How to screenshot on a laptop (Dell, Lenovo, Mac)

The simplest and way to capture your entire screen at once is to use Windows’ built in hotkey: the Print Screen Key. The non-standard nature of laptop keyboards mean this key might be in one of several places. Often its located near the top right, as it would be on a full-sized keyboard, but it can also be on the bottom, as it is on the Lenovo example below. 

In any case, it should be easy to find by looking for the key marked Prt, PrtSc, Prnt Scr, or something similar. Once you find it, just give it a quick tap. Don’t worry if it seems like nothing happened. Windows doesn’t show it very well, but you just copied an image of your display. 

Once you’ve captured your display, the easiest way to edit and save it is by pasting it into an image editing app. If you’ve got Photoshop, that’ll work, but since most people don’t have access to such pro software, a much easier, free option works, too: Microsoft Paint.

Just open this app, which has been included in Windows since time immemorial, and either hit Ctrl+V or click the clipboard button on the top left and click Paste. In either case, a capture of whatever was on screen when you hit Print Screen earlier will be pasted into the document. 

From here, you can edit the image, resize it, crop it, and save it. You’ve now got a screenshot of your laptop.

Windows also includes a one-stop tool for taking screenshots or capturing individual windows or portions of windows. It’s called the Snipping Tool and it can be found by opening your start menu and typing in “snip.” 

This handy software brings up a small menu with a + New button that will let you start a screen capture. Clicking it produces a marquee box that you can drag over the portion of your display you want to capture. When you let go of the click, you’re instantly presented with whatever was within the bounds of the box you created. You can then do some basic editing and mark up, save it using the floppy disk icon, or copy it for use in editing software. 

The exact options available will vary depending on which version of Windows you’re using, but the basic functionality remains the same. The Windows 11 version is the most fully-featured yet, also supporting the easy capture of individual windows, and even a freeform mode that lets you draw around the section you want to capture.

To take a screenshot on any Mac, including MacBook laptops, just press Shift+Cmd+3. Unlike Windows, this won’t copy the screen to your clipboard, it will actually save the capture as an image file on your desktop using the format “Screen Shot [date] at [time].png.”

MacOS also has its own way to capture a portion of the display. Simply press Shift+Cmd+4 and your cursor will turn into a crosshair. You can then create a box by clicking and dragging. When you release the click, whatever was within the box will be saved. Finally, Shift+Cmd+4+Space bar will capture your entire current window.