How To Screenshot On A Mac: 3 Different Methods

If you own any kind of modern Mac laptop or desktop running macOS, there are 3 basic ways to take shots of your screen, as well as a very powerful built-in video capture feature that lets you record the screen — even allowing you to add narration to your presentations. So, how exactly do you take a screenshot on a Mac? Here’s how to get started:

Method 1: Whole Screen Capture

This method is the basic fullscreen capture, and takes a shot of the entire desktop.

How To Do It: Press Cmd-Shift-3 at the same time.

Method 2: Partial Screen Capture

This screen capture method will take a snapshot of a specified portion of your screen, rather than the whole thing.

How To Do It: Press Cmd-Shift-4 at the same time to turn the mouse into a crosshair, then drag it over the portion of the screen you want to capture.

Extra Functions:

• Hold down the space bar before releasing the mouse button or trackpad to lock the whole shape of your selected area and move it around the screen.
• To lock a single side of the selected area, press and hold shift while dragging your box across either axis.

Method 3: Window Capture

This screen capture method will take a shot of an open window but not the desktop or other open windows behind or around it.

How To Do It: Press Cmd-Shift-4 simultaneously to turn the mouse into a crosshair, as in the previous method, but this time press spacebar one. The crosshair will turn into a camera icon, and you’ll be able to hover it over a window of your choice and then click to take a screenshot.

Bonus: Video Capture

This method requires macOS Mojave, which shouldn’t be an issue as it was released in 2018. Once selected, you’ll be presented with a menu of video capture options, allowing you to make all kinds of presentations while capturing your voice if required.

How To Do It: Pressing Cmd-Shift-5 will bring up the capture screen options panel. You’ll find the same options here that we’ve already listed above, as well as some additional video capture methods.

Extra Functions:

• Use the mouse or trackpad to reposition the window to the size you require and the portion of the desktop you’d like to capture.
• Capture the whole desktop.

Also Read: How To Clean Your Apple Watch Like A Pro

Once you’ve chosen a capture method, you can right-click on the options button to select a 5 or 10-second delay before your recording is triggered, as well as other options, including the audio input and file type and save location. Finally, to the far right, you’ll see the record button. The easiest way to stop a screen recording is to simply hit escape, at which point your finished video will appear, ready to be viewed, edited or saved.

Which method did you find most useful for taking a screenshot on a Mac? Let us know in the comments below.