Screen Shots? What’s Our Secret?
Okay, it’s a little known secret that Windows Vista actually has a brilliant clip feature already built in.
Seriously?
Yes!
Let’s Break it Down
GO to your start menu
Search for “Snipping Tool”
A “Snipping Tool Menu” will pop up
Allow it to be placed in your start bar
Click on options and select “white” for Ink Color or tell it no ink
Now You’re Ready to Screen Capture
Simply open a browser, and click your snipping tool icon. The screen should dim- simply place your cursor where you wish to snip and draw your box. As you widen the box, you see color appear- this is your clip. Once you let off of your mouse, an image will pop up. This is your screenshot. Simply name it and select the type of image you wish to save as and you’re done!
Enjoy
Bill Lublin
August 24, 2008 at 11:45 am
Greatness sounds so simple once its explained!
😉
Drew Meyers
August 24, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Wow – thanks for the tip Benn. How I did not know about this before is beyond me.
Paula Henry
August 24, 2008 at 1:24 pm
I did not know Vista offered this – just one of the many reasons I come to AG.
Mark Eibner
August 24, 2008 at 5:18 pm
we’re at it again Ag! We Love Your Images, How do You do it?: Never fear- your commenti.. https://tinyurl.com/5fc5nz
John Lauber
August 25, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Don’t fret if you don’t have Vista. If you have a tablet pc with XP it comes with that too. If you have Wacom or similar external tablet attached to your PC, I believe you can install Tablet XP Edition as well.
If you don’t have either and you want free, I found the “original” basic snipping tool here: Snippy Tool. It copies whatever you “snip” to the clipboard for you to paste into your application of choice. Doesn’t have some of the bells and whistles the “official” version does, but it gets the job done.
Jay Thompson
August 25, 2008 at 12:55 pm
SnagIt is a wonderful program for taking (and manipulating/annotating) screen shots. It’s not free, but at $49 it’s well worth it. (there is a 30 day free trial.)
Matt Thomson
August 25, 2008 at 2:51 pm
Jingproject.com IS free, and is almost exactly like Snagit. Doesn’t have quite the manipulation features, but easier capture, puts it right into Flickr where you can manipulate, and as I said, IS FREE!
Benn Rosales
August 25, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Matt, free is rock star quality man, rock star I say!
John, thanks for that, I found the tool this morning, but I wasn’t actually able to test or try it as I don’t have xp or a tablet, we’ll roll on your word!
Jay, I may try that for tuts in the future, I typically use photoshop for mastered cuts and demos, but 49 bucks might help me remove the need for PS.
Drew, aren’t you an apple guy? 😉
Bill, the answer was hanging right there over newtons the entire time…
John Lauber
August 26, 2008 at 7:33 am
Matt. Jingproject looks great. I can see a lot of uses for that if you need to communicate with clients. Plus as you say, it’s FREE.
Judy Peterson
September 14, 2008 at 12:30 pm
I’ve also used http://www.gadwin.com print screen which is free. You can then resize with http://www.irfanview.com which is also free. I have to check out Snagit. Editing tools would be nice to have.