1. Press Command + Shift + 3 to capture the entire screen. The screenshot will be automatically saved to your desktop.

2. Press Command + Shift + 4 to capture a portion of the screen. Use your mouse to draw a rectangle in order to specify what to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screenshot will be automatically saved on your desktop.

3. Press Command + Shift + 4 and then Space bar to capture a specific window or menu. Once you see a camera icon, click the window or menu to capture it. The screenshot will be automatically saved to your desktop.

4. Press Command + Shift + 5 to open up the screenshot toolbar. This allows you to capture the entire screen, a window or a portion of the screen. You can also record your screen from this toolbar. You can choose where to save these screenshots or recordings.

You can find your screenshot on the desktop, saved as a PNG file. The file is named "Screen Shot [date] at [time].png."

There are several ways to take screenshots on a Mac, depending on what you want to capture. Here's a breakdown of the most common methods:

1. Capturing the Entire Screen:

• Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + Command + 3
• What it does: Captures the entire screen and saves it as a PNG file on your desktop.

2. Capturing a Selected Area:

• Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + Command + 4
• What it does: Your cursor turns into a crosshair. Click and drag to select the area you want to capture. When you release the mouse button, the screenshot is saved as a PNG file on your desktop.

3. Capturing a Specific Window:

• Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + Command + 4 + Spacebar
• What it does: Your cursor turns into a camera icon. Hover over the window you want to capture, and it will be highlighted. Click the window to capture it. The screenshot is saved as a PNG file on your desktop. (Important: Click the window after it's highlighted, not the desktop).

4. Using the Screenshot App (macOS Mojave and later):

• Keyboard Shortcut: Shift + Command + 5
• What it does: Opens the Screenshot app, which provides a toolbar with options for:
  • Capture Entire Screen: Same as Shift + Command + 3
  • Capture Selected Window: Same as Shift + Command + 4 + Spacebar
  • Capture Selected Portion: Same as Shift + Command + 4
  • Record Entire Screen: Starts a screen recording of the entire screen.
  • Record Selected Portion: Starts a screen recording of a selected area.
  • Options:
    • Save To: Lets you choose where to save the screenshot (Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview, or Other Location).
    • Timer: Sets a delay (None, 5 seconds, 10 seconds) before the screenshot is taken.
    • Show Floating Thumbnail: Displays a small thumbnail of the screenshot in the corner of your screen for a few seconds after it's taken.
    • Remember Last Selection: Remembers the last selected area for capturing a portion of the screen.
    • Show Mouse Pointer: Includes the mouse pointer in the screenshot.
• Advantages of the Screenshot App: Offers more control over screenshot options and screen recording.

Saving to the Clipboard:

For all methods, you can hold down the Control key while taking the screenshot. This will copy the screenshot to your clipboard instead of saving it as a file. You can then paste it into an application like Pages, Microsoft Word, or an image editor. So:

• Control + Shift + Command + 3: Entire screen to clipboard
• Control + Shift + Command + 4: Selected area to clipboard
• Control + Shift + Command + 4 + Spacebar: Specific window to clipboard

Troubleshooting:

• Nothing happens: Make sure you are pressing all the keys at the same time. Sometimes the Shift key can be a bit finicky.
• Screenshots are not saving: Check your System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Screenshots to ensure the shortcuts are enabled and haven't been reassigned.
• Screenshots are saving in a different location: If you've used the Screenshot app, it might be set to save screenshots to a different folder. Check the options in the Screenshot app.
• Screenshots are saving as .tiff: This is unusual but sometimes happens. The simplest fix is usually to open the Screenshot application (Shift + Command + 5) and verify the options. Often it is a setting in Preview that is forcing this behavior.

Summary Table:

By understanding these different methods, you can easily capture exactly what you need on your Mac!

To take a screenshot on a Mac, you can use the following methods:

1. Capture Entire Screen: Press Shift-Command-3. This will save the screenshot to your desktop.
2. Capture a Portion of the Screen: Press Shift-Command-4, then drag the crosshair to select the area you want to capture. Release to save the screenshot to the desktop.
3. Capture a Window: Press Shift-Command-4, then press the Space bar. Move the camera icon over a window and click to capture it.
4. Using Screenshot App: Press Shift-Command-5 to open the Screenshot app, which offers additional options like recording and setting a timer delay[1][3][5].

If you want the screenshot in the clipboard instead of a file, hold Control while using any of these combinations[5].