MAC TREAT #201.2: Screen Shots On A Mac

ByMike Moffit

Apparently, last week’s Mac Treat about taking a screen shot was a big hit among all of our readers. If you missed it, you can check it out here.

A lot of readers emailed me with their methods for capturing screenshots, and I wanted to share some of their ideas.

The first idea was an addition to the keyboard shortcuts I described last week. Sometimes, you may not want to save a file to your desktop and would rather copy it to your clipboard for immediate use. Holding down the Control key in addition to the other keys will copy your screen shot rather then saving it. All of these shortcuts can be a bit tricky because they involve so many keys, but doable if you have two hands to use! Also, the last two shortcuts only involve the mouse after you have pressed all of the keys.

  • Command + Control + Shift + 3 – Copies the entire desktop to the clipboard.
  • Command + Control + Shift + 4 – Copies a selection of the screen to the clipboard.
  • Command + Control + Shift + 4, then Space Bar – Copies a selected window to the clipboard.

Another method for capturing the screen is to use Apple’s built-in utility called Grab. This lil’ gem is tucked far away in Applications > Utilities folder. It gives you similar options to the shortcuts I mentioned earlier.

  • Selection – Creates a crosshair for you to drag a box around to capture.
  • Window – Captures a selected window.
  • Screen – Captures the entire screen.
  • Timed Screen – Initiates a 10-second delay before it captures the entire screen.

The last option of Timed Screen is a new one that allows you to prepare the screen to look the way you want. In some cases, you might need to open up certain menus that would be otherwise difficult or impossible to do by using the other methods of screen capturing.

One final thing to note about the Grab utility is that it allows you to show or hide the mouse cursor depending on the reason for capturing a screenshot.

I hope this addendum to last week’s Mac Treat will round out all of the standard options you have for capturing a screenshot on your Mac. I encourage readers to contact me if you have any problems using these commands or the Grab Utility at michaelb@smalldog.com.

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