When Vista came on the scene one of the new features I thought was pretty cool was the new Snipping tool. It’s a really useful little utility and for the most part it’s great. In Windows 7, the tool is still there (no improvements that I can see). But, one of the things about this little utility that bothered me was my inability to use it to capture context and other drop-down menus. Every time I would open the menu I needed to capture, it would disappear as soon as I selected the Snipping Tool.
This really annoyed me. There has to be a way!? Well, it turns out there is a really simple solution for this. To use the Snipping Tool to capture menus, follow these steps.
First, locate and start the Snipping Tool. When the tool starts it will be in “New capture” mode. Click Cancel but, don’t close the tool. Next, open the menu you want to capture. With that menu open, press the “Control” and “Print Screen” buttons on your keyboard. This will re-activate the Snipping Tool in the “New Capture” mode. Now just capture your image.
As you can see above, it works quite well. This, “work-around”, functions the same in Windows Vista and in Windows 7. I’ve also tried it on my laptop and desktop and there was no difference in function.
© 2009, Robert Owen. All rights reserved.
web consultancy says
August 27, 2009 at 12:32 pmnice tips men! vista is very complicated and their only few people can used it to the fullest..
Christie says
August 27, 2009 at 3:14 pmOh you JUST saved me the price of SnagIT! Seriously – I got so frustrated with not being able to get the dropdown menu that I downloaded the SnagIT eval this past weekend. Thanks so much!
.-= Christie´s last blog ..Thesis Theme discount – some things to watch out for! =-.
Robert Owen says
August 27, 2009 at 4:03 pmIt’s really a pretty good little utility. Still probably wont do everything that programs like snagIT will do but I find it gets the job done. Especially since I figured out this little piece! 🙂
felch says
August 27, 2009 at 10:08 pmWhy not just print screen and cut the jpeg from paint ?
Robert Owen says
August 27, 2009 at 11:58 pmWell, you could do that… But this was about using the utility supplied to accomplish the task. 😉
Christie says
March 4, 2010 at 9:26 amOh wow you saved me again! I was trying to capture a dropdown list of user attributes from SharePoint – and I didn’t see any way to “delay” capture in Snipping Tool but my old brain remembered that you had given us a trick. Thanks again!
Robert Owen says
March 4, 2010 at 4:01 pmNo Problem! Glad it helps! 🙂
Barclay says
March 31, 2010 at 11:32 amAwesome thanks, have always been looking for a way to capture menu’s easily…
Rob says
August 27, 2012 at 12:46 pmJust an added note for LAPTOP users (since it seems to be a common stumbling block)…
The PrtScn key is only accessible by first pressing (and holding) the Fn or Function key – note that both of these keys are prob blue text – indicating that the Fn key is req’d.
So…. to accomplish Ctrl+PrtScn on a laptop, you must actually press Ctrl+Fn+PrtScn
hope this helps
Roger says
April 30, 2013 at 2:13 pmThanks for the great tip. I’ve been using the PrtScn-paste-to-Paint-and-crop technique but this is a good time saver!
pkl says
July 8, 2013 at 12:43 amThanks. Simple things are difficult if you don’t know!
nav says
November 21, 2013 at 11:23 pmThank you very much helped a lot
Hasan says
February 27, 2014 at 2:31 amThis was pretty useful thanks a lot 🙂
Ed says
April 20, 2014 at 11:50 amMuchas gracias!
payam says
July 30, 2014 at 8:45 amthanks , helped me.
shannon says
October 10, 2014 at 4:03 pmThank you!!!!!! Not being able to snip a menu was driving me bonkers! Thank you!!!
Coeur says
December 25, 2014 at 6:38 pmI do not have PrintScreen key on my keyboard (Macbook). Any possibility to snip a menu without it?
Robert Owen says
January 5, 2015 at 6:16 pmI will look into it.
Robert Owen says
January 5, 2015 at 6:20 pmIf you have an F14 key, try that.
Ilco says
January 26, 2015 at 8:47 amAwsome, man! I knew it existed!
Kevin says
January 29, 2015 at 12:24 pmThank you for this post!!!!!!!!!!!! I was about to freaking pull my hair out with the stupid menu disappearing every time I opened up the snipping tool.
Paul says
April 8, 2015 at 11:07 amExcellent!
Mary says
April 22, 2015 at 1:59 pmExcellent and very useful tip. Thanks so much !
Stuart McMinn says
September 18, 2015 at 2:18 amGreat tip! Still works in Windows 10 and as an added bonus, Windows 10 version of Snipping Tool has a Delay menu option allowing a delay of 0 (default on startup) to 5 seconds staying at the last setting until reset to another value.
Microsoft fan says
November 3, 2015 at 4:10 pmGreat tip!
I also found a video on YouTube showing us how to do that –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEOvvLPhNSc
As I notice, on some laptops/PCs, we have to press “Ctrl + Fn + Prt Sc” instead of “Ctrl + Prt Sc”
Hope this helps!
Rick says
April 4, 2016 at 11:48 amYou sir…are a genius! Thanks a million.
Param says
May 3, 2016 at 11:43 pmDear Robert Owen,
That tip was Awesome, I was using the round about way, capture the whole screen then crop the area I need, most of the time the image was dull.
This great tip saved a lot of time and the clarity is not lost as well.
THANKS A LOT
Bukky Onyekwelu says
June 1, 2016 at 4:02 amThanks.This really worked
I was preparing a training manual and needed to capture drop downs.
Though I tried the full print screen and crop option but this is way better.
Thanks again
Mike says
June 30, 2016 at 11:00 amThank you very much for this tip! It works perfectly! I really missed this functionality on my work PC as it’s still Windows 7. My home PC is 10 and has the delay built in. So this is a HUGE help for me!
Gina says
August 10, 2016 at 12:22 pmThank you so much for this information! I’m in the middle of a project and thought I’d hit a wall. In desperation I searched “how to” and this came up. Two minutes later I’m back in business. Thank you!!
David Russell says
August 23, 2016 at 2:21 pmStill very valid information in 2016. Thank you. I use “Cntl PrintScr” so seldom, it seems I mostly forget how to do it. It’s nice that you’ve captured and published this. Thank you.
Rick T says
October 6, 2016 at 5:53 pmStill works in Windows 10 ! Very helpfull.
Ozzi Neseli says
October 19, 2016 at 5:11 amSo cool. Thank you very very much.
Marvin says
December 7, 2016 at 1:28 pmBless you!
Joan Baum says
March 19, 2017 at 11:17 pmFAnnnntastic…! I have been looking for a way to do this for ages. I create Training Info and Handouts and have needed this many times! Terrific!!! Thanks… JB
Vijay says
May 19, 2017 at 5:55 pmGreat Tip. I was searching it since long. Thank you.
Gina Burchard says
May 23, 2017 at 3:00 pmDoesn’t work with Windows 2010.
Eric Searing says
August 8, 2017 at 10:03 amYou have to paste the clipboard capture (Screen print) into a document (excel/word/pdf/other)- then you can use snipping tool to capture only the area you want.
Raymond says
November 10, 2017 at 7:26 amIt works for me on Windows 10.
Leisha Wharfield says
July 5, 2017 at 8:08 pmWorks on my Windows 10 Pro 64-bit OS.
+ I love you, thank you!
Jeff says
July 25, 2017 at 5:27 pmThis made my day today!
Dennis says
October 9, 2017 at 2:54 pmHow do you prevent picture taken with ‘Snipping Tool” from disappear after a certain time?
Casey says
November 30, 2017 at 9:58 amThank you!! Just spent 15 minutes trying to find the answer to this and no one knew! Great tip!
Ann Marie Andrews says
March 1, 2018 at 6:35 pmThis seems to be working for everyone but me! I have tried the Fn, Ctrl, PrtSc and just Ctrl, PrtSc and it will not work. I have no hair left as I have pulled it all out, can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong?
Thanks 🙂
Michael says
April 26, 2018 at 7:09 amGreat solution. Thanks!
Nicole Larkin says
May 18, 2018 at 7:14 pmNine years later and your post is still helpful. Thank you!
Sue K says
March 4, 2019 at 9:13 amThanks you so much! I could never figure out how to take a pic with a dropdown menu! Now I’ve learned how! I have to write down that little gem!