Make your articles and blog posts more interesting using screenshots, especially when creating in-depth guides, tutorials, and whitepapers. Providing references is essential to help the readers understand what the text says. The visual representation will boost comprehension and clarity of how-to guides and eliminate confusion.
Moreover, images have a much more substantial impact on readers’ minds than chunks of text.
Before delving into how to use screenshots effectively in your content, let’s look at how to take screenshots on different devices.
- Windows – Press the PrtSc button on the keyboard to take a screenshot, and then you can press Control + V to paste the image on any editing program like Word, PowerPoint, or Paint.
- Macs – On your Mac, press Shift + Command + 3 to take a screenshot. Capture a portion of the screen by pressing Shift + Command + 4 and capture a menu or window by pressing Shift + Command + 4 + Spacebar. The screenshots get saved on the desktop by default. If too many screenshots have cluttered your desktop, you may wonder how to remove screenshots from desktop Mac. The simplest method is to select the screenshot you wish to delete and press Command + Delete.
- iOS – Press the top button and the Home button simultaneously to take a screenshot.
- Android – Press the Power and Volume Down buttons simultaneously to capture whatever is on your screen.
Now Here’s How You can Effectively use Screenshots in Your Content.
- Crop the image to remove unnecessary details
Before including the screenshot in your blog post or article, you must crop the image to remove the unwanted details. If there are too many details in the image captured, the readers might get confused.
- Paste the captured image in relevant places
Pasting screenshots anywhere in your blog post, article, or social media content will not help meet your purpose. For instance, if you are creating a how-to guide to teach your audience how to use a product, the images must be placed to explain each of the steps the readers must take. So place the captured image of turning on the product above or below the text about turning on the product.
When pictures support blocks of text, it helps the readers get more clarity and understand better what they have to do.
- Edit your personal information
Double-check all screenshots before using them in your content. You might be giving away sensitive information through screenshots if you are not careful.
So it would be best if you always edited the pictures before pasting them into your content.
- Take quality screenshots
When taking screenshots, ensure the browser is set to 100% resolution. It is also advised to zoom the detail you want to capture so that the image doesn’t appear blurry or pixelated.
Readers must see the screenshot and understand precisely what you want to show them.
- Compress the images
Sometimes, screenshots may end up being very large files. As a content writer or marketer, you must know that the best blogging practices dictate that you must keep the image file sizes small. However, the small image size must not damage the picture’s resolution.
Typically, an image must be closer to 100 KB but if you exceed this, try to keep it below 500 KB.
To reduce image file size, you can resize and compress the images. This is important because large image file sizes included in blog posts and articles can reduce the loading speed and result in a bad user experience.
- Add annotations
If you want to make your screenshots more effective, add magnification effects, arrows, text, and more. This adds more meaning to the captured image and helps readers understand precisely what they must do.
If you want to highlight a specific line, you can underline it so that the readers do not miss seeing the line. You can also circle exact words or numbers to highlight them.
- Add timestamps
If you are working on an investigative piece, it is a good idea to add a timestamp to your captured images. This will prove that the picture was taken on a specific date and time. In addition, it will add more value to the screenshot.
You can use photo editing software to add a timestamp and most in-built photo editing tools offer this feature. Using your Android or iOS device to capture the screenshot, you can edit and add a timestamp using user-friendly apps. These apps even let users add the location where the screenshot was taken.
The Bottom Line
So take your content marketing efforts to the next level using self-explanatory, crisp, and high-quality screenshots. Including screenshots in your articles, blog posts, website content, or social media content will give more clarity to the readers and a break from scrolling through blocks of text. However, ensure to use relevant screenshots supporting the text written.