Capturing your computer screen can be helpful in a variety of situations. Suppose you’re getting an error screen and need expert assistance, or maybe you need to visually present how a program works to someone else. Screenshots are the answer.
When deciding how To take a screenshot on a Mac computer, you can either opt for the keyboard shortcut approach or you can use software that provides a simple GUI (Graphical User Interface) already included in your OS.
Keyboard Shortcuts
Shift-Command-3: This key combination captures the entire screen, including any additional displays or monitors that you have attached. The image is saved right to your desktop. If you add the control key to this combo, the image is saved to your clipboard.
Shift-Command-4: Pressing these keys turns your cursor into a little bulls-eye. You can now drag a box over any part of the screen that you want to capture. Additionally, you can hit the Space Bar in this mode to change your cursor into a camera. If you click on a selected window with the camera, only that window is captured and saved to the desktop. Again, adding the control key to this combo save the image to your clipboard.
Software
For those of us who prefer to click instead of holding down keys, there is a simple software solution for capturing your screen called Grab included on your Mac. You can find Grab in the Applications/Utilities folder; simply double click it to fire it up. Now you can capture your screen by navigating to the Capture tab and selecting Screen. The captured image will appear in a window and you will have the option to name and save the file.
You may have noticed that all the functions of the keyboard shortcuts like Window and Selection can be found under the Capture tab, as well as the handy addition of Timed Screen. If you would rather use keyboard shortcuts but still want to use Grab for its added functionality, you can use the shortcuts associated with the options under the Capture tab.