Screenshots

Screenshots can be captured in several different ways using combinations of the Shift, Command, and “3″ or “4″ buttons to take screenshots of entire screens, selections, or even individual windows if you invoke a selection screenshot (Shift-Command-4) and then press the space bar.

Grab – a utility already preinstalled in Mac OSX that can be used to do the same features as those listed below.

The following screenshot methods can be used without the need to open any other program, but if you are looking for more control over your screenshots then give Grab a try. It can be found in your Applications > Utilities folder.

1. Basic full-screen screenshot

The basic screenshot in OS X is performed by pressing Shift-Command-3, which will take a shot of the entire screen. This is handy and quick, but if you only want a single window you will have to crop the resulting picture.

2. Selection screenshot

Instead of cropping a full-screen capture, you can take a picture of a selection of any part of the screen by pressing Shift-Command-4. The cursor will turn into a selection cursor and will allow you to click and drag over the area you want to include in the capture.

3. Window screenshot

The previous two options can be used to select specific areas of windows, but it does not do a clean job and can cut off window elements or include background graphics in the shot if you are not careful. As a workaround, you can take a screenshot of an entire window by first pressing Shift-Command-4 to invoke the selection cursor, and then press the Space bar. You will see highlighted the window you place the cursor over, and will that window (including its shadow) will be saved as the captured screenshot.

All images captured, using these three methods, by default are in PNG format and will be saved to your desktop.

Text listings

In some instances, you might have more items in a folder than can be shown onscreen, in which case the use of graphics will not be adequate as you cannot scroll when using these screen capture options.

“TextWrangler” which will allow you to print lists of folder contents.

First download TextWrangler (it’s free) and open the program. Then select a folder and drag it to the TextWrangler window, and the program will read the whole directory structure starting from that folder and present it in a tree listing in the program. The file can then be saved or printed.