Andrew's Den

The LIBR 203 course in the San José State University SLIS program provides basic instructions on how to take screenshots; one notable case is in the context of quiz results in the LOTSS tutorial in Module 8. Mac OS X and Windows, however, have some subtle nuances in their screenshot capabilities that the tutorial does not go on to detail. Most users don’t need more than what the tutorial provides, but if you would like fine-grained control and more customizability, by all means read on.

Mac OS X Platform
Basic instructions on the Mac entail pressing command-shift-3. This takes a screenshot of the entire screen: menu bar, all open windows, Dock, and mouse cursor. In the case of Module 8 and the LOTSS tutorial, this gets the quiz results, but also some other stuff (menu bar; any background data, such as the desktop; and the Dock). You can crop this in Preview, Photoshop, GraphicConverter, or the GIMP, of course, but another option is available.

A potentially-better option is to simply take a screenshot of the window instead. Try command-shift-4, then press the spacebar, then click in the browser window. By itself, command-shift-4 will turn the mouse to a selection cursor that allows the user to select a region of the screen that then gets saved to an image file. You could thus save the browser window or its contents by drag-selecting. It’s easier, however—at least in this author’s opinion—to simply press the spacebar and get a picture of the window.

In these above scenarios, a screenshot image will be saved to your desktop, with a filename dependent upon your version of Mac OS X. For the LIBR 203 assignment in Module 8 you will insert into Word by dragging the image file in or by choosing Insert > Picture > From File (assuming the Mac version of Word 2007). It becomes more interesting, however, when you hold down the control key with the command and shift keys. If you press command-shift-control-3; command-shift-control-4; or command-shift-control-4 and then a space, you will find that you do not get a file. Instead, the image gets copied to your clipboard. From there, you can simply paste it directly into a Word document and be done with it. Of course, if you want a backup, you may wish to have the screenshot file. Still, this is a useful technique to know.

Finally, the Grab utility (in the /Applications/Utilities directory) can take a picture of the screen, of a window, or of a selection—just as described above. It can also do a timed capture, like an autoflash on a camera.

Windows Platforms
The “print screen” key, as described in the LIBR 203 Module 8 tutorial, copies the current screen for pasting into a Word document. As described above in the Mac section, however, it copies all windows, all menus, the Start menu, the taskbar, the system tray, and everything else.

To augment the tutorial, I would like to point out that you can press the “alt” key with the print screen key to copy solely the front (active) window. You’ll then be able to paste that into your Word document.

This should work in Windows XP and Windows 7. I have not tested this in Windows Vista. As Windows Vista comes between Windows XP and Windows 7, however, I suspect that it will function just fine under Vista, as well. Please let me know if it does not.

Wrap-Up
If I’ve left anything out or have anything down incorrectly, please let me know!

(This posting is a work-in-progress. I may add more later, or may convert it into a page at some point.)

One assignment for LIBR 203 at SJSU SLIS involved posting an APA-formatted reference list. Here’s one of multiple possibilities for how to do it using HTML and CSS in WordPress (or possibly other tools, or nearly any webpage). This guide is much more detailed than it needs to be; just skip to the code if you want.

You don’t need to have experience with HTML to do this. You just need to embed some basic HTML code in your blog posts. Essentially, you’ll put the relevant text between what are called “tags”: an opening tag and a closing tag. A closing tag looks very much like the opening tag.

First, you’re going to need a “block-level element.” In its most basic form, that will generally mean either <p> or <div>. The former stands, loosely, for paragraph, while the latter is a generic block-level element (or, in layperson’s terms, a generic type of container on the page). The main difference is that divs are more versatile, are used more nowadays for a wider range of functions, and carry less “baggage.” Paragraph elements have built-in default margins and possibly other spacing issues that can definitely be customized but that may prove annoying. Let’s therefore work with divs here.

Next, you need to tell it to indent all lines but the first (the “hanging indent”). In actuality, the HTML way of doing this is somewhat clever: instead of a positive indent on only the second, third, and all lines subsequent to the first, all lines are indented a half-inch (via the “margin” CSS attribute), and then the “text-indent” attribute is applied (with a negative value of one-half of an inch) to bring that first line back to the edge of the text.

There’s a problem, unfortunately. When a gigantically-long source URL is presented in a WordPress blog (and quite possibly elsewhere), if it can’t be wrapped by the text system, it will simply continue off the edge of the page, or at least off the edge of its containing element. A solution is to use a <span> element—an invisible wrapper that can style its contained text. Style it with the “word-wrap:break-word;” selector and attribute, like so:

<span style="word-wrap:break-word;">YOUR SOURCE URL HERE</span>

As was pointed out to me, however, that’s not everything. APA citations are supposed to be double-spaced (as are APA papers). This may be an issue when trying to style a document with APA formatting on the Web, but is not necessarily as important in a blog post; the hanging indent may prove far more useful, stylistically, in my opinion. Even so, to do this, simply include the “line-height:2em;” attribute to change the line height. You may wish to change 2em to something else to adjust the appearance of doubling slightly.

<div style="margin:0 0 0 0.5in; text-indent:-0.5in; line-height:2em">YOUR CITATION HERE</div>

Finally, the finished block. (Of note is that I had to use “word-wrap:break-word;” to format the example below; how’s that for “meta”?) One thing to keep in mind is that the URL here leads to a password-protected site, which has also been pointed out to me (courtesy of Phoebe Buguey in LIBR 203) as a no-no in APA style. I am including it here solely to demonstrate how to break a URL over multiple lines.

<div style="margin:0 0 0 0.5in; text-indent:-0.5in; line-height:2em;">News. (2010, August). <em>Computer Weekly</em>, <em>287</em>. Retrieved from <span style="word-wrap:break-word;">http://find.galegroup.com/gps/infomark.do?&contentSet=IAC-Documents&type=retrieve&tabID=T003&prodId=IPS&docId=A234213939&source=gale&srcprod=ITOF&userGroupName=alise_sjsu&version=1.0</span></div>

Happy blogging!

I have heard some say that the whole concept of Web 2.0 is overblown and possibly even bloated. Michael Stephens (2007) provides a viewpoint from library-oriented paradigm, however, and discusses how Web 2.0 can apply to all of us. In particular, libraries may have something to learn from the realms of Flickr, Twitter, and Digg and may benefit from adopting such services for their own communication and interaction needs.

Stephens refers readers to Michael Wesch’s YouTube video “The Machine is Us/ing Us” (2007), a fascinating overview of how the World Wide Web has changed, especially in regards to education and librarianship. (The URL provided in Stephens’ article, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gmP4nk0EOE, leads to an older version of the video. I have included a later version in the reference list.)

The August 10, 2010 edition of Computer Weekly (2010) contains the interesting tidbit that an advisory wing of KPMG (a Big Four auditor) exhorts governments to embrace “social networking, wikis, and blogs” so as to enhance their relationship with the public sector and to optimize their own efficiency.

One major point of similarity between Computer Weekly and Stephens (2007) is that both describe, to some extent, the need to overcome resistance to change (why should a website that functions perfectly well be redesigned?); hierarchies (in Stephens’ article librarians vs. staff vs. the public); trust issues (e.g., who can post to a blog?); and security problems (who can see or say what?).

A while back I signed up for Second Life and found it immediately impressive. Medieval fortresses and shopping malls alike staked their claims in the vast expanse of world that stretched before me and offered limitless explorational—and commercial—opportunities. My girlfriend signed up and we became “partners,” a form of Second Life marriage. Furthermore, even though Second Life seemed like just a fad at the time, I spent some real-world money, converted in to Lindens (Second Life monetary units), then bought some fantasy clothing: a cape and cloak, boots, gloves, etc., and got some nice clothing for her, too.

The problem came when it became “old.” Where to go from where we were? My girlfriend and I could have bought a house or apartment, or at least some land, but we didn’t have any friends using the program (save for her sister)—no incentives, unlike an MMORPG setting. Exploration of beautiful structures and settings was fun, but loading times were relatively slow. Second Life is a communication environment first to me, and an explorational environment second.

Also, some of the people were simply eccentric. One woman (I assume a woman) attempted some odd activities, which included introducing me to a second woman and then confiding in her a romantic interest in the second woman (I infer a woman). She also attempted some other weird (read: creepy) things, which I shall not describe. Obviously, it’s just a chat program and people don’t have to live by real-world rules: individuals play around and play jokes on one another. Still, it was disconcerting to me and discouraged me somewhat from “playing” or socializing.

Now that I am beginning on a new track, I’m happy that I am being given a chance to employ Second Life for something more useful. I think that “fun” chat is great, but that Second Life can be so much more—and it is.