Simple Screenshots with February's Tools of the Month

How many times have you needed a picture of something on your screen.  You know about the printscreen (prtscr) key.  However, that gives you everything on your screen and so you are stuck trying to crop the picture. You finally give up and think, they don't really need a picture of what I'm talking about.

Good news awaits! A hidden jewel in Windows 7 and carried over to Windows 8 is the snipping tool.  To find the tool, click on start and start typing in the search box that appears right above start and start typing in snipping.  You will see the tool appear at the top of the search box. Click on the tool.  When it opens, it automatically appears with the crosshairs to start your screen selection to snip. Once you have drawn your selected screen and lift your mouse button, you have the option to save your selection, highlight parts of the selection and then save, or just select to copy the selection and paste it in a new location.  Your saving options are as HTML, PNG, GIF, or JPEG. Check it out yourself and see how amazingly simple it is to get the perfect screenshot!

Since February is a short month, I'll give you a second tool as well. It is called the step recorder.  It is another hidden gem included within Windows 7.  Click on start, type in "step" in the search box above start and click on "Record Steps to Reproduce a Problem". Click to record and then go through the steps of something you are trying to explain or as it suggests to demonstrate what happens when you are having issues and you want to share with someone the screens that appear.  I see both options as being incredibly helpful.  The results of step recorder include an itemized step-by-step listing of the steps you took (great for giving someone instructions on how to do something) and/or it also gives you those step-by-steps AND includes screenshots along the way!  How cool is that? How many times have you created step-by-steps for people on your own and took all those screen shots yourself.  This tool does it all for you. What an amazing timesaver!