(http://image.examiner.com/images/blog/wysiwyg/image/Snip_Tool.jpg)
If you don’t have Paint Shop Pro (or some other great screen capture program), you have two free options with windows 7, (which is one more than you have with XP). The first is the old standard, tried and true, Alt-Print Screen, which captures the contents of the entire screen (at 72 dpi) to the clipboard.
Then you must open a graphic software program such as Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro, Illustrator, or even Windows Paint; or a graphics compatible program such as Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint and paste the screen captured image into that program.
Windows 7 comes with a tool called the Snipping Tool introduced in Vista, which works a bit like Paint Shop Pro’s screen capture function except not as cool. To use this tool:
1. Click the Windows logo ball (Start Orb) in the bottom left corner of your Windows 7 screen.
2. Select the Snipping Tool from the list of programs (scissors icon).
3. Click the New button to choose the capture sizing option; e.g., Free-form Snip, Rectangular Snip, Window Snip, or Full-screen Snip.
4. The cursor turns into a cross.
5. Position the cursor near the screen section you want to capture.
6. Hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse while simultaneously drawing a rectangle around that section.
7. As soon as you release the mouse button, the captured area appears on the Snipping Tool screen.
8. You must save it, at this point, or lose it.
9. Select File>SaveAs, navigate to the appropriate directory/folder, enter a filename, and then select a file type from the drop down list (PNG, GIF, JPG, or HTML/MHT).
Note: The most versatile file format is PNG (portable network graphic). Most all software programs accept this format and the image will not degrade each time it’s saved (as is the case with JPGs). The HTML/MHT format is for Internet/and archived Internet pages. Do not choose this one unless that’s your only intention for the captured image. GIF (graphic interchange format), which—because of the limited palette/colors (only 256)—is typically used only for simple illustrations, line drawings, and animations.