Having no manual strikes again :D

Ok, i have guessed that this can only be done via a spell, which spells can do this, and and are they available as scrolls, also if you us a scroll do they fail often if you arnt good at magic, as i have only tried learned spells with this character, as he mainly a fighter.

Scrolls always work. You use the trap soul spell to trap souls. Cast magic, or use a scroll, and later there are weapons which cast trap soul upon striking. Also you can enchant a weapon to trap soul. You have only a limited time to kill the soul and trap it once it is cast. You also have to have a soul gem of high enough quality to trap the soul.

To trap a soul you must cast the spell upon a living creature, then kill it before the spell expires.
Obviously you need a soul gem, and it must be powerful enough to hold the soul (e.g. a Golden Saint will be held only by a Grand Soul Gem, while a rat can be put in a Petty one.)
Also, if i recall correctly the same soul will perform differently in different soul gems: the better the gem, the better the effect.

The spell (Soul Trap) is a Touch spell, which means that you must touch your enemy while casting it in order for it to be effective. If correctly casted, you will see the creature surrounded by a pink fog ring.
It is governed by the mysticism skill, which means that if you are terrible at mysticism, you will fail often (and trust me, failing while a Golden Saint is spanking you is usually a bad idea).
It doesn't work on non-player characters (e.g. you can't soul trap anybody which has a proper name e.g. no Sjoring Hard Heart or Sugar Lips Habasi but works on Ascended Sleeper)

Three solutions to the problem:

1)improve your skill (via training in the mages guilds) I strongly reccomend this option, since Mark, Recall, Almsivi and Divine Intervention are governed by mysticism as well, and being able to cast them helps you with your wandering.

2)buy a scroll (Ephiggy's Gem Feeder - Galbedir in the Balmora Mage's guild has them; I guess all enchanters have them). Using a scroll you can't fail, but scrolls cost (120 drakes If I Recall Correctly)

3)Enchant an item or find one already enchanted (possibly a weapon). In the game you should find some.

cheers for that info :D

Just a couple clarifying notes:
1: A soul trap spell isn't necessarily touch (although the named spell "Soul Trap" may be). You can pay a spell maker to make a spell with the soul trap effect with "cast on target" (ie ranged) rather than "cast on touch." The spell maker can only make spells with spell effects that your character already knows. It may be that the only spells with the soul trap effect available to learn (ie buy) are touch spells.

2: Before one of the patches, you could cast soul trap after you killed the creature and it would still work. I forget which patch fixed this bug.

3: By far the easiest thing to do is to enchant or find a weapon with "cast soul trap on strike". I found a daedric dagger with this which is perfect (for my character). It's light and short sword was a major skill. Hit the creature once, then pull out a more damaging weapon or beat on them with spells.

as a patch fixed this, any ideas whether this will still be viable in the xbox version, ie, what patched version is the xbox game?

I recommend enchanting a Daedric DaiKatana with the Soul Trap "Cast on Strike". If you have a good strength and can sneak up on the monster you can whack a Golden Saint with one shot and have it go in the Soul Gem.

You can also find Phryggies Gem Feeder (Sp?) scrolls lying around in various places. These work at range and can give you 60 seconds to dispatch your foe.

I have the latest 1.2 patch and can easily trap souls on the corpses. My 66-yr-old father is playing through Morrowind, and the soul trap fails on the corpses. Go figure.

I find a "target" rather than a "touch" spell or a "cast on strike" weapon to be the best choice. I have 2 versions, one with radius 10 and the other with max radius. The latter is fun if you want to get a bunch of enemies ticked off at you at once and gobble a bunch of souls quickly.

In any case, casting at range gives you ample time to switch spells/weapons, and you don't need to carry any extra weapon.

AC