When was the last time you looked at your Downloads folder? More importantly, when was the last time you cleaned it out? Unless you have reconfigured settings in both Mail and Safari, as well as some other applications, any file that you download gets put into the Downloads folder. I recommend that all users regularly review the contents of their Downloads folder. Move files that you want to keep into another folder and delete files you no longer need.

As a Mac consultant, I regularly find Download folders with hundreds and sometimes thousands of files in them. When an email attachment arrives in Mail it is connected to a specific email message. Each time you double-click that file to open it, a new copy is added to your Downloads folder. Thus, I often see 3, 4, 5 or more copies of the same file in a person’s Downloads folder. Many people also get confused when trying to install applications such as Adobe Flash. They manage to download the installer, but they don’t know that they need to go to the Downloads folder, open the installer and follow its prompts to actually install the application. Then, a few days later they are again notified that Flash still needs to be updated and they dutifully download yet another copy of the installer. Consequently, it’s easy to understand how and why the Downloads folder accumulates large numbers of files. (Note: Once an application or application update has been installed then the installer located in the Downloads folder can be deleted.)

I try to keep my Downloads folder or close to empty. I just checked and there are 29 items in it currently, most of those from the past few weeks. So the next time you are procrastinating on an important work project, go clean out your Downloads folder. At least you can feel good about doing that task!

How to find your Downloads folder

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Would you like to quickly delete files from your Mac using a few keystrokes on your keyboard? Here’s how to do it.

1. Click on the icon of the file or folder to select it.

2. Simultaneously press the Command key and the Delete key.

That’s it. The file is moved to the Trash Can.

I use this keyboard shortcut daily to throw away files on my Mac. Clients that see me using this keyboard shortcut ask me what I just did, and I’m happy to share. Give it a try. I’m sure you’ll find it increases your productivity by saving you a bit of time.

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Spring-loaded folders is one of the Mac’s best features since it’s convenient and it can save you time when you’re putting files into folders. Interestingly, this feature is not widely known or used. Clients are always amazed when I show them. Below are some simple written instructions on how to use spring-loaded folders, but a video demonstration is the best way to understand how it works. Woopid, a web site full of free training videos, has a great video demonstrating spring-loaded folders. Be sure to watch this video.

Spring-loaded folders lets you drag a file from one folder through another folder and into a sub-folder. Here are some step-by-step instructions.

1. Click on the icon for a file and drag it on top of a folder, but don’t release the file’s icon. Instead, simply continue to hold this icon as though you were hovering it over the folder.

2. After a second or two the folder will automatically open and display all the files and folders inside. Now, continue dragging your file’s icon on top of one of these sub-folders. Again, hover the file’s icon on top of this sub-folder. This sub-folder will automatically open.

3. Finally, release the file.

You have just dragged a file through one folder and into a sub-folder. If the words aren’t clear or meaningful to you, please watch the video mentioned above.

It’s convenient that the folder or folders one traverses, as you move a file into a sub-folder or sub-sub-folder, automatically close themselves. This is very nice and reduces screen clutter.

If you try to use spring-loaded folders and they don’t work for you, the feature could be turned off on your Mac. Here’s how to check:

• Click on the Finder icon on your Dock.

• Go to the Finder menu and select Preferences.

• Click on General then make sure there is a checkmark in the box labeled Spring-loaded folders and windows. Note that you can also adjust the amount of time or delay, that you need to wait before a folder automatically opens. Refer to the image to the right which depicts these preferences.

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Here are a couple of keyboard shortcuts that let you adjust your Mac’s volume in small increments or silently.

Many of you probably already know that you can adjust the volume of your Mac’s speakers by pressing the volume keys on your Apple keyboard. The volume keys appear in the picture below. On my keyboard the volume keys are the F10, F11 and F12 key, but this is not the same on all Apple keyboards.

The three keys let you mute, decrease and increase your Mac’s volume. When you press either the increase volume or decrease volume key your Mac gives you both audio and visual feedback. The audio feedback is a short quack-like noise that I find difficult to describe in words. The visual feedback is an on-screen icon like the one that appears below – a speaker icon with 16 squares beneath it.

Here are the two keyboard shortcuts:

1. If you hold down the Shift key on your keyboard as you press either the volume increase or volume decrease keys, your Mac’s volume adjusts silently; there isn’t any audio feedback.

2. If you hold down both the Shift and Option keys on your keyboard as you press either the volume increase or volume decrease keys, you’re able to adjust your Mac’s volume in smaller increments. The on-screen icon displays partially filled-in squares as shown in the image below.

It’s not possible to combine these shortcuts, sorry.

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Are there occasions when you’d like to print just part of an email message or web page? Here’s a technique you can use to print selected text from just about any application on your Mac. I’ll use an email message in Apple’s Mail application as an example.

• Open Mail and select a bit of text in an email message.
• Go to the Mail menu and select Services. From the sub-menu select Make New Sticky Note. (If you’re using an application other than Mail you won’t have a Mail menu. Instead, go to the menu named after your application. For example, if you’re using Firefox, select the text and go to the Firefox menu.)
• The application named Stickies will open and you’ll see a new sticky note on your screen that contains the text you selected in your email message.
• Go to the File menu and select Print.
• Click the Print button to print that sticky note.

That’s it! (You can delete the sticky note by clicking the small square in its upper left corner.)

You can use this same technique in Safari, Firefox, Word 2011 and most other Mac OS X applications. This technique will not work in some older Mac applications such as Word 2004 and Quicken 2005.

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Do you have a MacBook or MacBook Pro? Have you noticed that its keyboard doesn’t have a “Forward Delete” (aka delete to the right) key like the one that exists on an iMac’s keyboard? This tip tells you how to perform a forward delete. Simply hold down the Function key, which is labeled “fn” while pressing the delete key. The fn key is located in the lower left corner of the keyboard.

In case the phrase “forward delete” is confusing, let me elaborate. We all know that the delete key (aka the backspace key) deletes the character to the left of the insertion point. The forward delete button does the opposite. It deletes the character to the right of the insertion point.

Forward delete is not a new feature for Macintosh laptops. All Macs laptops have supported this feature for many years, but this feature isn’t obvious or well-documented, so many users don’t know about this feature.

If you would like to learn about more keyboard shortcuts you might find this Apple web page helpful.

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Sometimes an application stops behaving properly and doesn’t respond to menu commands or keyboard commands. When this happens, you’ll often want to use the Force Quit command to force the application to quit. There are several ways to issue the Force Quit command.

1. The easiest way is to click on the Apple menu and select Force Quit. A window will pop up listing all of the applications which are currently open. Click on the one that you want to force quit, then click the Force Quit button in the lower right corner. You’ll be asked if you’re sure that you want to do this. Click the button to indicate that you’re sure.

If the Apple menu is not responsive, you may not be able to use this method. In this case, try the next method.

2. Hold down the Option key while simultaneously clicking on the Dock icon for the application which you want to force quit. A menu should pop up after a couple of seconds. Select Force Quit from this menu.

If the Dock is not responsive, you may not be able to use this method either. In this case, try the next method.

3. Simultaneously press the following 3 keys: Command, Option and Escape. The Escape key is labeled “esc” and is above the “1″ key. A window will pop up listing all of the applications currently open. Click on the one that you want to force quit, then click the Force Quit button in the lower right corner. You’ll be asked if you’re sure that you want to do this. Click the button to indicate that you’re sure.

If none of these methods work then you aren’t able to force quit applications. Typically, the only option at this point is to force the computer to turn itself off. This is accomplished by pressing and holding the Power button for 5 seconds. The power button is the round button used to turn the computer on. Hold this button for 5 seconds. The entire computer will turn off and the screen will go dark. Press and release the power button to start up the Mac again normally.

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Do you ever want to do any of the following tasks?

• View two Word documents side-by-side so you can compare them or more content between them.
• View two Finder windows side-by-side so you can move files from one folder to another
• Make a window fill your entire screen

If so, Cinch ($7) is an easy to use application that lets you accomplish these tasks. I regularly need to file documents that have accumulated either in my Downloads folder or on my Desktop into a folder elsewhere on my Mac. In order to do this easily, I’ll open two Finder windows, then move them to one of the edges of my screen which triggers Cinch to automatically resizes them to fill half of my screen. With the two windows sitting side-by-side, I can easily file my documents. If my description isn’t sufficient, please check out the brief but excellent video demonstration.

You can download Cinch from the Irradiated Software web site and try it for free. Irradiated Software also makes a slightly fancier window management utility named SizeUp ($13) that lets you accomplish the same tasks using keyboard shortcuts, along with additional features.

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Did you know that Apple’s Preview lets you easily annotate and merge PDFs as well as delete and re-order pages within a PDF? Preview is a free application which comes bundled with Mac OS X. Apple has been quietly updating over the years and it has become quite capable and user-friendly. Just a few years ago one would have needed to buy the relatively expensive Adobe Acrobat Standard or Professional PDF Editor to do many of these tasks.

Note: There are slight differences in how certain tasks are done if you’re using OS X 10.5′s version of Preview. All of these demonstrations are done using OS X 10.6′s version of Preview.

It’s also important to know that the following techniques may not work on all PDFs. It’s possible for a person who creates a PDF to lock the file which prevent others from manipulating it. Typically, locking a PDF like this requires use of an application like Adobe’s Acrobat.

I’ve created short video tutorials on how to do the following tasks. Read the brief text description and then click the link to watch the video.

If you need more extensive editing capabilities then what is offered by Preview you should check out the relatively affordable PDFPen.

1. Reorder pages in a PDF – Open a PDF file then click the Sidebar button to view the thumbnail icons for each page. Click on one of the thumbnails and drag the page up or down. Look for the horizontal blue line that appears indicating the new location of the page. To remove a page you can simply click on the thumbnail icon for a page to select it and the press the Delete key on your keyboard.

2. Extract pages from a PDF – Open a PDF file then click the Sidebar button to view the thumbnail icons for each page. Click on the first page you want to extract. If you want to extract additional pages then hold down the Command key and click on additional thumbnail icons. Release the Command key and drag the thumbnail icons to the Desktop. A new PDF file will be created on the Desktop. Rename the file as desired. Open this new file by double-clicking to verify that it contains the pages that you want. You can re-order the pages by following the tip listed above.

3. Move pages between PDFs (Merge PDFs) – Open a PDF file then click the Sidebar button to view the thumbnail icons for each page. Open a second PDF and click its Sidebar button too. Position the two PDFs so you can view both file’s Sidebars at the same time. Select one or more pages from one file’s Sidebar and drag them into the other file’s Sidebar. Look for the horizontal blue line that appears in the receiving file’s Sidebar. This blue line indicates where the new page appear. You can re-order the pages by following the tip listed above. Go to the File menu and select Save to save the changes.

4. Annotate text in a PDF -  Open a PDF file, click the Annotate button to review a row of tools at the bottom of the window. Use these tools to highlight text in a variety of colors, draw a line through the text, enclose text inside a rectangle or oval, or add a note in the margin of the PDF.

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Have you wanted to change your Mac’s behavior so Apple’s Preview is used, rather than Adobe Reader to open all .pdf files? You can control which application is used to open any given file type such as .xls, .doc, .jpg, .tiff, or .awk files.

In this example, we’ll configure a Mac to use Apple’s Preview as the default application to open all .pdf files.

• Locate a .pdf file on your Mac.
• Click once on this .pdf file to select it.
• Click on the File menu and select Get Info.
• In the Get Info window which appears, locate the “Open With” section. Click once on the triangle to the left of “Open With” if the section is not already expanded and visible.
• You ‘ll see the current default application listed. Click on this application’s name and select Preview from the list. If you don’t see your desired application, scroll to the bottom of the list and select “Other” then browse your Mac’s hard drive to select your desired application.
• Click the “Change All” button that appears below this list.
• You’ll be asked if you really want to make this change. Click “yes” you do want to make this change.
• Close the Get Info window.

That’s it! You’ve now configured your Mac to use Apple’s Preview as the default application to open all .pdf files.

Every so often, you might want to override the default behavior. For example, you might want to use Adobe Reader to open a particular .pdf file. To do this, click on the particular .pdf file. Drag it and drop it onto the application icon for Adobe Reader. It’s easiest to do this if you’ve already added Adobe Reader to your Dock. To do this, go to your Application folder, locate the application named Adobe Reader and drag it to the Dock. This will permanently add it to your Dock.

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Here are instructions on how to copy a DVD.

Important Note: Using Disk Utility will NOT work for all DVDs. Most commercial DVDs intentionally have copy-protection mechanisms in place to prevent disk duplication. This method should work fine for DVDs you made using iDVD, for example.

1. Open Disk Utility.
2. Insert your DVD into your Mac.
3. Wait until the DVD shows up in the Disk Utility window, then click on it once to select it.
4. Go to the File menu, select New, and from it’s sub-menu select New Disk Image from <DVD name>.
5. In the Save As dialog box that appears either accept the proposed name or type in your preferred name. Then select a folder, like the Desktop, where the disk image will be saved. Click the Save button.
6. Wait for the disk image to be created. Depending upon the speed of your computer this can easily take 30-60 minutes or more.

Once the disk image has been created you can follow these steps to burn a new DVD copy.
A. Open Disk Utility.
B. Go to the Images menu and select Burn.
C. In the “Select Image to Burn” window select the disk image which you created previously, then click the Burn button.
D. Insert a blank DVD-R disk and wait for the image to be burned onto this blank disk. This process can also easily take 30-60 minutes or more.

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Do you want to give your computer to another person, but before giving it away you want to remove all of your data? If so, here’s an easy way to accomplish this. We’ll create a user account for the person who’ll be using the Mac, then delete your user account.

These instructions were written for OS X 10.5 and 10.6, but should work on previous versions as well, though some of the names and wordings have changed subtly.

• Turn on the Mac and let it start up.
• Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences and click on Accounts.
• If the padlock in the lower left corner is locked, click on it to unlock it. Enter your user account’s password when prompted to do so.
• Click the plus sign button to add a new user account. Set “New Account” to “Administrator”. Enter the real world name of the new user of the Mac in the “Full Name” field. Enter a name in the “Account name” field; this name can not contain spaces, capital letters or punctuation marks. Enter a password in both the “Password” and “Verify” fields. Enter a password hint if you’d like.
• Click the “Create Account” button.
• Go to the Apple menu and select Log Out which appears at the bottom of the menu.

• You’ll be presented with a login window. Type in the account name and password for the account you just created. You’ll be logged into this new user’s account. Now that you’re no longer using your account, it can be deleted.
• Go to the Apple menu, select System Preferences then click on Accounts.
• If the padlock in the lower left corner is locked, click on it to unlock it. Enter this new user account’s password when prompted to do so.
• Click on your old user account which will be listed on the left-hand side of the window.
• Click the minus sign button to delete your old user account.
• Select “Delete the home folder” to have all of the data in your user account deleted.
• Click the OK button. The actual deletion process could take 10-15 minutes, especially if there is a lot of data in your account.
• When the deletion process is complete, you can close the System Preferences window.

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Here are instructions on how to use Disk Utility to securely erase a hard drive connected internally or externally to your Mac. These instructions were written for Mac OS X 10.4 to 10.6. The process is very similar on older versions of Mac OS X but the screens will look a bit different.

Requirements – You’ll need either the Mac OS X install disk that came with your Mac or another OS X install disk that’ll boot your Mac, such as a retail copy of the Mac OS X 10.5 or 10.6 install disk.

I recommend securely erasing a hard drive before you recycle it or give it away. The instructions below include the option to re-install Mac OS X onto the hard drive at the end of the process.

If you’re securely erasing an external hard drive you do not need to use a Mac OS X install disk. Instead, you can simply open Disk Utility which you’ll find in the Utilities folder inside the Applications folder. In Disk Utility, select the external hard drive and then follow the last few steps of these instructions to erase it using one of the Security Options described below.

Background – Technically, it’s not possible to erase or remove data from hard drives. Thus “securely erasing” is a misnomer. Instead, what we’ll be doing is over-writing the data on your hard drive with gibberish, a random string of bits of data. When you securely erase your hard drive you’ll have a choice of how much over-writing you want to do. This process can take many hours if you select the 7-pass overwrite procedure. I recommend starting this process and then letting it run over-night.

• Insert the Mac OS X install disc that came with your Mac.
• Note: The disc will begin the process of installing Mac OS X on your Mac. Whether or not you actually choose to install Mac OS X is your choice, but if you do, you’ll do it AFTER you’ve securely erased your Mac’s hard drive.
• Select your preferred language from the list presented.
• When you see the welcome screen for the Mac OS X Installer, go to the menu named Utilities and select Disk Utility.
• In the left pane of the Disk Utility window, click on the hard drive you want to erase.
• In the right pane of the Disk Utility window, click the Erase tab.
• Click the Security Options button.
• I recommend that you select the 7-Pass Erase options, but you could choose the 35-Pass Erase option. Here’s my description of these options.

Don’t Erase Data— This option does not provide any security. This option only over-writes the directories on the hard drive. Your files could still be recovered.
Zero Out Data— Provides a pretty good level of security. All of your files are over-written with a string of zeroes. There are forensics utilities that in theory could retrieve some data.
7-Pass Erase— Provides a lot of security. This is considered sufficient by government standards to erase data from a disk. It writes a random string of ones and zeroes over your data files seven times. It may take several hours or more to complete this process.
35-Pass Erase— Provides the maximum amount of security offered. This option takes an extremely long time, possibly more than one day.

• Click the radio button in front of 7-Pass Erase.
• Click OK.
• Click the Erase button next to the Security Options button.
• Confirm you want to erase and the process will be begin.
• If you want to install Mac OS X then go to the Disk Utility menu and select Quit after the erase is complete.
• You’ll be taken back to the Mac OS X Installer welcome window. Click Continue.
• Agree to the software license.
• In the “Select a Destination” window click on the icon for the hard drive which you just erased and then click Continue.
• Click the Install button to start the installation process. Depending upon the speed of your Mac and the version of Mac OS X which you are installing this process could commonly take anywhere from 20-60 minutes.

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Here are instructions on how to remove and re-add a print queue. I commonly do this to fix printer issues. Somehow the old queue gets “damaged” and stops working properly. As long as you don’t mind losing any of the print jobs which may be sitting in the queue, go ahead and do the following:

1. Go to Apple menu, select System Preferences, click on Print & Fax.
2. On the left-hand list of print queues, click once on the print queue you’d like to delete. For this example, let’s assume the queue is named Brother HL-5250. Click the minus sign icon below this list to permanently delete this print queue.
3. Click the plus sign icon (next to the minus sign) to begin adding a new print queue.
4. A window will appear listing all printers directly connected to your Mac or available via your network. You should see the Brother HL-5250 printer listed. In order to appear, the printer would need to be turned on and directly connected to your Mac using a USB cable or connected to your network using an ethernet cable. (If you don’t see the printer then you’ll first have to figure out why it’s not showing up.)
5. Click once on the Brother HL-5250 printer to select it. Wait a few seconds while a conversation occurs between your Mac and the Brother printer. Once the conversation is complete, then the printer driver will be selected and listed at the bottom of this window. Once the “Add” button becomes active, click it.
6. You’ll be taken back to the printer list in Print & Fax. You should see the Brother HL-5250 on this list now. Close this window by clicking the red dot.
7. Send a print job to the Brother printer to test it.

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Here are some examples of how I use QuickLook. I often have a Word or Excel file which I need to reference. I don’t need to make a change to the document I just want to read some information from it or remind myself of some details. Rather than double-clicking the file and waiting for Word or Excel to open, I simply use QuickLook. When I’m cleaning up my Desktop, I’ll often select multiple files at once by Command-Clicking on them and then I invoke QuickLook. QuickLook lets me view each file one by one so I can see their contents and determine where they should be filed or if I can put them in the Trash. Not every type of file can be viewed with QuickLook, but the most common file types can such as .doc, .xls, .pdf, .mp3, .jpg and many others. As developers update their applications they can add support for QuickLook, so over time more file types will be supported.

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Apple produces their own technical tips for the Mac and iPhone. They are short how-to videos. Check them out. I’m sure you’ll find one or two that will teach you a new trick.

Over the years, I’ve chided Apple for never providing a legend or explanation for the symbols they list next to a menu command which indicate the keyboard shortcut for that command. Well, at long last, Apple has a written technical note that explains the most commonly used hierglypic symbols and tells you the keyboard shortcut for a command. Check it out.

If you aren’t satisfied with this brief visual explanation of the keyboard symbols then you might like Dan Rodney’s chart which is a more thorough list of the keyboard symbols.

Mac Keyboard Symbols from Dan Rodney

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Do you often want to get driving directions from Google Maps for somebody’s address which is stored in Address Book? If so, then you should use Brian Toth’s Google Maps Address Book Plugin. I’ve used this great little utility for several years and rely on it regularly to get driving directions either from my office to a client’s office or from one of my client’s office to another client’s office. You can try the plugin for free. If you like it then please send a donation to Brian Toth, the developer.

Installation is easy. Click the download button on the developer’s web site. You’ll start to download the compressed zip file. Your Mac you automatically unzip this file, if not you can double-click it to get your Mac to unzip this file. You’ll then see the Google Maps Plugin installer application. Double-click it to install it.

It’s easy to use as well.

1. Open Address Book and hover your cursor over the “work” or “home” address label.
2. Click on the address label and select Google Directions.
3. To change the starting address click on the pop-up list near the top of the window to select your starting address. Then click the “Map” button.

Your default web browser will open and you’ll be shown Google Directions for the selected addresses.

Here are images to illustrate these instructions.

Google Maps Plugin Instructions

Extra Tip – I also use Brian Toth’s PostCheck plugin for Apple’s Address Book. PostCheck will fill-in an address’ missing zip code or verify that you have the correct zip code. You’ll notice that once you’ve downloaded and installed it that you can select it from the pop-up menu. Just look for PostCheck.

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Is your Mac’s screen cluttered with too many windows? Do you drag windows left and right, up and down, trying to find the window that you’re looking for? There is a better way to manage window clutter on your Mac. Apple offers a number of tools and techniques including Spaces, Expose, Minimize Window and others. This article talks about my preferred method. I use three different keyboard commands – hide application, Application Switcher and cycle through windows. Let me explain how to invoke each keyboard command. Then I’ll explain how to tie them together.

Hide Application – Nearly all applications can be hidden by pressing either Command-H or selecting Hide <Your Application’s Name> from the Application menu. For example, if you’re reading this article using Safari then click on the Safari menu at the top of your screen. Half-way down the menu you’ll see Hide Safari listed. Alternatively you can press the Command key and the H key to hide Safari.

Application Switcher – Not surprisingly, the purpose of the Application Switcher is to let you easily switch between applications. To invoke this feature simultaneously press the Command key and the Tab key. Then, release the Tab key. You’ll see a row of big icons appear across the screen. This row of icons is the application switcher. To use it, continue to hold down the Command key and then press and release the Tab key. Each time you press and release the Tab key you’ll see that the next application in the list is selected. If you continue to hold down the Tab key then you’ll rapidly advance through the list of applications. When you’ve selected the desired application from the list, then release all keys and the selected application will come to the fore-front. Hint: If you want to move through the list in reverse, then press Command-Shift-Tab.

Cycle through windows – Within a specific application, one can easily flip through all open documents and any other windows by simply pressing Command-tilde. The tilde key is the key to the left of the 1 key. The tilde is the accent mark that goes over an “n” in Spanish. To use this properly you need to depress the Command key and then press and release the tilde key each time you want to advance to the next window. Go ahead, give it a try.

Using all of these commands together. When I’m done with a given application, for a least a minute or two, and I want to switch to another application then I press Command-H to hide the current application. Then I press Command-Tab to invoke the Application Switcher and use it to switch to the application that I want to use. If I have many windows or documents open in this application then I just press Command-tilde to quickly find the document that I want. Then again when I’m done working on that document or application, I hide it and switch to the next application.  This lets me reduce window clutter and quickly find the document that I need.

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Screen snapshots are pictures of a portion of the screen. Being able to take a screen snapshot can be very useful. I typically use this feature several times each day. Here are some reasons why I commonly take a screen snapshot:

• To capture the exact text of an error message that appears on my screen.
• To be able to print something that is not easily printed.
• To capture a part of the screen so I can send it as an email attachment, often in a set of step-by-step instructions. A picture is worth a thousand words.

I’m going to highlight the two most common ways that I take a screen snapshot. For a complete list of ways read this page. Simultaneously hold down the Command key (aka Apple key), Shift key and the 4 key. The cursor will change from the arrow to an icon of a crosshair. Position the crosshair in the upper left corner of what you want to capture, then click and drag to the lower right corner. Release when the entire desired area of the screen is selected. When you release, the snapshot will be taken and automatically saved to the Desktop. In Mac OS X version 10.6 the file will be named “Snapshot” followed by a date and time stamp. In older versions of Mac OS X the file will be named Picture 1, and subsequent snapshots will be named Picture 2, Picture 3 and so forth.

There are countless ways you can use these snapshots. You can rename them. You can double-click to open and print them. You can move your snapshots into folders to keep them organized.

Sometimes I don’t want to save a copy of the snapshot as a file on my Mac. Instead, I just want to capture something on my screen and immediately paste it into an email or some other document. In this case, I simultaneously hold down the Control key as well as Command, Shift and 4. I then position the crosshair the same way to capture the snapshot. However, in this situation the snapshot is saved to the Mac’s invisible “clipboard.” Now I can go to an email message or a Word file and use the Paste command to paste the snapshot.

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