When explaining computer problems to your consultant have you ever been asked “what was the error message” but you didn’t write it down? I ask this a lot when I arrive on-site to troubleshoot problems. The error messages are sometimes very long and cryptic, and most of us just want them to go away. Writing them down is usually the last thing on our minds. And even if they are written down, sometimes they aren’t very accurate. There’s an easy way to save those error messages to be viewed later. The next time you get an error press the Print-Screen button (abbreviated PrtScn on my keyboard along with the word SysRq). The print-screen button takes a picture of your screen and saves it into memory to be pasted into another program. The print-screen button is usually located on the upper-left corner of the keys between your letter keys and number keypad. Next, open Word. If you don’t have Word, you can another program like the built-in Paint or Wordpad programs. You can find these programs in the Start menu under the category Accessories. Now, click on the Edit menu and click Paste. A picture of your screen snapshot stored in memory will paste into the program. If you use Word don’t worry if the picture is too small to read. Your consultant can always zoom in to take a closer look. Print and save the file. Your consultant can now see exactly what was on the screen. Using this print-screen and paste feature is a great way to print out those hard to remember program settings. I’ve used it to document e-mail parameters and print out instructions on how to use applications. Wouldn’t it be nice if we had such a picture-perfect memory?