Steff.me

Taking a screenshot on a Mac isn’t as easy as pressing one key as with other operating systems but the functionality is damn powerful in comparison.

To take a normal screenshot, which will capture your entire screen bar your mouse, press Command + Shift + 3.

Alternatively, you can do a selective screenshot. This will only capture the area that you highlight with a drag of your mouse. To do this press Command + Shift + 4; your cursor will turn into a cross-hair to show you’ve pressed the correct combination. Then click and drag your mouse until you’ve selected what you want to screenshot. This will produce a picture such as below.

Using the same method as above, you can also screenshot individual application screens. To do this, press Command + Shift + 4, however this time instead of using the mouse press Spacebar. This will turn your cursor into a camera. As you hover over applications with the mouse, the window will turn a grey colour. This shows the application that will be capture when you click. An example of this screenshot is shown below, as you can see the screenshot contains just the application window (and at the correct size).

Bug! Okay.. quirk!

The built in screenshot function isn’t perfect though. I have indeed noticed a small quirk in the way it works. I won’t call it a bug because I don’t see it as much of a problem. I was actually intentionally trying to break it when I discovered this, so…

When you do a “selective” screenshot (Command+Shift+4), before you release the mouse-button or before you even click and drag, do a normal screenshot (Command+Shift+3). This will take a picture of your entire screen. Now, release the mouse-button (or click and drag then release) to complete your selective screenshot.

The full-screen picture you just took will be deleted and replaced by this selective one, rather than it just being another picture.

Okay, so not much of a bug? Not really. That’s why I called it quirky behaviour. You just end up with one picture instead of the two.