I'm a relative newbie, but I'm desperately looking for a way to create a single-button screenshot option on my Mac.
I'm watching a series of instructional videos that have approximately 40-50 pop-up info boxes throughout the video, and it would be incredibly helpful if I could use a single key to take a screenshot for later use, rather than having to clicking "pause" and "command+shift+4" and "resume" after every single pop-up text box. Could anyone help me find a way to do this?
Technically you don't need KM to do this. In the macOS system preferences, under Keyboard/Shortcuts/Screenshots there is a way to change the key to a single key. It says how to do that on the second line below:
Well, I don't know the software you're using to view the video, but many such programs have pause and resume mapped to the spacebar. If that's the case for the software you're using, make a macro that does three "Type a Keystroke" actions (found in the "Interface Control" group).
I wouldn't be surprised if you need to add a "Pause" step or two to give the system time to do what each simulated keystroke is asking for. Keyboard Maestro often works faster than the software it's controlling.
Small note.... Since you didn't say which app you are using, it could be that you are watching your video in an app (like Apple TV) that prevents all screenshots from working. I always get a black image when I take screenshots of the Apple TV app, even when the video is paused. I think it has something to do with HDCP but I'm not sure. I've encountered this problem in some other apps also.
DRD provided an answer which includes the pause/resume functions also. I wasn't sure if you wanted the whole screen or if you wanted to specify the image location, so I answered as if you wanted the whole screen. I also didn't know if the pop-ups occurred in the same place on the screen each time. If so, there's a way to automate this even further. I also have tricks that can get KM to dynamically determine the exact location of a pop-up window in a video playback, so that you don't even have to specify the location, but that's a lot more code.
Thank you for the detailed answer! To provide a bit more background, I am watching saved ".mp4" files, so I've been using VLC to view the videos (I've also used QuickTime). I want to screenshot the entire video, which I'm usually watching in fullscreen mode. So nothing too fancy.
I use the video player IINA, and it has a builtin function to save a screenshot with ⌘s.
Maybe this could do it?
