Csdrhrt

In the Windows Snipping Tool, I would like to know how I can use the highlighter tool to draw straight lines?

Windows snipping tool doesn't have any way to let us draw straight lines by pressing Shift. Windows Ink Workspace is another tool that supports snipping and drawing the snipped portion. It has a virtual ruler that helps us to draw straight lines.

To enable Windows Ink Workspace

Right-click anywhere on the taskbar and from the context menu select
Show Windows Ink Workspace button. An icon of a pen writing in an “S”
shape will appear in the notifications area to the far right.

To launch the workspace, click or tap the pen-shaped Windows Ink Workspace icon that appears in your notification area.

Tap the "Screen sketch" block. It will be the third block in the list. It will automatically take a screenshot of your display and load it for your sketching.

Navigate to the pen bar at the top right of the screen.

Select the ruler icon. This looks like a diagonal ruler.

Place the mouse on top of the ruler and use mouse scroll wheel to rotate and position the ruler.

Sample Sketch

Hope this helps.

Note: Screen Sketch is a new feature available in the Windows 10 Anniversary Update

User 3DWizard has a nice AutoHotKey script which I slightly modified to helped me solve this problem. Hold Shift inside the Snipping Tool window to restrict the mouse to horizontal movement.

SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability

SetTitleMatchMode 2 ; Allows for partial matches in window titles



; Commands specific to when Snipping Tool is open

#IfWinActive, Snipping Tool

  $*Shift::

    Send {Shift Down}

    CoordMode, Mouse, Screen

    MouseGetPos, SetX, SetY

    ; clip the cursor to a rectangle that consists just of a line in x-direction

    ClipCursor(true, -1000000, SetY, 1000000, SetY+1)

    KeyWait Shift

  return



  $*Shift Up::

    Send {Shift Up}

    ClipCursor(false, 0, 0, 0, 0) ; unclip the cursor

  return



  ClipCursor(Confine=True, x1=0 , y1=0, x2=1, y2=1)

  {

    VarSetCapacity(R, 16, 0), NumPut(x1, &R+0), NumPut(y1, &R+4), NumPut(x2, &R+8), NumPut(y2, &R+12)

    Return Confine ? DllCall("ClipCursor", UInt, &R) : DllCall("ClipCursor")

  }

#IfWinActive

The Answer by @HaveSpacesuit wasn't working for me in Windows 10.

Releasing Shift didn't release the cursor.

To fix it, change third line from the back to:

Return Confine ? DllCall( "ClipCursor", UInt,&R ) : DllCall( "ClipCursor", UInt, 0 )

Entire, working code:

SendMode Input ; Recommended for new scripts due to its superior speed and reliability

SetTitleMatchMode 2 ; Allows for partial matches in window titles

CoordMode, Mouse, Screen  



; Commands specific to when Snipping Tool is open

#IfWinActive, Snipping Tool

  $*Shift::

    Send {Shift Down}

    MouseGetPos, SetX, SetY

    ClipCursor( true, -10000, SetY, 10000, SetY+1 ) ;clip the cursor to a rectangle that consists just of a line in x-direction

    KeyWait Shift

  return



  $*Shift Up::

    Send {Shift Up}

    ClipCursor( false, 0, 0, 0, 0 ) ; unclip the cursor

  return



  ClipCursor( Confine=True, x1=0 , y1=0, x2=1, y2=1 ) {

    VarSetCapacity(R,16,0),  NumPut(x1,&R+0),NumPut(y1,&R+4),NumPut(x2,&R+8),NumPut(y2,&R+12)

    Return Confine ? DllCall( "ClipCursor", UInt,&R ) : DllCall( "ClipCursor", UInt, 0 )

  }

#IfWinActive

I came up with a very low-tech solution for this: MouseKeys!

I simply have it set up so that whenever I turn off NumLock, MouseKeys is activated. Then I just line up the highlighter cursor, "click" by pressing NumPad-0, then slide to the right using NumPad-6. NumPad-5 seems to consistently "unclick" at the end; I had mixed results pressing NumPad-0 again.

Note, this "MouseKeys always on" solution is probably only convenient on a desktop full keyboard. If you have a shared QWERTY/NumPad you'd want to use the MouseKeys hotkey instead to activate/deactivate.