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Screen Capture - Shortcuts that make it easy

Here's a tip that can help you in many ways. Screenshots. This means that you can take 'pictures' of your computer screen or any part of it. Taking shots of your screen can be very useful. For example, suppose you are trying to help a friend with his Mac. You could take a picture and send it in an email to help him visualize how he can accomplish his task.

How to do it.
You could use Grab in the Utilities folder, or you could use keyboard shortcuts. Shortcuts are quick and easy. Say you want a shot of your entire screen, simply press (all together) Shift-Command(⌘)-3 and Leopard will make a picture file on your desktop that you can modify or send in an email.
Like this:


The screen shot will be a small file on your desktop like this:

You can rename and move the file as you wish, of course too. Another shortcut is ⌘-Shift-4 which will allow you to take a picture of only a portion of your screen. (That is how I captured the picture of the file on the right.) ⌘-Shift-4, and then drag the cross-hair pointer to select the area you wish to capture. To cancel, press Escape.
To take a picture of a window or menu bar under the pointer, press the Space Bar, move the camera pointer over the area to highlight it, and then click. You can even capture your dock!
Screen shots are another built in utility included with Mac OS X Leopard. No need for a third party application. Although, there are several third party apps that allow you to do even more.

I hope you find this tip / trick useful in your everyday Mac experience.
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Comments

Anonymous said…
Just wondering if i could get some more info on the third party apps you were talking about that do even more. thanks!!
December 12, 2008 at 11:38 AM
Bob Kuivanen said…
Sure, although Grab is a great built-in utility, some other products may have other features. (I have not tried nor do I particularly endorse them. This is just FYI.)
This is a blog with info:
http://tinyurl.com/5no8e5
Thanks!
December 12, 2008 at 10:25 PM
Anonymous said…
I really dislike the default buttons for a screen grab (Command+Shift+3 or 4) it's just too cumbersome. I switched my screenshots to Option+X (for the crosshairs) and Option+C (fullscreen snapshot) for easier use.

To change it go to System Preferences>Keyboard & Mouse>Keyboard Shortcuts (tab). Double click the shortcut next to any Description and type in your new command.

Now my mac is working with me.
December 16, 2008 at 5:10 PM
Bob Kuivanen said…
@JoshK: Great tip! That is one thing that makes OS X so nice, have it your way!
December 16, 2008 at 6:40 PM
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