What is the Windows Snipping Tool?
The Windows Snipping Tool is a tool in Windows that allows you to copy parts of what is displayed on your screen to the Clipboard. The Windows Snipping Tool will allow you to mark areas of stuff on your screen on your computer to the Clipboard and then paste that image in documents, emails, to Facebook, etc. This is a good way to be able to either show others what is on your screen or keep a copy of what is on the screen.
When you put things on the Clipboard (could be through the Snipping Tool, copying or pasting text or images, etc.) the last item stays on the Clipboard and the previous is removed and gone. You can paste anything you put on the clipboard in places you can edit. In addition, when Windows is stopped, or the computer turned off, anything on the Clipboard is gone.
I use the Snipping Tool in developing handouts for my students showing them how to do stuff and snip the various screens and then paste those snips in a document with my directions.
The Window Snipping Tool is located in Windows Accessories in the Start menu (the menu that appears when you click the Start button)
You will get a small box that is the Windows Snipping Tool and you will click New and then you will go and mark the area you want to snip (sort of like cutting something out of the newspaper with scissors) and when you finish marking area and release the mouse that material goes on the Clipboard. Normally you do not look at the Clipboard, however after you do the snip the copied are will show in the Windows Snipping Tool.
The Windows Snipping Tool is a wonderful tool in Windows to be able to copy things from the screen or images to other documents or emails. If it is text you want to copy from a document to another use the copy and paste functions in your word processor so it is copied as text and not as an image and you can edit the text then if you want.
Dwight Watt does computer work for businesses, individuals and organizations and teaches about computers at a college in Northwest Georgia. His website is www. dwightwatt.com His email address is dwight@dwightwatt.com.