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Problem Taking Screenshot in Leopard

S

someone28624

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 15, 2007
849
11
Buffalo
I'm having a problem with screen shots. When I hit the ctrl, apple, shift, 4 to take a screenshot, I hear the camera sound, but I can't find where the screenshot is saved to. It's not the desktop like i thought it was suppose to be.
 
it's command + shift + 3 to get a desktop screenshot, on my mac it just deposits the image on the desktop.

command + shift + 4 gives you crosshairs to select what part of the screen you want captured, again it goes on the desktop
 
someone28624 said:
I'm having a problem with screen shots. When I hit the ctrl, apple, shift, 4 to take a screenshot, I hear the camera sound, but I can't find where the screenshot is saved to. It's not the desktop like i thought it was suppose to be.
Click to expand...

I think that saves it to the clipboard.
 
someone28624 said:
I'm having a problem with screen shots. When I hit the ctrl, apple, shift, 4 to take a screenshot, I hear the camera sound, but I can't find where the screenshot is saved to. It's not the desktop like i thought it was suppose to be.
Click to expand...

I have the same problem. My screencaps no longer save to the desktop. I've searched my entire hard drive and can't find them anywhere.

Does anyone have a solution or know if this is a problem?
 
if it ain't normal then it ought to be a problem; did you ever try it with command-shift-F4?
 
macrumors guides said:
Command-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it as a file on the desktop
Command-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it as a file on the desktop
Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop
Command-Control-Shift-3: Take a screenshot of the screen, and save it to the clipboard
Command-Control-Shift-4, then select an area: Take a screenshot of an area and save it to the clipboard
Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard
In Leopard, the following keys can be held down while selecting an area (via Command-Shift-4 or Command-Control-Shift-4):

Space, to lock the size of the selected region and instead move it when the mouse moves
Shift, to resize only one edge of the selected region
Option, to resize the selected region with its center as the anchor poin
Click to expand...

from http://guides.macrumors.com/Taking_Screenshots_in_Mac_OS_X
 
I am well versed in using screencaps with command-shift-4, I've been doing it for years and have taken thousands of screencaps this way.

When I do it now, Leopard acts like it's taking a screencap and makes the camera sound, but nothing ever appears on the desktop. I don't see anything called Picture 1.png or whatever. Leopard goes through all the motions but never writes a file.

Apparently I'm not the only one having this issue.
 
imachias said:
I am well versed in using screencaps with command-shift-4, I've been doing it for years and have taken thousands of screencaps this way.

When I do it now, Leopard acts like it's taking a screencap and makes the camera sound, but nothing ever appears on the desktop. I don't see anything called Picture 1.png or whatever. Leopard goes through all the motions but never writes a file.

Apparently I'm not the only one having this issue.
Click to expand...


It is a widespread issue and I found the solution:

Delete this file from ~/Library/Preferences: .GlobalPreferences.plist

It fixes it.
 
imachias said:
It is a widespread issue and I found the solution:

Delete this file from ~/Library/Preferences: .GlobalPreferences.plist

It fixes it.
Click to expand...

I've just upgraded my new iMac (bought 6 months ago) from Tiger 10.4.11 to Leopard 10.5.2. Prior to upgrade, screen shots worked - not only on my Apple keyboard, but also on my old wireless Microsoft keyboard. Since upgrade I cannot do any screen shots using either keyboard. I've looked THOROUGHLY in the file listed above and searched in Spotlight for it and cannot find .GlobalPreferences.plist anywhere, so I can't delete it. I've even tried using Automator to set up screen shots and nothing works. I've got my old Tiger version on a bootable backup HD and when I go back to it I can do screen shots with either keyboard. I've tried rebooting, disconnection my Microsoft keyboard/mouse, and everything else I can think of and nothing works. HELP - this is a function I use frequently and it's frustrating the heck out of me!!! I've got another brand new iMac - bought last week with Leopard pre-loaded on it - and screen shots works beautifully on it - even with my Microsoft keyboard and my Apple keyboard.
‹3
 
designcodec said:
I don't mean to intrude. Seems you directed this question to someone else. But I recently posted on this forum and noticed your post. So I'd like to tell you about the Clipboard.

First off, I don't believe the Clipboard has anything to do with the problem most people are having with missing screen shots. Saying that, let me now answer your Clipboard question.

The Clipboard is not a place or application that you open normally as you would do with most applications or files. It's a hidden temporary storage area on your computer, where data that's been copied in some way, is kept until it is pasted into another file.

The most common way that you put data on the clipboard is when you "copy" a file. When you do a "paste" that clipboard file to then transferred to wherever you're doing the pasting.

You can also put a screen shot on the clipboard:
by adding the addition of the Control key to your screen capture. For instance, by pressing Command/Shift/3/Option or Command/Shift/4/Option the screen capture will be saved to the Clipboard instead of as a file that goes directly to your desktop. So the screen capture at this point is just temporarily sitting in the Clipboard waiting for you to do something with it.

To get the screen shot out of the Clipboard, you could open Preview for instance (in the Applications folder) and go to "File/New From Clipboard" and the shot will open in Preview (which you could then save). Or you could just paste the screen capture that is temporarily on the Clipboard to an application like Text Edit (or many other applications).

But here's the thing and the bottom line:
I don't believe all this has anything to do with the "Missing screen shot" problem. Most people don't make screen shots using the Option key (explained above). So they aren't saving the screen capture temporarily to the Clipboard. Therefore the Clipboard doesn't come in play here. You normally make a screen capture and the shot should be saved as a file that does directly to the desktop. And that's the problem. Sometimes the shot doesn't display correctly on the desktop. The shot is really on the desktop. It's just that the Finder screws up and doesn't display it. I And that is the problem of missing screen shots. The culprit is the Apple/Finder (I explained that in 2 previous posts here).

P.S. By the way, usually the Clipboard only holds "one" file at a time that's usable. Each time you do a "copy" command, the last Clipboard item is cleared to make room for the new Clipboard item. But you can get around this by using
a clipboard manager. There are several out there, one of which is ClipDoubler:

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/productivity_tools/clipdoubler.html

ClipDoubler is designed as an easy to use application that gives you unlimited clipboards. So you're not confined to only having one file on the Clipboard. It saves many clipboard files. And you can choose which of those files you want to "paste." Note: all the Clipboard files will be deleted from the Clipboard when you shut down your computer.

BUT I WANT TO MENTION AGAIN, THIS CLIPBOARD STUFF HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MISSING SCREEN SHOTS. IT'S THE "FINDER" THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot for the info! Very useful!:D
 
designcodec said:
.

BUT I WANT TO MENTION AGAIN, THIS CLIPBOARD STUFF HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE MISSING SCREEN SHOTS. IT'S THE "FINDER" THAT IS THE PROBLEM.
Click to expand...

Dear designcodec, sorry to get back to the same clipboard problem, here we go 2011,
My mac 10.5.8 does not keep copy to the clipboard to preview it always post it to the desktop, I relaunched the finder, but it still on the desktop. If I screen shoot copy it to the clipboard it should paste it to any app, but it saves it to the desktop. thank you for your help
 
screen shots

I'm having a problem with screen shots on one of my mac machines. When I hit the ctrl, apple, shift, 4 to take a screenshot, I take a picture that will save on the desktop, but the image is just a few tilted parallel lines every time. I am not sure what the problem is?!
 
Problem is in the Finder!

Thank you designcodec!
"But here's the thing and the bottom line:
I don't believe all this has anything to do with the "Missing screen shot" problem. Most people don't make screen shots using the Option key (explained above). So they aren't saving the screen capture temporarily to the Clipboard. Therefore the Clipboard doesn't come in play here. You normally make a screen capture and the shot should be saved as a file that does directly to the desktop. And that's the problem. Sometimes the shot doesn't display correctly on the desktop. The shot is really on the desktop. It's just that the Finder screws up and doesn't display it. I And that is the problem of missing screen shots. The culprit is the Apple/Finder (I explained that in 2 previous posts here)."
Your response worked. I opened the finder and changed the desktop view to arrange by Date Created, suddenly I could see all of the screen shots that had not displayed. Fabulous! Problem solved. http://cdn.macrumors.com/vb/images/smilies/biggrin.gif

----------

Thank you designcodec!
"But here's the thing and the bottom line:
I don't believe all this has anything to do with the "Missing screen shot" problem. Most people don't make screen shots using the Option key (explained above). So they aren't saving the screen capture temporarily to the Clipboard. Therefore the Clipboard doesn't come in play here. You normally make a screen capture and the shot should be saved as a file that does directly to the desktop. And that's the problem. Sometimes the shot doesn't display correctly on the desktop. The shot is really on the desktop. It's just that the Finder screws up and doesn't display it. I And that is the problem of missing screen shots. The culprit is the Apple/Finder (I explained that in 2 previous posts here)."

Your response worked. I opened the finder and changed the desktop view to arrange by Date Created, suddenly I could see all of the screen shots that had not displayed. Fabulous! Problem solved.
 
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