anotherChris
January 31st, 2016, 01:47 PM
Here's the long story short (see below for the long story/explanation):
I wanted to take a screen shot with a menu open and couldn't. So I looked and found out how to do this in Lubuntu with a scrot delay. At the same time, I figured out how to save my screenshots in the Pictures directory (where they logically belong) rather than in the Desktop directory.
My question:
1- Can someone give a non-technical explanation of why, from 11.10 to 15.10, the ability to take a screen shot with a menu open was not implemented? Is there no demand, or would doing bloat the LXDE, or what?
Thanks.
Long story, or how to take screenshots in Lubuntu 15.10 with a menu open and save them in the Pictures directory, below...
I wanted to take a screen shot while hovering over the wi-fi icon in my panel with the wi-fi menu open. Screenshot would not work. So, I found the following:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/184618/taking-screenshots-in-lubuntu-11-10
and
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2185294
These both indicated that what I wanted to do was not possible in 11.10 and 13.10, so it's probably not possible in 15.10, either. I wonder why this hasn't been implemented? Anyhow...
The second thread pointed me to this link:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/252281/how-do-i-take-screenshots-with-a-delay
From these three resources, I was able to figure out how to configure Lubuntu's screenshots to do what I'd like... i.e., take a photo of everything on the desktop and save it in the Pictures directory...
In Lubuntu 15.10...
(1) open your Home Folder /home/username, then select View -> Show Hidden
(2) open .config/openbox
(3) open the file called lubuntu-rc.xml with a simple text editor and save a backup (I called it lubuntu-rc.xml.backup).
(4) in lubuntu-rc.xml, find...
<!-- Take a screenshot of the current window with scrot when Alt+Print are pressed -->
<keybind key="A-Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>lxsession-default screenshot window</command>
and
<!-- Launch scrot when Print is pressed -->
<keybind key="Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>lxsession-default screenshot</command>
(5) change the bolded text as follows...
<!-- Take a screenshot of the current window with scrot when Alt+Print are pressed -->
<keybind key="A-Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>scrot -b -d 5 ~/Pictures/screenshot_%Y:%m:%d:%H:%M:%S.png</command>
and
<!-- Launch scrot when Print is pressed -->
<keybind key="Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>scrot -b ~/Pictures/screenshot_%Y:%m:%d:%H:%M:%S.png</command>
What you just did was change the Prnt Scrn button so that it takes a screenshot and puts it in your Pictures directory and change Alt+Prnt Scrn so that it does the same thing after a 5 second delay. This 5 second delay allows you time to open a menu in case you want to take a screenshot with a menu open. Note that Alt+Prnt Scrn no longer takes a screen shot of the current window, which was its original function.
(6) Open a terminal and run
openbox --reconfigure
To quote from the source: "(You won't see anything happen and you'll get back your prompt if you haven't messed up anything. If you have messed up something, you'll get an error. That's when the back-up comes handy.) Running the command is a necessary step to ensure that your edits to lubuntu-rc.xml are now active. (http://askubuntu.com/questions/252281/how-do-i-take-screenshots-with-a-delay)"
Finished! I just did this on Lubuntu 15.10 and it worked.
I wanted to take a screen shot with a menu open and couldn't. So I looked and found out how to do this in Lubuntu with a scrot delay. At the same time, I figured out how to save my screenshots in the Pictures directory (where they logically belong) rather than in the Desktop directory.
My question:
1- Can someone give a non-technical explanation of why, from 11.10 to 15.10, the ability to take a screen shot with a menu open was not implemented? Is there no demand, or would doing bloat the LXDE, or what?
Thanks.
Long story, or how to take screenshots in Lubuntu 15.10 with a menu open and save them in the Pictures directory, below...
I wanted to take a screen shot while hovering over the wi-fi icon in my panel with the wi-fi menu open. Screenshot would not work. So, I found the following:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/184618/taking-screenshots-in-lubuntu-11-10
and
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2185294
These both indicated that what I wanted to do was not possible in 11.10 and 13.10, so it's probably not possible in 15.10, either. I wonder why this hasn't been implemented? Anyhow...
The second thread pointed me to this link:
http://askubuntu.com/questions/252281/how-do-i-take-screenshots-with-a-delay
From these three resources, I was able to figure out how to configure Lubuntu's screenshots to do what I'd like... i.e., take a photo of everything on the desktop and save it in the Pictures directory...
In Lubuntu 15.10...
(1) open your Home Folder /home/username, then select View -> Show Hidden
(2) open .config/openbox
(3) open the file called lubuntu-rc.xml with a simple text editor and save a backup (I called it lubuntu-rc.xml.backup).
(4) in lubuntu-rc.xml, find...
<!-- Take a screenshot of the current window with scrot when Alt+Print are pressed -->
<keybind key="A-Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>lxsession-default screenshot window</command>
and
<!-- Launch scrot when Print is pressed -->
<keybind key="Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>lxsession-default screenshot</command>
(5) change the bolded text as follows...
<!-- Take a screenshot of the current window with scrot when Alt+Print are pressed -->
<keybind key="A-Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>scrot -b -d 5 ~/Pictures/screenshot_%Y:%m:%d:%H:%M:%S.png</command>
and
<!-- Launch scrot when Print is pressed -->
<keybind key="Print">
<action name="Execute">
<command>scrot -b ~/Pictures/screenshot_%Y:%m:%d:%H:%M:%S.png</command>
What you just did was change the Prnt Scrn button so that it takes a screenshot and puts it in your Pictures directory and change Alt+Prnt Scrn so that it does the same thing after a 5 second delay. This 5 second delay allows you time to open a menu in case you want to take a screenshot with a menu open. Note that Alt+Prnt Scrn no longer takes a screen shot of the current window, which was its original function.
(6) Open a terminal and run
openbox --reconfigure
To quote from the source: "(You won't see anything happen and you'll get back your prompt if you haven't messed up anything. If you have messed up something, you'll get an error. That's when the back-up comes handy.) Running the command is a necessary step to ensure that your edits to lubuntu-rc.xml are now active. (http://askubuntu.com/questions/252281/how-do-i-take-screenshots-with-a-delay)"
Finished! I just did this on Lubuntu 15.10 and it worked.