Word 2010 SCreenshot

The screenshot tool in Microsoft Word 2010 allows you to capture an image of a particular screen and then insert it into your document. Note that this facility will not be available to you if you are working on a document in compatibility mode, as it is new to Word 2010.

Inserting Already Existing Screenshots

If you are working in a Word 2010 document, click Insert > Illustrations > Screenshot. A list of available screenshots is displayed in a gallery. This gallery consists of a selection of the last screenshots taken by you.

screenshot-in-word-2010Click on a screenshot to insert it into your document. Because the image is then selected, the Picture Tools contextual tab is displayed to enable you to perform picture related tasks.

If you haven’t yet taken the screenshot you need, follow these steps.

Taking A Screenshot In Word 2010

To take a new screenshot and insert it into your Word 2010 document you first need to go to the screen you want to capture and then press the print screen button on your keyboard. If you then go back to your Word document and click Insert > Illustrations > Screenshot, the screenshot will appear in the gallery in the first position. Click on it to insert it.

Taking A Screen Clipping In WOrd 2010

This is the good bit. If you only need to insert a portion of your screenshot and not the whole thing, click Insert > Illustrations > Screenshot > Screen Clipping. The last screen you displayed is redisplayed (but faded) with some crosshairs for you to drag a selection. The area of the screen you select with the crosshairs is ‘cut’ and pasted into your Word document. Again, the Picture Tools tab is displayed to help you manipulate your new image.

To perform this kind of cropping task, ordinarily you would have to import your screenshot into an image editor like Photoshop or Fireworks and then export the finished article for use in your document. Now, however, the screen clipping function makes those extra steps redundant and speeds up your workflow. A point to note is that you can’t adjust your selection, so if you get it wrong you must undo the action and try again.

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