Capturing Your Screen

Every now and again there comes a time that showing someone how to do something on the computer is just easier than telling them. Recently for both work and home I have had to create tutorials on a variety of topics. Because of this I have found a few great screen capture tools and tricks that I thought I would share with everyone.

Video Screen Capture

One of the new products we recently bought at work was Screen Flow.  Screen Flow  is a great all in one video screen capture application with editing software.  The directions are intuitive and I was able to create my first video in no time.  I especially like the built-in editing features that allow you to blur out backgrounds and highlight your mouse.  The keyboard tracking is also a nice feature. The product demo from the Screenflow website gives a good taste of what it can do. You would also be surprised the number of tutorials already on Youtube using Screenflow.


I have also used SnapzPro X for a while as well.  SnapzPro X does both video and still image capture and exports video in a variety of formats.  SnapzPro X is great when you only want a portion of your screen recorded. Here is a demo of SnapzPro X

Another option that I came across is using Quicktime X now allows you to record screen captures with no cost at all.  This is very helpful if you are doing basic tutorials and will edit them later. 

Recently I have been partial to Screen flow because I can do all my work in one application and don’t have to be switching between applications to complete a project.


Still Image Screen Capture

By now most people know that you can capture still images in OS X by pressing cmd-shift-3 for full screen and cmd-shift-4 for select areas but did you know the rest of these tricks?

• Shift-Control-Command-3 Capture the entire screen to the Clipboard
• Shift-Control-Command-4 Capture a selection of the screen to the Clipboard
• Command-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it as a file on the desktop (A tiny camera appears)
• Command-Control-Shift-4, then space, then click a window: Take a screenshot of a window and save it to the clipboard (A tiny camera appears)
• If you are a glutton for keyboard shortcuts, Apple has your fix right here

While you’re at it you can also use the Grab application located in your Utilities folder in Applications.

Now there are many options out there and these are a few, you should also check out Jing which has some free options as well.

Last tip, if all else fails go to Teach Parents Tech and have a personalized google message sent to help them.