Snipping Tool is the default app for screenshots in Windows 11. There’s a lot more to the app than that, however: With it, you can take screen recordings, extract text from images or websites that disable copying, and use a reverse image search tool. While ShareX is still my favorite app for taking screenshots in Windows, I think Snipping Tool has reached a point where it’s great for both beginners and power users. Here are 10 essential Snipping Tool hacks that every Windows 11 user should know.
Use ‘Scan Text’ to copy text from images
Copying text from images is one of the most common uses of screenshot tools, and Snipping Tool does it quite well. You can right-click any image in Windows 11, and go to Open with > Snipping Tool. Once the photo opens, you can click the Scan Text button to select all the text in the image. Windows will take a few moments to identify all the text in the photo, and, when it’s ready, you can click Copy all text from the popover menu. You’re also free to select a single sentence or block of text by clicking and dragging the cursor over it, and you can right-click this selection to reveal the Copy text button.
If all you want to do is copy text from sites that disable copying, interface elements in an app, or PDFs of scanned pages where you can’t select the text easily, then you should use Snipping Tool to select and copy text without even taking a screenshot. This allows you to reduce unwanted image clutter by skipping the “taking a screenshot” step, and jumping straight to extracting text. To try this, open the Snipping Tool app in your Windows PC, and click the Text extractor button in the toolbar. You can click and drag over an area of the screen that contains text, and the app will automatically select it in a moment or two. Click Copy all text in the popover menu, and you’re done.
Use this setting to automatically redact sensitive information from screenshots
Credit: Pranay Parab
Snipping Tool allows you to do some basic image editing, which you can use to automatically redact sensitive information from screenshots. Open any screenshot in Snipping Tool, and click Scan text. Once the tool scans for text, a popover menu will appear. You can select Quick redact here to automatically hide all phone numbers and email addresses in the screenshot. It’s pretty accurate and puts a black bar over sensitive information, which is much safer than blurring phone numbers and email addresses.
Use the timer to set up your screen before taking screenshots
Setting up an elaborate screenshot on your PC can be frustrating since Snipping Tool takes the screenshot instantly by default. In these instances, you can set a delay of three to 10 seconds before you capture the screen. If you have the Snipping Tool open, right-click its icon in the taskbar to quickly take a timed screenshot. Three buttons let you take a screenshot in three, five, or 10 seconds. You can also set up the Snipping Tool to always add a delay before capturing a screenshot. Open the app, and click the camera icon in the toolbar. Then, click the timer icon in the toolbar, and select the delay you wish to add.
When my friends or family members call for help with tech issues, I often send them a screencast with commentary to show how to fix the issue. In Snipping Tool, you can toggle a setting to include microphone audio by default when you record the screen. This lets me record my voice while I’m demonstrating how to solve the problem, and I use the mouse pointer to highlight what to click. Once you set up Snipping Tool to record your audio by default for screen recordings, this process hardly takes any time. Open Snipping Tool in your PC, and click the three-dots icon in the top-right corner. Select Settings, and enable Include microphone input by default when a screen recording starts.
Credit: Pranay Parab
When you capture screenshots, you can make Snipping Tool automatically add a solid color border to each image. This is great for posting to social media, as it makes screenshots look uniform and fit your aesthetic. Go to Snipping Tool settings and enable Add border to each screenshot. Select the Color block to pick the color you want for the border, and use the Thickness slider to adjust the width of the border.
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The Freeform tool lets you draw an area on the screen, and captures a screenshot of everything inside that area. You can draw any shape you like, and the tool automatically closes small gaps in the shape to complete the screenshot. I like the fact that the Freeform tool is forgiving enough to smooth out poorly drawn shapes, which means you don’t necessarily need to have steady hands to capture useful screenshots. To use this tool, open Snipping Tool, and click the camera icon in the toolbar. Next, select the rectangle icon, and choose Freeform. When you take the next screenshot, Snipping Tool will let you draw an irregular shape on the screen.
Disable automatic saving to stop screenshots from piling up on your PC
If you disable auto-save for screenshots, it directly copies screenshots to the clipboard. You can then make edits and send them to the app you need, or hit the save button to store the edited screenshots. This stops screenshots from piling up and adding to the clutter on your hard drive. I only need to save around one in 10 screenshots I capture, which makes this particularly useful for me. To try it out, go to Snipping Tool settings and disable Automatically save original screenshots.
Snipping Tool has a “Shapes” option, which is meant to hide people’s faces from images or screenshots. Here’s how it works: Once you open an image in Snipping Tool, you’ll see a bunch of editing tools in the toolbar. Select the Shapes tool, which is next to the Eraser tool, and you’ll see a series of options. Select the Emoji tool to add an emoticon over faces. Alternatively, you can select the Square or Oval tools, but be sure to use the color fill option to hide private information thoroughly. Select Fill, and choose a color. You can also disable the Outline if you wish to, as it adds a border to the shape you draw on the screenshot. Then, you can draw a rectangle, square, circle, or an oval on the screenshot, and you’ll find a solid color block that can hide sensitive information.
Use the built-in reverse image search to identify objects in the screenshots
Snipping Tool has a reverse image search feature that uses Bing to locate objects, places, or elements from your screenshots or images. You can use this to identify subjects in an image, or to check if a scammer has copied a profile picture from a different person’s profile. To use this feature, open an image in Snipping Tool, and click the three dots in the top-right corner of the app. Select Visual Search with Bing, and it will open Bing’s reverse image search results in your default browser.