Before Windows 7, the only built-in Windows graphics program was Paint.
Now we have the aptly named 'Snip which allows us to take screen shots and save the resulting image to a png, jpeg, gif or even an html file format.
This is more versatile that Print Screen.
Making a 'Snip' is intuitive. However,
the very, first time you can wonder what to do. Just look for the big
cross and drag with the mouse. The desktop will be a translucent / grey. This simultaneously alerts you to copy an area, and allows you enough transparency to
see what you are doing.
Tip So That You Can Snip Menus Mission to capture open menus and
popups.
Open the snipping tool, but press the Esc key to get out of snipping
mode.
Setup the screen to be captured
Press Ctrl + Print Screen (Crucial Point)
Now select the area of your screen that you want to capture.
In truth, it took me about 7 goes before I got the sequence right.
If all else fails call for the Windows 7 Snipping tool's help!
Update: Once you have made the 'cut', you can highlight areas with a thin
pen or a thick marker. At first, I overlooked these snipping tools, both
of which are found on the small toolbar, see screenshot.
Encouraging computers to sleep when not in use is a great idea -
until you are away from your desk and need a file on that remote sleeping machine!
Wake-On-LAN really will save you that long walk to awaken a hibernating
machine; however my reason for encouraging you to download this utility is
just because it's so much fun sending those 'Magic Packets'. As Wake-On-LAN (WOL) is free, see
if I am right, and you get a kick from arousing those sleeping machines.
WOL also has business uses for example, wakening machines so that they can have
their patches applied.
As with most
Microsoft programs,
somewhere there are configuration properties, or in this case, an Option menu.
For example: Use Options to get rid of "Show screen overlay when Snipping
Tool is active."
For me the key decisions were:
Do you want the Snipping Tool
pinned to the Taskbar or the Start Menu? If so, right-click the
executable.
Which format do you want to save your image? Jpeg, gif, png or html.
(I also have a problem remembering the highlighting tools.)
Complimentary Graphics Tools
To take shots of the Snipping Tool itself I used Paint Shop Pro. In a word a professional graphics package provides sophistication. However, the advantages of
the Windows 7 Snipping tool is that it's built-in and the learning time is zero compared with two weeks for the average graphics package.
Just as many of the current computer generation are not aware of Ctrl
+c for copy, so they are oblivious to the Print Screen key for capturing images. Unfortunately, neither of these techniques work with the Snipping tool, but they do work with Paint Shop Pro.
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