How do I capture a screenshot on an Apple Mac OS X computer?

A screenshot (or screen capture) is a way of taking a picture of what is displayed on your computer screen. This picture will be stored in the computer's Clipboard so that it can then be pasted into a document and saved for submission. The Mac operating system has many different ways to take a screen shot of something on your screen. 

To capture a screenshot of a single window on your screen, perform the following:

1. Press and hold the Shift, Command and the number 4 keys and then release
2. Press the Space Bar
3. Click the window you want to capture
4. Open the document into which you wish to paste the screenshot
5. Click Edit
6. Click Paste
7. Save the file by going to File then Save as, and save to desired location.

To capture a screenshot of your entire screen, perform the following:

1. Press and hold the Shift, Command and the number 3 keys, then release
2. Open a blank document into which you wish to paste the screenshot
3. Click Edit
4. Click Paste
5. Save the file by going to File then Save as, and save to desired location.

To capture a screenshot of a specific area, perform the following:

1. Press and hold the Shift, Command and the number 4 keys and then release
2. Select an area by clicking mouse and dragging
3. Open the document into which you wish to paste the screenshot
4. Click Edit
5. Click Paste
6. Save the file by going to File then Save as, and save to desired location

If these keyboard commands do not work for any reason:
On the mac OSX version 10.13 (High Sierra)

1. Go to the Finder
2. Select Applications
3. Go to the Utilities folder
4. Open Grab

On the Mac OSX version 10.14 (Mojave)
 

1. Go to the Finder
2. Select Applications
3. Go to the Utilities folder
4. Open Screenshot

For additional information on taking a screen shot on your Mac, please see the Related Links section to the right.