paint ( or if it is a screenshot just take your screenshot then press CTRL + V ).
5. Select the tool on the top-right of the toolbar that looks like a dotted rectangle (called "Select")
6. Click and drag a box around the part of the image you wish to keep. This will act like your crop-selection tool.
8. From the menu, click Edit, Copy
9. From the menu, click File, New (should be a blank 10x10)
10. From the menu, click Edit, Paste (should now be the size of the copied image)
11. Save your newly cropped image in JPEG format.

Windows 7 is the same as windows vista if using paint.
you may also use the snipping tool in Windows 7, it will not have the annoying red border.

Hold down the APPLE [Command] and SHIFT keys then press 4 to get a crosshair like tooltip so you can select just a section of the screen you want a screenshot for.

SnagIMG: http://www.bluelightdev.com/products/snagimg
Windows Snipping Tool: Included in Windows under Accessories
Snagit: http://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.asp