Screen Capture Shortcuts For Windows And MacOSX – Complete Guide

Providing printscreens or screen captures is probably one of the easiest way to discuss, understand and deliver any information over the Internet. Major operating systems like Windows and MacOSX comes with default keyboard shortcuts to perform screen capturing, but are you using them to the fullest?

Full content after jump.

Windows Printscreen Keyboard Shortcuts

By default, there isnt too much option in doing screen capture but enough to get the basic jobdone. Here are the keyboard shortcuts to do screen capture (printscreen) in Windows.

• PrtScn – The Print Screen button will save the entire screen in clipboard. You will then need to further edit it in some image editing programs or Microsoft Words.


• Alt + PrnScn – By holding Alt key while pressing PrtScn button, it captures only the active window. That means the window screen currently in view.

Vista

Together with Windows Vista, an utility call Snipping Tool was introduced. It gives much more flexibility for screen capturing. Learn how to use Sniping Tool.

Mac Printscreen Keyboard Shortcuts

Mac OSX covers more different ways to do screen capturing. It allows you to print screen active/non-active windows, full screen and selective area.

The following screen capture shortcuts print and output images on desktop in the format of .PNG (Portable Network Graphics)

• Command + Shift + 3 – Prints the entire screen, everything inside your monitor screen.


• Command + Shift + 4 – Prints the screen according to user selection. By using the following shortcut, your cursor will turned into a cross-hair and allows you to select the area you want to capture.


• Command + Shift + 4 then Space – By holding down Command + Shift + 4, your cursor will turn to cross-hair. Then hit the space bar once it will turned to a camera icon. This allows you to capture any opened windows, regardless of active or hiding behind.

If you want your screen capture to be kept in clipboard so you can paste them in image editing tools (eg. Photoshop) instead of output as .PNG, just include Control while using the shortcut.

• Control + Command + Shift + 3 – Captures entire screen, hold image in clipboard.


• Control + Command + Shift + 4 – Captures screen according to user selection, hold image in clipboard.

Changing Output File Format

By default, Mac outputs screen captures in .PNG (Portable Network Graphics) format if you did not include ‘Control’. If you prefer JPG, GIF, TIFF over the default .PNG, here’ how you can it manually.Launch Mac’s Terminal and insert these 2 commands.

1. defaults write com.apple.screencapture type jpg  


2. killall SystemUIServer  

The above commands change your output to .JPG. Simply change that to any format you want. Remember to include the second command killall SystemUIServer that basically does the restarting to make sure your changes will work.

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How To Perform Multiple Actions Automatically In Windows

[Windows only] Do you frequently perform the same set of actions/commands again and again in your daily job? If you agree with us that this is frustrating and it’s killing your motivation and efficiency, meet WinMacro.

In short, WinMacro is a FREE Macro recorder/player that monitors your mouse and keyboard events, then play them for you. It could be very useful to automate everyday tasks that you need to perform repetitively, so all you need to do, is pretty much clicking a button. Think of it as ‘Actions’ in Photoshop.

How To Use WinMacro

1. Download and execute WinMacro.


2. Type a filename to record. A file will be saved at the same directory with WinMacro program.


3. Click “Record” button to start recording.
   


4. To stop recording, press the Pause/Break key. You may also use Ctrl+Esc or Ctrl+Alt+Del.


5. To playback a recorded action, browse to select an existing file.


6. Click “Playback” to playback from the file and WinMacro will minimize itself to the taskbar and starts playing back events from the file.


7. After playback is over, WinMacro pops a message box indicating “Playback Over”.


8. To interrupt playback midway, press Ctrl+Esc or Ctrl+Alt+Del

How to use WinMacro may varies from individual to individual, depending on personal preferences and styles but the bottom line is – it speed things up.

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How To Encrypt Data Or Files

For the maximum security of files on your computer, it is essential to have a powerful encryption tool. A powerful encryption tool means it must at least provides several encryption algorithms and smart handling.

For this, Blowfish Advanced CS does a good job is cryptographic implementations. In short, Blowfish Advanced CS is a file-encryption solution which offers multiple algorithms, efficient data compression, and safe key handling for content protection.

Blowfish Advanced CS is an advance encryption tool but still very handy and user friendly. It actually encrypts megabytes of data per second and allows data compression at the same time.

So if you’re looking for a free encryption tool with powerful features, try Blowfish Advanced CS.

Download Blowfish Advanced CS

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