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macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

sal.dev

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Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#152
post #45

Here is a key sequence I use very often. It takes a screenshot of a chosen window without the window's shadow. - First, type command + shift + 4 (the mouse pointer turns into crosshair). - Then type the space bar (the crosshair turns into a camera icon). - Hover the mouse pointer (a camera icon now), to highlight the chosen window. - Finally, hold the option key and click. This sounds like a lot of steps but it becom…

Add in the control key in the shortcut above and the screenshot will go to the clipboard instead of a file. Useful for pasting a screenshot into something like Messages or Slack. Also there's no need to hold down Option when clicking. You can however hit Esc to cancel the screenshot action.

You've just saved me years of my life. I can't believe I didn't know this.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#153

I swear, I have zero understanding of why Mac users are so delighted when they discover previously-unknown features. These features should be easily discoverable . But maybe I'm missing a trick. Maybe there's a deliberate effort in Apple to make only a minimal viable subset of features easily discoverable. Maybe some features have their documentation hidden a little deeper. And maybe accidental discovery gives Mac us…

Anything as complex as an operating system is going to have far too many features for them ALL to be easily discoverable. For something that complex, you want the most fundamental features and the most-used features to be easily discoverable, and everything else doesn't necessarily need to be. I've used many different versions of the major operating systems, and this seems to be true of them all, and is not macOS-specific.

As to why "Mac users are so delighted when they discover previously-unknown features"... I think it's partly because Apple (usually) does a good job at adding features. It often feels like they've refined the OS, not like they've simply jammed more things in.

Also, I think it's in part because when you get used to using a particular version of the OS, you might get used to not having certain features built into the OS. So when you discover that something you had previously been relying on a third-party app for is now built in to the OS, it's a pleasant surprise. While this isn't actually a Mac-specific thing, I do feel like Apple puts a lot of features into their OS that other OSes rely on apps (or even third-party apps) for, so maybe mac users might have more occasion to discover that something is now built in?

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#154
post #30

If you need to do any image manipulations/highlight on your screenshots, two of the best tools I found are: 1) Monosnap (freemium) - https://monosnap.com 2) Cleanshot ($29) - https://cleanshot.com Both tools also include large amount of extra functionality for taking screenshots and recordings.

a FOSS alternative is https://flameshot.org/

Amazing tool. And the best FOSS app I ever used on Ubuntu.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#156

One for people like me who love to get the padding just right: Hold spacebar while dragging a screenshot area to reposition the upper-left corner of the drag area.

Or hold option to keep the screenshot area in the same position and resize both corners at the same time.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#158
post #45

Here is a key sequence I use very often. It takes a screenshot of a chosen window without the window's shadow. - First, type command + shift + 4 (the mouse pointer turns into crosshair). - Then type the space bar (the crosshair turns into a camera icon). - Hover the mouse pointer (a camera icon now), to highlight the chosen window. - Finally, hold the option key and click. This sounds like a lot of steps but it becom…

I think Mac OS has the most inaccessible hidden hotkey shortcuts out of every OS I've used. Even essential functions like showing hidden files in a directory is uniquely done through an hidden shortcut in Mac OS.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#159
post #56
post #45

Here is a key sequence I use very often. It takes a screenshot of a chosen window without the window's shadow. - First, type command + shift + 4 (the mouse pointer turns into crosshair). - Then type the space bar (the crosshair turns into a camera icon). - Hover the mouse pointer (a camera icon now), to highlight the chosen window. - Finally, hold the option key and click. This sounds like a lot of steps but it becom…

FYI, Cmd + Shift + 5 encapsulates all the various options into one UI.

Cmd+space, "screenshot".

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#160
Related trick for changing an image's size, aspect ratio, or combining multiple images:

1. Open Preview.app.

2. Select the whole image and copy it [⌘-a ⌘-c].

3. Menu bar > Tools > Adjust Size then click the lock icon. Set to desired dimensions and save.

4. Paste the image over the distorted image. Do what you will with the extra space.

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