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macOS Quick Tip: Screenshot Straight to the Clipboard

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Apr 12, 2001
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There are several ways you can take screenshots on a Mac. Preview offers the option from its File menu. There's also a little screen capture app in the macOS Utilities folder called Screenshot. But the simplest and most common method is to use your Mac's built-in shortcut key combinations.

screenshot-app-1.jpg

Taking a screenshot is as easy as hitting Shift-Command-3 to capture the whole screen, or Shift-Command-4 to capture a portion of the screen using the mouse cursor as a crosshair selection tool (a tap of the spacebar also turns it into a camera for capturing windows).

Screenshots taken using key shortcuts are typically saved on your desktop. However, if you tack the Control key onto either of these shortcuts, macOS will copy the captured image to the clipboard instead of saving it as a file on your desktop, which is useful if you want to paste it into an application that can edit or view images, or use Universal Clipboard to paste it on another Apple device.

In Preview, for example, Command-N creates a new document from the contents of the clipboard without you having to specify a filename until you're ready to save it. You can also access this function in Preview's menu bar (File ➝ New From Clipboard).

Article Link: macOS Quick Tip: Screenshot Straight to the Clipboard
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/screenshot-straight-to-clipboard/
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I miss using macOS. Until they do something about temporal dithering I can't use MacBooks. :(

Windows' Snipping Tool has the same functionality.
 
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Can Siri take a screenshot in MacOS? (I'd test it, but at work we have it disabled)

The screenshot keystrokes are really useful! I use them at least a few times a day for presentations and some other stuff involving UIs that I need to keep hush hush.

Also it's possible to take videos (I use Quicktime to capture iOS/iPadOS) for demos...
 
There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time, and don't even get me started on trying to memorize the cute little icons they have for each of them, and the fact that sometimes instructions will only give you IKEA instructions on which combination to use...

Keep it simple, stupid!
 
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While cool, damn is that the hardest key combo to hold while dragging a mouse. Why can't it be close to paste match style shft+ctrl+optn+cmd and maybe hold down right click until selection is made.
 
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EatinPonies said:
There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? And there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time. Keep it simple, stupid!
Click to expand...

There really is. I've been using MacOS for years, and I still bought one of the little sticker cheat-sheets that you place next to the trackpad...and still refence it often.

 
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EatinPonies said:
There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time, and don't even get me started on trying to memorize the cute little icons they have for each of them, and the fact that sometimes instructions will only give you IKEA instructions on which combination to use...

Keep it simple, stupid!
Click to expand...

akurosawa said:
While cool, damn is that the hardest key combo to hold while dragging a mouse. Why can't it be close to paste match style shft+ctrl+optn+cmd and maybe hold down right click until selection is made.
Click to expand...

I don't know why MacRumors doesn't just suggest using cmd+shift+5

It's such a better interface to access all screenshot options.
 
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EatinPonies said:
There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time, and don't even get me started on trying to memorize the cute little icons they have for each of them, and the fact that sometimes instructions will only give you IKEA instructions on which combination to use...

Keep it simple, stupid!
Click to expand...

These keystrokes have been around for 20+ years. Apple isn't suddenly make it harder just recently.

These keystrokes used to be the _only_ way to capture screenshots (natively), but they more recently added the Screenshot app, as discussed in this article, for those that struggle with keystrokes.
 
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MacRumors said:
Screenshots taken using key shortcuts are typically saved on your desktop. However, if you tack the Control key onto either of these shortcuts, macOS will copy the captured image to the clipboard instead of saving it as a file on your desktop, which is useful if you want to paste it into an application that can edit or view images, or use Universal Clipboard to paste it on another Apple device.
Click to expand...
Can’t believe I didn’t know this, that will be a huge timesaver for me. Thanks MR for these useful how-to articles!
 
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splitpea said:
Better too many shortcuts than too few. Nobody forces you to use or memorize them. And for those of us who prefer keyboard control, having to use the mouse for more than we already do would suck.
Click to expand...

coolfactor said:
These keystrokes have been around for 20+ years. Apple isn't suddenly make it harder just recently.

These keystrokes used to be the _only_ way to capture screenshots (natively), but they more recently added the Screenshot app, as discussed in this article, for those that struggle with keystrokes.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I love keyboard shortcuts and have tons of them memorized. I grew up with computers back in the day before having a mouse was commonplace.
 
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I have dual monitors, and adding Control to the Shift-Command-3 shortcut seems to be copying only the primary monitor to my clipboard. Without it, both images are created as normal. It doesn't matter if my cursor is on display 2 or if it has focus. Oddly enough, Control-Shift-Command-4 can capture across monitors though.
 
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I was just moaning today about how limited screenshots on macOS are compared to iOS. Why can’t we have the same markup and delete/copy tools we have on iOS.
 
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Awesome to know. This will save me time by not having to go through all my screenshots and manually delete them. Thanks!
 
EatinPonies said:
There are just flat-out way too many modifier keys for these things. For a company like Apple that used to go out of their way to keep things simple by way of even eliminating buttons on our phones, it has always been ridiculous to figure out which finger salute you need to use to do certain things. Shift? Control? Option? Command? Maybe it's one of the 16 different combinations of them all together? There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to which ones you need at any given time, and don't even get me started on trying to memorize the cute little icons they have for each of them, and the fact that sometimes instructions will only give you IKEA instructions on which combination to use...

Keep it simple, stupid!
Click to expand...

Of course the youngsters have absolutely no clue WHY the keystrokes are command-shift, do they?
These things are not arbitrary, they're rooted in 40 years of history...

Resources

whitefiles.org whitefiles.org
 
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