EASILY INSERT SCREENSHOTS INTO YOUR WORD DOCUMENT

Previously, I explained how the Snipping Tool made it easy to grab screenshots and save them. Today, I want to show how Word 2010 has a similar feature built right in. And if you're using two monitors (you're using two monitors right?), then it is incredibly useful.

To locate the feature in Word (or most of the MS Office suite products), go to the Insert tab on the ribbon and click on Screenshot.

If you have two monitors, the entire second monitor will be one option you can instantly insert. The other options will likely be other windows you have open behind your instance of Word. Clicking on one of the thumbnails will instantly insert the entire window or monitor into your document.

If instead you click on the Screen Clipping, then your entire screen will go light gray (just like the clipping tool). Then, you can select what you want to capture and draw a box around it. The selected area will be inserted into your document automatically.

If you're using just one monitor, then you need to make sure that the information you want to capture is the last window you had opened prior to opening Word for this to work.

I use this method when I am working in Word and sending email in Outlook. I use the clipping tool when I want to save images of my desktop as image files. Both methods work to accomplish the same thing, but each is convenient under different circumstances.

HOW THE SNIPPING TOOL CHANGED MY LIFE

Ever notice that button at the top of your keyboard labeled "Print Screen"? Maybe you've pushed it several times in the hope that a copy of your screen would pop out of your printer only to be disappointed when nothing happened. Possibly, you just decided it was broken and never thought much more about it.

Well, it wasn't broken. What it does when you push it is make a copy of your screen and save it to your clipboard for you to paste into another application. And prior to Windows Vista, it was one of the few stock ways to make a copy of exactly what was on your screen. Of course, if you only wanted to copy a small portion of your screen, you'd have to hit the button, open a picture editor, paste in the copy, and then edit out the parts you didn't want. For someone like myself that tends to take lots of screen shots for demonstration purposes, this process was cumbersome to say the least.

Microsoft made things a lot easier starting with Windows Vista - you're not still using XP are you? The snipping tool allows you to just highlight that portion of your screen you want to copy. It then will even let you make simple edits to what you copied before you print it or save it.

The snipping tool can be found in the accessories folder of the start menu. Now, when your computer is acting up, you can easily make a copy of what you're seeing and let your nerd friends tell you what's wrong.