I'm using Parallels to run Windows XP on my MacBook Pro. I would like to take screen shots of the information in the Parallels output.

If the image is static, no problem. I click outside the Parallels window to get to Finder, click the hot keys to get Snapz up, and go back and take the image I want.

But I run into problems with menus on applications within XP (running in Parallels). I would like to snap the drop down menu to show the item selected, but as soon as I move the cursor over to the Finder, the menu in Windows XP (in Parallels) collapses.

The hot keys don't seem to work while in Parallels so I can't do this directly in Parallels.

Any suggestions on how to use Snapz to capture a menu from Windows XP running in Parallels? Any suggestions on how to set up Parallels so the hot keys for Snapz are recognized directly without having to go to the Finder? Or, not normally doing Windows, is there a way to freeze menu drop downs in Windows - this would then allow me to switch to Finder and get Snapz up and running?

Thanks in advance

Carl Schwarz.

Normally you'd use Control-Alt to release keyboard focus before invoking Snapz. However, the Alt key first causes Windows to close the menu. In the Keyboard tab of Parallels' preferences you can temporarily change the Release Input binding to say Control or Control-Shift. Now open a menu in Windows, press this key combination, and then immediately press Snapz's key combination, and you'll get the screen captured with an open menu.

The only problem with this method is that releasing keyboard input switches back to the Mac cursor, so if you want a Windows cursor in the screenshot, you'll need to postprocess in Photoshop. But maybe someone else knows a better solution.

Thanks - that works exactly as I wanted.

I set the CTRL -F3 to toggle to Mac keyboard, then pressed the hot keys for SNAPZ and now I can capture the drop down menus exactly as I wanted. I can live with the different cursor as it isn't evident to the casual viewer of my screen shots that the cursor is actually different.

Thanks again for the suggestion.

Carl Schwarz.