A number of MacBook users have often found themselves in a dilemma on the shortcuts to sue to capture screenshots. Some tasks require image aids to drive points home for instance when creating user guides requiring you to occasionally capture snapshots of your screen and paste into your document or image editor.

Based on what section of the screen you want to capture, there are a number of ways to achieve just that. This guide provides six practical ways to enable you capture your screenshots on both MacBook and MacBook pro.

Capturing an entire screen

To Capture the whole screen Hold down the following keys Command + Shift + 3, by performing this you will hear some sound as that of a camera clicking. This is used often as it captures every section of the screen, it is also used by those who want to perform additional editing of the image. To locate the screenshot in .png format, brows your navigate to your Desktop where you will find it with a timestamp. The name begins with screenshot, then the date and time.

Taking a screenshot of a selection area

Hold down the Command+Shift+4 keys together, this will change your mouse cursor into a reticule with pixel coordinate numbers on the lower left.

Now click and hold your mouse and drag it around a specific section of the screen that you want to screenshot in rectangular format. Press the ESC key to begin again, without capturing the first screenshot.

Now release the mouse click to capture your screenshot. The screenshot will again be saved on your Desktop with a timestamp.

Hold down the Command+Shift+4+Spacebar keys. This will transform your mouse cursor into a screen camera icon, with whatever you hover over being highlighted in blue color.

Now highlight the specific area that you want to screenshot. If you have several screens opened, just use the Command +Tab key to navigate to the specific screen.

Finally click on the highlighted area to capture your screenshot.

Capturing a screenshot to the Clipboard

Press down the Ctrl key with any of the commands mentioned above. This will not save a screenshot to your Desktop but rather capture it to the Clipboard.

Paste the screenshot into any word processing document, image editor or any acceptable workspace by Holding the Command +V or simply selecting Paste from whichever workspace you want to paste to from the Edit Menu.

Capturing a screenshot in preview mode

  1. Begin by launching preview mode. Use the applications folder within the Finder, then double click on its icon.
  2. Open File Menu then hover your cursor over Take Screen shot.
  3. Within Selection, your cursor will be turned into a reticule, now Click and drag it across a specific rectangular area that you want to capture a screenshot of.
  4. From window will change your cursor into some camera icon which you can then use to highlight the rectangular window you want to capture and click.
  5. The screen will begin a countdown, ensure to arrange your screen how you would want it and be patient for the countdown.
  6. Your screenshot will open upon completion as an untitled Preview Image window. Now open the file menu then select Save.  Give it a name and select the location and file type and finally click on save.

16 Inch Mac Book Pro

For some models of MacBook Pro, you can also capture screenshots of what is currently on your Touch Bar by Holding the Command+Shift+6. This will capture a wide screenshot of your Touch Bar and save it to your Desktop.

2020-08-31