Even if you never learned some of these highly-useful shortcuts you’re about to learn, no doubt after the initial shock of “The Switch” wears off you’ve realized that using a Mac is much easier & more intuitive than your old Windows Computer. There’s no reason it can’t be even more useful & exciting. Using quick tools to do things such as take screenshots of what’s on your computer to share things with other people (like I do for the pics on this website), or even quick copy & paste commands. So let’s get some quick tips out of the way. But first, some things you should know:
- When you see the “+” symbol between keys (such as Shift+1), that means those keys are to be pressed at the same time.
- Pressing keys “at the same time” doesn’t mean you have to try and dart your fingers through some contortionist gymnastics to press every key at the exact same time; no, instead you can just hold all the keys until you actually get around to pressing the last one. It’s just that they do all have to be depressed during the same moment as the last key press.
- For example, as given in the first bullet, Shift+1 – you can press & hold shift, then press 1 while shift is already depressed to get a “!”. The timing isn’t that important.
Screenshots
You can quickly take snapshots of your computer screen to share with friends, family, & people trying to help you troubleshoot. The only thing marginally complicated about it is that there’s at least 3 methods to get slightly different types of screenshots. But fear not, I’ll show you all of them. The “Full-Monty” Screenshot
OK, there’s no explicit nudity, but it is a FULL screenshot, as in it’ll get every last pixel displayed on your screen. This “Full-Monty” screenshot
(that’s my name for it, by the way, not a “technical” term for it) version is invoked by depressing the Apple Key(⌘)+Shift+3. Once you do this, you’ll hear a sound effect mimicking a camera Shutter, and you’ll see an item named something to the effect of “Picture 1” or maybe 2 or 3 or so forth and so on if you take more than one. There’s no other warning or confirmation, it just does it and puts it on the desktop for you.The “I want it this way” screenshot
Say you want to take a screenshot of just a particular area of your screen. For instance, maybe you have a web page open, and you want to show someone a quick pic of a small section.
That’s where this comes into play, as it lets you decide where & how much of the screen is captured. It’s slightly more involved, but not in a complicated way. Here’s how we get this done:Start by depressing the Apple Key(⌘)+Shift+4. You’ll not hear the click of a camera shutter – at least not yet – but you will notice that the mouse pointer has changed into cross-hairs. Now you can take a picture of an area you choose by clicking & holding the mouse button down, dragging over the area you desire to select it for screen capture, and letting go of the mouse when you’re sure you have selected the area you want. Once you let go the mouse button, you’ll hear that familiar camera shutter sound effect, and again, an item will appear on your desktop, named “Picture 1” or similar.
The “I want that whole window” screenshot
Say you want to take a picture of an entire open window (you’ll notice I often do this for the website). Well if you want to do it, I can show you how. Depress the ⌘+Shift+4 keys again, and you’ll see the cross-hairs reappear.
No, I didn’t walk you all this way to tell you to do the obvious and drag the cross-hairs over the window – There’s an easier, more useful way, I swear! OK, now that the cross-hairs are up, press the Spacebar key. The cross-hairs will turn into a camera icon! Now, any window you place it over – even windows that are partially hidden – will be selected to have the entire area captured, even if it’s partly off the screen or covered. You’ll notice that each window you mouse over is highlighted yellow to let you know it’s selected. Simply click the mouse button to complete the screenshot. Other screenshot hints
- What if you invoke the camera icon, “I want that WHOLE Window” mode? You’re not stuck there and you don’t have to start all over. Just press Spacebar again, and you’ll be promptly returned to the cross-hairs.
- But what if you decided you weren’t ready to take a screenshot at all? No worries, my friends. If you get the cross-hairs out (don’t shoot!) but decide to put them away, you can do so by just clicking and releasing the mouse button rapidly, without selecting any pixels. If no pixels are selected, of course there’s no picture to be taken, right? And you’ll simply be returned to the regular mouse pointer.
End
Screenshots are always fun and sometimes useful! We can tell I make good use of them on this site in your honor, right? So perhaps you, too can make use of them to share things quickly for friends & family. I should mention there are products out there you can buy online that offer more "point and click" operation of these hints as well as offer extended functionality. One popular choice is SnapZPro from Ambrosia Software. I don't think many people will need to make use of their full suite of features, but just in case, don't tell anyone I didn't offer!