Macintosh Learning Center
by Shell Weinberg

  January 2005    “Grab” ...or take a screen shot ?
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Earlier Operating Systems, pre OS X, offered us four neat ways to take screen shots (then called screen capture or screen dump or picture, depending on the manual you were reading or the person you were talking to). And when you did the task you would hear a distinct camera shutter-like sound signaling you had taken the shot.

Nowadays, we OS X users can also find four shortcut ways to make a screen shot... plus a special program called Grab, which actually offers a few more sophisticated functions related to the screen shot. Sadly, no more camera shutter-like sounds when using these shortcuts, but you will hear the sound effects when using Grab.

The purpose for taking a screen shot varies according to your needs. In my case, I use it almost daily to capture portions of information I find on Internet pages, then paste those portions into an open document, and then print, which gives me a hard copy I can read and file. Examples would be stock quotes, news alerts from different sources, medical information, photos of ebay items, etc.

For those of you interested, here are the four shortcuts:

To capture your entire screen

  1. go to keyboard, press/hold down command shift
  2. with your other hand press 3, then release keys
  3. see Desktop for Picture 1 (Adobe PDF file)
  4. double click icon, will open in Acrobat Reader

To capture a portion of your screen

  1. go to keyboard, press/hold down command shift
  2. Tth your other hand press 4, release keys
  3. look at your cursor... now shows as target crosshair
  4. position cursor, then press/hold down mouse button
  5. drag, this draws a gray frame over data
  6. release mouse button
  7. see Desktop for Picture 1 (Adobe PDF file)
  8. double click icon, will open in Acrobat Reader

To capture a portion of your screen and send it directly to the Clipboard

  1. press/hold down command shift control
  2. with your other hand press 4, release keys
  3. look at your cursor... shows as target crosshair
  4. position cursor, then press/hold down mouse button
  5. drag, this draws a gray frame over data
  6. release mouse button
  7. cropped data has been copied to the Clipboard (this does not produce a file with an icon)
  8. you can now paste image into any open document

To take a screen shot of a selected item (such as an open window, the Desktop, etc.)

  1. press/hold down command shift
  2. press 4, release all, then press spacebar
  3. cursor becomes a camera, click mouse button
  4. see Desktop for Picture 1 (Adobe PDF file)
  5. double click icon, will open in Acrobat Reader

For additional screen shot features open Grab, found in Macintosh HD > Applications > Utilities > Grab.

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