You can capture a viewport as an image file. You can also generate a preview of an animation. These commands are in the Screen Capture submenu of the Rendering menu.
A viewport grab (Capture Still Image) appears in a Rendered Frame Window, where you can save it to a bitmap format.
A preview (Create Preview Animation) can help you preview the animation in your scene. The preview uses lighting but not materials, so it renders much more quickly than a fully rendered animation.