Need a computer guru for a screenshot question

[Seawitch]

Our framework/software here doesn't allow us to upload word or excel anything. That means that if I have a table in Word, what I typically do to be able to upload it into an article is to take a screenshot and convert it to a .png file.

However, I notice that when I do this, the image focus isn't very sharp. See below. Does anyone have any advice on this or a workaround?

 

[Peace River]

Our framework/software here doesn't allow us to upload word or excel anything. That means that if I have a table in Word, what I typically do to be able to upload it into an article is to take a screenshot and convert it to a .png file.

However, I notice that when I do this, the image focus isn't very sharp. See below. Does anyone have any advice on this or a workaround?

@Seawitch, Are you using a Mac or PC? Are you using the built in screen capture command? You said "converting it to a .png file" - what format does the screenshot save as before you convert it?

 

[Peace River]

@Seawitch - out of curiosity, have you tried copying from Excel or Word and pasting to an image editor (e.g., Paint, Preview, etc.) then saving as a .png?

 

[lapin]

You might also copy paste it from Word into a Powerpoint and then save as jpg / png

 

[JeffR]

I use Jing by Techsmith to grab simple screenshots. For smaller tables (such as the one you posted above) it should work well. For larger tables I would think it would be most effective to actually transfer the table to HTML and post it as a table rather than hope the screenshot remains legible. That way you can be certain the data will be readable on everyone's device. Word tables can often be copy/pasted as HTML tables, depending on the platform used.

 

[Seawitch]

@Seawitch, Are you using a Mac or PC? Are you using the built in screen capture command? You said "converting it to a .png file" - what format does the screenshot save as before you convert it?

I'm using a Mac. And if I just do a screenshot with 3 keystrokes, it automatically is saved as a .png. No, I've never tried copying and pasting into an image editor first.

@JeffR are you saying that if I use a 3rd party screen capture program I will get better clarity?

 

[JeffR]

I've been happy with the ease and quality of Jing. I confess that I haven't done a comparison with the native Mac capture, but I've found the ability to set dimensions, crop, etc is quite useful. You can also either save as a file or just copy/paste. The company Techsmith is also known for Snagit and Camtasia.

 

[bigcheese]

@Seawitch Sorry I didn't see this sooner.
It all depends on the resolution of your screen... if you have a Mac with a Retina screen and you're running it as the Native ("Default for display") resolution, you'll end up with super sharp screenshots.
If your eyes are anything like mine, I'm guessing that resolution is entirely unreadable on a 13" or 15" screen. The most common (and bad) advice is to 'scale' the display in Preferences to make stuff look larger. It also makes things fuzzier.
Go to System Preferences -> Displays, see if it's scaled or not. If it is, set the resolution to 'Default for display'.

Here's the tricky part.. unlike other systems, Mac doesn't let you make all the fonts and icons bigger with an easy click. You kind of need to hunt down the settings for Finder and all the other apps one by one. Usually, Command + will zoom in.

As a temp workaround, set the display to native, go into Excel and zoom Excel to a readable size, do your screencap. Then set your display back to scaled.