Vista Tips

Making A Screen Shot

Today, I'm introducing the Windows Vista Snipping Tool to you.

First of all, to open the Snipping Tool, go to Start, Accessories, Snipping Tool. (You can also access it by typing the word "snip" into the search box under the Start menu).
When it opens, you'll see a box with three commands in it. Those are: New, Cancel and Options. The New button is what you can use to decide what part of the screen you want to capture, the Cancel button can be used to cancel any action after you've already started a screen capture and the Options button is there to help you choose which way you want your Snipping Tool to work. The box with all of these choices will come up every time you want to do a screenshot.
When you're ready to take your screenshot, get the Snipping Tool open and click on the New button. From there, you can choose which type of shot you'd like to do. The choices are: Free-form snip, rectangular snip, window snip or full-screen snip. When you've decided which one you want to do, focus in on what you want to capture. You may have a photo you want to make a screenshot for or you might have part of a Web site that you'd like to send to a friend. Either way, make sure it's up on your screen so you can start to "snip" it.
To snip what you want, just drag your mouse until you've captured what you want. Once you've got it snipped, you can choose from different customizing options to add certain things to your image. For example, you can use a highlighter to highlight certain things in whatever color you'd like to use. You can use the pen tool to write in some colorful text and if you make a mistake, the eraser tool is always there to bring you back so you can start over. Now, if none of those tickle your fancy, you can click the Options choice to change your image around even more. This is what the Options window looks like:
Now, when you're done with your screenshot, you can either save it or you can even send it to someone in an e-mail. To save it, go to File, Save and just save it to a folder on your computer. I always like to save mine to the My Pictures folder, but it's up to you. If you'd like to send your screenshot in an e-mail, go to File, Send To and you can choose to send it in the body of an e-mail or you can send it as an attachment. Then just type in your recipient's e-mail address and they'll be able to see all the snipping work you did!