As you probably already know, the tool has been included in the Windows operating system for quite some time. cuts (Snipping Tool), and so much so that Microsoft intends to make it so that, by default, pressing Print Screen opens the Snipping tool directly… in fact, if you don’t want to wait for this to happen, you can configure it yourself if you have Windows 11, so let’s see how.
How to use Snipping when pressing Print Screen
Let’s start at the beginning: if you press Print Screen on your keyboard, it will simply save a snapshot of what your screen or screens are showing in memory at that moment, and then you will have to go to an editor like Paint or Photoshop to be able to edit and save it, something that is not very optimal since, generally, you will not want to take what all your screens show, but simply a fraction of them… or a crop. As we have mentioned, in Windows 11 you can make pressing Print Screen open the Snipping tool by default, and doing so is very easy.
Right-click on the Start button and then on Settings. When the Settings window opens, tap on Accessibility on the left side and then scroll down a bit to access Keyboard. At the bottom you have the option that you must activate: “Use the Print Screen button to open the screen cutout”.
In this way, when you want to take screenshots, if you press Print Screen Snips will open directly, with the advantage that you will not have to select “New” or if you want to capture a rectangle, window or the entire screen… it will be ready for you to take the capture as you prefer.
Where are the screenshots saved?
When you take a screenshot using the Snipping tool, it always lets you edit it to some extent within the tool itself. You can click on the save button to give it the format and name you want, as well as to select the location where you want to save it. However, you should know that the original screenshot is also ALWAYS saved in a certain Windows folder…
This location is C:UsersUsuarioPicturesScreenshots (replacing User with your Windows username), and if you’re one of those who use the Snipping tool a lot, you might be surprised by the number of screenshots saved there. Also, even if you have previously configured Cutouts to save the screenshots in a certain format, by default it will always save them there in PNG format.
How to add arrows to your screenshots
Many times, when you take a screenshot it is to show something to your friends, to attach to an email, to make a tutorial, etc., so being able to add arrows to point to the part you want to highlight is quite important. Unfortunately, the Snipping tool does not include this possibility, but as we have told you at the beginning, the idea of this article is to become a master of screenshots without having to install original software, so we are going to tell you how to do it.
Now that you know where all the screenshots you take with Snipping are saved, you can always access the saved files and edit them. In this case, the idea is to open the file with microfotoswhich is in fact the application with which it will open by default in Windows 11. With the screenshot open, simply press the Edit icon above.
When doing so, click on the Review button at the top and you will see that new menus appear at the bottom. You just have to click on any of the two “markers” below, select the color, the thickness, and logically the arrow symbol: with that, you can put as many arrows of shapes and colors as you want on the image.
Once done, at the top you have the “Save as copy” button that will allow you, again, to choose the name, format and location in which you want to save the screenshot.
