Capturing a screenshot and saving to a document with a Python background script

Question

I’m doing some testing activity which requires me to capture a screenshot of applications, database systems, etc. and save it to a document.

The whole activity has more than 50 screenshots. Is there a way in Python through which I can take a screenshot with a Windows shortcut key (for example, Ctrl + Alt + Shift + C) and it appends the image to a document file?

I believe the Python program should be running in the background, like nohup in Unix.

Answer 1

For storing screen captures in Word using a hotkey, you can use a combination of libraries.

• Use win32gui to open Word
• Use python-docx to update the document and save
• Use PyAutoGUI to do the screen capture
• Use keyboard to listen for the hotkey

For this script to work, you will need to create the Word document before running the script.

# Need these libraries
# pip install keyboard
# pip install PyAutoGUI
# pip install python-docx
# pip install win32gui

import keyboard
import pyautogui
from docx import Document
from docx.shared import Inches
import win32gui
from PIL import ImageGrab

shotfile = "C:/tmp/shot.png"  # Temporary image storage
docxfile = "C:/tmp/shots.docx" # The main document
hotkey = 'ctrl+shift+q'  # Use this combination anytime while the script is running

def do_cap():
    try:
        print ('Storing capture...')

        hwnd = win32gui.GetForegroundWindow()  # Active window
        bbox = win32gui.GetWindowRect(hwnd)  # Bounding rectangle

        # capture screen
        shot = pyautogui.screenshot(region=bbox) # Take a screenshot, active app
        # shot = pyautogui.screenshot() # Take a screenshot full screen
        shot.save(shotfile) # Save the screenshot

        # Append to the document. Doc must exist.
        doc = Document(docxfile) # Open the document
        doc.add_picture(shotfile, width=Inches(7))  # Add the image, 7 inches wide
        doc.save(docxfile)  # Update the document
        print ('Done capture.')
    except Exception as e:  # Allow the program to keep running
        print("Capture Error:", e)

keyboard.add_hotkey(hotkey, do_cap)  # Set hot keys

print("Started. Waiting for", hotkey)

keyboard.wait()   # Block forever