Sending copies of Instant Messages

Clipboard or Screenshot?

Some systems for sending instant messages - such as WhatsApp - have a facility to copy a message or set of messages to the clipboard so that they can then be saved in a file which you can then send to me. But some other instant messaging systems - such as SMS text messages - either have no copy facility at all or only have the facility to copy one individual message at a time to the clipboard. In these cases it may be necessary to take a screenshot. 

Taking a screenshot

How to take a screenshot on a device depends on what model it is but on iPhones it is usually pressing the home button and power button at the same time. On Android devices it is often pressing the volume down button and power button at the same time. The screenshot takes a JPG or PNG image of what the phone's screen is displaying at the time. You can capture more than one screen's worth of text using the "scroll down" button.

Note that if a particular text message is quite long, the messaging app you are using might initially just display the first 10 lines, for example, followed by ...Read More. In this case, of course, you need to tap on "Read more" so that the entire message is displayed before doing a screenshot.

Some messaging apps show the time and date on the first message of each day but for subsequent messages, later on in the day, only show the time. In this case you might need to capture the first message of the day, even if it is not itself relevant, in order to be able to demonstrate the date of those messages which show only the time. 

Some messaging apps display the date of recent messages as "Today", "Yesterday", "Tuesday", "Monday", etc. and only display the full date for messages over 7 days old. In this case, if you want to do a screenshot of messages less than a week old, you would need to wait a few days until they are over a week old in order to capture the full date.

If you capture too many messages in one go, the text is liable to become too small to be easily read when fitted into a single A4 page, so you may need to limit the number of times you press "scroll down" with each screenshot. It is important that the text of the messages is sufficiently large to be clear (but not enormous) so you may need to experiment a couple of times to get it right. Turning your phone to the horizontal position before taking the screenshot may help. 

Disclaimer

The information above is necessarily of a general nature and will not be applicable to every case: it is intended to be used in conjunction with more specific advice to the individual client about the individual case. Contact me for advice about your case.

The information on this page about specific computer techniques is provided for information purposes only. Every reasonable effort has been made to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date at the time it was written but no responsibility for its accuracy, or for any consequences of relying on it, is assumed by me. You should satisfy yourself, before using any of the techniques, software or services described, that the techniques are appropriate for your purposes and that the software or service is reliable.

This page was lasted updated in December 2024. Disclaimer