Printing a Screen without the Print Screen Key

Steven wonders if there is a way to do a Print Screen when you don't have a Print Screen key. He is legally blind and uses a very helpful keyboard with large keys. The keyboard, however, to implement the large keys required the sacrifice of the Print Screen key; it just isn't on the keyboard.

This is more of a Windows-based question than a Word-based question, so any answers could be done outside of Word entirely. There are two approaches you could use. One involves using a rather esoteric feature in Windows—the on-screen keyboard. You can learn more about the keyboard here:

https://tips.net/T11563

Basically, it puts a keyboard on your screen, one that includes the Print Screen key that is missing from the physical keyboard. You could then use your mouse to click on the Print Screen key that is, well, on screen.

The second approach is to use some sort of utility in Windows to do the screen capture for you. For instance, you might install a "key mapper" program that allows you to remap your keyboard. This would allow you to assign the task normally done by the Print Screen key to a different key that does exist on your keyboard. There are any number of such programs available; a quick search on the Web will locate them for you.

Of course, you may want to simply use the utility built into Windows. You can use the built-in Snip & Sketch tool (it used to be called the Snipping tool) which can grab screens quite easily. The quickest way to pull up the utility is by pressing the Windows key and, while holding it down, press Shift+S. It may take you a bit of detective work to figure out how to use Snip & Sketch, but the same could be said for any other utility you might choose.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (13723) applies to Microsoft Word 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021.