Macintosh computers running most of the newer versions of OSX have a handy screen capture utility built right in. It's a lot like print screen "PrtScnSysRq" on a PC . It works right out of the box and all you have to do is click open apple+shift+4. You'll hear something like a cameral clicking noise and an image will be created. This technique for doing screen captures on a Mac is efficient because it doesn't require the added step of pasting the screen capture and then editing the image as you would do on a PC (thank goodness for the Paint application or we'd all be screwed on a PC!), on a mac the image is automatically created in .png format and stored right on your desktop instantly!

Well, in case the stock screen capture tool for Macs wasn't handy enough for you, Ambrosia Software has created a new utility called Snapz Pro X. For those of you running PC's, I'm just going to acknowledge for you that the screen capture tool that comes stock just isn't good enough, there are plenty of work arounds out there and I wish you the best of luck finding them! Back to Mac, the Smapz Pro tool is simply amazing, and oh so useful for technofiles like myself.

So what functionality does Snapz Pro X add to screen capturing that would be worth $29 or even $69 bucks? Well, I wen't strait for the high end version because I was excited about video capture, but in general the screen capture updates are really good too. Instead of capturing the entire screen when you press open apple+shift+4 you get a little cross hairs cursor which you can drag to the size and shape that you want, you can even move the entire area by holding the space bar (much like you would do while editing in Photoshop).

The high end version of Snapz is really great because it lets you capture your screen in .mov video format and includes a more advanced menu system. To use the video capture tool you click open apple+shift+3 so you can still use the standard screen capture system with open apple+shift+4. It features a similar cursor option for capturing something odd sized or you can select an application to follow or just the entire screen. I use this tool for all of the video tutorials here on Sustainable Online Solutions so check out the drupal installation tutorial to see a video screenshot in action. Note, I use a tool called VisualHub to convert the raw .mov files to .flv for reduced size and easy upload to YouTube where the quality was degraded, original files are crispppp!

Since I can't figure out how to take a screen shot of the Snapz Pro screen shot tools there are no videos or pictures on this post but it's definitely worth checking out at the Ambrosia website along with their other great tools. I do not work for Ambrosia or receive any incentives for this review, I simply enjoy the tool and wanted to share!