One of my most used keys is the Print Screen key. Yes I know, there are various programs out there that allow you to do all sorts of neat things with screen captures. What I’m referring to is the bare bones functionality of Windows along with Outlook 2003 and other Office products.

What happens when you press the Print Screen key? You save a “snapshot” of your screen saved to the clipboard. You can now paste that snapshot into any Office product by positioning your cursor at the position where you want to place the snapshot, then Ctrl + V to paste. Its that simple.

There is also an advanced function for the Print Screen key and that is to capture just the “active window”. Press Alt + Print Screen.

Do you need to visually explain a process to someone? Perform your Print Screen or Alt + Print Screen function. Open up a new email in Outlook. You must be using HTML email for this function to work. Now, position your cursor where you want the image to appear, Ctrl + V to paste, done.

I’ll send emails throughout the day to various team members. Those emails may contain snapshots of various visuals I provide to explain a process, provide an instruction, etc. I’ll write some copy, do an Alt + Print Screen then Ctrl + V and paste the capture into the html email message. I may end up with a few paragraphs of copy with an equal number of snapshots. I’ll minimize the active windows (the captures) to the point where the scrollbars disappear so that I am sending just the area being referenced. I keep the width the same for clean formatting and adjust heights when needed.

The above process works with all Office products.

What are some of your productivity tips that help streamline your everyday routines?