Want to make use of the screenshot you just took (and highlighted; and cropped; and annotated)? Find out here how to copy a screenshot from Snipping Tool to the Windows clipboard for pasting anywhere.
First, Tell It What to Tell It(self)
Let’s venture into the wonderfully entangled and self-referentially meaningless world of large language models (LLMs).
If you want to prompt such a model to produce a probable sequence of words and phonemes on a particular topic, and if you want that sequence to be particularly substantial and rich in mimicry, one technique is to employ generated knowledge. Here, you prompt artificial intelligence to—first—generate a list of facts about your topic and—only then—write a text using that information, like so:
Generate 5 facts of interest about Snipping Tool and the Windows clipboard, then use these facts to write brief instructions for using Snipping Tool and the Windows clipboard.Now, no urgent need for you to prompt first, because for getting screenshots (even with annotations and highlights and what not) from Snipping Tool to the clipboard (for use and sharing anywhere)… promptly, here you go:
How to Copy a Screenshot to the Clipboard from Windows Snipping Tool
Time needed: 1 minute
To copy a screenshot you have made with Windows Snipping Tool (including all annotations, highlights, and other changes) to the clipboard:
- Make all annotations and changes to the screenshot in Snipping Tool.
- Click the Copy button in the toolbar.
Snipping Tool keyboard shortcut: You can also press Ctrl C to copy the current image to the clipboard for pasting.
Automatic copying: You can also have Windows Snipping Tool keep updating the image in the clipboard for pasting as you make changes (such as highlighting); see below.
Out of the clipboard: You can always save the screenshot image from the Windows clipboard to a file on disk.
How to Have Snipping Tool Copy to the Clipboard Continuously
To set up Windows Snipping Tool so it will keep the image in the clipboard up to date for pasting as you make changes:
- Click the three-dots See more menu button in Snipping Tool.
- Select Settings from the menu that has appeared.
- Enable Automatically copy changes (or Auto copy to clipboard).
Now, the original screenshot as well as all changes you make to it are immediately copied to the Windows clipboard (replacing whatever was in the clipboard before, of course).
(How to copy a screenshot for pasting with Windows Snipping Tool tested with version 11.2305; updated March 2024)