Tech Tip of the Day: Using the Keyboard to easily take a snapshot in VLC.
If you’re reading this you probably know VLC stands for Video Lan Client and started out as an open-source project to create a cross platform (ie works under all operating systems, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc), versatile, ‘it just works’ software video player. And I’m pleased to say VLC does what the name says on the tin… it just works.
Get latest version of VLC here.
I say started out open-source due to Microsoft buying their way into all things open-source in the last few years. I remember the first browser wars, when there was tons of variety out there and the big dog on the web browser scene, before ie, was the then, unstoppable, Netscape Communicator.
Microsoft started throwing their money around, and that ended up with Netscape Communicator going the way of the dodo and IE being the only man (web browser) standing when the dust settled. For years before the coming of Firefox, IE was the only game in town.
I see a lot of similarities in Microsoft’s buying their way into open-source projects such as VLC, and various Linux distros. Microsoft has a history of buying things to burgle and then bury them.
So I have my doubts about the future of VLC, though hopefully my fears are unwarranted, but either way that is a story for another day.
This article is about helping you the user, be more effective at using VLC, specifically being more effective taking snapshots and screen-captures, something I do when I review DVDs. Using the mouse to try to initiate a screen-capture can be a hassle, particularly when you’re trying to capture the perfect frame of video, and that’s where keyboard shortcuts come in.
So Today I thought I would share my research into better screen captures with VLC.
Well quick searching with your favorite search engine, will suggest using the following kybd combination (for Windows/Mac/Linux) in VLC to take a screen-shot of whatever you’re watching:
Alt+Ctl+S (hold down all three keys, and tada snapshot)
However I find the default command in Linux VLC versions is not the above, but rather:
Shift+S (hold down those two keys, and tada… Snapshot!)
So one of those two should work for most of you using VLC. And of course you can designate/change which keys you use to take screen-captures by clicking TOOLS/PREFERENCES and then choosing INTERFACES and editing the HOT KEYS to your liking.
Okay, that’s today’s Tech Tip!
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Heroic Times 