Snipping tool not able to capture menus in win 7

[itinva]

When I open the Snipping Tool I am able to hit print screen on my Vista computer and capture drop down menus or the start menu without a problem. When I use the Snipping Tool in Windows 7 I'm not able to use the Print Screen button because I have to use the Fn Key to activate Print screen which is non-responsive on the Win 7 side. It works on the Vista side on the same laptop just not on the Win 7 side. Just as a side not I can capture using Win 7 just can't get the screen shots of menus because they go away when the capture because available.

 

[Brink]

Hello itinva, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You can use Paint that is included in Windows 7 to do so instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[itinva]

Thanks for the quick reply. The problem is when using a laptop I am not able to capture the Start Menu or any menus in MS Office when they appear because they don't remain on the screen when the cross hair appears to capture the screen. It works on my PC keyboard using Vista just not on my laptops running Win 7. I can capture and maniplute images just fine, just menus like the Start menu or when you press the File to choose print screen. Keyboard works laptops can't capture hidden menus once they are revealed.

 

[Orbital Shark]

Hi itinva,

This may sound like a silly question but have tried the conventional [Ctrl]+[Prt Sc] ?

Works every time on my Laptop running Windows 7

 

[itinva]

Print Screen works for basic screen shots, but are you able to capture just the Start menu options that are seen when you press the Windows Key? I can make screen captures of the desktop, but can not get the Snipping tool to do a screen capture of the Start menu or show how to to go to Start --> Programs using the Snipping tool. Using my PC it will work just not on my two HP laptops.

 

[Brink]

itinva,

You will not be able to take screenshots of menus with the Snipping Tool. You can use Paint to take a full screen screenshot with the menus included, then crop the image as needed to have only what you like out of it for the screenshot.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[itinva]

Attached is what I can do with the Snipping Tool in Vista using a PC keyboard. I can not do this using a laptop. The Snipping Tool does have the ability to capture menus. Just not on laptops. I even changed the short cut for Print Screen to Ctrl + Alt + Insert, no luck.

 

[eVox]

JUST USE PAINT.
Why are you ignoring Brink's help?

 

[The Cool Guy]

Itinva, right click on snipping tool icon in the start menu, click on properties then assign a keyboard shortcut for it; eg. Ctrl+F5 or something like that. Then open up any menu, then press Ctrl+F5 and it works.

Hope this helps,
C.Guy

 

[Orbital Shark]

The Snipping tool will not allow for capture of menus (start/context) as they are application sensitive. The Ctrl+Prt Sc is the only way to capture any menu in action.

Start Menu & Context menu captured using 'Print Screen' then editing in Paint as Brink suggested.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Itinva, right click on snipping tool icon in the start menu, click on properties then assign a keyboard shortcut for it; eg. Ctrl+F5 or something like that. Then open up any menu, then press Ctrl+F5 and it works.

Hope this helps,
C.Guy

How did you achieve that as it wont let me assign a KB shortcut despite being signed in as an Admin.

Edit: Ignore - I did it and it works, thanks very much.

 

[Barman58]

Hello itinva,

Although as the others have said you can get around the limitations of the snipping tool by editing a full screen to show only that which you require, I can understand that it may be frustrating if you have a lot of captures to perform. I normally advise that you use the native tools where possible but sometimes you may need to look at external programs

What you require is I believe available in Faststone Capture (and others) which is available as freeware for personal use and is also available as a portable application. (does not write to registry etc.)

A+ Freeware - Multimedia & Design - FastStone Capture 5.3 (last freeware version)

An example is included

 

[Ex_Brit]

The Cool Guy's solution works fine.

 

[The Cool Guy]

The Snipping tool will not allow for capture of menus (start/context) as they are application sensitive. The Ctrl+Prt Sc is the only way to capture any menu in action.

Start Menu & Context menu captured using 'Print Screen' then editing in Paint as Brink suggested.
View attachment 12634View attachment 12635

You are wrong, Orbital Shark. I can prove it (I took these from Vista cause I'm currently booted into Vista's partition; if it does work on Vista, it should work on Win7)

 

[Ex_Brit]

Yes, since I realised that to enter something in that Shortcut Key slot you actually have to click the keys you want in there...LOL and yet another Doh! moment for me.


Thanks.

 

[Barman58]

Hi Guys,

I've tried a few times to do this in Windows 7 and cannot get it to work (rc 7100 x64).

What I get is I open a right click menu and press my assigned hotkey, (Ctrl-F5), and the snipping tools opens, but the right click menu is closed

Of course this may be a "feature" of the 7100 build that is not present in others.

I think as has been said this was not the case with vista, for odd captures the print screen and edit method is fine but if you have a lot to do I believe a 3rd party solution may be better.

At least the choice is there

 

[The Cool Guy]

Hello itinva,

Although as the others have said you can get around the limitations of the snipping tool by editing a full screen to show only that which you require, I can understand that it may be frustrating if you have a lot of captures to perform. I normally advise that you use the native tools where possible but sometimes you may need to look at external programs

What you require is I believe available in Fastone Capture (and others) which is available as freeware for personal use and is also available as a portable application. (does not write to registry etc.)

A+ Freeware - Multimedia & Design - FastStone Capture 5.3 (last freeware version)

An example is included

View attachment 12644

Barman's solution is another option for people out there if they didn't get my option to work.

 

[Ex_Brit]

Actually - I qualify my earlier statement. The Cool Guy's solution worked fine in Vista where I was booted at the time, but in Windows 7, although I've set it up the same way, when the Snipping Tool appears with a menu already on the screen it doesn't grey out the screen as it would normally do, so the menu isn't "frozen in time" like it was in Vista and I can't capture it that way.

Now the mystery is, why?

 

[The Cool Guy]

Guess we can better use this software; A+ Freeware - Multimedia & Design - FastStone Capture 5.3 (last freeware version) if it doesn't work in Windows 7.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
Another simple way.

1) PRTSCRN
2) Open Wordpad
3) PASTE
4) expand picture to size you want
5) now run the snip tool against the picture in Wordpad
6) save as PNG or JPG file

Cheers
jimbo