snipping tool

The Snipping Tool in Windows 11 looks a lot different than its Windows 10 predecessor. Along with an icon change, the Snipping Tool now has a look and feel similar to the App, Snip and Sketch. Whilst this could be a big change for existing Snipping Tool users, the move to merge these two pieces of software seems like a sensible idea to remove the functional overlap between the two.

We shall run through the differences below and highlight any major changes.

Icon Change

The new icon still has the familiar scissors motif of both the previous apps but is a welcome upgrade, highlighting the changes in the software.

Interface Change

The new Snipping Tool does have a very different look and feel from the Windows 10 version. At start up you will be presented with an interface very familiar to Snip and Sketch users, but hopefully not too different for Snipping Tool users either with the familiar New, Mode, and Delay options available.

Snip Edit Features

Once you have captured your snip, the new Snipping Tool snip edit interface has a look and feel more akin to Snip and Sketch, with the familiar edit icons displayed.

However, the Snip and Sketch ‘pencil’ option has been removed – interestingly there was no equivalent in the Windows 10 Snipping Tool either. The only writing options are ‘Ballpoint pen’ and ‘Highlighter’ in various colours.

Ruler, Touch Writing and Image Crop features from Snip and Sketch have been added to the Snipping Tool, along with the handy Undo and Redo edit options.

The Snipping Tool also has a responsiveness matching the Snip and Sketch app, with icons moving around as you change the app’s window size.

Snip Sharing and Saving

And just like both the old Snipping Tool and Snip and Sketch App, you can copy or save a snip. The email functionality from the Windows 10 Snipping Tool has been extended to match the Share functionality taken from the Snip and Sketch app.

The New Snipping Tool

So, after a number of years of having two different Windows snipping tools available, Microsoft have finally merged the two into one, the Snipping Tool for Windows 11. Whilst users of the previous version of the Snipping Tool may take a while to get use to the new interface, it is certainly has a more modern look and feel, matching other Windows applications. Of course for Snip and Sketch users, it’s pretty much the same App.

Welcome to the new Windows 11 Snipping Tool!

Microsoft have released a new version of Windows every two to three years, Windows 10 in 2015, 8 in 2012, 7 in 2009, Vista back in 2007 [source]. So about now we’d all be looking forward to a new version either this year or next, but Microsoft have changed the way they deliver their Windows OS to its users. They have moved it to a ‘software as a service’ release model where users will receive twice yearly updates (around March and September) to the OS – read more here. So does this mean no more major changes to the OS or its standard application suite including the Snipping Tool?

We don’t know for certain, but we get the feeling Microsoft are happy with the underlying architecture of Windows 10 plus the feedback they have received from users. We certainly have not noticed much negativity about Windows 10 especially when compared to the reaction to Windows 8 on release.

As regards the Snipping Tool, we feel Microsoft will probably leave this pretty much as is, albeit with an occasional cosmetic change as seen in the recent Creators Update. What may move forward in terms of development changes could be the ‘Garage’ Snip app offered as an alternative screen capture tool by Microsoft although this App is already pretty full of cool features.

Whatever happens, we will keep you up to date with any changes to the Windows Snipping Tool.

The main new feature in the Snipping Tool in Windows 10 is the addition of the Delay option on the main menu bar

This option allows you to select a delay in seconds that will occur between when you press New and when the Snipping Tool grays out the screen for selection. This feature allows you to click on menus etc before making a selection. These menus or options may have been ones that disappear when the New button is clicked i.e. when the Snipping Tool regains focus in Windows. With the delay option you can now set focus to other applications even Windows itself before selecting your ‘snip’. For example, this will allow you to take snips of fly-out drop down menus, the Windows start menu etc. A delay between 0 (normal snipping mode) and 5 seconds can be set. Here’s how to use this new feature

1. Start the Snipping Tool
2. Set the Delay option to the desired snipping delay
3. Click New and the Snipping Tool will momentarily disappear
4. Now open/close the menus you require to snip
5. After the delay has expired, your screen will go opaque and you will be able to snip menus etc that would normally close when clicking New on the Snipping Tool

The first minor change we found was the removal of the Display icon in the Quick Launch toolbar from the Snipping Tool Options dialog.

Another small change was the addition of a Print option once you had captured a snip.

Update: As pointed out by our readers, Microsoft have moved the Snipping Tool in its final release version of Windows 10. It now lives in a location where we are probably more used to accessing it from. So, to start the Snipping Tool, click on the Start icon and then the All Apps option. This brings up an alphabetical list of programs and folders.

Scroll down to the ‘W’ section and click on the Windows Accessories folder. The Snipping Tool should be listed in this folder.

[how to video]

If you’re going to use the Snipping Tool frequently, then you may want to take advantage of one of two options in the right-click context menu on the Snipping Tool, namely ‘Pin to Start’ and ‘Pin to Taskbar’.

Pinning the Snipping Tool to Start, creates a ’tile’ for the software, in the group of tiles to the right of the Start menu. Pinning the Snipping Tool to the Taskbar, creates a permanent icon on the Windows Taskbar.

You could also use the Search option to the right of the Start icon and enter ‘sn’. The Snipping Tool will be the only option in the search result list.

Hope that helps everyone find the Snipping Tool in Windows 10.

End of Update

Whilst Windows 10 won’t be released until after April 2015, we thought we’d take a sneak peek at the OS given the Technical Preview available to check out what’s changed for Snipping Tool users.

The good news is that on this review version of Win 10, the Snipping Tool is most definitely front and center! There’s a shortcut to it available on the main Start Menu no less!

Which of course makes it a breeze to start up your favourite snipping tool in the latest OS from Microsoft. There’s also the usual Pin/Unpin from Start and Pin/Unpin from taskbar option.

However things got a bit confusing with the Pin/Unpin from Start option. Pinning it to Start means it appears as a tile option in the area to the right of the Start Menu and unpinning it moved it back to the Start menu.

The only way to remove it from the Start Menu/Area was to use the ‘Remove from this list’ option, which demoted it to the All Apps area under Windows Accessories – its usual home!

So the only real changes to where to find the Snipping Tool in Win 10 are more a reflection of a change in the OS itself with the merging of the two interfaces available in Win 8.

In our next post we’ll take a closer look at the Win 10 version of the Snipping Tool to see what has changed in its functionality.

Updated: Perhaps unsurprisingly, we couldn’t find any differences in functionality between a Win 7 snipping tool app and the Win 10 version!

Updated: Actually yes we did! Check out the new features in the Snipping Tool in Windows 10!

 

Microsoft introduced the Snipping Tool application for desktops with the release of Vista. The application allows the user to take sceenshots of any rectangular area displayed on their PC monitor. The Vista snipping tool allows the user to manipulate the screenshot by using the various tools available. These tools include a highlighter, colour pens and an eraser.

The screenshot can also be saved as a jpeg, gif or png file and then further manipulated by the various image editing software. The Snipping tool can also directly create an email with the screen shot as an attachment. The application will detect the default email client on the users PC.

How To Run The Snipping Tool in Vista

The snipping tool in Vista can be started by clicking on the Windows icon, entering ‘snip’ in the Search box and clicking on the Snipping Tool icon in the results. It can also be found under All Programs/Accessories.