How to Use the Copy as Table Feature in Snipping Tool

How to capture a screenshot as a table

With this feature you can turn a picture of a table, from any web page or app, into real spreadsheet data. You take a screenshot of the table, click Text Actions in the toolbar, copy the table, and paste it into Excel or another program. The whole job takes five steps.

It works on Windows 11 Home and Pro alike. If you don’t see the option, your Snipping Tool is probably older than version 11.2409.22.0. Open the Microsoft Store, go to Library, and check for updates 🔃. Snipping Tool is updated through the Store like any other app.

1. Open the Snipping Tool app. Click the Start button ⊞, type Snipping Tool, and select it from the results. The small Snipping Tool window opens with a New button.
2. Take a screenshot of the area that contains the table you want to copy. Click New, or press the Win+Shift+S. The screen dims and your pointer changes so you can select an area. Capture the whole table, including the header row, and keep it as large and sharp as you can. After the capture, the screenshot opens in the Snipping Tool editor. If you used the keyboard shortcut and the editor doesn’t appear, click the notification that pops up in the corner of the screen.

3. Drag your mouse to select the table area. Hold the left button and draw a box around the whole table. When you let go, the capture appears in the Snipping Tool window.
4. Click the Text Actions button in the toolbar. This will identify the text in your image. Snipping Tool runs text recognition on the capture, and the words and numbers in the picture become selectable. This can take a second or two on a large image.

5. Select the text in the table, right-click it, and choose Copy as table. Then switch to Excel, Word or your email, click where the table should go, and use the keyboard shortcut CTRL+V to paste the data as a table. In Excel, each value should land in its own cell. In Word or an email, you should get a table with the same rows and columns as the screenshot.

The table is only placed on the clipboard, so copying something else replaces it. Always check the pasted result against the original. Text recognition can misread small or blurry characters, such as 0 and O or 1 and l. It can also struggle with merged cells or tables that have no clear lines between columns. If the result looks wrong, retake the screenshot at a larger size or zoom in on the source first, then try again.

Summary

Copy as table in Snipping Tool is a built-in Windows feature that saves you from retyping data. It runs optical character recognition (OCR) on your screen capture and converts the table into structured text. You can then paste the rows and columns straight into Microsoft Excel or Word.

• The Snipping Tool lets you capture screen areas and turn them into organized data. You need version 11.2409.22.0 or later, which you can update through the Microsoft Store.
• The “Copy as table” feature allows you to move table data from an image directly into a spreadsheet or document, with rows and columns kept in place.
• Use the Text Actions button after taking your screenshot to enable this feature. Then select the table text and choose Copy as table.
• This is a fast way to share information without retyping data manually. Check the pasted numbers against the original, because OCR can make small mistakes.