Please refer to this information for guidance on adding images/screenshots in documentation.
You should take all screenshots on your standard 15″ MacBook Pro unless documenting a mobile application. A standard MacBook Pro screen defaults either to 1440⨉900 or 1680⨉1050 pixels. Ensure your browser’s zoom is set at 100%.
By default, screenshots save to the Desktop and will reflect the resolution of the portion of the screen captured. Unless cropping a screenshot, no further manipulation of a screenshot is typically necessary.
Note: There are many screen capture applications out there. These instructions refer to native Mac functionality. If you use a third-party application such as SnagIt, please refer to the third-party documentation for the product.
Important: Never show personal information in any screenshot. This includes personal bookmarks, autofill text, browser tabs, etc. Never show any true/live client data unless you’re documenting something for a specific client; client-specific imagery can’t be used in any other capacity.
Capture a portion of a screen
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 4.
- Drag the crosshair to select the area of the screen to capture. To move the selection, press and hold the Space bar while dragging. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
- To take the screenshot, release your mouse or trackpad button.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, select it to edit the screenshot, or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
Capture a window or menu
- Open the window or menu you want to capture.
- Press and hold these keys together: Shift, Command, 4, and then press the Space bar. The pointer changes to a camera icon. To cancel taking the screenshot, press the Esc (Escape) key.
- Select the window or menu to capture it. To exclude the window’s shadow from the screenshot, press and hold the Option key while clicking.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, select it to edit the screenshot, or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
Note: After pressing Shift, Command, and 4, you can toggle between the crosshair and the camera/window option by pressing the Space bar.
Capture the entire screen
Generally, you won’t need to use a fullscreen screenshot. If you intend to focus on a specific feature such as a menu, dialog box, portion of a screen, etc., use one of the previous screenshot methods.
- Press and hold these three keys together: Shift, Command, and 3.
- If you see a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, select it to edit the screenshot, or wait for the screenshot to save to your desktop.
Guidelines and considerations
- Resolution: Screenshots captured using the above methods will be of appropriate resolution using the MacBook screen.
- Clarity: The more you resize a screenshot, the greater the chances are of creating distortion. It’s best to display screenshots at original size; when necessary, try to minimize scaling or crop the image.
- Size and content: Capture only the necessary portion of BriteCore. Smaller, more focused screenshots are clearer to the user. If you’re highlighting a new dialog box, take a screenshot of only the dialog box, not the entire screen.
- Visual noise: Be mindful of the content displaying when you take a screenshot. Including unnecessary information such as expanded menus, bookmarks bars, tooltips, etc. can make it difficult for a user to find what they are meant to see.
- Guest mode: Consider taking screenshots in your browser’s guest/incognito mode to eliminate the appearance of any personal information.
- Combination screenshots: If you’re illustrating a process/change, you can use side-by-side images to show the comparison/difference.
- Effects: Adding effects such as drop shadows, borders, etc. isn’t necessary. The Documentation team will apply these when publishing the content.
- Format: The default format for Mac screenshots is .png; please don’t change this.
These instructions apply only to the captioning of images on the BriteCore help site. WordPress’s Classic Editor was used for the below steps.
Using WordPress tools to add images to posts, as opposed to copy/paste, results in a more uniform look. Sometimes image captions appear far away from the bottom of an image due to the amount of white space in the image, or spacing factors. Some of you also commented it results in higher image quality at times.
In a post, select Add Media.
Select Upload Files.
You can drag files from Finder into the screen or select Select Files to open Finder.
Navigate to and select image(s). Select Open.
After a moment, your image(s) will appear in the Media Library.
Note: In lieu of steps 1-5, you can also drag an image from Finder straight into the Visual editor. WordPress will automatically redirect you to the Add Media screen.
Select an image. You can select more than one image using the Command key.
Select Insert into post. The image will appear in the Visual editor. To make changes to an image, select the image to display editing options, and select Edit (pencil icon).
The Image Details dialog box will appear. Enter the caption for the image in the Caption box. You can also set alignment, size, and link options under Display Settings.
Select Update at the lower-right corner of the screen. You will return to the Visual editor.