PDF from the clipboard or a screen capture

Sometimes the content you want in a PDF is not in a file at all. It is on your screen, or it is something you have just copied. A chart from a web page, a paragraph from an email, a set of files picked in Explorer or the whole desktop showing an error message. PDF by Zaweba can make a PDF from any of these without saving them anywhere first.

Look in File > New. You can make a PDF from whatever is on the clipboard, whether that is a copied picture, copied text or copied files, or from a capture of every monitor. When you capture the screen, the app's window steps aside first, so it does not get in the way of the shot.

From the clipboard

Copy a picture in any program, such as a chart from a spreadsheet or an image from a web page, and make a PDF from the clipboard. You get a PDF of that picture straight away, without saving it as an image file first.

Copied text works the same way. Select a passage in an email, a message or a document, copy it and make a PDF. It is a quick way to keep a record of something, such as an order confirmation or a set of instructions, in a form that will not change.

Copied files are the third option. Select files in Explorer, copy them, and make a PDF from the clipboard. That saves browsing for them again in a file dialogue.

From a screen capture

A screen capture takes in every monitor at once. That is useful for recording exactly what was on screen at a moment: an error message for a support request, a booking page before it disappears, or a dashboard at the end of the month.

Because the window steps aside before the capture, you do not need to minimise it or move it out of the way yourself. Arrange what you want to show on screen, choose the capture, and the result opens as a new PDF.

Tidying the result

A capture of several monitors can be wide. If you only need part of it, use Crop pages and drag a rectangle round the part that matters. For a fixed paper size, Change page size can scale it to fit.

Then add whatever helps. A callout pointing at the error message, a highlight over an amount, a sticky note explaining what happened. A support request with an annotated screen capture is far easier to act on than a description in words.

Where this fits

These quick routes sit beside the fuller ones in File > New. For pictures already saved as files, the pictures route reads many formats at once. For text files and Markdown, there is a route that keeps headings and lists. The clipboard and capture options are for the in-between moments, when the content is on screen and you want it in a PDF now.

Several captures can be joined afterwards with File > Combine files, which turns a set of screens into one step by step record with a bookmark for each.

Care with what you capture

A screen capture takes everything on every monitor. Before you capture, close or move anything private: other emails, messages, passwords in view, personal tabs. Cropping hides parts of a page from view but does not remove them from the file, so if something sensitive slips into a capture, redact it rather than cropping it out.

Also check the new PDF is saved. It opens in a tab, and it is easy to close it without saving when you were only expecting a quick screenshot.

Used well, these two routes turn whatever is on your screen into a document you can keep, mark up and send, without leaving PDF by Zaweba.