More Fun with Windows Aero: Screenshots

A picture is worth 1000 words, and sometimes it’s much easier to show someone what’s happening on your computer than trying to explain it. Call them screenshots, screen captures, caps, or grabs, Windows 7’s Aero feature offers a few different ways to take snapshots of what’s displayed on your monitor.

1. To capture everything on your screen, simply press the “Print Screen” (sometimes marked “PrtScn”) button on your keyboard. Then, open Microsoft Paint (or some other image editing application) and press Ctrl+V to paste the capture onto the canvas, then save it.

2. To capture only a specific segment of the screen, you have a few options. You can do as above, but after pasting the image, select the region you wish to save with Paint’s rectangle “Select” tool and press “Crop.”

3. To capture only one application window, bring that window to the front, press Alt+PrtScn, and then paste it into your image editor.

4. If you don’t want to have to remember keyboard shortcuts, Windows 7 provides a tool for grabbing screenshots called “Snipping Tool.” Press the Windows button on your taskbar, start typing “Snipping Tool” into the “Search programs and files” box, and it should come up.

Open the program, and you’ll see a box that looks like this:

Drag a rectangle around the part of the image you wish to capture, and the new image is sent to your clipboard. Again, paste it into your image editor and press “Save.”

To learn about other features of Windows Aero, see this QuickTip.