You’ve caught your colleague with their pants down on a Zoom call. Naturally you want to capture a screenshot. Quickly. You’ll need the snipping tool shortcut.
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The quick way of using the snipping tool is Windows key-Shift-S. This will open the snipping tool in rectangular mode so you can grab a quick shot. It’s worth noting this is a Windows tool not a shortcut for Office or Word.
If you have a little more time, perhaps your colleague has fallen on their back, you can take the more considered approach with the Snipping tool. Using the mouse press the Start Windows key then choose snipping tool or mode to select either free-form, rectangle, window or full-screen. With this snip you can pin it as a tile to your start screen in Windows 8. To do this go to ‘All App’ option, right click and choose ‘Pin to Start’. Screenshots taken in a browser will, by default, show the URL below the snip. If you don’t want this uncheck ‘Include URL below snips (HTML only)’ in snip options.
If you’re on Windows 7 or Vista it might be time to get a new computer. But, just before you throw it out, have a quick go at taking a snip. On Windows 7 or Vista you may need to turn the snipping tool shortcut first. To do that, press ‘start’ then go to the control panel, then, in Windows features scroll down to and tick ‘Tablet-PC Optional Components’. Once that’s done you can take a snip and preserve an image of this antiquated operating system in a time capsule.
An old person might be aware of the PrintScreen button, don’t worry, it won’t waste all the ink and paper in your printer, it will just copy the entire screen to your clipboard. To use the print screen shortcut simply press the PrtScr button then open an image editor and press Control-V.
Below is a quick guide to the main snipping tool shortcuts.
I have quite a few shortcuts for use in Windows for various functions, but there’s no section for them.
Put the Computer to Sleep: Windows Key + X -> U Key -> S Key
Open Task Manager: Ctrl + Shift + Esc
Lock the Computer: Windows Key + L
Open the Emoji Keyboard: Windows Key + . (period)
Also, there’s a bug when collapsing a shortcut that when you open it back up it collapses automatically and you can never keep it open until you refresh the webpage. Can you please speed up the collapsing/opening animation too?
Thanks Peter, great feedback. I’ve implemented it!