Single hotkey to make a screenshot immediately and save

[helmut]

It would be a good and important step if "a - hotkey which is active at program start" was available in next release.

Right, a custom hotkey / shortcut, if possible. Also Print Screen or/and Scroll Lock keys (and combinations Alt+, Ctrl+...) should be available. I think two (custom) hotkeys / shortcuts should be available, one for desktop and one for active window.

Yes, two hotkeys might make sense.

Important thing is whether these hotkeys would be global, or not. If so, F keys (F1-F12) shouldn't be used - and the hotkey(s) should be global, since xnview will be minimized - not active, so non-global hotkeys might not work.

If XnView resides in the system tray and should be activated using shortcuts, the shortcuts must be global. Common shortcuts like function keys are often used by programs, so these shortcuts should not be used to avoid shortcut clashes.

Perhaps these hotkeys might be used (by default):

Print Screen - to capture desktop
Alt+Print Screen - to capture active window

If not possible, then perhaps Scroll Lock instead of Print Screen.

Hmm, many users know that with Print Screen and Alt+ Print Screen you can capture screen. It seems intuitive that XnView grabs and uses these keys, but in no case this should be XnView's default: By default XnView should not affect and change the system's behaviour, only if the users really wants this.

[Dreamer]

Perhaps these hotkeys might be used (by default):

Print Screen - to capture desktop
Alt+Print Screen - to capture active window

If not possible, then perhaps Scroll Lock instead of Print Screen.

Hmm, many users know that with Print Screen and Alt+ Print Screen you can capture screen. It seems intuitive that XnView grabs and uses these keys, but in no case this should be XnView's default: By default XnView should not affect and change the system's behaviour, only if the users really wants this.

I think, that if someone start xnview in tray to make screenshots, then these well-known shortcuts would be intuitive, they would be active only if xnview would be mininized in tray.

...However, if also other users / Pierre think the other shortcuts should be used, than I suggest these:

Scroll Lock - to capture desktop
Alt+Scroll Lock - to capture active window

Still quite intuitive and should be free / unused.

Default shortcuts are not so important and perhaps you are right, more comments would be useful, especially from Pierre - he knows what is possible, easier to implement...

[helmut]

Perhaps these hotkeys might be used (by default):

Print Screen - to capture desktop
Alt+Print Screen - to capture active window

If not possible, then perhaps Scroll Lock instead of Print Screen.

Hmm, many users know that with Print Screen and Alt+ Print Screen you can capture screen. It seems intuitive that XnView grabs and uses these keys, but in no case this should be XnView's default: By default XnView should not affect and change the system's behaviour, only if the users really wants this.

I think, that if someone start xnview in tray to make screenshots, then these well-known shortcuts would be intuitive, they would be active only if xnview would be mininized in tray.

It would be pretty inconsistent if XnView has a different behaviour when minimized in system tray and in normal mode. Shortcuts must not change depending on the state of the windows (Minimized, normal, maximized, ...).

...However, if also other users / Pierre think the other shortcuts should be used, than I suggest these:

Scroll Lock - to capture desktop
Alt+Scroll Lock - to capture active window

Still quite intuitive and should be free / unused.

Scroll lock might bear various problems:
1. Scroll lock is a toggle key (like "Hold shift") that means that the first hit activates and the second hit deactivates. Not sure whether Pierre can do something against this toggling behaviour.
2. On latops (mine for example), you have to press a special function key (FN) to make scroll lock work.

Default shortcuts are not so important and perhaps you are right, more comments would be useful, especially from Pierre - he knows what is possible, easier to implement...

Definetly more comments and more discussion. But in no case we should care about implementation - we should care about the best solution for the users, only.

[Dreamer]

Scroll lock might bear various problems:
1. Scroll lock is a toggle key (like "Hold shift") that means that the first hit activates and the second hit deactivates. Not sure whether Pierre can do something against this toggling behaviour.
2. On latops (mine for example), you have to press a special function key (FN) to make scroll lock work.

OK, so perhaps another default shortcuts, any suggestions?

[JohnFredC]

This is the tool I use for screen capture. It works great. Perhaps some ideas are in it that could apply to similar functionality in XnView.

[oops66]

For screen capture, i think than an other soft is more appropriate

try this one too :

Gadwin PrintScreen 4.2 freeware
For Windows® 95, 98, Me, NT 4.0, 2000, 2003, XP and Vista
http://www.gadwin.com/download/

[Dreamer]

Perhaps a special tool for some advanced users is necessary, but xnview has such a tool already, this topic is just about a small change, not a real new feature, then xnview capture would be enough for most users.

Now we have to do this to make a screenshot:

- run xnview
- press a toolbar button
- select the options (incl. window/desktop capture)
- click the OK button
- press a hotkey/shortcut

If the capture hotkey/shortcut for desktop (and window) capture would be available at xnview start and there will be option to minimize xnview to tray at start, then just two, or even just one step will be needed to make a screenshot:

- run xnview *
- press a hotkey/shortcut

* not needed if xnview will start in tray at Windows start, or it would be possible to create an xnview shortcut on desktop and assign a shortcut for it, then we could assign such a shortcuts - e.g.:

Alt+F8 (to start xnview)
Alt+F9 (to make a desktop screenshot(s))
Alt+F10 (to make an active window screenshot(s))

[helmut]

Reading the above description one can well see how many steps are currently needed for the first screenshot.

I guess without further effort/change the hotkey won't be global, that means that XnView window will need focus to make the hotkey work. But I think as a first solution that's o.k.. So simply making the screenshot available at startup would improve usability a lot.


Please note that I have split your new suggestions for screen capturing to topic Suggestions for Screen capture dialog.