I know, I know, everyone’s taking a look at Vista and blogging about it. Heck, I don’t even own it yet; I’m just mucking about on a computer with Vista Enterprise they’re testing out where I work. But still, this is one nice version of Windows. I haven’t yet come across anything I don’t like (other than the annoying security pop-ups whenever I try to do certain things because I’m not an admin), but there is one thing in particular that simply amazed me: the Snipping Tool.
Now, this tool was originally introduced for Windows XP Tablet Edition in 2005, but since few people have Tablet PCs, few people know about the tool. Currently, it’s included in four versions of Vista: Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, and Ultimate. So what is the Snipping Tool? It’s a screenshot tool, but with the added capability of only capturing what you select. So, instead of pressing the Print Screen key and cropping the screenshot to show what you want, you can simply use the Snipping Tool to select just what you want to show (freeform, square, even entire windows!), which the tool automatically loads so you can make any handy edits with its built in pen tool. The tool can then save the screenshot as an image (GIF, PNG, or JPG) or as an HTML file.
You can seriously have a lot of fun with this tool, and it saves a lot of time if you use screenshots for tutorials or whatnot. This one tool alone may not be enough to make people switch to Vista, but it’s a pretty nice bonus for those who do.
