Capture and Annotate

Location on ribbon: Tab DVD Addin → Group Graphics → Menu Insert Pic Menu

Command ID: btnScreenAnnotate

What it does

The command captures any region of the screen and immediately opens an annotation window where you can draw on it: pen, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, highlighter and text. When you are done you can Copy it to the clipboard, Save it as a file, or Insert it straight into the active cell in Excel.

It suits marking up a drawing open in CAD or a PDF viewer, circling a discrepancy in a quantity sheet before sending it to the consultant, or capturing a software error with an arrow pointing at it — no more screenshot-then-Paint round trip.

How to use

1. Press the global shortcut Ctrl+Alt+S from any window, or go to tab DVD Addin → group Graphics → Insert Pic Menu → Capture and Annotate.
2. By default Excel is minimised so it does not cover what you want to capture, then the region-select overlay appears.
3. Drag to select the region. Excel is restored as soon as the capture is taken.
4. The annotation window opens with the captured image — choose a tool (pen, line, arrow, rectangle, ellipse, highlight, text), pick a colour and stroke width, and draw.
5. Finish one of three ways: Copy (paste into Word, Zalo, email…), Save (export as an image file), or Insert — the annotated image is placed into the active cell of the sheet.

Example

During a progress meeting the site consultant points out that the pile-cap PC-4 soffit level on the shop drawing does not match the design drawing.

You open the drawing PDF, press Ctrl+Alt+S, and drag over the pile-cap section. In the annotation window you use an arrow to point at the wrong level, a red rectangle to circle the figure, and add the text "−150 against design". Press Insert, and the image lands in the remarks cell of the meeting minutes open in Excel.

Notes

• The Ctrl+Alt+S shortcut works system-wide, so Excel does not need to be the foreground window — but Excel must be running with DVDAddin loaded.
• To include the Excel window in the capture, enable the matching option under Preferences ▸ Graphics; by default Excel is minimised first.
• Pressing the shortcut again while a capture or annotation is in progress does nothing — only one session runs at a time.
• Only the Insert button puts the image on the sheet, and it goes into the active cell — click the right cell before invoking the command.
• The inserted image cannot be removed with Ctrl+Z; select the picture and delete it instead.
• Closing the annotation window without Copy/Save/Insert discards the capture — nothing is kept on disk.

Related

• Screen Clip OCR — capture a screen region and extract its text instead of annotating it.
• Pictures — bulk-insert existing images from a folder into the sheet.
• Move/Resize — refit the inserted image into its cell.
• Preferences — toggle whether the Excel window is included, under the Graphics section.