Buzz
Whether you need images for jokes, reporting errors, or technical assistance, taking screenshots is a valuable skill every computer user should know. Fortunately, capturing your screen on macOS is incredibly simple. By using specific keyboard combinations, you can take various types of screenshots on your Macbook or other Mac computers.
Steps
Capture the Entire Screen
Hold the keys: Command + Shift + 3 You’ll hear a camera shutter sound momentarily. This is the simplest way to take a screenshot: it captures the entire screen at that moment.
Locate the screenshot file with a .png extension on your desktop, labeled with the date and time the screenshot was taken.
Capture a Selected Portion of the Screen
Hold the keys: Command + Shift + 4 Your cursor will transform into a small crosshair with pixel coordinates displayed at the bottom left.
Click and hold your mouse or trackpad, then drag to select the rectangular area you wish to capture. Press the Esc key to cancel and start over without taking a screenshot.
Release to capture the image. The file will be saved to your desktop.
Capture a Screenshot of a Window
Hold Command + Shift + 4 + Space. This action will turn your cursor into a small camera icon and highlight any window you hover over in blue.
Highlight the window you want to capture. To locate the correct window, you can cycle through open applications using Command + Tab or press F3 to view all open windows. Press Esc to cancel without taking a screenshot.
Click on the highlighted window. Your file will be saved to the desktop.
Save Screenshot to Clipboard
Hold the Ctrl key while performing any of the above commands. This step saves the screenshot to the clipboard instead of creating a file on the desktop.
Paste the screenshot into a word processor, email, or image editor by pressing Command + V or selecting Paste from the Edit menu.
Capture Screenshots in Preview Mode
Open Preview. Locate Preview in the Applications folder of Finder and double-click its icon.
Navigate to the File menu and hover over Take Screen Shot.
Here, you have the options: From Selection (selected portions only), From Window (from a specific window), or From Entire Screen (the entire screen).
From Selection
From Window
Entire Screen
Save the new image. The screenshot will immediately open in an untitled preview window. Navigate to the File menu and select Save. Enter a name, choose a location and file type, then click Save.
Tips
- If you plan to capture a browser window, ensure no tabs are open that you don’t want others to see.
- Screenshots are also saved to the clipboard, similar to copying and pasting text.
