How To: Take Screenshots With The Windows Vista Snipping Tool
The Snipping Tool is a program that is part of the Windows Vista Tablet PC Optional Components feature. Snipping Tool allows you to take selections of your windows or desktop and save them as snips, or screen shots, on your computer.This is very handy when you need a logo from a site, that is using a text based logo with no images that you can download and save.
Unless you have the Tablet PC Optional Components feature enabled, the Snipping Tool will not be available on your Windows Vista computer.When you have enabled the feature, come back and follow the rest of these steps.
To start and use the Snipping Tool in Windows Vista please follow these steps:
- Click on the Start Menu and start typing “snipping” into the search box.
- Snipping Tool should show up in the Programs list above the search box, and you can click on it to start it.
- The Snipping Tool window will appear on your screen. You may move it to an edge of the screen so it’s not in your way, but it will also disappear when you start dragging a selection area.
- The Snipping Tool assumes you want to create a new clipping as soon as you open it. Your screen will dim, and you can click and drag your cursor to select an area to copy. As you drag, the selected area will be darker, and surrounded by a red border if you’ve never changed the Snipping Tool options.
- When you release the mouse button, the captured area will open in the Snipping Tool window. If you’re not happy with the selection and need to try again, click the “New” button.
- When you are happy with your clipping, press the second button to save the screen shot as an image file. See the tips below for file format suggestions.
Tips:
- To turn off the white overlay projected on the screen when 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 Vista’s Snipping Tool is highly customizable. As well as 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.
Popularity: 2%
Did You Like This Post? Then You Might Find These Also Interesting:
Written by Tony on December 30th, 2008 with
no comments.
Read more articles on Vista Features.