DocScanFx can capture portions of the user's screen as images.  This can be useful for capturing EMR or other application information that needs to be sent to PACS as DICOM images.  


Enable the Screenshot button

(Do you already have a Screenshot button? Skip to the 'Using Screen Capture' section below.)

 

If you don't currently have the Screenshot button, open the DocScan.INI file (usually in C:\Program Files (x86)\DocScanFx) and look in the [COMMON] section for an entry like this:

SourceOptions=Scan, Import, Capture, Forms, Print

If the word "Capture" is in the list, the  Screenshot button shown below will be on the image acquisition screen:

If it is missing, add in the word Capture as shown above, save the file, and restart DocScanFx.  Note that if you don't use some of the other three image options you can remove those entries from SourceOptions if you don't want to see those buttons.

Using Screen Capture

Click the "Screenshot" button and the DocScanFx window will disappear allowing you to click and drag a rectangle around the area on the screen you want to capture.  Once the capture is complete, the DocScanFx window will reappear with the captures image in it.  


Additional features are available in version 3.5.0.1+ for using and configuring the screen capture feature.  The onscreen magnifying window with crosshairs will help you capture exactly the area you need:



More Screen Capture options in v3.5.0.1+

RIGHT click on the Screenshot button to show a context menu for changing the behavior of the Screenshot button:

  • Capture region mode - the default 2 click, drag a rectangle capture method.
  • Capture window mode - a 'smart' window detect algorithm will show the area to capture based on where you are hovering your cursor.  Move the cursor around and it will precisely identify the boarders of the rectangular portions of your screen and highlight them for you.  Simply click on the region you want to capture.
  • Repeat last region capture mode - Did you just capture an area of the screen, and now it has changed and you want to capture it again?  With this setting, you won't have to repeat the selection - DocScanFx will do it for you.  An example use for this would be if you were capturing several key images in a CT or US series.  After you performed the first capture, you could scroll to the next and easily get a new capture of exactly the same region.


Here is an example of Capture window mode and Repeat last region capture mode:




Would you like to temporarily change to an alternate mode of screen capture?  Use keyboard shortcuts:

  • ALT + Screenshot -  Performs the opposite of the current default screen capture mode.  For instance, if Capture region mode is the default and ALT+Screenshot is pressed, then Capture window mode will be used instead. 
  • CTRL + Screenshot - Performs a Repeat last region capture mode. 

Note: Hold ALT or CTRL down for just a moment after clicking Screenshot to ensure the key press is registered.



Do you like the Capture window mode mode and always want to use it?


While you can use the context menu and key presses to change the capture behavior, it will revert back to Capture region mode the next time DocScan is used for a new job.  To permanently default to Capture window mode, look for this this option in your DocScan.INI file's [COMMON] section, or if it is missing add it:

ScreenshotGsMode=Region

and change it to this:

ScreenshotGsMode=Window

Save the file, restart DocScanFx and now the default behavior will be to capture using the window detect methods.  The ALT and CTRL key modifiers still can be used.


Note: The INI settings mentioned in this article can be set in a specific "Mode" if you want to have different capture behaviors per mode.  



You can automatically start the screen capture process if you change this DocScan.INI file setting to True (or add it if it is missing):

AutoStartScreenCapture=True

With this enabled, as soon as the patient's exam is chosen in DocScanFx it will enter screen capture mode thereby eliminating the need to manually click the Screenshot button..


In addition, if you have DocScanFx integrated with your PACS and you have this option turned on, the default action of the PACS DocScanFx button is to start a screen capture each time it is pressed.  Here's an example of that with Merge PACS and some image annotations being added: