The Snipping Tool enables you to take screen shots quickly and easily.
Windows 7 comes with its own built-in screen capture program, known as the Snipping Tool. You can find this on the Start menu under the Accessories menu (alternatively, find it using the search box). Despite its straightforward interface and simple feature-set, it offers most of the functionality that you’re likely to need from a screen grabber – the images that you take can be used to share PC problems or new software with others.
When you launch up the program for the first time, you’ll be asked to drag a window out over the area that you’d like to capture. If you’d prefer to tweak the utility’s settings first, click Options. It’s possible to copy screen grabs straight to the clipboard, for example, and switch off the screen overlay and instruction text if you don’t need them.
It's possible to add annotations before saving the snip.
Using the New menu you can grab the whole screen, a window, or a user-defined section of the display – screen captures taken by the program are known as ‘snips’. Once a snip has been captured, it will be shown on screen, and you then have the option to add annotations or highlighting to the image using the tools at the top.
When it comes to saving your snip to disk, you can store the file in PNG, GIF or JPEG format. There are also options to email the screen grab or copy the image to the Windows clipboard. A new snip can be captured via the New button.
(For a full guide to Windows 7, order the Essential Windows 7 Handbook 3rd Edition, on sale now from newsagents and online.)
