How to use the Windows Snipping Tool

The Snipping Tool is a program that is part of Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Window 8. Snipping Tool allows you to take selections of your windows or desktop and save them as snips, or screen shots, on your computer. It allows you to take screen shots of only specific sections of your screen. The Snipping Tool allows you to capture portions of your screen using four methods and then save these snips as a JPG, GIF, PNG, or MHT file. The capture methods that can be used to take snips are free-form, rectangular, window, and full-screen.

This guide will walk you through the steps necessary to use the Snipping Tool to save screen shots of your running programs, portions of other pictures, and your desktop as images on your computer.

Starting the Snipping Tool

To start the Snipping Tool please follow these steps:

1. Click on the Start button to open your Start Menu. The Start button looks like this:

2. Click the Snipping Tool which looks like this.

3. If it is not part of the Windows Start Menu, then click on the All Programs menu option.

3. Then click on the Accessories group

4. Finally click on the Snipping Tool icon which looks like this:

The snipping tool should now be started and you will see a screen similar to the one below.

The tool’s window should open, click “New” to start snipping a portion of the screen. Once you clicked the New snip button, the Snipping tool’s window will go away so you can be free to mark the screen with the rectangular cursor. There are four types of snips that you can choose from:

1. Free-form Snip. Draw an irregular line, such as a circle or a triangle, around an object. 2. Rectangular Snip. Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

3. Window Snip. Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture. 4. Full-screen Snip. Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.

Mark the portion of the screen that you want to capture. Once you are done marking, you should see captured screen appear on the snipping tool’s window. In the example below I captured Windows 7’s taskbar:

Click “Save As” to save the file as an image. By default it is saved as type PNG, change to a simpler format like JPEG to save space. If you need better quality though, PNG is a better choice.

TIPS

• To turn off the white overlay projected onto the screen by the Snipping Tool, click Options. Clear the check box Show screen overlay when Snipping Tool is active. • To assign a shortcut key to the Snipping Tool, right-click the Snipping Tool icon, click Properties and select the Shortcut tab. Enter your preference in Shortcut key. • Snips can be saved in a range of formats including HTML, PNG, GIF and JPEG. These can be chosen upon saving the snip. • Windows's Snipping Tool is highly customizable. In addition to the annotation options, you can also change the color of the ink (border) used to capture snips. Go into Options and choose a color from the drop-down menu under Selection by clicking on the arrow. The standard ink color is black. Ink colors can be removed as a standard feature by clearing the box Show ink selection after snips are captured.