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Let’s take a tour through ScreenFloat and see how it can power ^up your screenshots, too.

ScreenFloat for Mac – Your Screen Capture Power Tool All-Rounder

ScreenFloat powers up your screenshots by allowing you to take screenshots and recordings that float above everything else, keeping certain information always in sight. Its Shots Browser stores your shots and helps you organize, name, tag, rate, favorite and find them. Everything syncs across your Macs.
Extract, view and copy detected text, faces and barcodes. Edit, annotate, markup and redact your shots effortlessly and non-destructively. Pick colors any time. And more.

Posts in this Series

Part I	Hello ScreenFloat
Part II	Capture – Take Screenshots and Record Your Screen
Part III	Float – Picture-in-Picture for your Screenshots and Recordings
Part IV	Edit – OCR, Annotate, Crop, Fold, Resize, Rotate, Trim, Cut and Mute
Part V	Share – Drag and Drop, Link Sharing, Export
Part VI	Store – The Shots Browser, iCloud Sync, Tags Browser
Part VII	Integrate – Widgets, Siri Shortcuts, AppleScript, Workflows, Spotlight

Part II: Capture – Take Screenshots and Recording your Screen

At the heart of ScreenFloat are its screen capturing abilities. Read on to learn how to take screenshots, take screenshots with a timer, and record your screen.

Table of Contents

• Capture Screenshots and Recordings
  • During the Selective Capture
  • Copy text and barcodes right away / OCR
• Screen Recording Options
  • Highlights and Recording Customization
• Timed Screenshots
• Re-Capture Previously Captured Areas

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Capture Screenshots and Recordings

With ScreenFloat, you can capture screenshots ^{(by default, ⌘ ⇧ 2)}, recordings ^{(by default, ⌥ ⇧ 2)}, and timed screenshots ^{(by default, ^ ⇧ 2)}.

While the keyboard shortcuts are very handy, you can also start captures from ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon:

Speaking of the menu bar icon:
– option (⌥) – click onto ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon to take a screenshot
– option (⌥) – shift (⇧) – click onto it to start a screen recording
– option (⌥) – click onto it and then drag away to set up a timer for your screenshot between 3 and 15 seconds
– control (^) – click onto it and ScreenFloat’s Settings will open
– shift (⇧) – click onto it and the Shots Browser will open

All captures are selective, which means after you start a capture, you can select an area of your screen you’d like screenshot or record.

To capture fullscreen, press the respective keyboard shortcut a second time:

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Any shot you take with ScreenFloat is stored in the Shots Browser for easy access.

Images and videos can be imported from other apps (like an image file in Finder, or an image from a webpage in Safari) – you can find out more about that in the Store section of this article series.

During the Capture

ScreenFloat uses macOS’ built-in screen capturing capabilities, which means you can make use of the following tricks while you select the area of your screen you’d like to capture:

Once you capture a shot by releasing the mouse button, the floating shot will appear.

Copy Text and Barcodes Right Away (OCR)

If you just want to quickly copy some non-copyable text or barcode content, here’s a neat trick:
Hold down control (^) and command (⌘) when releasing the mouse button, and any captured text will be copied to your clipboard right away.
If you want to copy the image data to your clipboard right away, hold down control (^) when releasing the mouse button.

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Screen Recording Options

ScreenFloat offers these options when recording your screen:
+ Record in full resolution
+ Highlight your mouse cursor
+ Highlight mouse clicks
+ Highlight modifier and key strokes *
In addition to that, you can
+ Record audio input ^{(using your default microphone)}
+ Record system audio ^{(macOS 13 Ventura and newer)}

While recording, ScreenFloat displays a handy HUD for you ^{(macOS 13 Ventura and newer)}.

Using the HUD, you can place edit markers for possible cutting points manually. ScreenFloat places them automatically, too, when you change audio settings, pause the recording, and switch apps and spaces. This helps you later on when you cut your video. You can hold down the modifier keys on your keyboard ^{(option ⌥, command ⌘, shift ⇧, function fn)} to use different marker colors.

To stop the recording, press the keyboard shortcut again, use the Stop button in the recording HUD, or select Stop Recording from ScreenFloat’s menu bar icon.
Audio can be removed from recordings at any time, all at once, or individually (only system- or microphone audio). You can trim, crop, resize and cut your recordings.

ScreenFloat automatically trims away how you end the recording, which means that you pressing the keyboard shortcut to end the recording, or selecting “Stop Recording” from the menu bar icon, will not be part of the final video.

Easily extract still images from your video shots with a right-click, or from the top right document-icon in custom file formats and sizes.

Highlights and Recording Customization

Customize how your mouse cursor, clicks and key strokes * are highlighted and displayed.

Change the mouse cursor highlight’s color and strength;
Change the highlight colors for left clicks, right clicks and other-button clicks, as well as the highlight’s strength;
Change the key stroke highlight’s text color, background color, its placement (top left, top center, top right, middle left, middle center, middle right, bottom left, bottom center, bottom right), whether to show caps lock and function key presses, or if every key press should be highlighted.

By default, ScreenFloat dims the area around your capture (and other screens) to indicate what you are recording. You can change whether to dim all screens or the recorded screen only, and if there should be an outline around the recorded area.

^{*Privacy note on key stroke highlights: Keyboard input monitoring begins and ends with video recordings and does not operate at any other time when ScreenFloat is running. Key strokes are neither stored, nor logged, and certainly not transmitted. Input monitoring is exclusively used to display key presses in your video recordings. You can grant and revoke input monitoring permissions any time in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Input Monitoring. Please refer to my privacy policy for further info.}

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Timed Screenshots

In addition to screenshots and screen recordings, you can also take timed screenshots, where the selected area will be captured after a countdown. Press ^ ⇧ 2 to start the countdown, and press it again to cancel it if you change your mind.

This can be handy when trying to capture a menu item in a submenu, or for anything else that needs further preparation and can’t be captured instantly with a normal screenshot.

The default interval is 5 seconds, but you can change it in Settings > Keyboard Shortcuts > Capture Shot With Timer > … .

You can also option (⌥)-drag from ScreenFloat’s menu bar item to select a range between 3 and 15 seconds.

Re-Capture Previously Captured Areas

Sometimes you’ll want to re-frame a shot slightly, or just capture an area again.
It’s easily done with ScreenFloat. Just press and hold any of the capture keyboard shortcuts, and you’ll be able to re-frame the previously selected area.

Select aspect ratios, save and use custom aspect ratios, and save capture areas for repeated access:

Re-use the frames of previously captured shots, by right-clicking onto them and selecting “Re-capture and Delete…”, which will bring up that shot’s area again for you to capture (and will only delete the original shot if you actually capture anew), or, if you hold down the option (⌥) key, you can select “Capture Shot Again…”, which will do the same, without the deletion part.

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Up Next

The next part of this series – Part III: Float – Picture-in-Picture for your Screenshots and Recordings – takes a detailed look at all the advantages that floating shots have. Definitely take a look, there’s a lot of neat stuff there!

Links

ScreenFloat Website ^{(+ free trial & direct purchase)}
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store ^{(one-time purchase, free for existing customers)}
ScreenFloat on Setapp ^{(7-day trial, then subscription for 200+ awesome apps)}
ScreenFloat Usage Tips

Eternal Storms Software Productivity Apps Bundle ^{(Yoink, ScreenFloat, Transloader and DeskMat at ~20% off)}
Contact & Connect

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Thank you for your time. I do hope you enjoy ScreenFloat!

• Link
• Mail
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• Twitch
• YouTube

• Link
• Mail
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• Twitch
• YouTube

Let’s take a tour through ScreenFloat and see how it can power ^up your screenshots.

ScreenFloat for Mac – Your Screen Capture Power Tool All-Rounder

^{ScreenFloat Website (+ free trial)
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store (one-time purchase, free for existing customers)
Eternal Storms Software Productivity Apps Bundle (ScreenFloat, Yoink, Transloader and DeskMat at ~20% off)}

Posts in this Series

Part I	Hello ScreenFloat
Part II	Capture – Take Screenshots and Record Your Screen
Part III	Float – Picture-in-Picture for your Screenshots and Recordings
Part IV	Edit – OCR, Annotate, Crop, Fold, Resize, Rotate, Trim, Cut and Mute
Part V	Share – Drag and Drop, Link Sharing, Export
Part VI	Store – The Shots Browser, iCloud Sync, Tags Browser
Part VII	Integrate – Widgets, Siri Shortcuts, AppleScript, Workflows, Spotlight

Part I – Hello ScreenFloat

ScreenFloat is a versatile screen capture utility that powers up your screenshots and recordings in numerous ways:

• Capture screenshots, timed screenshots, recordings (with system and mic audio), your clipboard’s contents, or import photos, scans and sketches from your iOS devices (or files from Finder and other apps).
• Float shots, so they’re always visible, like Picture-in-Picture. It’s a great memory aid, perfect for reference material, and gives quick and easy access to ScreenFloat’s OCR capabilities and other features, like the color picker and quicksmart-redaction. Create powerful workflows you run on floating shots with a simple double-click.
• Edit your shots. Add annotations and markup, crop, “fold”, rotate, resize, de-retinize, trim, mute and cut them. Quicksmart-redact text, barcodes and faces, or copy text and barcode content to your clipboard.
• Share effortlessly, by dragging the floating shot to other apps. Change formatting, sizing and quality options on-the-fly, and even decide if annotations should or should not be included. Create shareable and embeddable links for your shots with iCloud, ImageKit.io or Cloudinary.com. Export videos as GIFs.
• Store, organize and collect your shots in the Shots Browser, and keep your Desktop clutter-free. Name, tag, rate, favorite and find them. Synchronize your shots over iCloud.
• Integrate with macOS and other apps, using ScreenFloat’s Shortcuts, url scheme, and its AppleScript and Shortucts.app integration. Use Spotlight to find shots system-wide. Widgets make your shots, tags, folders and picked colors accessible system-wide.

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Table of Contents

• Getting Started
• Capturing, Importing
• Floating Shots
• Editing, OCR, Redaction, Annotation
• Share
• Store
• Integrate

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Getting Started

When you first launch ScreenFloat, you’ll be greeted by its setup screen that helps you set up keyboard shortcuts, iCloud sync, Spotlight indexing, and also – if you used ScreenFloat 1.x – upgrades your existing shots library to the new v2 format, analyzing your shots for texts, barcodes and faces along the way. ^{(Depending on the number of shots you have, this might take a little while)}

ScreenFloat is an app that runs in the background. More specifically, in your menu bar: you will not find it in your Dock, nor the app switcher (although you can, of course, drag ScreenFloat to your Dock manually).
You can access ScreenFloat any time via its icon in the right portion of your menu bar:

Using its keyboard shortcuts, menu bar icon, or widgets, ScreenFloat is always ready for you to capture your screen, or browse your Shots in the Shots Browser.

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Capturing, Importing

ScreenFloat offers three types of captures: Screenshots, Screen Recordings, and Timed Screenshots.

Screenshots

To take a screenshot, use the according keyboard shortcut ^{(by default, command (⌘) – shift (⇧) – 2)}, or select it from the menu bar icon. You can then select the portion of the screen you’d like to capture.

Recordings

Screen recordings can be started in the same fashion – by pressing its keyboard shortcut ^{(by default, shift (⇧) – option (⌥) – 2)}, or via the menu bar icon. You have several recording options available to you – whether to highlight the mouse cursor, clicks, and key presses. You can also record your Mac’s audio output (speakers) and input (microphone), mute them and pause and resume your recording on-the-fly, and place edit markers to help you edit your video later.

Timed Screenshots

A timed shot is like a screenshot, only that it is taken with a delay. It can be very useful when you need to take a screenshot of something that takes extra steps to get to. You can take one by pressing its keyboard shortcut ^{(by default, control (^) – option (⌥) – 2)}, or the menu bar icon.

Previously captured areas can easily be re-captured by press-and-holding the relevant keyboard shortcut.

You can copy the shot to your clipboard instead of making it float by holding the control key (^) on your keyboard when you release the mouse button for the capture.
Consequently, you can copy captured text to your clipboard right away after a capture, by holding the control (^) and command (⌘) keys pressed.

Import Shots

Importing files into ScreenFloat is easy. From Finder, you can right-click image and video files and select Open With > ScreenFloat, or Share > ScreenFloat. You can also drag them onto the app’s icon, or onto its symbol in your menu bar, or onto the Shots Browser. Or use a Siri Shortcut.

^{Tip: Did you know you can create shots of selected text from any app? It’s perfect for remembering stuff. Select some text, the click on the active app’s name in your menu bar and select Services > Create Shot from Selected Text. Alternatively, you can set up a keyboard shortcut for this in System Settings.app > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Services > Text > Create Shot from Selected Text.
Or drag selected text to ScreenFloat’s icon in your menu bar.}

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Floating Shots

Shots and recordings you capture with ScreenFloat float by default. Floating shots float above other windows, and follow you around your apps and spaces, so the shot is always in sight. That can be very helpful when trying to remember something, copying info from one app to another, or as reference material.

While floating shots follow you around by default, there are more options available to you. You can pin floating shots to a space or fullscreen-app, so they will stay contained in that space, or only have them be visible when a specific application is frontmost.
When a shot is in the way, you can hide and unhide it (or all of them), or you can use “Work mode”, which hides floating shots as you mouse over them, and shows them again when the mouse exits.
You can change a floating shot’s opacity by scrolling up and down within it, and you can even make it ignore mouse clicks, so you can click through them (great for artists, for example).

Naturally, you can also close floating shots. They are stored in the Shots Browser, from where you can make them float again with a double-click.

Floating shots can be resized like any other window, by dragging any of its corners or edges.
A right-click or click onto the gear button gives you access to all editing, OCR and management features.

Option-right-click-drag onto a floating shot to use the color picker.

Set up powerful workflows you can run on your floating shots with a simple double-click.
You always resize a shot and reduce its dpi before you attach it to a new Mail? There’s a double-click workflow for that (and more):

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Editing, OCR, Redaction, Annotation

ScreenFloat offers a wide range of editing options:
Resize, de-retinize, crop, fold, rotate, trim, cut and mute (you can remove all audio, or the system- and microphone tracks individually).
Annotate, redact and markup your shots with ease.

Every shot you take or import is analyzed for text and text-content (like links, emails, etc), barcodes and faces, allowing you to easily copy and view that information, or quicksmart-redact it.

Detected data is indexed, so you can find shots by a certain phrase they depict, or barcode content, within the Shots Browser, and Spotlight.

ScreenFloat lets you annotate, redact and markup your shots to your heart’s content.
Freedraw, rectangles, circles, lines, arrows, stars, checkmarks, x-marks, Text, Smart Numbered Lists, Highlights and Redactions are available to you.

Cutting your video recordings allows you to remove parts of your recordings entirely, or just parts of individual audio tracks:

With the help of “edit markers” you can place while recording, cutting is even easier: they are shown as highlights on your recording’s timeline.

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Share

It couldn’t be easier to drag a shot to other apps. Start a drag from the floating shot’s document button, or by long-pressing the shot, or open the on-the-fly options menu and change the format, resolution, dimensions, and whether annotations and metadata should be included.

(You can also Export your shots for even more control).

Link Sharing

A file is too large to send, or you want to send multiple shots at once? Use iCloud Link Sharing to create a download-link, valid for 30 days.
You want to embed an image or video in a Markdown document, or a website? Use ScreenFloat’s ImageKit.io or Cloudinary.com integration to create permanent, shareable and embeddable links:

You want to share your Shot a different way? Use ScreenFloat’s Run AppleScript or Run Shortcut double-click action to upload the double-clicked shot to a service of your choice with an AppleScript or Siri Shortcut.

Export as GIF

Effortlessly create GIFs from your recordings, adjusting their size, quality, time range and crop rect.

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Store

Anything you capture with ScreenFloat, or import into it, is stored in the Shots Browser, where you can collect, organize, categorize and synchronize your Shots.

Give shots a name (with custom naming schemes). Tag, rate and favorite them. Move them into folders, or use Smart Folders to collect shots that match the rules you specify. An extensive list of options is available, like whether the shot contains a barcode, or you have annotated it with a certain text phrase, to name just two.

You can synchronize your library (that means your shots, your folders, your tags, and metadata) via iCloud across your Macs, making your shots available everywhere your Macs are.

And you decide what gets synced – all shots, only images, or only recordings. Or only shots up to a certain file size.

To manage your tags, ScreenFloat has a Tags Browser, where you can rename tags, favorite, merge or delete them.

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Integrate

ScreenFloat comes with a wide array of widgets and Siri Shortcuts, so its features are readily available to across macOS.

Control ScreenFloat from your Desktop or Control Center, or access your recent captures, picked colors, and more, with its Widgets:

Automate capturing and importing with Siri Shortcuts:

… or with ScreenFloat’s URL scheme.
Find shots with Spotlight, and run AppleScripts and Shortcuts with your shots using a double-click action.
Build custom workflows, executable on your floating shots with a simple double-click.

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Up Next

The next part of this series – Part II: Capture – Take Screenshots and Record your Screen – takes a detailed look at all the capturing options ScreenFloat offers you. Definitely take a look, there’s a lot of neat stuff there!

Links

ScreenFloat Website ^{(+ free trial & direct purchase)}
ScreenFloat on the Mac App Store ^{(one-time purchase, free for existing customers)}
ScreenFloat on Setapp ^{(7-day trial, then subscription for 200+ awesome apps)}
ScreenFloat Usage Tips

Eternal Storms Software Productivity Apps Bundle ^{(Yoink, ScreenFloat, Transloader and DeskMat at ~20% off)}
Contact & Connect

---

Thank you for your time. I do hope you enjoy ScreenFloat!

• Link
• Mail
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• LinkedIn
• GitHub
• Twitch
• YouTube