❓ Frequently Asked Questions

This page collects the most common questions and solutions for using PixWit (Windows 10 / 11). The answers match the official User Guide (right-click the tray icon → Help → User Guide). Hotkeys shown with their default values can be changed in Settings → Hotkey Settings unless they are marked as "built-in to the system"; the wording you see in the app always takes precedence over this page.

Installation, startup and system requirements

Q: Can I use it on Windows 7?

• No. Only Windows 10 / 11 are supported.

Q: After downloading or updating, Windows reports "no permission" or my security software blocks it?

• The update dialog includes a collapsible note (⚠️ After downloading, Windows reports "no permission" or your security software blocks it?) that offers three workarounds:
  1. Method 1 — Clear the file's "mark of the web": right-click the downloaded file → Properties → check Unblock → OK.
  2. Method 2 — Use the installer version: it installs to %LocalAppData%\PixWit and needs no administrator rights.
  3. Method 3 — Ask your IT admin to whitelist PixWit: the dialog provides the software name, publisher and download URL so you can copy them in one click.

Q: Will launching it twice open a second program?

• No. PixWit is single-instance: launching it again does not open a second program; it brings the existing main window up and to the front.
• If you want the main window to appear on every launch, check Show main window on every launch in Settings → General settings → Startup behavior.

Q: The program is stuck / I want to force-stop an operation in progress?

• While recording, press the record hotkey again (default F3) to stop, or click Stop on the recording control toolbar; while in screenshot/selection mode, press Esc to cancel.
• If the interface is completely unresponsive, end the PixWit process in Task Manager and start it again (your settings and history are not lost).

Q: It says "MSVCP140_2.dll not found" / the VC++ runtime is missing?

• The official installer and portable build already bundle the required runtime libraries (msvcp140.dll, msvcp140_1.dll, msvcp140_2.dll, vcruntime140.dll, vcruntime140_1.dll), so this message should not appear. If it still does, the runtime on your system is missing or damaged:
  1. Install Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64): official download (make sure you pick x64, not x86);
  2. If it was already installed, go to Control Panel → Programs and Features, click Change → Repair on Microsoft Visual C++ 2015-2022 Redistributable (x64), restart and try again.
• On startup the program also checks for these DLLs and shows a dialog if any are missing, where you can choose Install now directly.

Q: How do I uninstall PixWit?

• Installer version: Control Panel → Programs and Features → find PixWit → Uninstall (the install folder %LocalAppData%\PixWit is removed with it).
• Portable version: right-click the tray icon → Exit, then simply delete the extracted folder. Nothing is written to the registry.
• Uninstalling does not clean up your screenshots and recordings: use Screenshot History → 📁 Open history folder in the tray menu to view and clean them up.

Q: The program crashes / exits unexpectedly — how do I diagnose and report it?

• First make sure it is not a duplicate launch: PixWit is single-instance, so launching it again only brings the existing main window up and to the front.
• Right-click the tray icon → Help → Open log file to open the PixWit logs folder under %LocalAppData%, then report the latest log together with a description of the problem (QQ group or Gitee Issues).
• If it is stuck on an operation in progress, first end the recording with ⏹ Stop Recording in the tray menu, or end the PixWit process and start it again.

Main window and tray

Q: The main window has disappeared?

• It may have been docked to the edge and collapsed: move the mouse to the thin strip at the corresponding screen edge and it pops out automatically.
• It may also have been hidden with the × at the bottom of the main window (× only hides the main window; the program keeps running in the tray).
• Right-click the tray icon and check Show main window to bring it back. This checkmark only applies to the current run and is not written to your settings.

Q: How do I quit PixWit?

• The × at the bottom of the main window only hides it and does not quit the program; use the tray menu → Exit instead (if a recording is in progress you will be asked to confirm first).

Q: Can the main window be dragged? How do I turn off edge auto-hide?

• Hold the drag handle ⋮⋮⋮ to drag the toolbar anywhere on screen; you can also drag an image / video file straight onto the main window to open it.
• Edge auto-hide is on by default: dragging the window to a screen edge snaps it there, and after you move the mouse away it slides back to the edge after a delay, leaving only a thin strip (8px on the left/right, 6px on the top/bottom). Moving the mouse back onto the strip pops it out again; if you leave it in the middle of the desktop it does not auto-hide. Collapsing is not quitting — screenshot, recording and other hotkeys keep working.
• The toggle and Hide delay (1 / 2 / 3 / 5 / 10 seconds) are in Settings → General settings → Main window.

Q: Can a tray icon click be changed to a different action? How do I change the icon?

• Tray click behavior is set in Settings → General settings → System tray click behavior: whichever button is set to Tray menu button always opens the tray menu, and left/middle/right click each offer 7 actions (show/hide main window, region capture, show tray menu, start/stop recording, open Settings, quick history browsing, do nothing). Defaults: left = show/hide main window, middle = region capture, right = show tray menu.
• You can change the icon with Choose icon... in the System tray icon group (ico / png / jpg / svg are supported), or click Restore defaults.

Q: How do I make it start with Windows?

• Right-click the tray icon and check Start with Windows: administrator accounts use a scheduled task, standard accounts use a startup entry; uncheck it to disable.

Q: How do I switch the interface language and theme?

• The tray menu 🌐 Language offers: Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Spanish, Russian and Portuguese (after switching, some parts of the interface need a restart to take effect).
• Check 🌙 Dark theme / ☀️ Light theme in the tray menu to switch between the dark and light themes.

Q: How can I reduce screenshot lag?

• Turn on Low-spec mode (reduce screenshot lag) in Settings → General settings → Performance compatibility. It is meant for low-core / low-performance devices: it lowers the background detection frequency and limits concurrent tasks, and UI element highlighting responds slightly more slowly. The mode also caps the recording frame rate at 10fps and turns off the mouse-click and key-press overlays.

Hotkeys

Q: The screenshot hotkey does not respond?

• Check in Settings → Hotkey Settings that the hotkey has not been cleared (clicking the × on the right clears it, which is the same as disabling that hotkey).
• If a "hotkey conflict" toast appeared from the tray, that combination is already taken by another program — pick a different one.
• While you are in screenshot mode, pressing the screenshot key again cancels; while the editor window is open, pressing it again turns the current image into a sticky note, so don't mistake that for a failure.
• While a modal dialog is open or the program is busy with another task, hotkeys do not respond.

Q: The screenshot hotkey does not respond in a game?

• When PixWit detects that the program is in exclusive fullscreen (real "fullscreen", not "borderless window"), it automatically switches to full-screen capture and shows a tray toast: in exclusive fullscreen the selection overlay cannot be displayed over the game, and the capture may only capture an entirely black image. If you want to use region capture in a game, change the game's display mode to Borderless Window (windowed fullscreen).
• If all hotkeys fail in the game and recover as soon as you Alt+Tab to the desktop, the game is blocking global hotkeys through Raw Input (established Windows behavior — even the Win key stops working along with them). PixWit does not install a global keyboard hook and cannot work around this — again, switch to Borderless Window, or just use the game's own screenshot feature.
• If hotkeys still do not respond after switching to the desktop and the game / Steam is running as administrator, the foreground window has higher privileges than PixWit and global hotkeys do not take effect. Run PixWit as administrator as well, or check Start with Windows in the tray (administrator accounts then start it silently with elevated rights through a scheduled task).
• Self-check with the log: right-click the tray icon → Open log file; at the moment you press the hotkey, [Hotkey] screenshot key triggered | fg=... should appear. If that line is there, the keypress reached PixWit and the problem is in the capture chain (item 1 above); if that line is missing from the whole log, it falls under items 2 and 3.

Q: It says "hotkey conflict" or "recording disabled"?

• The Hotkey Settings page does not check for duplicates: setting two features to the same combination does not report an error immediately; only when registration fails does the tray show the "hotkey conflict" toast. If the hotkey that is taken is recording-related, a Recording disabled - hotkey conflict message box appears instead. Just pick a different combination.
• Every entry can be cleared (disabled) with × or restored in one click with Restore defaults.

Q: Which keys can be used as global hotkeys?

• Only combinations of letters, digits, F1-F12 and common function keys (Space, Enter, Esc, Tab, arrow keys, etc.) are supported; unsupported keys show This key is not currently supported as a global hotkey and ask you to choose another one.
• Screenshots / recording use keyboard hotkeys; the Win + mouse button trigger from early versions has been removed.

Screenshots and multiple monitors

Q: How do I take screenshots on multiple monitors? Should "Allow cross-monitor capture" be on?

• Move the mouse to the target monitor and press the hotkey; by default the capture covers the monitor the mouse is on.
• Allow cross-monitor capture is in Settings → Screenshot settings → Selection settings and is off by default; when it is off, the selection is confined to the monitor the mouse is on. With multiple monitors that have different scaling factors, it is best to leave it off.
• Full-screen recording also records the monitor the mouse is on.

Q: How do I get windows / controls framed automatically while capturing?

• Settings → Screenshot settings → Window detection offers three modes (default None): None (no framing), Window mode only (fast) and Element mode only (precise).
• While in selection mode, press Tab to cycle through None → Window only → Element only → None; the top-right corner shows Detection mode: Window mode only, and the choice is remembered.
• When several windows/controls overlap, use the mouse wheel to cycle through the different levels at the same position (scroll up for an inner/smaller level, scroll down for an outer/larger one, each notch moving to a genuinely different size; the level is shown on the detection box's size label, in the form 301 x 304 · 3/7). The chosen level stays put until the cursor moves onto a different element; confirm it as the selection with a single click on the detection box or by pressing Enter / Space.
• Element detection goes through MSAA first and automatically falls back to UIA for programs that do not support it. If detection fails or times out, no message is shown at all — move the mouse away and back, or use the wheel to change level, to retry.

Q: Where is screenshot history stored? How do I clean it up / change its location?

• It is only reachable from the tray menu: Screenshot History → 🖼️ Quick browse / 📂 Open history folder / 📁 Change save path... / 🗑️ Clear history.
• Change save path... lets you migrate old screenshots to the new location (migration copies the files; the originals are not deleted).
• Clear history deletes the images in the history folder (this cannot be undone) and also cleans up the thumbnail cache and temporary files.
• The retention policy is in Saving settings → History management: do not keep / keep forever / keep one week / keep one month / keep three months. When the history browser window opens, expired screenshots are cleaned up in the background according to the policy (favorites are never cleaned up).
• To search by the text inside your screenshots, first turn on Enable OCR indexing in Screenshot settings.

Q: How do I change the default save format? Is SVG export supported?

• Change Default save format (PNG / JPEG / WebP / BMP / GIF images) and Image quality (1~100, only effective for JPEG/WebP) in Settings → Saving settings → Image saving settings.
• The screenshot save dialog (titled Save screenshot) offers PNG / JPEG / WebP / BMP and can also export PDF; the image viewer's save dialog (Save image (format conversion supported)) offers PNG / JPEG / BMP / GIF / WebP / PDF / ICO.
• SVG export is not supported. SVG is only a format the image viewer can open and display (supported formats: PNG, JPEG, BMP, GIF, WebP, SVG, ICO).

Q: Can annotations be edited again after saving?

• What is saved to a file is a plain image with the annotations already rendered (screenshots can be saved as PNG / JPEG / WebP / BMP).
• To keep adding annotations, open that image in the image viewer — its annotation tools are the same as in the screenshot editor (pen, line, arrow, circle, rectangle, mosaic, text, serial number). When you are done, use Ctrl+S or Save on the toolbar.
• The image viewer also offers what the screenshot editor does not: cropping, rotation, perspective correction, adjusting image size and quality, format conversion and printing.

Screenshot editing and annotation

Q: Middle-clicking in the screenshot editor does nothing?

• In the current version the editor's middle button has no function. To switch between fill / stroke, use the right-click menu of the rectangle / circle buttons (or set it in the style popup).
• Middle-click to jump to 100% only works in the image viewer (toast ✓ 100% actual size).

Q: How do I switch between fill / stroke and solid / dashed lines?

• Only 6 buttons have a right-click menu: Circle / Rectangle (Stroke / Fill), Line / Polyline (Solid / Dashed), Arrow (No label / With label), Scrolling Screenshot (Auto / Manual). The menus are single-choice with a checkmark, and picking an item activates that tool immediately; it affects both shapes you draw from then on and any currently selected shapes of the same kind.
• The other tools are styled in the style popup, which opens when you left-click any tool button (it does not steal focus, so you can adjust while drawing). It contains width dots (wheel ±1), 8 preset colors plus a custom color, opacity dots (wheel ±5), and so on.

Q: Can I still adjust the width / opacity of an annotation I have drawn? Is there a "3 second" time limit?

• There is no time limit. While drawing, use the wheel to adjust the current tool's width (±1) and Shift + wheel to adjust opacity (±5); in the image viewer, once you release the mouse and the shape becomes a selectable object, you can adjust its width with the wheel at any time — there is no "within 3 seconds of drawing" restriction.
• Opacity is named as opacity: 0% is the most solid, 100% is fully transparent, and scrolling up one notch makes it more transparent. Ordinary tools go down to a minimum of 10%; filled rectangles/circles and text backgrounds can go to 0% (border only).

Q: Can I undo a mistake?

• Ctrl+Z undoes: while editing text it cancels the edit, while drawing a polyline it discards the polyline, while drawing it cancels the current drawing; otherwise it deletes the last annotation / restores the screenshot image. There is no redo.
• Delete / Backspace deletes the selected annotation; Ctrl+Z also corresponds to the Undo button on the toolbar.

Q: What do Esc / right-click / double-click each do?

• Esc is a three-level cascade: first cancel the edit in progress → then cancel the tool selection → finally close the window.
• Right-click: while drawing a polyline = finish the polyline; otherwise = leave the editor immediately, without saving or copying.
• Double-click: when nothing else applies = copy and close (you can turn off Double-click to copy the screenshot and close the window in Screenshot settings); double-clicking an arrow instead edits or adds its caption.
• The Close button (Esc) closes directly, without saving or copying.

Q: Does the window close by itself after the screenshot is saved?

• Save (button / Ctrl+S): renders all annotations and saves them to a file; the window closes automatically about 0.1 seconds later.
• Copy (button / Ctrl+C): copies to the clipboard and keeps the window open so you can continue editing.
• Copy and close: Ctrl+X or Enter.
• Close window after copying is on by default, Double-click to copy the screenshot and close the window is on by default, and Auto-finish the capture after dragging a selection is off by default (in Settings → Screenshot settings → Interaction).

Q: How do I add a watermark?

• The toggle is the Watermark button on the screenshot toolbar (checkable, off by default: checked = shown, unchecked = hidden); the parameters are in Settings → Annotation settings → Watermark settings: watermark text (default PixWit), font size, color, font, position (top left / top right / bottom left / bottom right / tile (45° tilt)), margin, tile spacing, and whether to add the date and time along with the time format.
• The watermark is previewed live in both selection mode and the editor, and is actually burned into the image on output.

Sticky notes and clipboard

Q: The sticky note is covering the content?

• Drag the edge / corners of the sticky note to resize it (10% ~ 500%); Ctrl + wheel adjusts opacity (0.1 per notch, range 10% ~ 100%).
• With a sticky note selected, right-click 👁 Opacity to pick a preset quickly: 0% (opaque) / 25% / 50% / 75%.
• When you no longer need it, just double-click (copies to the clipboard and closes the window) or press Esc (closes the sticky note without copying).
• When several are on screen, right-click 🚫 Close all sticky notes to clear them in one go (the entry only appears when there are 2 or more; each is closed individually and nothing is copied).

📷 Illustration placeholder (figure 1)

Sticky note right-click "👁 Opacity" presets — shows the four presets 0% (opaque) / 25% / 50% / 75%, plus the "🚫 Close all sticky notes" menu item To add the image: put the picture at docs/public/images/faq-sticky-opacity.webp, then delete this tip block and uncomment the next line

Q: How do I crop, rotate or flip a sticky note?

• Shift + click the edge of the image to enter crop mode (or right-click ✂️ Crop). The crop box can be dragged to move it, and its 8 handles can be dragged to resize it (minimum 5%).
• In crop mode, Enter confirms, crops the current sticky note in place and exits; Ctrl+Z undoes it (up to 20 steps). Esc cancels cropping and the image stays as it was.
• ✅ Confirm crop in the right-click menu takes a different path from Enter: it creates a new sticky note and closes the original one, and does not go on the undo stack, so day to day it is better to use Enter / Esc.
• Rotation and flipping are both in the sticky note's right-click menu: 🔄 Rotate → ↩️ Rotate left 90° / ↪️ Rotate right 90°, and ↔️ Flip (horizontal flip).
• Other window controls: hold the left button and drag to move; the wheel zooms smoothly (8% per notch, snapping and showing ✓ 100% as it approaches 100%); Space enters edit mode (same as right-click ✏️ Edit); Ctrl+S / Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X save / copy / copy and close; Ctrl+0 / Ctrl+= / Ctrl+- reset zoom / zoom in / zoom out.

Q: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes a card instead of text?

• That is by design: when the clipboard holds text, it is first rendered into a light-colored note card and then pasted (white rounded background, maximum width 720px, maximum height about 70% of the screen, up to 20,000 characters per paste, beyond which ...(truncated) is shown). Once pasted it is an image — double-clicking copies the image to the clipboard, and the card itself has no clickable buttons.
• If you need the text itself, paste it from the clipboard directly into the target program.

Q: Pressing Ctrl+Shift+V repeatedly pastes several images — how do I stop?

• Pressing repeatedly walks back through the clipboard image history: one press pastes the most recent image, pressing again pastes the second, the third, and so on, up to 10 per round.
• If you don't press again within 5 seconds, it restarts from the most recent image (and after reaching the oldest it restarts the round as well). Just stop pressing.

Q: Ctrl+Shift+V does nothing / how many can I paste at most?

• Make sure 🖼️ Clipboard sticky in Settings → Hotkey Settings has not been cleared (default Ctrl+Shift+V). If neither the clipboard nor the history has any content, pressing the hotkey does nothing.
• Multiple images are laid out with a 30px grid offset so they don't end up off-screen; when the clipboard holds copied image files (and the history is empty), at most 3 are pasted.
• The clipboard history is kept in memory only (limit 10 items / 256MB); it is cleared when the program exits and never enters the screenshot history library.

Q: How do I hide the sticky note border?

• Check Hide sticky note border (no blue glow border) in Settings → Screenshot settings → Sticky note settings (off by default); once enabled, new sticky notes have no blue glow border.

Recording

Q: The recording has no sound?

• First check whether Settings → Recording settings → 🔊 Recording audio is set to Mute (no audio). Among the four options, System audio (recommended) is the default.
• The 🔉 Volume control group only appears when System audio + microphone is selected; there you can adjust each source separately (system audio defaults to 100%, microphone to 150%, range 0–500%).
• If the GIF format is selected, audio is forced to Mute (GIF does not support audio); switching back to MP4/MKV automatically selects System audio again.
• You can use Detect microphone / Recording test / Play to record 2 seconds and listen to it, confirming the microphone works. If the system has not granted microphone permission, open Windows Settings > Privacy and security > Microphone, turn on access and allow desktop apps to use it.

Q: The recording file is too large?

• In Settings → Recording settings, lower the 🎬 Video quality preset (Sharp CRF 18 / Balanced CRF 23 / Compressed CRF 28), lower the 🎞️ Frame rate (default 15 fps), or change the 📼 Output format to GIF.
• You can also process the finished recording with video compression: Edit audio/video → 🗜️ Compress (compression quality, output resolution, output format). Video compression has only this one entry point — there is no separate menu item or hotkey.

Q: There is no picture-in-picture in the recording / the camera does not work?

• Picture-in-picture is only supported in full-screen recording (not in region recording); the toggle is in Recording settings → 📹 Camera (picture-in-picture) → Enable picture-in-picture (full-screen recording only), off by default, and checking it automatically switches to full-screen recording.
• Before using it, click 🔍 Detect camera, choose a device in the drop-down (the first item is Do not use camera), then verify the picture with 👁️ Preview camera. While recording, the camera image is fixed to the bottom-right corner of the recorded screen (320px wide); dragging the preview window with the left button moves it, and that position is where it ends up in the final video.
• Common failure messages: No camera detected, so picture-in-picture recording cannot be enabled. Connect a camera and try again, Camera warm-up failed, so picture-in-picture recording cannot be started, Cannot start the camera, so picture-in-picture recording failed. Check whether another program is using the camera.

Q: On the first recording it asks to download a component?

• The first time you use screen recording, it asks you to download the video encoding component (about 94MB). It only needs to be downloaded once, after which it can be used offline.

Q: Recording stutters / CPU usage is high?

• In Settings → Recording settings → ⚙️ Encoding and performance, make sure Prefer hardware encoding (recommended, reduces CPU usage) is enabled (on by default), and use 🔍 Detect available encoders to see the recommended encoder; when hardware encoding is unavailable it falls back to CPU encoding automatically. If you run into artifacts / a black screen / a failed start, you can turn hardware encoding off.
• Lower the 🎞️ Frame rate and 🎬 Video quality, or capture a smaller region; you can also turn on Low-spec mode (Settings → General settings), which caps the recording frame rate at no more than 10fps and turns off the mouse-click and key-press overlays.
• While recording, the control window shows performance as FPS: actual/target (percentage) and gives optimization suggestions when frames are being dropped badly.

Q: Can I pause / stop while recording? How?

• Pause / resume: hotkey F4 (only effective while recording), the control window button, the region recording toolbar button, or ⏸️ Pause Recording / ▶️ Resume Recording in the tray. Paused time is not counted in the recording duration, and neither video nor audio is recorded while paused.
• Stop: hotkey F3, Stop in the control window, Stop Recording on the region recording toolbar, or ⏹ Stop Recording in the tray.
• Clicking the ✕ at the top-right of the full-screen recording control window while recording asks for confirmation first; confirming stops the recording and discards it.
• After you click start there is a 3-second countdown, during which Esc has no effect; if you change your mind, press F3 again or click the record button in the main window to cancel.

Q: Can I annotate while recording?

• Region recording (selection toolbar) offers: Resume mouse passthrough (press Esc), line, arrow, circle and rectangle annotations, and undo annotation; full-screen recording (control window) offers: pen, line, arrow, circle, rectangle, undo and style.
• Default hotkeys (registered only while recording, and no longer effective once recording stops): Alt+I line, Alt+J arrow, Alt+O circle, Alt+K rectangle, Alt+Esc exit annotation.
• When no annotation tool is selected the mouse passes through completely, so it does not get in the way of operating other software; holding Shift with the circle/rectangle tools constrains them to a perfect circle/square.
• If Allow screenshots while recording is checked under 📸 Screenshot while recording, no annotation window is created during recording, which means you cannot annotate while recording.

Q: Where are the recorded videos saved? How do I keep editing them?

• After stopping, a Processing / Processing the recording file, please wait... message appears first; once remuxing or transcoding finishes, the save dialog appears (titled Save video or Save GIF). The default file name is composed of the prefix from Saving settings → 📁 Video saving settings (default PixWit_Recording), a separator and a timestamp; the default folder is the last saved folder or the desktop.
• When saving finishes, a Recording complete dialog appears with the full path and three buttons: ▶️ Open (🖼️ Open for GIFs, which also copies the path to the clipboard), ✂️ Edit and 📂 Open folder.
• Clicking ✂️ Edit opens the Edit audio/video window for videos (✂️ Trim / 🗜️ Compress / ⚡ Speed / 🔄 Convert format / 🎙️ Voiceover / 🔪 Split audio), and the Edit GIF window for GIFs (trim / speed / resize / frame editing).
• If you click cancel in the save dialog, the temporary files from this recording are deleted.

Q: Does video trimming re-encode?

• A single-segment trim uses lossless copy and does not re-encode, which is why it is fast.
• Multi-segment trimming (maintaining the ranges to delete with ✂️ Delete middle segments) extracts the segments first and then merges them, showing Extracting segment N/M... and Merging segments... along the way.
• The default single-segment file name is <original name>_trim_<start>-<end>_<timestamp>.<ext>; for multiple segments it is <original name>_multiCut_<timestamp>.<ext>.

Q: The GIF file is too large?

• When recording GIFs: adjust 🎨 Advanced GIF settings (Fast mode / Standard mode / Best quality) and 🎬 Video quality in Recording settings (with the GIF format this group still applies and determines the GIF's color count and dithering), and lower the frame rate.
• When converting video to GIF: choose GIF under Edit audio/video → 🔄 Convert format, then set the frame rate (10 / 15 / 20 / 30 FPS) and the size (Original / 720p / 480p / 360p). The interface notes 💡 Tip: GIF files are large, so lower the frame rate and resolution. Recommended for short videos (<10 seconds).
• A finished recording can also be made smaller with 🗜️ Compress.

OCR, translation and tables

Q: OCR is inaccurate / the model cannot be downloaded?

• Local OCR needs to download a model the first time it is used. You can switch it in Settings → AI Service Config → Local OCR model: Auto (recommended), tiny (built in, fast) (bundled with the installer, about 6MB), small (high accuracy) (about 31MB; click Download small once to download it, after which it works offline). Model changes take effect only after you restart the program.
• You can also switch to a cloud service for better accuracy: enable Pixwit AI, or enable Custom AI service and configure Baidu OCR.
• Service priority is Local OCR only > Custom AI / Baidu OCR > Pixwit AI; when none of them is enabled, it shows OCR unavailable / Enable "Local OCR only" or turn on a cloud AI service.

Q: OCR finishes without a window / how do I copy the result?

• If you check Do not show the window, copy to clipboard automatically in AI Service Config → OCR settings, OCR triggered from the screenshot editor and the image viewer no longer opens a result window (the OCR path invoked directly by hotkey is not affected by this option). When the silent copy completes, a system notification appears in the bottom-right corner by default; if you don't want to see it, also check Do not show the "OCR complete" tray notification.
• The OCR result window has no button bar; all operations are in the right-click menu: 📋 Copy selection / 📄 Copy all, 📋 Copy all text, 💾 Save image, 📝 Switch to plain text (editable) / 🌐 Switch to HTML (keep formatting), 📌 Always on top, 📐 Layout, ↺ Reset layout.
• You can also click a line of text in the image to copy that line; hotkeys: Ctrl+C copies (and then closes the window automatically), Ctrl+T toggles always-on-top, Esc closes the window. When recognition completes, the whole result is written to the clipboard automatically.

Q: Translation / recognition reports an error?

• Go to Settings → AI Service Config and use Test connection to check the configuration, confirming that the API Key, balance and network are fine; missing required fields, timeouts, abnormal HTTP status codes and network errors each come with a corresponding explanation.
• A custom AI service requires the service's Enable checkbox to be ticked, and both API Key and Base URL must be non-empty.
• When no translation service is available it shows Translation service unavailable / No usable translation service is configured.

Q: A table pastes into Excel with the wrong formatting?

• Once table recognition finishes the program has already copied it for you (writing both plain text and HTML clipboard formats), so press Ctrl+V directly in Excel to keep the rows, columns and merged cells; to copy it again, click 📄 Copy all content in the table result window's right-click menu.
• Do not use Paste Special. When the automatic copy succeeds, ✓ Table copied to clipboard floats up (manual copy shows ✓ Copied); the interface never says "ready to paste into Excel".

📷 Illustration placeholder (figure 2)

Table result window right-click menu — shows ✓ Table copied to clipboard floating up after the automatic copy succeeds, plus 📄 Copy all content and 📋 Copy selection in the right-click menu To add the image: put the picture at docs/public/images/faq-copy-table-menu.webp, then delete this tip block and uncomment the next line

Q: Table recognition fails?

• Prefer a clear, straight-on, unobstructed high-resolution screenshot; when recognition fails the program tries other engines, and if it still fails, narrow the region and try again.
• Table extraction requires PixWit AI to be enabled first, or Custom AI service to be enabled with Baidu table recognition configured; otherwise it shows Feature unavailable / The table recognition service is not configured or not enabled. When a custom service plus Baidu table recognition is configured, Baidu table recognition is preferred; Local OCR only takes no part in table recognition.
• On failure the window shows 😕 Table recognition failed plus a friendly explanation (for example Authentication failed, check the API Key, Secret Key or Token URL configuration, Network connection failed, check the network or URL configuration, No table content recognized, make sure the image contains a clear table).

Q: How are the AI features triggered? Can I use them when no editor window is open?

• Editor window already open: the feature runs on the current image directly.
• No editor window: you first enter screenshot selection mode, and the feature runs immediately after you choose the region — it does not jump to the editor first. So these 6 hotkeys are themselves the shortcut for "screenshot → OCR / table / formula / translation / explanation / chat" directly.
• Default hotkeys: Ctrl+O Text Recognition, Ctrl+E Extract Table, Ctrl+M Extract formula, Ctrl+T Translation, Ctrl+I AI explanation, Ctrl+D AI dialog; all of them can be changed in Settings → Hotkey Settings, and clearing one disables it.
• If an annotation tool is also selected in the selection area, the AI action is not performed.

Q: What service does formula recognition need?

• Extract LaTeX formula is only supported by PixWit AI; when it is not enabled it shows LaTeX formula recognition requires the PixWit AI service. The entry point is the Ctrl+M hotkey or Extract LaTeX formula on the toolbar.
• The result reuses the OCR result window and is titled LaTeX formula extraction; copying works the same way as for OCR (the result is also written to the clipboard automatically when recognition completes).

Q: Is the AI dialog's chat history kept?

• It is kept in memory only and is lost when the window closes; only the window size/position and the last used model and template are remembered. The window is always on top and has no always-on-top toggle.
• The screenshot is sent to the model together with the question in the first round; the interface has no "with image / without image" switch and you cannot swap the image mid-conversation. Changing the model resets the conversation.
• The 📋 Template: drop-down above the input area lets you pick a prompt template; the Manage prompt templates window opened with Manage holds up to 20 entries.
• The window has no copy button — right-click in the conversation area and choose 📋 Copy selection or 📄 Copy all content.

Q: Where is AI Service Config?

• It is right-click the tray icon → Settings... → 🤖 AI Service Config in the left-hand navigation.
• Note: some older message strings in the program still tell users to look for AI service configuration in the "system tray menu" (for example the Translation service unavailable dialog); the actual entry point is Settings.

Updates and feedback

Q: How do I check for updates?

• Automatic check: the program checks about 1 minute after startup, then once every 24 hours; you can turn it off with Help → Stop checking for updates (checked means stopped).
• Manual check: Help → Check for updates.
• When a new version is found a 🎉 New version available dialog appears, containing the current version, the changelog and two download sources — GitHub and Gitee (recommended in China) — plus three buttons: 📦 Portable, 💿 Installer and 🔗 View release page; downloads open the corresponding link in your system browser, and the program itself never installs anything silently.
• If none of the update sources can be reached, it shows No update source is reachable together with the last error message.

Q: After the update is downloaded, Windows reports "no permission" or my security software blocks it?

• The update dialog has a collapsible note that offers three workarounds:
  1. Method 1 — Clear the file's "mark of the web": right-click the downloaded file → Properties → check Unblock → OK.
  2. Method 2 — Use the installer version: it installs to %LocalAppData%\PixWit and needs no administrator rights.
  3. Method 3 — Ask your IT admin to whitelist PixWit: the dialog provides the software name, publisher and download URL so you can copy them in one click.

Q: How do I see the version number?

• Right-click the tray icon → Help → About PixWit to see the version and contact details.

Q: I changed a setting but it did not take effect?

• The bottom of Settings only has three buttons: Apply / OK / Cancel; changes are only saved when you click Apply or OK (the same applies to the Recording settings page and to the Toolbar buttons in Annotation settings).
• Switching the local OCR model needs a program restart to take effect; after a language switch, some parts of the interface also need a restart to take effect.

Q: Where are the logs? What should I provide when reporting a problem?

• Help → Open log file opens the log folder (the PixWit logs folder under %LocalAppData%); include the logs when reporting a problem.
• Help → Feedback and suggestions copies the QQ group number 1091085813 and shows a toast.
• When reporting, please provide: OS version (Windows 10 / 11), PixWit version, a description of the problem with reproduction steps, screenshots or a screen recording, and the logs (if any).

Still have questions?

If you cannot find an answer here:

• Open the full in-app guide: right-click the tray icon → Help → User Guide, or read the User Guide.
• See the Hotkey reference and Tips (Chinese).
• Join the QQ group: 1091085813.
• Project home and issue tracker: gitee.com/bjs1999/PixWit, gitee.com/bjs1999/PixWit/issues.
• Official website: pixwit.cn.

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Thank you for using PixWit! 🎉