Tip of the week # 410
29 November 2013


Give the Snipping Tool its own keyboard shortcut (Windows 7)

Back in February I made you fall in love with Windows 7's easy way to capture, edit, save and share snippets of your screen (see tip_386.php if you missed it). As I seem to be using it more and more, I've given it its own keyboard shortcut.

Here's how:

  1. Right-click the Snipping Tool in the Start Menu. (If you cannot find it in the Start menu, simply type Snipping Tool - or snip - in the search box. tip_327.php if you don't know about this functionality.)
  2. Select Properties from the drop-down list.
  3. Click in the Shortcut key box. (No need to delete what's there.)
  4. Press any keyboard combination you will find easy to remember. (I've set mine as CTRL + ALT + S, so it won't interfere with the normal CTRL + S keyboard shortcut, saving files.)
  5. Click OK.

In future, press the keyboard shortcut that you assigned, rather than first having to open the Snipping Tool.

See tip_345.php for tips on how to assign keyboard shortcuts to symbols or special characters in Word.

By the way, Windows XP support is ending soon - are you ready? If you or your organisation recently upgraded to Windows 7 and you feel you are not taking advantage of its new and improved features, then come along to our next half day course in Cambridge planned for the morning of 12 December. (See mswin7wn.php.) Alternatively, we can come to you and help with roll-out training programmes in your office.