How To Take A Screenshot On A Mac

Screenshot On A Mac

There are three keyboard shortcuts you'll need to know for taking screenshots on your MacBook or Mac Pro as part of your workflow, plus a fourth option for MacBooks with touch bars. One of these methods is rather recent. If you're coming from MacOS Mojave, you'll recognize it from MacOS Catalina, but if you're not, don't worry.

Stay tuned, because we'll show you what to do with your screenshots once you've taken them. Stick around! Using the tools provided by Apple, I've learned to enjoy and often use screenshots for annotating documents and other content.

To learn more, have a look at these five ways to quiet your Mac's fan, as well as how to regain access to a locked Mac if you forget your password.

​Command*Shift*3

​When you press this shortcut, you'll get a screenshot of your full screen.

​Command*Shift*4

This keyboard shortcut will change your cursor into a crosshair so you can use it to select a specific area of your screen to take a screenshot of. Press and hold down the mouse button or trackpad button until the shutter button appears on the camera.

Following Shift-Command-4, you're presented with a number of additional options, including the following.

When you press and hold the space bar, a camera symbol appears in the crosshair that you may drag to any open window. A screenshot can be taken by clicking on the selected window and then clicking the "Shot" button. This method yields a snapshot with a white border around the window and a slight drop shadow.

After highlighting an area with the mouse or trackpad, press and hold the space bar. The selection area is fixed in size and shape, but you can move it around the screen. You can quickly reposition your selection area if your first one was off by a few pixels by pressing and holding the space bar.

The Shift key locks in the selection area produced with the crosshairs except for the bottom edge, so you can move your mouse up and down to adjust it. Hold the Shift key down (after dragging to highlight an area but before releasing the mouse button or trackpad):

Reposition the right border of your selection area by releasing the Shift key while holding down the mouse button. Toggle between moving the bottom and right edges, hold down the Shift key while using the mouse or touchpad.

Command*Shift*5

​This combination activates a small screen capture choices panel at the bottom of your display, a feature introduced in MacOS Mojave (2018). You can take a snapshot of your complete screen, a window, or a portion of your screen by pressing one of the three screenshot buttons.

It is possible to capture a portion of your screen using the two video recording buttons. To close the screenshot panel, click the X button on the left. Alternatively, you can press the Escape key on your keyboard.

There is an Options button on the right side of the screen. A 5- or 10-second delay helps you line up elements that would otherwise disappear if you used the screenshot tool. It lets you choose where your screenshot is saved — on your desktop, in documents, in clipboard, in mail, in messages, or in preview.

Since this feature is turned on by default, you'll see an image identical to the one from your just-captured screen shot in the lower-right corner of your screen. You have the option to disable the preview thumbnail on your Mac, unlike the iPhone ($899 at Amazon). Finally, you have the option of recording or taking a screenshot of your mouse cursor.

If the screenshot panel is getting in your way, just grab the left edge and move it.

How to Locate Screenshots

​Taken at [date] at [time], png images are saved to your computer's desktop by default as "Screen Shot."

Using the Screenshot app's Options menu, you may change the default location for stored screenshots in macOS Mojave or later. Drag the thumbnail into a folder or document if you'd prefer.