How to take a screenshot on your Mac

Snapping a screenshot always come handy on various occasions. You may want to take a screenshot to help explain something to someone, or for even keeping future references of something like someone’s Instagram’s story that will sure not be there after 24 hours.

Either way, being able to take screenshots on PC is a handy trick everyone with a Mac should be armed with. That said, let me show you how you can take a screenshot on your Mac.

Depending on your Mac Operating System, this guide should have you covered either way.

TL;DR? Scroll down to find our Mac OS screenshot Cheat sheet

How to take screenshots on Mac using Screenshot

On recent Mac versions (Mojave and Catalina), there’s a handy app that makes it to capture screenshots.

Step 1. Press Shift-Command(⌘)-5 which opens up Screenshot which is displayed with some nifty command bar at the bottom.

Step 2. Select any option depending on your needs.

Here’s a key to cracking these tools:

• The first option is for capturing the entire screen, the second one(with three dots) is for capturing a window, the dotted option is for capturing a portion of the screen.
• Screenshot also lets you record your screen. That’s what the next two options(with rounded buttons) are all about. The first option is for recording the entire screen while the second one with the dotted border is for recording a section of the screen.

Step 3. Tap on the “Options” button and you’ll see additional options depending on what you want to do. Using the options button, you can choose where screenshots or screen recordings are saved and even add a timer among other options.

Step 4. The last option in the command bar is ‘Capture’ which is the one for taking the screenshots.

If you don’t run MacOS Mojave or Catalina, read the guide below.

How to take screenshots In Older Mac OS versions

• To take a screenshot on Mac press and hold the Shift, Command, and 3 simultaneously.

• After that you’ll see a screenshot thumbnail in the corner of your screen

• Click the thumbnail to edit the screenshot or just leave it and it will be saved directly on your Mac. This helps you take a full-page screenshot

How to capture a portion of the screen

• To capture a portion of the screen, press and hold these Shift, Command, and 4 at the same time

• Leave the keys and Use the crosshair or cursor to select only the regions of the page you want captured

• Move the selection by holding the space bar while dragging the around the area to be captured

• To take a screenshot, leave the mouse or trackpad button and you’ll see a screenshot thumbnail at the corner. You can still tap on it to edit the screenshot or just leave it to be saved directly.

To capture a window or menu

• Open the window or menu to be captured

• Press and hold Shift, Command, 4, and Space bar simultaneously. At this point the pointer will changes to a camera icon.

• Tap on the window or menu you want captured to take a screenshot. You can exclude a windows shadow from being captured by simply pressing and holding the Options key while you select the window.

• You will know a screenshot is captured when you see a thumbnail at the side of your screen. Click to edit or just leave it to be saved that way.

Where to find your Screenshots on a Mac

Taking a screenshot and finding it are two different things. Now that we have shown you how to take a screenshot on Mac, let us show you where to find the captured screenshots.

Typically, Mac OS stores screenshots on the desktop in a ”Screen Shot [date] at [time].png” format.

Mac OS Screenshot Cheat Sheet

If these keyboard shortcuts are too hard to crack customize your own shortcuts by going to the Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard, then select Shortcuts.