For the past almost decade I’ve been a frequent user of the PrtSc button that comes standard on a keyboard. In need of showing a third party what I’m seeing on my screen, I’d laboriously hit the PrtSc button and then paste it (Ctrl + V) into a word document to crop it to show only the info. that was relevant. When I changed computers and to my horror the PrtSc button no longer worked!, I discovered (via Google) that I now needed to press the Fn + PrtSc keyboard buttons at the same time to get a screen capture.
All this while, people much smarter than me were utilising the Snipping Tool. In 2007 when Windows Vista was released, so was ‘the snipping tool’. The snipping tool, a utility inside windows, allows you to screenshot selected areas of your screen. This clever tool allows you to select specific areas of your screen with both a rectangular and free form shape, or your full window, if you so desire. You can draw on it with pens or highlighters. You can then copy and paste it into a document or an email or even save it as a png, gif or jpeg.
How it took me from 2007 to 2016 to discover this tool existed is a little beyond me :-/. But just in case, you – like me, have been living under the elementary computer usage rock, I thought sharing my discovery would be the right thing to do.
So, in case you’ve never tried out the snipping tool, why not try this computer tool now?
Type ‘Snipping Tool’ in the search box of your task bar
This little box will pop up…
Use the dropdown box to choose what type of snip you want to create
Click on new, you screen will now fade slightly
Now drag the cursor along the specific area you want to copy
Your selected area will now be inside your snipping window where you can add some pen or highlight work. Cntrl + C, then Cntrl + v your handy work into your relevant document.
And there you have it, the Snipping Tool!
Ps. My mouse highlighting work is about as elementary as my computer tool knowledge!
Fun fact: All images, aside for the last, were imbedded into this article via the PrtSc button tool 😀 I guess there’s room for both! 😉
