Today’s tip is known by many readers, but if you don’t use the Snipping tool, this may be the best tip you learn all day. It is one of my most-used utilities. While it is “just” a screen capture utility, it has as many uses as a Swiss army knife. With the Snipping tool, you can select a portion of anything displayed on your computer screen and copy it or save it as a picture to be used later. A lawyer reviewing a long document can grab a picture of paragraph 15 and email a question with the image of the paragraph pasted in. The recipient can see the paragraph immediately without having to page through the contract.

For creation of simple graphics, I often build what I want and then save it as a picture using this tool.

But you will not use it as frequently as you might if it is not easy to access. Here’s how to make it easy to use.

1. In the search window at the bottom of your display type Snipping Tool.
2. When the Snipping Tool icon is displayed, right click on the icon and select Pin to Taskbar.
3. Now the Snipping Tool icon will always be displayed in the Taskbar at the bottom of your screen for quick access.