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Posts tagged ‘Screeenshots’

5
Aug

Annotate Screenshots in Mountain Lion is Super Easy

I often have to create documentation with screenshots of web pages or applications. In order to make it easier for a reader to focus on what is important I want to annotate the image with ovals, rectangles or text. So far this was not very easy but by pure luck I figured out a quit fast and easy solution which does not to require to create temporary files.

These are the steps:

  1. Create a screenshot to the clipboard (Shift-Control-Command-4) and optionally you can then hit the spacebar to select a window
  2. Go to Preview (open it if not yet done)
  3. Create new document (Command-N) => the image from the clipboard is placed automatically into the window
  4. Annotate (like Control-Command-R) the image
  5. If needed select all (Command-A)
  6. Copy the image (Command-C)
  7. Go to the target App (Nisus Writer, Pages etc)
  8. Paste the image (Command-V)

The only annoying step is that I have to “delete” the image in Preview afterwards but that can be done at the end.

 

I can also copy an image from the target document or from another source like Safari etc.

 

Happy documenting – Andy

8
Feb

Mac OS X Tip: Manage Screenshots with DEVONthing

Since a while I am thinking on how to manage screenshots the best. I take them but then are lurking around inside a directory and if I don’t head over, review and rename them I will loose the context and often they become worthless. What I want is to take a series of screenshots (for example to demonstrate how to do something), then review and rename them quickly.
Because I am using DEVONthink as my second brain where I just dump everything I need to keep an eye on or need to work on later and then use its search / quick preview feature to go over the entries and organize them correctly. The nice think about DEVONthink is that it has a directory for its Inbox in the file system that I can use to drop items there using Finder or any other file selection tool.
Now I started to think if it would be possible to use the Mac Screen Capture system to add these screenshots to DEVONthink so that I can review them, add tags and organize them correctly after I am done with taking the shots. So I followed the instruction from Mac World OS X Hints how to change the default location for screenshots and opened a terminal:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location \
    "/Users/<User Name>/Library/Application Support/DEVONthink Pro 2/Inbox"

Then I had to log out and log back in so that the change could take into effect.
Now when I take a screenshot it won’t appear on the Desktop but rather in the Inbox of DEVONthink where I can easily view them, add tags and copy them into the final destination.
– Andy