Pressing <ALT><Print Scrn> will only copy what you can currently see in your active window. From what you ask, I am assuming you want the whole document on your screen, is that correct? In order to do this, you either need to make a graphic file out of your whole document or save it as a web page and set your background to display a web page. I am using XP so I am not sure that 2000 will display a web page on your desktop. If it will you only need to save your document as a web page then customize your display properties to display this page.

The way I do this on my XP machine is to right click on the desktop and choose "Properties." Then I choose the "Desktop" tab at the top of the window. I then choose "Customize Desktop" near the bottom left of the window. This opens an additional window and I then choose "Web" at the top of the window. From there a wizard opens that will allow you to browse for the web page you want to display. Once you have selected the web page you saved from Word you have to click "OK" back through the windows that were propagated until you are seeing your desktop again. Momentarily, you will see a window that you can expand to fill your screen. This is your chosen web page and it will not only fill the screen but if it won't fit with the proper aspect ratio it will even allow you to scroll through it.

There are programs that will allow you to "print" to a jpg or other type of graphic file directly from Word but I have not found a free one yet. This type of program would add a print driver to a list of your current drivers and would allow you to select this "Printer" to print to. Then you would just use the graphics file it created for your desktop or power point or whatever you are using to display the background. Just Google "DOC to JPG" for a list of sites.

Good luck,

Keywalker

Your right that the print screen method won't capture any more than will fit on the screen. If its something that is close to fitting on the screen you can adjust the aspect ratio of sorts of the word document before you capture the window. You can do this by holding down ctrl and using the mouse scroll, but this method will only get you so far. I guess if you really wanted to you could take a few screen captures, crop and tile them together but that seems over kill. If that doesn't make it fit then I would go with your method and turn it into a web page. Most of this seems like a lot of work for a desktop tho.

You could try taking a picture of the text with a digital camera, upploading the image to file and setting it as background.

I have found a free program that might work for you. It is here: http://www.dbtalk.net/doc-convertor/

I will let you know how it goes.

Regards,

Keywalker

Not exactly. It will create a graphic file from text but I have not as yet figured out how to import the DOC file so that formatting is intact. I get jibberish when I open the DOC file directly and when I cut and paste I get ASCII text but no formatting. I will investigate further.

Regards,

Keywalker

P.S. It will import web pages also but what you get is a graphic of html code and not the web page as it would appear in a browser. This is more of a developer's tool.

You could convert your Word doc to Web page then use ActiveX desktop option.

There are a number of ways to do this. Pressing <Alt> <PrntScrn> will capture the "active" window and it is converted into a .bmp (BitMap) image by the operating system. Open MSPaint and press <crtl>+<v> to paste it into the open paint window. Choose <Save as> from the <File> pull down menu and choose either .jpg or .bmp format to save the image.

Then exit MSPaint, right click on the Desktop and pull up Properties to launch the Display Control Panel. Choose the Desktop tab and then browse to the location where you saved your screen capture image. Select it as your desktop background image and select Apply or OK and close the Display Control Panel.

I would reccommend saving it as a JPEG image because the file size on bitmap images can seriously degrade your video performance, depending on the amount of video RAM your system has available.

If you possess Adobe® Creative Suite software or at least Acrobat w/distiller, you can choose Print from MSWord, select the Print as File Option from the print menu. When prompted for a file name, name it whatever you choose, then change the default .prn extension to .ps (PostScript). Drag and Drop the file onto Acrobat Distiller, select the resolution you want the image to be and Distiller will do its job and save it as an .eps (Encapsulated Post Script) file.

Open the .eps file with either Adobe® Photoshop or Illustrator and save it as whatever file format you'd like it to be. I still recommend .jpg for video performance reasons. This set of steps is way more complicated than the previous steps, but if you're an engineer, the complicated way is probably your best option! ;)

Although this is overkill for a simple desktop background it is VERY useful for reprinting or converting old MS Word papers with embedded images into publishable high-resolution graphics (had to this for a textbook submission years ago—the text wasn't a problem, but the professor no longer had the original image files to go with his old thesis and the images were going to published into an encyclopedia).

I selected the contents of a Word doc (Ctrl-A) and copied this to Paint and then saved it as a JPG. This can then be selected as wall paper for the desktop (if that's all you are trying to do). It will fill the screen and may not give you the "look" that you are after, but the content will be there. I used a single page doc to try this with.

You can save your document as a HTML document, then view your desktop as a web page. In this way, you can use your HTML document as the background.

Regards.

1. Keep the text editor window in fore-ground.

1a. Keep at leas 1/3 or 1/4 of page margin on left side for desk-top Icons.

2. Use any Capture / snap [Picture] program like A free App

3. Open >> Cature/Screen-shot; >> Area F1 ....

4. Scan with Mouse the area you like to capture horizontally & Vertically

5. Save the file as .BMP and convert to .JPG by any tool like "IrfanView"

- Or -/

use Irfanview for it.

It has a versyle Capture & converting/ resizing [up/down] capabillities in many formats

Captur-Area-Client-.jpg 49KB

Captur-Area-Client.jpg > 150KB

NB: capture.exe is simply capture program.

"IrfanView" is averstyle PIX +++ program including Cap /Snap.

And sets as Wallpaper.

There are lot more Apps free & small.