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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

#321

Post by falsaberN1 »

diffeomorphism wrote: post #242
FabHK wrote: post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> essential functions like showing hidden files in a directory How is that an essential function? My mom has never needed it in 20 years of using Macs. And when I want to know about hidden files, I pop open a terminal and ls -la.

That is kind of hilarious: This GUI feature is very undiscoverable. No, no, "just" open a terminal instead and type this.

MacOS is good because I have to open the terminal to do complex tasks. Linux is crap because I have to open the terminal to do complex tasks.

I know the devil is in the details, I'm just poking fun at the thing, but you gotta admit it's kind of funny.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#322

Post by mekster »

rjmunro wrote: post #289
smileysteve wrote: post #21

I recommend against changing the format from png to jpg. The sample shows a picture of a dog, but most screenshots should be of applications (having a limited color palette) and must of the time the goal is readability (jpg compression drastically reduces text clarity relative to png)

If you need to reduce the size of a screenshot it's often better to keep it as a PNG and reduce the number of colors. 256 colors nearly always carries all the information needed without blurring the edges or the text. Often 128 or 64 is fine. Don't use dithering - it harms the compression ratio, so you may as well use a few more colors instead. Often just applying lossless PNG optimisations using a tool like https://…

Just disable Zopfli which is the most time consuming compression method and typically they compress at an instant.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#323

Post by hutattedonmyarm »

Crazor wrote: post #318
hutattedonmyarm wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Even essential functions like showing hidden files in a directory is uniquely done through an hidden shortcut in Mac OS. I'm fairly certain, it's in the menu bar too

Or is it? I can’t even find it with the search box in the help menu. FWIW, I didn’t know that shortcut before today, and I consider myself a well-versed Mac user since the intel switch

Huh, you’re right it’s not. My FTP client does expose it, maybe that’s what I had in mind

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#324

Post by pseudalopex »

ziml77 wrote: post #273
Hammershaft wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Just hours ago complained to a friend about how arcane some things in macOS are. Short of just pressing random key combinations, there is no way to discover that it's possible to paste/type a path into the standard file selection dialog. (It's cmd-shift-g to get the text entry to appear, or simply forward slash to get it to appear with the slash already entered. Also, it says "Go to Folder", but if you direct it to a…

The file selection dialog looks like a Finder window. It could be more discoverable. But trying what works in Finder isn't random key combinations.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#325

Post by bfelbo »

DavideNL wrote: post #254
lostlogin wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wish I could change copy/paste to always work without copying style.

Do you mean regular clipboard text? You can do that with: ⇧ ⌥ ⌘ V This is not necessarily supported everywhere though...

You can add a global keyboard shortcut that makes this command much easier. I’ve done it and life is so much better now.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#326

Post by bfelbo »

lostlogin wrote: post #285
DavideNL wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you mean regular clipboard text? You can do that with: ⇧ ⌥ ⌘ V This is not necessarily supported everywhere though...

Oh you can usually for sure, it’s just a bit too close to a gymnastic manoeuvre. I also believe it should be the copy that strips the style.

You can add a global keyboard shortcut that makes this command much easier. I’ve done it and life is so much better now.

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#327

Post by bfelbo »

biggerfisch wrote: post #31
muhammadusman wrote: post #10

Hold control to save to your clipboard instead of a folder/desktop.

you can also flip these keyboard shortcuts around, which I did for the cmd-shift-4, as I almost always want it to the clipboard without persisting as a file

Sounds great. How do you do that?

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#328

Post by gkop »

granneman wrote: post #316
gkop wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't say in advance. After the fact is likely best, but in a seamless flow that doesn't require using Finder, the terminal, or any other tool. Indeed Gnome solves after the fact, allowing you to just accept the default generated filename, or specify your own, with zero friction. As others in the thread mention, once you've taken the screenshot, it helpfully dumps you in "the editor" (is this Preview.app? I don't…

In Preview, just click on the name in the Title Bar & you can change it there. This works in most Mac apps.

MacOS Big Sur out of the box does not show a title bar for the after-screenshot editor. How do I configure it to show a title bar so I can use your tip?

Re: macOS screenshot tricks to impress your co-workers

#330

Post by bradknowles »

susam wrote: 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…

You know, I'm looking at all the tips and suggestions here, and my thoughts keep going back to SnagIt from TechSmith -- these problems seem to all just go away with SnagIt.

Sure, it's cross platform, but I don't care about that. It works better for me on macOS than the native facilities, and provides much better post-screenshot editing.

If I want to do video capture, the industry gold standard here is Camtasia, also from TechSmith.

I know the standard provided functionality, and I just don't want to be bothered.

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