My version of Microsoft Windows Vista comes with a screen capture tool called the Snipping Tool. It is a very useful tool which I often use. With this tool you can capture a screen shot (snip) of any part of your screen and save it to the clipboard or to a file in a number of formats (HTML, PNG, GIF, or JPEG). Available snip types include free-form, rectangular, window or full-screen.
One day last week the Snipping Tool suddenly stopped allowing me to save a snip to a file. No error messages or message of any kind. Pressing the Save option simply did not nothing. The warning message about saving a unsaved snip still appeared when exiting the Snipping Tool but did not allow me to save the snip.
After some research I stumbled across the answer. It turns out that I had deleted the Pictures folder in my user folder as part of a cleanup of my folders. I never use that folder so I naively assumed that I could delete it. However if you delete that folder, the Snipping Tool does not display a Save File dialog box. Note that the Snipping Tool does not force you to save a snip in your Pictures folder but does require you to have the folder! You can save the snip anywhere you like provided you have the right permissions.
What a poor user interface design! As part of Vista QA did nobody test this scenario? If it was a deliberate design decision to require the Pictures folder, why not display a dialog box warning the user that the folder is missing and is required?
Showing posts with label Snipping Tool. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Snipping Tool. Show all posts
