How to Use Snipping Tool’s Text Actions in Windows 11

Why use Text Actions?

Extracting words manually from images wastes time. The app scans captures in seconds, freeing you from manual transcription. Websites, error messages, and locked documents surrender their data without a keyboard workout.

This helps most when the text can’t be selected in the first place. Examples are an error dialog you want to send to a colleague, a scanned PDF, a photo of a printed page, or a video frame. Instead of retyping a long error code and risking a typo, you capture it once and copy it.

What happens when you use it?

Once you extract text, the app routes it straight to your computer’s clipboard. Programs like Notepad or Microsoft Word accept the data instantly via Ctrl+V.

If you copy something else before you paste, the extracted text is replaced. Paste it into Notepad first if you want a plain-text copy without any formatting.

Version Requirements

Snipping Tool is updated through the Microsoft Store, not through Windows Update. To update it, open the Microsoft Store, go to Library and click Get updates. To see which version you have, open Snipping Tool, click the settings (gear) icon and look at the About section. If the Text Actions button is missing from the toolbar, an old version is the most common reason. Restart Snipping Tool after the update finishes. You do not need to restart Windows.

How to copy text from screenshots

Snipping Tool text extraction lets you copy words right out of any screenshot on Windows 11 without typing them out by hand. You just open Snipping Tool, take a picture of whatever has the words you need, and click the Text Actions button on the toolbar. The app reads the image and highlights everything so you can copy and paste it into any document.

The steps below are split into three parts: opening the tool and capturing the image, running Text Actions, and copying and pasting the result. After each part, check that your screen matches what is described.

1. Open the Snipping Tool app.
2. Take a screenshot of the image that contains the text you need.

After the capture, the screenshot should open in the Snipping Tool editing window with a toolbar across the top. This is where the Text Actions button lives. If you only see a notification in the corner of the screen, click it to open the capture in the editor. Make sure the text in your capture is sharp and not cut off at the edges, because blurry or cropped words are the main cause of OCR mistakes.

3. Click the Text Actions button in the toolbar. This will highlight all the text found in the image.
4. To grab all the text at once, click the Copy all text button.

Once Text Actions is on, Snipping Tool should mark the words it found in the image. You can then select all of the text or just a part of it. If nothing is highlighted, the app could not find readable text. Try a larger or sharper capture.

5. If you only want a specific part, use your mouse to highlight just that text. Right-click the highlighted area and select Copy text.

When you copy, Windows does not show a confirmation message, so paste into Notepad or Word with CTRL + V to check it worked. Compare the pasted text with the image. Look closely at numbers, serial numbers and similar-looking characters such as the letter O and the number 0, or the letter l and the number 1. To undo anything, close the capture without saving, or just take a new one. Extracting text never changes the original image.

Summary

Text extraction inside Snipping Tool converts image data into editable words, saving manual typing time.

If the feature does not work, check these things in order: update Snipping Tool from the Microsoft Store, make sure your Windows 11 build is current, and try again with a clearer capture. Text Actions works on both Home and Pro editions, so your edition is not the problem.