Taking a screenshot on your MacBook is a fundamental skill, whether you need to capture a funny online chat, save important information, or create visual content. macOS offers several built-in methods to capture your screen, making it quick and easy to grab exactly what you need. This guide will walk you through various ways to take screenshots on your MacBook, from capturing the entire screen to selecting specific windows or portions.
Capture the Entire Screen
The quickest way to take a snapshot of your entire MacBook screen is using a simple keyboard shortcut.
- Press and release these three keys simultaneously: Shift, Command, and 3.
- You might hear a camera shutter sound, and a thumbnail of your screenshot will briefly appear in the corner of your screen.
Keyboard combination for capturing the entire screen on a MacBook
After taking the screenshot, you have a couple of options. If you click the thumbnail, you can instantly edit and annotate your screenshot using Markup tools. Alternatively, if you don’t interact with the thumbnail, the screenshot will automatically be saved to your desktop as a PNG file, ready to use or share.
Capture a Portion of the Screen
Sometimes, you only need to capture a specific area of your screen. macOS allows you to select a portion to screenshot with another easy shortcut.
- Press and release these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 4.
- Your cursor will transform into a crosshair pointer.
Crosshair cursor for selecting a portion of the screen on macOS
- Click and drag the crosshair to select the rectangular area you wish to capture. As you drag, you’ll see a selection box outlining the area.
- Release the mouse or trackpad button to take the screenshot.
During the selection process, you have a few handy options:
- To cancel the screenshot: Press the Esc (Escape) key at any time.
- To move the selection area: While dragging, press and hold the Space bar. This allows you to reposition the selected area without changing its size.
Similar to capturing the entire screen, a thumbnail will appear for quick editing, or the screenshot will save to your desktop if you let it time out.
Capture a Window or Menu
If you need to screenshot a specific window or menu on your MacBook, macOS offers a dedicated method for clean and focused captures.
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Ensure the window or menu you want to capture is active and visible on your screen.
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Press and release these three keys: Shift, Command, and 4, and then immediately press the Space bar.
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The crosshair cursor will change into a camera icon.
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Click on the window or menu you want to capture. The selected window will be highlighted as you hover over it.
For capturing windows, there’s an additional tip:
- To exclude the window shadow: Press and hold the Option (Alt) key while clicking on the window. This will take a screenshot of just the window content without the drop shadow.
Screenshot of a specific Safari window on macOS
Again, look for the thumbnail for editing or find the saved screenshot on your desktop.
Using the Screenshot App for More Options
For macOS Mojave (10.14) and later, Apple introduced the Screenshot app, providing a more comprehensive set of screenshot and screen recording tools.
- To open the Screenshot app, press Shift, Command, and 5. Alternatively, you can find it in the Utilities folder within your Applications folder.
- A small toolbar will appear at the bottom of your screen, offering various capture options: Capture Entire Screen, Capture Selected Window, Capture Selected Portion, Record Entire Screen, and Record Selected Portion.
- The Screenshot app also provides options to set a timer, choose where to save your screenshots, and more, giving you greater control over your screen captures.
Finding Your Screenshots
By default, all screenshots are saved to your desktop. The filenames follow a consistent format: “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png”. Screen recordings are similarly named with a “.mov” extension.
If you can’t immediately see your screenshots, they might be hidden behind other windows. A quick way to locate them is to use Finder:
- Open Finder.
- In the menu bar, click Go and select Desktop, or simply click Desktop in the Finder sidebar.
This will bring your desktop files into view, and you should easily find your recent screenshots.
Additional Screenshot Tips
- Save to Clipboard: To save a screenshot directly to your clipboard instead of saving it as a file, hold down the Control key while using any of the screenshot shortcuts (e.g., Control-Shift-Command-3). You can then paste the screenshot directly into applications.
- Screenshot Thumbnail Options: If you hover your mouse pointer over the screenshot thumbnail, it will remain visible longer, giving you more time to click and edit it.
Mastering screenshots on your MacBook is straightforward with these methods. Whether you need a quick full-screen capture or a precise window grab, macOS provides the tools to get it done efficiently.
