Take Screenshots with the Snipping Tool in Windows 7 & Windows 8

All of us have done our fair share of working with images. Both Windows 7 and Windows 8 offer an easy to use tool for taking more complex screenshots, named the Snipping Tool. In this tutorial I will share how to take screenshots using this tool, how to save, edit or email a shot, how to use the available markup tools and how to change the settings of the application.

Where to Find the Snipping Tool in Windows 7

Windows 7 offers numerous ways to get to the Snipping Tool. You can go to the Start Menu, chooseAccessories and then click Snipping Tool.

A second way is to type the word "snipping" in the Start Menu search box and click Snipping Tool.

Where to Find the Snipping Tool in Windows 8

In Windows 8, right click on the Start screen and click All apps. Then, go to Windows Accessories and you will find its shortcut there.

Obviously, you can type the word snip and the Start screen displays the appropriate results.

This opens the Snipping Tool application and its window looks similar to the screenshot below.

As you can see, the application looks almost identical to the Windows 7 version. Its features are the same in both operating systems. Only a few minor settings (e.g. the default ink color) are different than in Windows 7.

That’s why the remainder of this tutorial will be done using the version existing in Windows 7.

Snipping Tool’s Main Interface

The Snipping Tool window has three important buttons: New, Cancel and Options.

The New button allows you to select the type of screenshot that you want to take and take a screenshot. The Cancel button enables you to cancel the current action. The Options button allows you to customize different aspects of the application.

How to Take a Custom Screenshot

There are four types of captures found under the New button:

• The Free-form Snip enables you to draw an irregular line around an object or area.
• The Rectangular Snip allows you to take a screenshot shaped as a rectangle, by dragging the cursor around an object.
• Window Snip allows you to select a window (e.g. your Internet browser) or dialogue box (e.g. error message received from an application) and capture it.
• Full-screen Snip enables you to capture the entire screen, like the old-fashioned Print Screen key.

To share an example, let’s see how to capture a part of your Desktop using Free-form Snip. First of all select the Free-form Snip from the drop down menu and then choose the area that you want to cut.

Select the area that interests you by clicking and dragging your cursor. As you drag, the selected area is surrounded by a red border, if you are using the default settings.

When you release the mouse button, the captured area is automatically copied to the mark-up window, where you can annotate, save or share the screenshot.

How to Edit a Screenshot

This editing window offers useful tools for editing the capture you took. For example, if you are not satisfied with the quality of the picture you can always make a new one using New Snip button. Before saving your screenshot, you can use the ’Pen and Highlighter’ tools from the toolbar and add markup to the capture. The Eraser tool will remove marks made with the ’Pen and Highlighter’.

To save the screenshot, press the Save Snip button, select the location, complete the file’s name and choose the file type: PNG, GIF JPEG or HTML. The, press Save.

NOTE: If you want to find out more about file types, I recommend file-extensions.org.

You may email a screenshot without saving it to your computer, by using the ’Send Snip’ button on the toolbar. It gives you two options: E-mail Recipient and E-mail Recipient (as attachment).

NOTE: For using this option you need to have an account configured in your default email program. In case you don’t have an email address configured, I suggest saving the screenshot as an image and then sending it using your web-based email account (e.g. Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, etc).

How to Customize the Snipping Tool

When you start the Snipping Tool, you can click on the Options button to set your preferences on how the program should work.

Options is found also in the Tools menu.

The options are broken up into Application and Selections groups.

The Application section has a set of checkboxes that enable you to make the following changes:

• ’Hide Instruction Text’ - hide the instruction text in the main Snipping Tool window.
• ’Always copy snips to the Clipboard’ - copy all captures to the Windows clipboard so you can paste them into other applications (e.g. Word processors or image editors).
• ’Include URL below snips (HTML only)’ - save your snips as a Single File HTML or MHT documents. If a snip is taken from an Internet Explorer window, it also shows the URL of the webpage included in the screenshot.
• ’Prompt to save snips before exiting’ - gives you a heads up if you have any captures that you have not saved, prior to closing the program.
• ’Show screen overlay’ - if disabled, when you are taking a screenshot, the Snipping Tool transparent overlay disappears from the screen.

The second section, named Selection Options, allows you to make a few settings regarding the color palette :

• ’Ink Color’ - changes the color of the selection border when you create a snip.
• ’Show selection ink after snips are captured’ - when enabled, the selection border will be shown, using the color selected in the ’Ink Color’ option, around the snip.

Conclusion

Now that you know how to use the Snipping Tool, the coast is clear for you to take great looking captures.


References: http://www.7tutorials.com/how-use-snipping-tool