If your workflow requires taking regular screenshots on your Mac, then you’ll need to familiarize yourself with the new screenshot tool and keyboard shortcut with the MacOS Mojave update. (Also get to know the new Stacks and dark mode.)
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Mojave’s new screenshot shortcut
Mac screenshotters know that Shift-Command-3 takes a screenshot of the entire screen, and Shift-Command-4 lets you drag your cursor to take take a screenshot of a selection of your screen (or, if you hit the spacebar after Shift-Command-4, you can take a screenshot of a window).
Mojave adds a third keyboard shortcut for taking screenshots: Shift-Command-5.
It calls up a small panel at the bottom of your display with your screen capture options. There are three screenshot buttons that let you capture the entire screen, a window or a selection of your screen. Likewise, the two video-recording buttons let you record your entire screen or a selection of it. On the left is an X button to close the screenshot panel, but you can also just hit the Escape key to exit out.
On the right side is an Options button. It lets you choose where to save your screenshot — Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages or Preview — and set a 5- or 10-second delay so you can line up items that might otherwise disappear when you engage your screenshot tool.
By default, the Show Floating Thumbnail option is enabled, which puts a little preview thumbnail of your just-capture screenshot in the lower-right corner of your screen, similar to the screenshot procedure introduced with iOS 11 (and with which you are intimately familiar should you own and operate an iPhone X). Unlike your iPhone, you can turn off this preview thumbnail on your Mac. Lastly, you can choose to show your mouse pointer in a screenshot or video.
If the screenshot panel is in your way, you can grab its left edge and drag it to a new spot on your screen.
Easy annotation
If you embrace the Floating Thumbnail, then you’ll gain quick access to Markup tools to annotate your screenshot. You can swipe the Floating Thumbnail away or just let it slip away on its own and it’ll be saved to the spot you last saved a screenshot. Click the Floating Thumbnail and it’ll open in a Markup View preview window (but not Preview) with all of the markup tools you get in Preview.
You can right-click the Floating Thumbnail to:
- Save the screenshot to your desktop, Documents folder or clipboard
- Open it in Mail, Messages, Preview or Photos
- Show in Finder
- Delete
- Open in in the Markup preview window described above
- Close (and save)
So far, I like the streamlined ability to annotate screenshots without needing to open Preview and being able to quickly delete screenshots that I know immediately I messed up. The 5- and 10-second delay options are also useful and appreciated additions.
Originally published on June 27, 2018.
Update, Sept. 25: Added new video for MacOS Mojave.
Read more: Everything you need to know about MacOS Mojave.