Screenshots are a convenient tool. You can use them to help guide someone through a new app, capture essential messages, and take incriminating photos of your best friend while Skyping. Unfortunately, Apple computers and laptops don’t come with a straightforward Print Screen Key.
They do, however, have a few keyboard commands and apps that will allow you to get the shot you need. These commands are quick and easy to learn.
To take a screenshot on your Mac:
To take a screenshot, press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 3.
To capture a portion of the screen:
Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 4. Then drag the crosshair to select the area of the screen to capture. To move the selection, press and hold Space bar while dragging. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
To take the screenshot, release your mouse or trackpad button. If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
To capture a window or menu:
- Open the window or menu that you want to capture.
- Press and hold these keys together: Shift, Command, 4, and Space bar. The pointer changes to a camera icon. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
- Click the window or menu to capture it. To exclude the window’s shadow from the screenshot, press and hold the Option key while you click.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit the screenshot. Or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
By default, screenshots save to your desktop with the name ”Screen Shot 2024 at [time].png.” In macOS Mojave or later, you can change the default location of saved screenshots from the Options menu in the Screenshot app. You can also drag the thumbnail to a folder or document.
