Apple recently released MacOS Mojave, the latest major release of its desktop operating system that is shared by MacBooks, iMacs, and Mac Pro computers. The update contained several major improvements and new features, one of which being a brand new screen capture interface.
In MacOS Mojave Apple has brought together screenshot and screen recording capabilities into a single, unified screen capture interface. It can be accessed by pressing Command-Shift-5 and takes the form of a floating palette with several icons.
The left-most section of the floating palette contains its screenshot tools with three icons to capture the entire screen, a selected window, or a custom frame that can be drawn. Next to it is a section with the screen recording tools that consist of two icons to record the entire screen or a custom frame.
On the right, there is an Options menu that houses several settings. In that menu, users can choose the location where images or videos will be saved, and select whether or not to include a 5 or 10-second delay before the screen capture takes place.
Additionally, the Options menu has a setting to show or hide the mouse cursor, and one to show a floating thumbnail after the recording is complete. The floating thumbnail is a feature inspired by iOS and will display a thumbnail of any image or video right after it has been captured so that users can click on it and apply Markup to it.
Overall the unified screen capture interface is certainly convenient, both for screenshots and screen recordings. It integrates well with the new Markup capabilities of MacOS Mojave too.
The biggest improvement, however, is on the screen recording front. Prior to Mojave, MacOS users had to rely on QuickTime to use screen recording and that required several steps be taken to set it up. With the new interface, all that is needed is a single click, which is a stark difference.
While simple and convenient, the screen recording capabilities in MacOS Mojave do not make it a complete replacement for more powerful screen recorders. As such any users who want more control over the recording parameters (or to record screen on Windows 7 or 10) will need to look elsewhere at third-party software, for example, Movavi Screen Recorder.
For now, Apple seems focused on providing users with easy access to screen capture tools that allow them to capture and save content – and use the Markup to sketch or comment on it. In that regard, Mojave has certainly succeeded but it will be interesting to see whether Apple chooses to expand on the functions of its screen capture interface in the future.
