How to Use Windows Snipping Tool Shortcut

Capture stunning screenshots instantly with the Windows Snipping Tool Shortcut. Understand the step-by-step instructions with simple capture techniques and expert tips to save your valuable time:

Sometimes, when you are working on your computer or browsing the internet, you may want to capture a specific part of what is displayed on your screen.

As easy as it may look with the printing screen keyboard key, which will only capture the whole screen, and you cannot make any highlights on the captured image, but with Windows Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch, capturing and editing the captured image is simple and easy to use.

Snip Tool Shortcut: Complete Guide for Instant Screenshots

The earlier Snipping Tool was initially released with Windows Vista 2007. While Windows 10 has both Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch working separately, Windows 11 combined these two apps into a single Snipping Tool.

In this article, we will discuss the keyboard shortcut for Snipping Tool. Feel free to read through our exclusive guide on the top Snipping Tools for Mac.

Here is the video guide on Windows 10 Snipping Tool Shortcut:

What Task Can You Perform With the Windows Snipping Tool?

You can use the snipping tool to do more than just capture your screen.

Here are the different tasks you can complete with Snipping Tool:

1. Snipping Mode:

You have the flexibility to extract or capture a specific part or angle with different modes like the free-form, rectangular, window, or full-screen snips.

2. Tutorial Benefit:

You can use the pen or highlighter to highlight an important area of capture. You can also add hand-written notes on the image, which is very good for tutorials and presentations.

3. Delay Snipping:

This feature is very good for capturing things that usually disappear when you no longer interact with the screen, like a context menu or drop-down menu. This feature has a delay functionality that allows the snipping tool to appear only after a few seconds.

4. File Formats:

You can save your captured image in many file formats, like PNG, JPEG, GIF, and HTML.

5. Copy to Clipboard:

You can quickly copy and paste your screenshot to a Word document, email, social media, chat, and many other platforms, even before you save the image file.

6. Printing and Sharing an Image File:

There is a direct share feature that enables you to send your captured image via email. You can send the image to other applications like WhatsApp and Telegram, and you can decide to print the screenshot.

7. Editing with Other Applications:

You can conduct advanced editing on the image file with Photos, Paint, and Paint 3D applications. This functionality helps to resize and apply more filters.

Windows Snipping Tool Shortcut

1. On the Snip & Sketch, you can use a combination of the Windows logo key + Shift + S to snip or screenshot your screen without starting Snip & Sketch.

2. You can decide to Snip now, Snip in 3 seconds, or Snip in 10 seconds as shown below.

3. When you click on the New button, you will see four buttons: Rectangular Snip, Freeform Snip, Window Snip, and Fullscreen Snip. These tools can capture your screen in different shapes and angles.

4. Immediately, you click any of the buttons to capture the screen, a second screen will pop out showing further editing functionalities like the Touch Writing, Ballpoint pen, Pencil, Highlighter, Eraser, Ruler, and Image Crop.

5. Please note that in Snip & Sketch, when you click the New button, the app may not prompt you to save the capture; you have to click the Save button to save the image file or you go into the Settings and toggle the Save Snips to ON, which is different from Snipping Tool that is default to prompt you to save before closing a screen capture.

Snipping Tool Windows 10

1. On the Snipping Tool, there is no default keyboard shortcut to open it like Snip & Sketch.

2. In the Windows Search box, type Snipping Tool and hit the Enter key.

3. If you want a shortcut on your computer, you can pin it to the taskbar and use the combination of Win + the number where you pin the Snipping Tool on the taskbar. It is usually counted from left to right. For example, the image below shows the counting to the right, starting from the Copilot pinned to the taskbar to the Snipping Tool.

4. There is the Mode button that allows you to select either a Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip, or Full-screen Snip.

5. You can decide to delay your snipping for between 1 – 5 seconds.

6. You can further set up the Snipping Tool options, like the Ink color and others.

Snipping Tool on Windows 11

Microsoft combined the initial Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch into just one app and still called it Snipping Tool on Windows 11. This new one has a better UI experience, and how to screenshot part of the screen on Windows is now made easier.

Some of the Snipping features on these Windows 11 are:

• Snipping Modes
• Capture Options
• Annotation and Editing
• Sharing and Saving
• Dark Mode

You can click on the New button or use the combination of these keyboard keys: Windows key + Shift + S is a snip tool shortcut.

In the image below, after capturing your screen, you will notice the following buttons for different Quick Screenshot Methods in Windows 11.

1. New Screenshot
2. Screenshot snip
3. Video Recording snip
4. Snipping area
5. Delay snip
6. Captured image
7. Edit in Paint
8. Save
9. Copy
10. Share
11. Editing tools

Windows Video Recording Shortcuts

You also have the privilege of using key shortcuts to capture a recording on your computer by following these steps:

• Use the combination of these keys to open the snipping tool overlay to capture a video clip: Windows logo + Shift + R.
• Drag the cursor across the area you want to record on your screen.
• Click Start Recording. You can pause or stop the recording at any time.
• You can also unmute the microphone or mute the system audio.

Saving Snipped File to OneDrive Using Settings

You can easily save your file to a Cloud platform like OneDrive.

Follow the steps below to automatically save your screenshots or recording file to OneDrive.

1. Click on the Snipping Tool settings as shown below.

2. Scroll down to “Screenshots are saved to” and “Screen recordings are saved to” and click Change to navigate to your OneDrive document. Whenever you save, it will automatically be saved to the OneDrive document.

Saving Snipped file to OneDrive using Keyboard Shortcut

You can use the following keyboard shortcut to save your file to OneDrive.

• Alt + PrtScn: This will capture the active window and automatically save to OneDrive.
• Win + Shift + S: This will open the snipping overlay and, after capture, automatically save to OneDrive.

Windows Snipping Tools Keyboard Shortcut

When you press the Alt key on Snipping Tool and Snip & Sketch, you will see the keyboard letter that will be pressed with the Alt highlighted on the icons.

Here are some of the best Snipping Tool shortcuts for productivity:

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Customize or Override Default Shortcuts

If you want to customize or override default shortcuts, you can use a free Microsoft utility tool like Microsoft PowerToys, which will help to remap the shortcut keys to whatever you want. Launch the Microsoft Store on your system and search for Microsoft PowerToys.

Snipping Tool Not Responding

The snipping tool on your system may stop working for different reasons. It may be because of memory issues or system update; a little restart or reset can do the magic. If all efforts do not work, you can try reinstalling the app from the Microsoft Store.

Why isn’t Windows + Shift + S Working

• Confirm that the keyboard keys are working normally and not locked.
• Confirm that the Shortcut keys are not disabled by navigating to this location
• Navigate to Settings => Accessibility => Keyboard => Use the Print Screen key to open screen capture. Toggle the button to ON.
• Confirm that no other service or process is conflicting with the snipping tool.
• Restarting the system can stop and fix this issue.

Can I customize Snipping Tool shortcuts?

Yes, but not a direct customization. You will need a third-party tool like PowerToys to carry out the customization.

Frequently Asked Questions

Conclusion

Using the Windows snipping tool is very easy to use and much easier when you know how to combine different shortcuts. The Snipping Tool has undergone improvements over the years, and it remains a valuable tool for capturing your screen seamlessly.

You can find time to test all these key combinations for the Windows Snipping Tool shortcut, and you discover that you can easily do things on the Snipping Tool without clicking your mouse.

Research Process:

The total time involved to complete and publish this article is approximately 36 hours. This content was created through a structured research approach to ensure accuracy and reliability.

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