I recently had a feature request to add Direct-Paste to ScreenFloat. I had not idea what that meant, so I looked it up. It basically combines the copy-paste operations into one, immediately pasting the freshly copied content into the currently active, frontmost app’s active window. So instead of having to copy the shot and then pasting it into the active app using command-v (or your method of choice), it’s all done in one go.
Now, there is no way this is allowed in the Mac App Store: ScreenFloat would require the Accessibility sandbox entitlement for it (to emulate the command-v key press), and that’s a big no-no. Why? I have no idea – they do have an entire process of reviewing apps set up for this sort of thing, after all. But I digress.
With the recently released ScreenFloat v2.2, I introduced support for Application Scripts, where users can supply their own, custom-made AppleScripts, and ScreenFloat can run them with a copy of a double-clicked floating shot. With that, it’s possible to set up a direct-paste double-click workflow. Here’s how.
A floating shot being double-clicked, immediately copy-pasting it into the currently active app, TextEdit.
The AppleScript
The AppleScript is fairly simple, and I’ve prepared it for you to download here (.zip, ~4KB). It expects the shot already having been copied to the clipboard (doable within the same double-click workflow), and then emulates a command-v key press to paste it into the active, frontmost app’s active window.
After you download and unzip the script, place it into this folder on your Mac: /Users/yourname/Library/Application Scripts/at.EternalStorms.ScreenFloat-[appstore|trial]/
Now it’s accessible from within ScreenFloat for the Run AppleScript double-click action.
Creating the Double-Click Workflow
Your double-click workflow will consist of two actions:
Copy Shot copies the double-clicked shot as a file path, or as image data (png, tiff, etc)
Run AppleScript runs the selected AppleScript
To set it up, open ScreenFloat’s Settings, select the Floating Shots tab, and under Double-clicking:, click with the mouse-button and modifier keys of your choice (you can set up multiple double-click workflows for different mouse buttons, with different modifier keys).
Press the + button below and select Copy Shot > Filepath | PNG | TIFF | etc Press the + button again and select Run AppleScript > Direct-Paste Double-Clicked Shot into Active App
Now, when you double-click a shot with your specified mouse button and modifier keys, the shot will be copied to your clipboard, and then the AppleScript will be executed, pasting the clipboard’s contents (your shot) to the active app’s active window.
That’s it. You can now easily copy-paste floating shots into the active app, without having to do the copy and pasting manually.
Minor Caveat If you set up the double-click workflow for a mouse button with a bunch of modifier keys, be sure to release the modifier keys as soon as you finish the double-click, otherwise the AppleScript will not send command-v to the active app, but [your pressed modifiers] – v, possibly resulting in a beep. That’s why I implemented a slight delay into the script (0.5 seconds), which you can adjust yourself by just changing that number, giving you more leeway for releasing the modifier keys you set up for the double-click workflow.
ScreenFloat v2.2, a free, feature-laden update to my screenshot and recording allrounder Mac app, is now available on the Mac App Store. You can now cut your screen recordings and individual audio-tracks, have more options for upload-and-copy-link sharing, run AppleScripts and Shortcuts with your shots, and more.
What is ScreenFloat?
With ScreenFloat, you make captured screenshots and recordings float above all other windows, so anything you can capture is always in sight for reference. Think of it like Picture-in-Picture, only for captures. And that’s only the beginning. It keeps your Desktop clutter-free by storing shots in the Shots Browser, where you can organize, collect, tag, rate and favorite them. It recognizes text, faces and barcodes so you can effortlessly extract, copy, share and quicksmart-redact them. It syncs your shots via iCloud across your Macs. Add annotations and markup, crop, “fold“, resize, de-retinize, trim, and mute your shots, and more. A screenshot is just a screenshot. Until you use ScreenFloat.
Tip: Check out the Get to Know ScreenFloat 2 Blog Post series for a deep-dive into its functionality and what it can do for you.
and more – PopClip extension, improved Siri Shortcuts, more Search and Smart Folder options
Video Cutting
You can now cut individual sections out of your screen recordings. And even better, you can select individual audio tracks you’d like to cut, so if you accidentally cough during a recording, you’ll be able to cut that out (but keep the system sound), or if a system sound is going off you don’t want in the recording, you can remove that (but keep your mic sound). Quite a lot of users of ScreenFloat (myself included) have been waiting for this, and I’m happy it’s finally here.
With Link Sharing, you share a link to a shot instead of the actual shot, making it easier to share large or multiple files. Expiring iCloud Links have been available since ScreenFloat 2.0. ScreenFloat v2.2 now supports ImageKit.io and Cloudinary.com as alternatives, allowing you to create non-expiring, shareable and embeddable links to your shots. Just like with iCloud link sharing, these can be created in a double-click workflow, making uploading and sharing links an absolute breeze.
Double-Click Actions for AppleScript and Shortcuts
Automation is one of the things that make the Mac so great. With ScreenFloat 2.2, you can now send your screenshots or recordings off to an AppleScript, or a Shortcut, with a double-click workflow. I’m already using this myself to upload shots to my server using an AppleScript, and then copy a link to it to my clipboard (like Link Sharing offers, just with my own server). It’s very neat, if I may say so myself! You can find the instructions here.
In that same automation-vein, you can now call ScreenFloat’s capturing abilities (and more) using its url scheme, “esssf2“. Capture screenshots, timed screenshots, screen recordings, or content on your clipboard, and start “after capture” actions, like instant annotation, cropping, or cutting. You can find more information here.
Interactive Release Notes
Showing what’s new in an app is nice and all, but what if the release notes could actually take you right to that new feature, or show instructions, or show more info for an improvement? That’s exactly what I did here. Watch a short video instruction, get directed to a feature within the app, see a screenshot for more detail, or follow a link for more instructions, right from the new “What’s New” panel.
A new Siri Shortcut to create shots from the contents of your clipboard
Smart Folders and Search now can filter for File Size
All Capture shortcuts in Shortcuts.app now have an “After Capture” option so you can go into annotating, cropping, resizing, trimming, cutting (etc.) right away after the capture
Minor improvements and bug fixes
Links and Availability
ScreenFloat is a one-time purchase, exclusively available on the Mac App Store for USD 15.99 / EUR 14,99 / GBP 15.99 , and a free update for existing customers. A free, 28-day trial is available for download from the website. It requires macOS 12 Monterey (macOS 14 Sonoma recommended for full functionality) A (free) iCloud account is required if you want to sync your ScreenFloat library across your Macs. ScreenFloat is currently localized in English, German, Chinese (Simplified), and Dutch.
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.
Drag and dropping shots to other apps is quite frankly the easiest and most straightforward way to get a file from A to B. Here’s how to do it:
Drag and Drop from a Floating Shot
We already talked about this in Part III: Float, but it bears repeating, because it’s absolutely crucial.
Share by dragging the document icon, or by long-press-dragging the image, or from the on-the-fly sharing options panel
When you drag a file from the floating shot’s document icon or by long-press-dragging the image, it is exported as-is, as a PNG file (or MOV file for videos). If you need more fine-tuned control, click the document icon, and you’ll be presented with a couple of useful options:
Here, you can:
Change the default file format (PNG, JPEG, TIFF, PDF, HEIC), or drag out/copy/open with/share a specific file format
Reduce the resolution (from 144+ “retina” dpi to 72 dpi)
Resize the image (by longest/shortest side, or width/height)
Add a border around the image to prevent “bleeding” *
Enable whether markup and annotations should be included in the dragged file, or the image should be shared without any markup
Randomize the filename Instead of the filename as it appears in the Shots Browser, the file name will become “ScreenFloat Shot <RANDOM12CHARSTRING>”
Enable whether notes and tags should be included as EXIF and Finder metadata
* “Add border” adds a slim border around the image to prevent bleeding into document or website backgrounds, if the colors are similar. It’s best explained in a short video:
Drag and Drop from the Shots Browser
You can drag multiple shots from the Shots Browser to other apps. Select them, and drag them out:
Furthermore, you can drag entire folders out of the Shots Browser:
Export
If you require more advanced options for your files, consider using ScreenFloat’s Export functionality, which allows you to export multiple screenshots and recordings in one fell swoop.
Naming For exporting, you have the same file naming options available as for storing shots in the Shots Browser (discussed in a future installment of this series). Namely, those are:
<Shot Title>: The Shot title, as it appears in the Shots Browser
<App Name>: The name of the captured app
<Shot Kind>: Like “Image Shot” or “Video Shot”
<Capture Date>: The date the shot was captured
<Capture Time>: The time the shot was captured
<Year>, <Month>, <Day>, <Minute>, <Second>: The components of the capture date/time
<Unix Timestamp>: A unix timestamp representation of the capture date and time
<File Size>: The file size of the shot (before the export), like “320KB”
<Dimensions>: The dimensions of the shot, like “640×480”
<Width>, <Height>: The components of the dimensions of the shot, like “640”, or “480”
<Duration>: For recordings, the duration of the video, like “1m22s”
<Random>: A random, 12-character string
<Sequential Number>: The running count of the exported file
Include notes, tags as metadata With this selected, ScreenFloat writes notes and tags you specified for a shot into the shot’s file metadata. In the case of an image format (PNG, JPEG, TIFF, HEIC), it uses the appropriate IPTC fields. In the case of a PDF, it’s written into the PDF’s subject and keywords fields. If it’s a screen recording, it’s a custom metadata field.
Images
Include annotations With this selected, the image is exported with its annotations, markups and redactions. If this is not selected, the plain image will be exported.
Format
PNG
JPEG
Offers Quality setting
TIFF
PDF
Offers PDF permission settings
HEIC
Offers Quality setting
Size Restrict the exported image’s size by longest or shortest side, width or height.
Alpha Whether the exported image file has an alpha channel. Available for PNG, TIFF and HEIC.
Reduce resolution (72 dpi) When screenshots are taken on a retina display, they usually have a high resolution, like 144 dpi. With this selected, all high-dpi-images’ resolution will be reduced to 72 dpi, resulting in a smaller file size, but also reduced quality.
Recordings
Remove all audio For screen recordings. Will remove all audio tracks from the resulting video file.
Size Restrict the exported image’s size by longest or shortest side, width or height.
Create GIFs from Recordings
Easily create GIFs from your recordings, with the following quality, sizing, cropping and trimming options: – Frame Rate: Choose between 30fps, 24fps, 15fps, 12fps, 10fps and 6fps – Size: Scale the GIF from 100% (original size) to 10%. – Color Quality: Adjust the color representation of the GIF (to reduce the file size) – Crop button: Select an area within the video to create the GIF from – Time Range: Select a portion of the video you’d like to create the GIF of – Quality Slider: Change the picture quality of the GIF (to reduce the file size)
The live preview shows you what your GIF will look like with your current settings. The Estimated File Size shows you ScreenFloat’s best guess at the resulting file size (not 100% accurate due to different factors during rendering).
Export to Folder, Share with a Double-Click Action
We’ll talk about double-click workflows in more detail in a future installment of this series, but I’d still like to mention this here, because it is, after all, another way to export shots. ScreenFloat provides a Double-Click Action to export double-clicked shots directly into a folder of your choice:
Set it up in ScreenFloat’s Settings > Floating Shots > Double-clicking.
There are other Double-Click Actions available, like opening the Share menu right away, copying the shot as a file path or image data, open with a specific app, and more!
Link Sharing
If you want to share multiple shots, or a large screen recording, it might be easier for you and the recipient to share a download link instead of the actual files. You’d like to display a screenshot on a website, or embed it in a Markdown document? Link Sharing allows you to do that.
iCloud Link Sharing
Sharing multiple or large shots as a download link can be easily done with iCloud Link Sharing. Right-click the shot(s) and select Share > Copy iCloud Link…, and the files will be uploaded to iCloud and a link to it copied to your clipboard:
Links created with iCloud are be valid for up to 30 days, after which they will no longer be accessible. They can’t be manually invalidated.
In Settings > iCloud > Set up Link Copy…, you can change:
Link Style
Landing Page (default): When you open the link in your browser, you see a landing page with a prompt to download the files
Direct File Link: When you open the link in your browser, the file is downloaded right away. This is also embeddable, but keep in mind that a link created with iCloud is only valid for up to 30 days
Include validity info
Whether or not the copied link should include the expiration date, i.e.: https://linktofile.com (expires on <date>)
ImageKit.io and Cloudinary.com Link Sharing
Permanent, non-expiring links to screenshots and recordings can be created with ScreenFloat’s inclusion of ImageKit.io and Cloudinary.com, so you can embed them in websites, or Markdown documents, for example.
It works just the same as iCloud Link Sharing, but requires you to (1) create a (free) account with the service you’d like to use, and (2) enter your account’s information into ScreenFloat.
Settings for ImageKit.io and Cloudinary.com integration
Each service’s Terms of Use and Privacy Policy applies.
ScreenFloat does not offer any other integration with these services, other than uploading them and copying the link. However, you can access ImageKit.io’s Media Library and Cloudinary.com’s Media Explorer from these settings, allowing you to manage (and delete) your uploaded files in your browser.
This can also be triggered with a Double-Click Action.
Printing
The settings for printing are pretty self-explanatory, so I’ll just leave you with two screenshots of ScreenFloat’s print dialog:
ScreenFloat v2.1.7 is now available on the Mac App Store, improving re-capturing, double-click workflows, and more.
What is ScreenFloat?
With ScreenFloat, you take screenshots and recordings that float above all other windows, keeping anything you can capture always in sight for reference. Think of it like Picture-in-Picture, only for screenshots. And that’s only the beginning. It keeps your Desktop clutter-free by storing shots in the Shots Browser, where you can organize, collect, tag, rate and favorite them. It scans your shots for text, faces and barcodes so you can effortlessly extract, copy, share and quicksmart-redact them. It syncs your shots via iCloud across your Macs. Add annotations and markup, crop, “fold”, resize, de-retinize, trim, and mute your shots, and more. A screenshot is just a screenshot. Until you use ScreenFloat.
Check out the Get to Know ScreenFloat 2 Blog Post series for a deep-dive into its functionality and what it can do for you.
When you press-and-hold ScreenFloat’s capture/record keyboard shortcut, you can re-capture the previously selected area of your screen. With version 2.1.7, ScreenFloat now remembers these per screen, not just the last one. Right-click into the re-capture view to access them.
When you use a double-click workflow that begins with a “Duplicate Shot” action, the subsequent actions are now applied to that newly duplicated shot, not the original.
Improved text rendering when creating a floating shot from selected, copied or dragged text. (ScreenFloat comes with a system service that lets you create floating shots from selected text. You can also use its menu bar icon > New Shot from Clipboard.)
The Shots Browser’s thumbnail performance has been improved
A bunch of bug fixes, like better clean-up of temporary files, rare crashes and minor grievances
User Voices
I don’t have any analytics in any of my apps, but from what I can tell from reviews and feedback I have received, the following are some of ScreenFloat 2’s most popular features, in no particular order:
Folding Allows you to remove a vertical or horizontal “middle section” from an image. The two remaining parts are stitched back together automatically. > You can fold shots in the Crop sheet.
Pin floating shots to Apps Tell a floating shot to only be visible when a certain app is frontmost. > You can do so by right-clicking the floating shot and selecting Visibility > In Current App (<AppName>)
Quicksmart-Redaction > Right-click a text line, a face, or a barcode, and you can redact it right away. No hassle.
Double-click Workflows Users really appear to enjoy running automated actions on a shot with a simple double-click. > Set up double-click workflows in Settings > Floating Shots > Double-clicking .
And because ScreenFloat has received a couple of very nice reviews on the Mac App Store, I thought I’d include some of them here.
“Totally indispensable! Fabulous tool for software developers that I cannot live without now.”
– AndyIceman ★★★★★
“Very versatile app. One of my most used apps.”
– fknoes ★★★★★
“Amazing app, couldn’t live without it.”
– danielc41 ★★★★★
“Excellent app, can’t live without it. Best screenCap utility on the market.”
-zr0s ★★★★★
Links and Availability
ScreenFloat is a one-time purchase, exclusively available on the Mac App Store for USD 15.99 / EUR 14,99 / GBP 15.99. A free, 28-day trial is available for download from the website. It requires macOS 12 Monterey (macOS 14 Sonoma recommended for full functionality) A (free) iCloud account is required if you want to sync your ScreenFloat library across your Macs. ScreenFloat is currently localized in English, German, Chinese (Simplified), and Dutch.
