Step-by-Step Guide on Changing the Keyboard Shortcut for a Mac Screenshot

Learn how to customize the screenshot keyboard shortcut on any Mac

Co-authored by wikiHow Staff

This wikiHow teaches you how to change the keystroke combinations you use on your Mac's keyboard to perform various screen shot actions.

Customizing the Keyboard Shortcut for Screenshots

It's the Apple logo located at the far left corner of the main menu bar on your Mac.
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Click the "Keyboard" icon. The icon itself appears as a keyboard.
- If you can't see the main menu, click the three rows of dots at the top left corner of the window, which displays as Show All in earlier versions of Mac OS X.
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Double-click on a keystroke combination on the far right side of the pane. You can choose from four main Screen Shot actions.
- Save a picture of screen as file will save the entire screen to your computer as an image file.
- Copy picture of screen to the clipboard will copy the entire screen to your clipboard for pasting.
- Save picture of selected area as a file allows you to save an image file of an area of your screen that you select.
- Copy picture of selected area to the clipboard will copy the area of your screen that you select to your clipboard for pasting.
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Type in a custom keystroke combination.
- Your keystroke combination must start with a modifier key. Modifier keys include ⇧ Shift , ⌥ Option , ⌘ Command , Control , ⇬ Caps Lock , or Fn . ^{[1]
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- Make sure that you enter a unique shortcut, meaning that the keyboard combination is not already designated to perform another task.
Your keyboard shortcut will be saved!