Clipping a Selection On a Mac or iPad Screen

Comments: 6 Responses to “Clipping a Selection On a Mac or iPad Screen”

Gary Rosenzweig

11 years ago

Do you mean taking a screen shot? You can do that using a keyboard shortcut in OS X. Usually it i Shift+Command+4 (save as a file) or Shift+Command+Option+4 (copy to clipboard). You use that shortcut and then the cursor changes to a crosshair. You can then select an area of the screen.
Now it is easy to change those shortcuts or turn them off. So check in System Preferences, Keyboard, Keyboard Shortcuts and look under Screen Shots to make sure these are turned on (checked) and what keys they are set for.
See http://macmost.com/quick-and-simple-screen-capture.html for a tutorial.
To do this on an iPad, you only have one option: take a screen shot of the entire screen. You do this by pressing the Home button (button under the screen) and the Sleep/Wake button (button at top of device) at the same time.
That puts the screen shot in your camera roll. You can then use the Photos app to access it and also crop it to the section you want.

Wayne

11 years ago

Sure, you can clip a selection on the Mac by opening Preview, going to the File menu, go down to Take Screenshot and selecting From Selection.
Then just drag the crosshairs out around the part of the screen that you want to capture and save the snapshot.

Another option is you can go into Applications/Utilities and run the Grab program. Go to the Capture menu and select Selection or press Shift+Command+A.

I'm not too sure if you can do selections like this on the iPad. I've never tried.

Amily

11 years ago

Thank you very much. I got it.

Michael Schaffer

11 years ago

There are two superior screenclip programs U can use that enable U to to draw on, save, & annotate clips you create. I really like Skitch, a free program recently purchased by Evernote. Evernote's revision of the program has received justified condemnation from users, but the old version is available http://www.oldapps.com/mac/skitch_for_mac.php?old_skitch=10009

A 2nd $50 program called Snagit does even more (i.e. videos & full webpages)
http://www.techsmith.com/snagit.html

Mary Frantzoulou (UK)

11 years ago

Thanks to everyone for their input. I was aware of the Shift+Command+3 for screen capture but not the Shift+Command+4, which allows for selective capture. I have Skitch but find the work flow very cumbersome. What I'm excited about is Snagit, which also allows for video capture, so thanks Michael.

I'm doing a home learning web design course and because of my terrible memory, want to use screen/video capture in conjuction with the App 'Mental Case' as a way of revising.

Thanks again.

Gary Rosenzweig

11 years ago

FYI -- The QuickTime Player app that you already have on your Mac also offers video capture of the screen, including being able to capture just a portion.
http://macmost.com/quicktime-x-screen-recording.html