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I have many screen shots on my computer. But, when I view a screen shot, how do I access the web site I got the screen shot from? Is there a way to do that. Looking at the picture in itself, I can't tell how I got it and I want to know where it came from. Can anyone help? Thank you.

I have many screen shots on my computer. But, when I view a screen shot, how do I access the web site I got the screen shot from? Is there a way to do that. Looking at the picture in itself, I can't tell how I got it and I want to know where it came from. Can anyone help? Thank you.

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Hi sciencemagic, the Firefox Screenshots feature puts the page title in the file name but not the URL. There is not, unfortunately, any way to configure the extension to add that information. So figuring out the source site would require comparing the date/time stamp on the file with your browsing history.

If you mostly take full screen screenshots, you could consider using an add-on screenshotter that lets you configure how files are named. For example, I use this one: https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/savescreenshot/

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Hi Jscher2000, thanks for the reply. So, I guess I can't just locate the source of the photo from what you describe. To bad. But, you suggest using a add-on. Before I try that suggestion, normally I use the program Gadwin PrintScreen to take the picture. Is it possible jscher2000, I could somehow use Gadwin PrintScreen to locate the source of the photo? If so, in your opinion, how could I do that? Thank you.

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sciencemagic said

... normally I use the program Gadwin PrintScreen to take the picture.

Oh, I thought we were talking about a page screenshot created using Firefox Screenshot, the Page Actions menu (•••) item item labeled "Take a Screenshot." I don't know what Gadwin does. Does it show the address bar in the screenshot?

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jscher2000, thanks again for your reply. There is a address bar, and when I do some fiddling, I click on the file tab and locate a link called properties. Within properties, I see no way to find the source of the screen shot I took. Frankly, not sure where to look on the address bar for help, other than I see no tab or link for help. I would maybe presume the link you sent me on your initial reply has a feature for me to access the source of the shot I took? Thanks for your help, jscher2000.

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Hi sciencemagic, the only suggestion I have for your existing (already saved) screenshots is to compare the date/time the screenshot file was saved against the URLs you visited during that time in your Firefox history. Or if the screenshot shows the address bar, of course, the URL or at least part of it would be shown in the image.

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Hi jscher2000, thanks for the reply once again. I understand your suggestion. Yes, the screen shot does show a date it was activated. So, just going over to the history tab and I presume clicking on show all history, I can maybe find the site on that given day? Yes, it would take some detective work but I suppose it could work. The link you suggested earlier, from I believe FireFox, https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/savescreenshot/ would that have the ability to track web sites for a given screen shot? Thank you, jscher2000.

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Hi sciencemagic, the reason I suggested the Save Screenshot extension was that going forward, you can have it insert the URL into the file name for newly captured screenshots. It would not be helpful for the historical research project, that requires human intelligence.

There is a third party program named MzHistoryView that can extract your Firefox history in full detail. By full detail I mean that it shows every visit to a URL. The Library window only shows the latest visit to a URL, so if you took a screenshot from a site in June and then visited it again in August, the date/time in the Library window won't match.

I generally run MzHistoryView monthly to archive my history for the previous month and that's usually 4MB+. I'm not sure how far back you need to go, but you might need to create several files to keep the file size manageable/searchable.

http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/mozilla_history_view.html

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jscher2000, thanks for the reply. I understand your comments. It would seem using Save Screenshot extension might solve the problem of assigning a URL to a given screen shot for future reference. But, I also believe I will try and contact Gadwin PrnetScreen to see what options they might have? I also would like to see if I can improve the quality of the screen shots once they are taken. And, maybe Gadwin has some solutions to that also? I do appreciate your help jscher 2000. Thanks once again for your help and comments. Take care.