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Oct 6 2010

VIDEO: Screen Shots to the extreme with Skitch

Last time we looked at taking screen shots on your Mac using just your Mac’s built-in powers of awesomeness. This time we take it up a notch.

Skitch is a free desktop application and web service¹ from Plasq that allows you to easily take the same kind of screen shots you can take on your Mac right out of the box, but adds more functions and extremely useful features like intuitive scaling and cropping, iSight snaps, timed screen shots, the ability to sketch and type to annotate your images, a saved history, a variety of file types and sharing options including FTP, Flickr, MobileMe and a My Skitch page that comes with your sign-up—it also allows you to dig into that “Kitteh” gallery in your iPhoto library for quick and simple LOLCat creation!

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

VIDEO: Screen Shots to the extreme with Skitch

As stated in the previous post, a screen shot is basically a digital snapshot of your computer’s screen at the time when the screen shot was taken. They are really handy when you are trying to show someone what’s on your screen when you can’t get them to come over and look for themselves. Common such situations are taking screen shots of error messages or warnings that you’d like to show someone offering tech support, taking screen shots of websites when you’d like to show someone on another browser or computing platform what the site looks like on your end or taking screen shots of a wicked high score on a game you’re playing.

Skitch takes that ability and gives in extra oomph. What if your computer screen is a bit cluttered and it isn’t obvious what you are showing people. In the video below I demo how to take a timed screen shot as I reveal a hidden item in J. J. Abrams‘ Star Trek that proves that even in the distant future, some innovations of the twentieth century simply cannot be replaced or improved upon. Watch the video and see what I’m talking about.

free at the time of this posting, but the app has been in perpetual beta, so that may change if it ever get officially released [↩]

By RickMacMerc • Featured, Graphics News, graphicstips, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, osx, productivity, RickMacMerc, shareware, tips, tutorial • Comments Off • Tags: computer screen, computing platform, distant future, error messages, File Transfer Protocol, Flickr, free desktop application, high score, iPhoto, isight, j j abrams, macintosh, MobileMe, Oomph, perpetual beta, plasq, screen shots, screenshot, Skitch, slider, star trek, video screen, web service

Oct 4 2010

VIDEO: Capture Screen Shots on your Mac

This is a tip I’ve known about for years and I thought it was common knowledge until I was reminded by my friend, @Daynah , that not everyone has been using Macs for as long as us dyed-in-the-wool Mac-heads have. There are a lot of switchers who need to know the basic awesomeness and it’s our job to welcome them in and bring them up to speed.

So, @Daynah , this one is for you.

How to take a screen shot (or how to a “Print Screen”) on a Mac

In case you’re unfamiliar with screen shots, a screen shot is basically a digital snapshot of your computer’s screen at the time when the screen shot was taken. They are really handy when you are trying to show someone what’s on your screen when you can’t get them to come over and look for themselves. Common such situations are taking screen shots of error messages or warnings that you’d like to show someone offering tech support, taking screen shots of websites when you’d like to show someone on another browser or computing platform what the site looks like on your end or taking screen shots of a wicked high score on a game you’re playing.

There are basically 3 ways to take a screen shot on a Mac:

Command-Shift-3 gets you a shot of the entire screen saved as a PNG to your Desktop.
Command-Shift-4 gets you a crosshair cursor you can drag around the area you want captured which is then saved as a PNG to your Desktop.
Command-Shift-4 …and then Space turns your cursor into a camera that you can position over windows to capture them as a PNG to your Desktop with a single click.

The extra added bonus to this is that if you add the Control key to any of those 3 shortcuts (i.e. Command-Control-Shift-4), the screen shot is NOT saved to your Desktop but instead copied to your clipboard from which you can simply Paste it into an email. This gets the screen shot into use without cluttering your Desktop with files you’ll have to sort through later.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

If you watch the video, you’ll see I make reference to CandyBar. This is not needed for taking screen shots, but offered me something super awesome to shoot for the the demonstration. CandyBar is a great application for your Mac that allows you to download icon sets in iContainer format from Iconfactory.com and apply them to individual files or your entire system (including the Trash). You can even use it to change your Dock appearance to match some of the icon sets. The original system icons are always easily restored again should the new look prove too exciting for you. CandyBar sells for $29 US.

By RickMacMerc • apple, Featured, graphicstips, MacMerc.TV, Mini Video, News, osx, poweruser, productivity, productivity, RickMacMerc, tutorial • 4 • Tags: 3 ways, added bonus, awesomeness, CandyBar, Clipboard, common knowledge, computing platform, control key, crosshair cursor, desktop command, error message, error messages, high score, how to take a screen shot, mac, mac command, mac heads, macs, PNG, Portable Network Graphics, screen shots, screenshot, slider, switchers, technical support, video capture, video games

Sep 22 2010

VIDEO: Windows Management with Divvy

As boring and uninspiring as managing onscreen windows is, Divvy from Mizage makes it dead sexy. I know Mac OS X has Spaces and Exposé and I was all excited about those before they came out too but, now that I have them, they drive me crazy. Spaces I just have turned off and Exposé, though it helps me every so often when I lose a window, is just not a part of my geek utility belt as much as I had envisioned.

Divvy, on the other hand, does what I need doing and does it well. I can tell it, “I want this window to take up exactly 4/7 of the left side of my screen and I want this other window wit take up the other 3/7.” Heck, I can even tell it to make them overlap a bit. All I have to do is summon Divvy’s little window, drag and draw the area on the miniature screen it shows and the window snaps into submission.Then I can save those dimensions and setups to Divvy’s shortcuts menu and reduce the whole procedure down to summoning Divvy’s window and hitting a shortcut key.

Divvy does suffer from some logistical problems with complicated application interfaces like Adobe Photoshop, where there are windows and palettes and multiple navigation bars, but it does work—you may have to adjust the grid in Divvy’s Appearance tab to get better handling around the toolbars. Divvy is fabulous and sells for $14 US.

No Flash? No problem—click here!»

Hey, someone said something about a discount code?»