Cool Mac Gear

Unless you’re completely new to MacOS X, you know Shift-CMD-4 lets you capture the screen. If you’re happy with this built-in feature, you don’t need Snap’nDrag.

But if you find it annoying, as I do, that Shift-CMD-4 can only produce PDF files and wish there were an option to save screen capture in a more useful (at least if you’re dong Web work) format, Snap’nDrag presents itself as a solution.

Snap’nDrag is a simple application that makes screen capture an easy two-step process:
1. A couple of clicks to capture the screen, a selection, or an open window.
2. Drag the result off to the Finder, Mail or any other application.

To use Snap’nDrag:

Click on one of the 4 buttons on the left of the Snap’nDrag window to capture:
Selection - lets you select an area to capture
Window - lets you select a window to capture
Screen - capture the entire screen
Timed - capture the entire screen after a delay

After snapping the screen, a small preview will appear in the image field on the right. To save it on your Desktop, simple click on the preview and drag it to the Desktop. Of course you can drag it to any other folder too.

If you want to email the screenshot,and are an OSXMail user, simply drag the preview and drop it in Mail.

Snap’nDrag features:
• Mac-like and intuitive user interface.
• Output in JPEG, PNG or TIFF.
• JPEG compression settings.

I found that Snap’nDrag worked great to capture selections or the entire screen, but it absolutely refused in multiple attempts to capture open windows. The little camera cursor appeared asit should.but when I clicked it in a variety of windows, it just disappeared, and the preview image in the Snsp’nDrag window stayed the same.

This is a very cool little freeware utility, and I hope YellowMug Softare can get that bug fixed, as window captures are the ones I find most useful.

Anyway, it’s a tiny download, so it’s worth checking out. I would be interested to hear if others encounter the window capture failure problem.

System requirements:
• Mac OS X 10.2 or higher

Snap’nDrag is freeware

For more information, visit:
http://www.yellowmug.com/snapndrag/

From Michael W. Snider

Charles,

I appreciate the difficulties you have with pointing devices, and admire the
ingenious solutions you found under OS 9.

That it doesn’t work in OS X is a real problem for you, but it’s not a flaw
in OS X; it’s more like a fluke that it worked in the older system. From a
software design standpoint, and from the standpoint of most users, allowing pointing devices to interrupt each other that way is a nightmare. Imagine bumping a mouse with your elbow and having it drag a line across the delicate drawing you’re creating with your tablet and pen. Imagine bumping the button on one device as you happen to cross the “Don’t Save” button with another. Please don’t continue to call what is normally good interface design an “OS X problem” without adding “for me.”

Peace,
Michael

The OS X Odyssey archives may be accessed here:
http://www.applelinks.com/news/odyssey/

CM

Charles W. Moore