New Screenshot Options

With macOS Mojave, we have a new way of creating screenshots on the Mac. Let’s take a look at this. Let’s go to my Mac. What I’m going to do is I’m going to first open up a new Finder window. I’m going to go up to File here, and then let’s go to New Finder Window. Let’s say I wanted to take a screenshot of this window. Or maybe what I want to do is I want to take a screenshot of my entire display. Or maybe I want to take a movie of this.

In the past, we did this by using Command, Shift, and then the number keys. If I were to hold down Command, Shift, and 3 key, what it would do is it would take a screenshot of my entire display. With Command-Shift-4, I can make a selection, or what I can do is take a screenshot of the window. If I wanted to take a video, I would have to use the app called Grab. With macOS Mojave, we can do this all with one key command, Command-Shift-5. Let’s take a look.

I’m going to hold down the Command key, the Shift key, and the 5 key. You’re going to see down at the bottom we have a new overlay. With this overlay, I’m able to select what I want to take a screenshot of. Our first option here is to capture the entire screen. If I were to hit the Return key, it would take a screenshot of my entire screen and save it to the desktop.

Our next option here, Capture the Selected Window. I click on this, and now when I hit the Return key, it’s going to capture the selected window, the window that I have open here. My next option is for a selection. You’re going to see I have my selection here. I drag each one in the corners to where I want the selection. Let’s say I wanted to have a recording. You’re going to see I also have an option to record the entire screen. If I just wanted to record a selection, I don’t want to record the entire screen; I want to have a selection, I were to click on Selection. Now what it’ll do is it’ll record what I have selected.

To the right, we do have various options. I click on Options here, and I can set where I want to save it. By default, it will save it to my desktop, but I can also save it to other folders and other apps. If I wanted to mail a screenshot, I could go and select mail, and it’ll enclose my screenshot in a mail message. I can set a timer. Right now, it is set for none but if I go and select 5 seconds or 10 seconds, what we’ll get is we’ll get a countdown, and then it’ll take the screenshot after that countdown.

Then I also have options for floating my thumbnail. When I take the screenshot, I’m going to see a thumbnail in the lower right-hand corner. I can remember my last selection, and then I can also show the mouse pointer. Once I have all of my options set, what I want to take a screenshot of, and where it will save it to, all I have to do is click on Capture. I can also hit the Return key. Now let’s do this.

I’m going to go over to my window here. This is why I opened up a new window. I click on it, and know what it’s going to do; it will capture my selected window. You can see that when my cursor moves over the top of the window, it turns blue. This is what it’s going to capture. When I click on this, we’re going to get a thumbnail on the lower right-hand corner. It’ll show up for a few seconds, and then it’ll disappear, and then we’re going to see the screenshot on my desktop. Let’s go and do this.

I click on it, we get our screenshot in the lower right-hand corner, and then we can see our screenshot on the desktop. Let’s take a screenshot of the entire display. I’m going to use Command-Shift-5 again. That’s the only key command we have to remember. Now it remembers my last selection. Right now, my mouse is over the top of my desktop, so that is why it is blue. I move my mouse back over to the window; the window turns blue. I’ll take a picture of the window again. I want to take a picture of my display. What I do is I go over to my display here, and now it’ll capture the entire display.

Let’s go and add a delay to this. We’re going to wait five seconds. What I do is I go over to options, and I go over to five seconds. What it’ll do is it’ll wait five seconds before it captures the entire screen. Why would you want to do this? Let’s say I wanted to capture myself selecting a menu. What this will do is this will give me five seconds to go and select my menu. Once I do that, it’ll take a picture of my entire display. What I’m going to do is I’m going to hit Return here. You can see it counting down here. I got to go up to my menu; I select it. We can see the thumbnail in the lower right-hand corner. The thumbnail will disappear, and then when we go over to screenshots here, I click on this, and you’re going to see I have my picture here.

Let’s go ahead and do a quick look. How do we do that? I click on it one time and then hit the spacebar. This allows me to take a look at this image without actually opening it up. When we do, you can see we have My Menu selected. Let’s go and do this again.

This time, we’re just going to take a picture of a selection. You use Command-Shift-5. We have our overlay. I’m going to go to Selection here. I select what I want to take a picture of. We’ll go with our files here. I’m just going to make my selection a little bit smaller here, so it’s just my files. It’s still set for five seconds, so it will wait five seconds before it captures. Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to go and make this immediate. We’re just going to go with none. When I do this, what it’s going to do is it’s going to go to the lower right-hand corner. I can see a thumbnail. When I click on that thumbnail, I’m going to have more options. I’m going to hit the Return key, it takes a picture, we have our thumbnail, I click and hold, and you’re going to see I have more options here.

Let’s say I no longer wanted to have the Save to my desktop; I would rather have this one open up in mail. What I would do is I would select this, and it will open it up in mail. When we have our thumbnail in the lower right-hand corner and click and hold on it, you will have more options. I’m going to go outside here, that disappears and adds it to my desktop.

The last thing we’re going to look at is a recording. I’m going to go to Command-Shift-5. We have our recording. I’m just going to record the selected portion. What I do is I go over to record, or I hit Return. I’m going to hit Return here. Now what it is doing, it is recording. Let’s go and close my documents here. I click on it; it just recorded me closing that. My edge is a little bit off here, so what I’m going to do is I’m going to move my window, and now we can see the name as well as my triangle. We just made a couple of adjustments here.

How do we stop this recording? If we look up in our menu bar, you’re going to see we have a stop button. I click on this, and now we have our thumbnail. When I click on the thumbnail, it opens up, and we can see that it is a movie. I’m going to close the window behind it, and here is our movie. Now I click on play, and you’re going to see me close this here. There I am closing it. Then I’m going to move the window a little bit so we can see the header, the name, and we’re going to be able to see more of the files, and there it is. I’m going to click on Done, and now that just added it to my desktop.

Now we can still use the old way of taking screenshots. If you’re used to that Command, Shift, 3, and 4, you can still use that. With macOS Mojave, we can use Command-Shift-5, and we’re going to be able to see all of our different options.

That’s how we take screenshots in macOS Mojave.