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User Manual
Screen Master is a tool for recording image and video information
from your screen. Screenmaster captures video
as well as images from the whole screen, a specific window, or
a specific region.
If you are having problems, please check out the
FAQ first.
Contents
The Screenmaster Ideology
Free, Powerful, and Easy-to-Use.
Given the fact that there are already a lot of screen capture and snapshot
software out there, we are still developing this new screen
capture software because:
Screen capture is widely needed: recording video online
chat sessions, monitoring user activities, broadcasting screen...
This list could go on and on.
Very few existing screen capture software handles both static
image snapshot and video capture.
For those few software that does support both, chances are
they are either very expensive or poorly maintained.
Many existing screen capture software are more complicated than
they should be.
The purpose of the screen master project is to design a 100% free
screen capture software which is easy to use and supports
both static image and video capture.
No trial versions, no crippled versions.
Installing Screenmaster
Download the installation file from
http://screenmaster.miroxia.net/download.cgi ,
run the .exe installation file, and follow the instructions to install
screen master.
You will be needing the .net framework support.
If you use windows XP, and have enabled the windows automatic update,
you already have .net framework support.
You can get .net framework by either installing it
from the .net framework download center ,
or by applying the latest XP patch.
You could update your XP with the lastest patches
from windows update
website.
If you want to use the video recording functions,
you will also need Windows Media Encoder .
Note that media encoder is different from media player.
Media player is distributed with windows, but not media encoder.
So chances are you will have to install media encoder before
you can record video from screen.
That sounds like a lot of work, but since many of your future
applications will be needing them, it's worth the time.
Using Screenmaster
Selecting capture mode
Screen Master support six different capture mode:
full-screen snapshot, window-based snapshot, region-based snapshot,
full-screen video capture, window-based video capture,
and region-based video capture.
Before starting capturing, you have to make sure that you are working
in the desired mode.
The first approach to selecting
a working mode is to bring up the context
menu. There are two ways to get the context menu:
By right-clicking your mouse on the main window, or by
right-clicking the Screen Master icon in the status tray.
Then you can use the context menu to choose various capture modes.
A second way to select a capture mode is to use hotkeys.
In order to use hotkeys, the first thing you need to do
is to make sure that you have enabled hotkey-based screen capture
(see Options for details about
how to enable hotkeys).
Use the following hot keys to change capture mode:
CTRL->p->w : Window-based screenshot.
Press the CTRL key, release it,
then press the p key, release it, and then press the w key,
release it.
CTRL->p->r : Region-based screenshot.
CTRL->p->f : Fullscreen screenshot.
CTRL->v->w : Window-based video capture.
CTRL->v->r : Region-based video capture.
CTRL->v->f : Fullscreen video capture.
CTRL->v->s : Stop video capture.
Note that if you bring up the main window by left-clicking the tray icon
once, Screen Master automatically enters the last capture mode you have
worked in.
Snapping the whole screen
If triggered by context menu or tray menu:
If screenmaster is not started yet, start it.
If screenmaster is already started, look for
the screenmaster icon in your task tray (usually on
the lower right corner of your screen).
Right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray and select
``Snap -> Snap the Screen'' from the context menu.
The configurator window pops up.
Pick the target image file to store the screenshot,
and input a delay time if you want the capturing process
delayed for a specific period of time so that you could
have a chance to set up everything.
Click Capture to continue, or click cancel
button to minimize screenmaster to task tray.
After the delay you specified, screenmaster captures
a screenshot and saves it into the target file you have picked.
If triggered by hotkeys (refer to setting capture mode
for details about using hotkeys), screenmaster instantly captures a
.bmp full-screen snapshot, and opens it with the editor or viewer
of your choice, or by default, the Internet Exploer.
Snapping a specific window
If triggered by context menu or tray menu:
If screenmaster is not started yet, start it.
If screenmaster is already started, look for
the screenmaster icon in your task tray (usually on
the lower right corner of your screen).
Right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray and select
``Snap -> Snap a Window'' from the context menu.
The configurator window pops up.
Pick the target image file to store the screenshot.
Click Capture to continue, or click cancel
button to minimize screenmaster to task tray.
Click on the window you want to capture. *Note* that
the first windows you clicked will be snapped.
Screenmaster captures
a screenshot and saves it into the target file you have picked.
If triggered by hotkeys (refer to setting capture mode
for details about using hotkeys), screenmaster captures a
.bmp snapshot for the first window you clicked,
and opens it with the editor or viewer
of your choice, or by default, the Internet Exploer.
Snapping a specific region
If triggered by context menu or tray menu:
If screenmaster is not started yet, start it.
If screenmaster is already started, look for
the screenmaster icon in your task tray (usually on
the lower right corner of your screen).
Right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray and select
``Snap -> Snap a Region'' from the context menu.
The configurator window pops up.
Pick the target file to store your captured image.
Click Capture to continue, or click cancel
button to minimize screenmaster to task tray.
Use your mouse to select the region you want to capture: Left click
to select one corner of the recording region, and then left click again
to select the other corner. You could right click to cancel everything
and minimize screenmaster to task tray any time during this
region-selection process. If you still want to capture video
information, start over by right-clicking the screenmaster
icon in the task tray.
After you select the recording region, screenmaster captures a screenshot
from the region you have picked
and saves the image to the file you have chosen.
If triggered by hotkeys (refer to setting capture mode
for details about using hotkeys), left-click to select the first corner
of your rectangular area, and then left-click again to select the other
corner of your rectangular area. Then, screenmaster captures a
.bmp snapshot of the region you selected,
and opens it with the editor or viewer
of your choice, or by default, the Internet Exploer.
Recording full-screen video
If triggered by context menu or tray menu:
If screenmaster is not started yet, start it.
If screenmaster is already started, look for
the screenmaster icon in your task tray (usually on
the lower right corner of your screen).
Right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray and select
``Record -> Record the Screen'' from the context menu.
The configurator window pops up.
Pick the target .wmv file to store recorded video.
Click Capture to continue, or click cancel
button to minimize screenmaster to task tray.
After the delay you specified, screenmaster captures
the video information
and saves it into the target file you have picked.
Right click the screenmaster icon in the task bar and select
stop to stop the recording process.
If triggered by hotkeys (refer to setting capture mode
for details about using hotkeys), screenmaster instantly starts
recording video from the whole screen.
To stop recording, you could either choose to use the contextmenu,
or hotkeys . Screenmaster automatically
opens the video file with the editor or viewer
of your choice, or by default, the Windows Media Player.
Recording a specific window
If triggered by context menu or tray menu:
If screenmaster is not started yet, start it.
If screenmaster is already started, look for
the screenmaster icon in your task tray (usually on
the lower right corner of your screen).
Right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray and select
``Record -> Record a Window'' from the context menu.
The configurator window pops up.
Pick the target file to store the video.
Click Capture button to continue, or click cancel
button to minimize screenmaster to task tray.
Click on the window you want to capture. *Note* that
the first windows you clicked will be recorded.
Screenmaster captures video
information from the window you have picked
and saves the video information to the file you have chosen.
Anytime during the recording process,
you can right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray
and select stop from the context menu to stop the screen capture.
If triggered by hotkeys (refer to setting capture mode
for details about using hotkeys), screenmaster
records video from the first window you clicked.
To stop recording, you could either choose to use the contextmenu,
or hotkeys . Screenmaster automatically
opens the video file with the editor or viewer
of your choice, or by default, the Windows Media Player.
Recording from a specific region
If triggered by context menu or tray menu:
If screenmaster is not started yet, start it.
If screenmaster is already started, look for
the screenmaster icon in your task tray (usually on
the lower right corner of your screen).
Right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray and select
``Record -> Record a Region'' from the context menu.
The configurator window pops up.
Pick the target .wmv file to store recorded video.
Click Capture to continue, or click cancel
button to minimize screenmaster to task tray.
Use your mouse to select the region you want to capture: Left click
to select one corner of the recording region, and then left click again
to select the other corner. You could right click to cancel everything
and minimize screenmaster to task tray any time during this
region-selection process. If you still want to capture video
information, start over by right-clicking the screenmaster
icon in the task tray.
After you select the recording region, screenmaster captures video
information from the region you have picked
and saves the video information to the file you have chosen.
Anytime during the recording process,
you can right click the screenmaster icon on the task tray
and select stop from the context menu to stop the screen capture.
If triggered by hotkeys (refer to setting capture mode
for details about using hotkeys), left-click your mouse to
select the first corner of yoru rectangular region,
and then left-click again to select another corner.
Then screenmaster instantly starts
recording video from the region of your choice.
To stop recording, you could either choose to use the contextmenu,
or hotkeys . Screenmaster automatically
opens the video file with the editor or viewer
of your choice, or by default, the Windows Media Player.
Configuring Screen Master
User interface options
As shown in the figure below, you can customize
the start-up behavior by selection the "Start Up Options" sheet
of the options window. This sheet allows you to
configure the following:
Do you want to see the help window
when Screen Master starts? You can enable/disable help-window-on-start
by chekcing/unchecking the first checkbox
Do you want Screen Master start minimized?
By unchecking the second checkbox, Screen Master will go directly
to the status tray (usually on the bottom-right corner of you screen).
If you do not have windows media encoder (WME) installed,
do you want screenmaster to prompt you for installing WME
every time it is started? You will not see this checkbox if
you already have WME installed. Note that the video recording
functions require WME, therefore, video capture will be
disabled if you do not have WME installed.
On this page, you can also setup your own background image.
Click Browse to select an image, or click Reset to
use the default background image.
Capture options
Check the first checkbox if you would like to see a flashing rectangle
around the window or rectangle area you are recording.
This checkbox only affects video capture.
The second checkbox configures if you want to be alerted after
you click the cross on the top-right corner of you window.
After you click the cross, the main window will be closed,
but the program is still running. You may choose not be alert
again and again by unchecking this checkbox.
Check the third checkbox if you want to use hotkeys
to trigger screen capture. Please refer to
selecting working mode
on how to use hotkeys.
Check the fourth checkbox if you want to highlight mouse clicks.
"Highlight mouse clicks" means that everytime you click your mouse buttons,
the mouse will be changed to a different shape so that you know which
button is being pressed. If this option is enabled, when you click
the left button, the cursor will to be changed to a hand with one finger
pointing upward (meaning button #1).
If you click the right button, then the cursor will
be changed to a hand with two fingers pointing upward (meaning button #2).
A fist will be shown for all other buttons.
Here is a tip for highlighting mouse clicks:
when you click a button, you will notice a light-yellow circle.
The cursor will return to normal if you move the cursor out of
the little circle. Also note that this circle will not
show up in your video clip.
Using external tools
As shown in the figure below, you can also configure Screen Master to
work with external tools: image and video processing tools
which you probably have been using for a long time and quite good at.
You can choose a viewer and editor to view/edit the static pictures
you captured with Screen Master. And the radio buttons allow
you to choose which tool Screen Master has to trigger after each capture:
the viewer, the editor, or neither. Similarly, you can pick
your own video player and video editor.
Getting Help
You can always bring up the help window by clicking "Help" in
the context menu.
Technical Support and Contact Information
Although screenmaster is provided as is, we do provide full technical
support to all users. You may contact us by emailing
support ,
or you could visit our
website
Please email bugs or problems you encountered while using screenmaster to
bugs .