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Capture

Capture is a selection on the main menu in the Digitizer utility.  This is meant to provide a quick way to incorporate a plot that you might be viewing on screen in another program into the MSC Digitizer for processing.  This is a simple procedure, but it might seem a little confusing at first so if you decide to use it you should read through the following explanation first. 

As an example, if you were reading a pdf file on screen or working on a web page and encountered a mass spectral plot that you wanted to investigate you can start MSC Pro, select the Digitize Mass Spectra button and press Capture.  The MSC Pro window will minimize and a small window that looks like this will be present on screen:



          
The image you wanted to capture should also still be visible on screen at this point.  If not then navigate until the plot you want to capture is visible on your screen.  If at this point you cannot locate the small Image Capture window, just click on the MSC Pro icon on the task bar (normally at the bottom of your screen).   Move the small capture window to a location that does not cover the graphic that you wish to copy and click the Capture button.  This will do a screen capture and maximize the window with three buttons at the top left.  This step is one that might seem a little confusing at first since your desktop will appear to remain visible but in fact what is being displayed is a full screen image of your current desktop within the Capture utility window.

Click on the Select button at the top left which will now be enabled and outline the rectangular region (the actual spectrum) that you want to capture.  Note: outline the desired area starting at the top left and drawing down to the bottom right of the region to be copied.   At this point your screen might look something like the following image.  The pointer indicates the selection box that has been drawn around the mass spectrum to capture:


       
Then click on the Done button. That's it.  When you click 'Done' the main MSC Pro and Digitizer windows will reappear with your selected spectrum image in place.  Although not specifically required, we strongly recommend that  you first Save the image to file since the it will be modified during processing, and if not saved it will be lost when you close it.  In general, it is always best to save the image first before any further processing.  You can then immediately reopen it for processing.