Capturing and saving images, some helpful advice

Your writing assignments will require you to use images that you get from the web and other sources.

Important: don't wait until the last minute to capture images for your assignments. The process is easy if you know how to do it. But unless you've done it before, you could get stuck. Don't get caught without help at the last minute!

Capturing from "Our Dynamic Planet" or "Global Ocean Data Viewer": It is easy to capture from these applications. First display the data that you want to capture.

  • "Our Dynamic Planet": Click the camera icon and drag across the part of the screen you want to capture. The upload process is automatic. Follow instructions.
  • "Global Ocean Data Viewer": There is a button on the upper right part of the screen. Click it to capture the data display portion of the screen. Upload is automatic. Follow instructions.

Capturing from a web browser (works most of the time): Launch EarthEd online and log in. Go to the "Image Manager" screen. Now open your web browser (without quitting EarthEd) and connect to the page that holds the image you want to capture..Move the mouse over the image, press the mouse button (on Mac, hold the Apple key down too, on the PC hold down the right btn) until a popup menu shows up, and select "Copy image to clipboard" or "Copy Image."  The clipboard is a temporary location on your computer that allows you to copy material from one place to another. After you do this. Now you can activate the EarthEd application and click on the checkbox that says "Import from Clipboard." Follow the instructions on the "Image Manager" screen to complete the upload.

Capturing an image that you can't capture using the above techniques:

Mac OS9: hold down the apple key, the shift key, then press the "4" key. The cursor will change to a cross. You then drag the cursor over the area you want to capture. The image will be called "Picture 1, Picture 2, etc" (the number advances for each image you capture) and will be stored on your boot drive, usually named "Macintosh HD."

Mac OSX: You will need to use the "Grab" application. Read the Apple Help files to find out how to use the program. It's easy. Once the image is grabbed and displays in a window, you can select it all by doing Apple-A then copy to the clipboard by doing Apple-C. Then follow the same procedure as capturing from a web browser (described above) to get it from the clipboard into your image library.

In the PSB Lab: The PSB lab uses OS9, so follow that procedure (described above).

PC: Most PC's have a key that is named "PrtScr" or some such, which means "Print Screen." What this does is copy the entire screen image to the clipboard. It captures more than you want, so you will have to crop it in the Image Manager (more on this later). So, all you have to do is display the image you want, then press the "PrtScr" key. You must then go to the Image Manager to get the clipboard image uploaded to your personal graphics storage area.

Uploading using the Image Manager:  (check out the lab manual for more Image Manager info) When capturing images, it is handy to have the EarthEd software running. The "Image Manager" screen is the one you want. Click the "Image Mgr" tab in your "office." When in the Image Manager, and you want to upload an image that you've captured, click the "Upload Images to Lib" button. There are several checkboxes that list images in likely locations.

Important for PC users: If your image doesn't show up in the "Image Manager" list, but you can see that it's on the desktop, be sure that the name "extension" (it's the ".jpg" or ".bmp" ending on the file name) is set. If you are using Worldwatcher on the PC, be sure that the last 4 characters are ".bmp" (that's dot bmp). On a Mac, always save with a ".jpg" ending.

When you have selected the image you want, click "Next" (in the "Image Manager") and you will be able to crop, magnify, etc your image before uploading. Notice that a very large image may lose a great deal of detail when reduced. If the detail you need is lost, you may need to pick out only the area of interest or use several images.

After cropping, follow the directions for uploading with Image Manager.