Tip Details Add a Related Tip

Rate as: Positive Negative

New screen capture options in Leopard

If you have upgraded to Leopard, there are some new options you have available when capturing screen shots of regions. The options are all used in conjunction with the existing screen shot command (Shift + Command + 4).

Once you hit the Shift + Command + 4 combination, you get cross-hairs and you can define an area of which to take a screen shot. Once you click the mouse to start defining the area to capture, these new keyboard options are available:

Shift - If you hold down the Shift key, the captured are will only move in one direction (horizontally or vertically) based on the first direction you move. If you let off the Shift key, the area will change normally.

Option - Usually when you are dragging the area, it moves about the point of your first click. If you hold down the Option key while dragging, it will expand/collapse the area around the center of the current selection. Let off the Option key and the sizing goes back to normal.

Space Bar - If you hold down the space bar, it will temporarily lock the image area and further mouse movements will move this area around on the screen. Let off the Space Bar and things go back to normal.

These new options are pretty nice if you take a lot of screen shots. You no longer have to make a perfect "first click" since you can now move things around.
Rating: 88% positive, 9 total Votes
Categories: Leopard screenshots Mac OS X
Added: on Jan 22, 2008 at 12:36 pm
Added By: mollyp
Searches: option area screen leopard move

Comments on this Tip

Add a Comment
how do i change the format to a jpg?
– Added by an anonymous user on Mar 29, 2008 at 6:19 pm
I was looking at this too and couldn't find ANYTHING to change file formats. Finally I found this:

open terminal and put in this:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture type pdf



That's IT!

Change pdf to jpg if you want and it will do jpegs. I think tif will also work.
– Added by an anonymous user on May 31, 2008 at 2:42 pm
Check out this tip for a full explanation of how to change the format of the captured image: http://www.tipstrs.com/tip/1068/Change-the-file-format-of-saved-screenshots-on-the-Mac
– Added by an anonymous user on Jun 06, 2008 at 6:55 am
Your Comment:
(how to format)
Rate This Tip:

Verify Humanity:
Sorry, we know it's annoying, but please enter the characters shown in the image to the left so that we know you're an actual person and not an evil spammer. Thanks.
       

Related Tips

Disable the 3-D dock in Leopard

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Oct 24, 2007 at 10:47 pm

Change the file format of saved screenshots on the Mac

Categories: Mac OS X screenshots
100% positive, 2 comments - last added on Aug 01, 2007 at 3:56 pm
– Tip added by Marcos84 on Aug 01, 2007 at 1:03 pm

Take screen shots with no drop shadow

100% positive, 1 comment - last added on Oct 08, 2008 at 4:48 pm
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jul 22, 2008 at 10:54 am

Selecting text in the terminal window

Categories: Mac Leopard terminal OS X
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jul 15, 2008 at 3:51 pm

Built-in commands for Mac OS X screenshots

Categories: Mac OS X screenshots
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Apr 27, 2007 at 12:32 pm

Dragging files on the Mac

Categories: Mac OS X Tiger Leopard
50% positive, 2 comments - last added on Jun 02, 2009 at 2:39 pm
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Sep 25, 2008 at 5:14 pm

Improved Spotlight search in Leopard

100% positive, 1 comment - last added on Jun 01, 2009 at 3:16 pm
– Tip added by Marcos84 on Nov 16, 2007 at 7:29 am

Leopard upgrade problem... blue screen of nothingness

Categories: Mac OS X Leopard
100% positive, 2 comments - last added on Nov 07, 2007 at 11:26 am
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Nov 02, 2007 at 4:34 pm

Customize the Finder Sidebar in Leopard

25% positive, 5 comments - last added on Jul 23, 2008 at 6:26 pm
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Nov 02, 2007 at 8:29 am

Change in Spaces behavior

Categories: Mac OS X Spaces Leopard
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Jun 02, 2008 at 10:35 am

Gimp no longer working on Mac OS X 10.5.7

Categories: gimp X11 Mac OS X 10.5.7
83% positive, 1 comment - last added on Oct 13, 2009 at 2:19 pm
– Tip added by an anonymous user on May 28, 2009 at 4:52 pm

Create Leopard favorites at side bar

Categories: Leopard Mac favorites
100% positive, 1 comment - last added on Jun 02, 2009 at 1:46 pm
– Tip added by virach on Apr 19, 2009 at 8:30 am

Zooming with the mouse on the Mac

100% positive, 1 comment - last added on Dec 16, 2008 at 7:30 pm
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Dec 16, 2008 at 7:28 pm

Organizing mailboxes in Snow Leopard

Categories: Mac Snow Leopard Mac
100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Oct 15, 2009 at 9:03 am

Make Spaces easier to recognize

100% positive, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Feb 03, 2009 at 2:46 pm

Alert volumes on a Mac

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Oct 14, 2009 at 9:32 am

Application compatibility with Snow Leopard

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Aug 27, 2009 at 4:40 pm

Customize your Mac look-and-feel

no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Mar 30, 2009 at 1:28 pm

Fixing blue screens of death on Leopard

Categories: Mac Leopard repair booting
no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Dec 30, 2008 at 3:08 pm

Keep dock icons from bouncing

Categories: Mac Leopard Dock
no ratings, 0 comments
– Tip added by an anonymous user on Dec 30, 2008 at 10:58 am