There is a little-known utility that is lurking in the Accessories area on all Windows Vista and 7 operating systems that we at PCS use on a daily basis, but no one seems to be aware of: the Snipping Tool.

The Snipping Tool can be used to capture a screen shot, or snip, of any object on your screen and then annotate, save, or share the image.

The mouse can be utilized to capture any of the following types of snips:

Free-form Snip: Draw an irregular line around an object

Rectangular Snip: Draw a precise line by dragging the cursor around an object to form a rectangle.

Window Snip: Select a window, such as a browser window or dialog box, that you want to capture

Full-screen Snip: Capture the entire screen when you select this type of snip.

After the snip is captured, it is automatically copied to the mark-up window where you can annotate, save or share the snip.

Personally, I use this tool in my day-to-day communications with clients via email.  It is invaluable in allowing me to illustrate a concept, problem or solution with a program by taking a “snip” of my screen and then pasting that snip in a quick email.

I know a few clients are in the habit of emailing a screen capture by hitting the Print Screen (PrtScn) key on their keyboards, pasting the capture in Word, editing the capture and then mailing the document as an attachment.  Hopefully this tool will make that process a lot easier for some folks.