How to Use the Mac Screenshot Toolbar Options

Step by step

1. 10 sec

   Open the toolbar and find Options

   Press Command + Shift + 5. A toolbar appears near the bottom of the screen with three screenshot buttons, two recording buttons, an Options menu, and a Capture button. Click Options. Everything described below lives inside that one menu.

   Note: This toolbar replaced Grab, which shipped with Mac OS X for years and was quietly retired in Mojave. Nobody held a service.
2. 20 sec

   Set where captures are saved

   Save to offers Desktop, Documents, Clipboard, Mail, Messages, Preview, and Other Location. Desktop is the default. Preview opens each capture in an editor. Clipboard skips the file entirely and holds the image in memory until you paste it somewhere.

   Note: Other Location is the honest answer if your Desktop has become a screenshot midden. Point it at a folder and stop apologizing.
3. 15 sec

   Use the timer for awkward captures

   Timer offers None, 5 Seconds, and 10 Seconds. Choose one, click Capture, then set up whatever you need on screen. The countdown runs and the shot fires on its own, with your hands nowhere near the keyboard.

   Note: Menus and hover states that collapse the moment you touch a modifier key are what this is for. Set ten seconds and use your hands.
4. 10 sec

   Decide on the floating thumbnail

   Show Floating Thumbnail is on by default. It parks each capture in the bottom right corner for a few seconds before saving it. Switch it off and captures save immediately, with no preview and no wait before the file appears.

   Note: Off is faster. On is better if you annotate often, because that thumbnail is the only one-click route into Markup.
5. 10 sec

   Keep the last selection rectangle

   Remember Last Selection makes the crosshair reopen at the exact rectangle you used previously. Take twenty captures of the same window region and every one of them lines up. Switch it off and the selection resets each time you start.

   Note: This is the setting worth turning on. Anyone shooting a sequence of screens for documentation notices the difference within four captures.
6. 10 sec

   Show or hide the mouse pointer

   Show Mouse Pointer includes the cursor in the image, and it is off by default because most screenshots do not want it. The option only appears while a screenshot mode is selected. Choose a recording mode and it becomes Show Mouse Clicks.

   Note: Show Mouse Clicks draws a ring around each click in a recording. Useful for a tutorial, distracting for anything else.