Snip is the newest app by Microsoft Garage for Windows which lets you take screenshots, draw on them, narrate them and save or share them online. Sharing ideas or ‘snips’ is quick and easy with this new free app from Microsoft.
What does Microsoft Snip do?
Snip is a simple, no nonsense app. Once you download and install it, it adds a small toolbar that stays hidden on top of the screen. The toolbar shows up when you move the mouse towards it while on touch screens, you have to swipe down on it to reveal it.
The toolbar has three main options: screenshots, annotations and camera. A close button and library button are also available.
Screenshots implementation is very simple and straight forward. Once you tap the button, it will show a red dotted border around the area that will be captured in the screenshot. If you have a window open, you can simple click or tap it and only that window’s screenshot will be taken, very cleanly. There is now need to clear out any background manually which makes it a joy to use. I have yet to see how this works on Windows 7 and its glass borders around all windows.
The annotations feature window is where all screenshots open after capture. It has a simple toolbar at the top while the bottom is home to the mic volume meter. Here, users can record their narration with the screenshot while drawing on it. This is saved as a video and can be played back again. It is a very helpful feature for creating tutorials, teaching or presentations. The final output from the annotations window can be shared via a URL which can be pasted anywhere to give access to other users. The output can also be exported as a video (or as an image if there is no narration) in mp4 format. You can view some examples of Snips with narrations on the official website.
All creations are also saved in the library which can be accessed from either the annotations window or from the small button in the toolbar.
The last option in the main toolbar is for camera. Instead of a screenshot, users can simply take a photo of anything and annotate/share it with others.
Snip has a small number of features right now which work very well together. If these are what you are looking for, give Snip a try and you will love it.
