Snip - a Microsoft Garage project - is a simple screen capture tool with some interesting extras.

Launch the program and it adds an auto-hiding toolbar to the top of your screen. This has buttons to take a basic screenshot (desktop, individual windows or freehand rectangles only), a webcam photo, or display a blank whiteboard.

You're then able to annotate the image with freehand drawings, or by using a highlighter pen.

What's more unusual is this doesn't have to remain a static image. Snip can record a movie of the drawing process, optionally with an audio narration, a much better way to get complex points across.

Sharing is another plus. Not only can Snip save your work locally as an image or MP4 video, but it can also automatically upload it to Microsoft's Mix site, and give you a link for immediate sharing with others: they click and it plays in their browser. There's no charge, you don't even have to register.

Snip also maintains a simple library, just a collection of the captures and recordings you've made. There's no way to manage this, and you can't turn it off, which might be an issue if you don't want others to access your work. But this is still a very early version, and we'd guess more features will appear soon.