How to fix cmd-shift-3 screenshot damage

February 26, 2008 9:55 PM

MAC OS 10 (.4) problem - cmd-shift-3 keyboard shortcut has screwed up my page up/down and arrow up/down functions, varying in different apps and places on web pages -no response from Apple Support discussion boards. I'm stumped.

I think there is something I don't understand about this screen shot shortcut. I tried cmd-shift-3 and it worked. (Once I figured out that the results are on the desktop that was ok) but now, in different ways and combinations in various applications, my page-up/down keys arrow keys have no effect. For example, typing the post on the discussion board, the arrow up key worked in the text field, but the arrow down leads to a crosshairs symbol and nothing happens till I click. page up/down don't work at all. If i'm reading a discussion there, page up/down work but arrows do not. In Word, arrows up/down don't work, page up/down does.
The crosshairs appears whenever the up/down arrows don't work.

I tried shutting down, and tried changing prefs in firefox to stop restoring the previous session, but nothing changed.

It seems that something about the screenshot needs to be completed or turned off, but what? how?
I can work around this, but what a hassle! I use the keyboard as much as possible to navigate. All help appreciated.

I just checked the "missing manual" - it shows shift-cmd-3 instead, but I think that's equivalent, just thought I'd mention it. I press cmd and shift at the same time.

G4 Mac OS X (10.4.10) Firefox 2.0.0.12,Word for Mac 2003,

posted by judybxxx to computers & internet (6 comments total)

From the symptoms, it sounds like you have your page down key (or arrow) accidentally mapped to what is usually Command-Shift-4: the crosshair "selection" screenshot.

In the "Keyboard & Mouse" System Preference, choose the "Keyboard Shortcuts" tab. That shows you all of the keyboard shortcuts, and lets you change them. There is a "Restore Defaults" button on the bottom of that Preference pane that should fix your problem.

I'm guessing that while in there once before, you accidentally changed "Save Picture of Selected Area" to Page Down.... you probably thought you were scrolling down, but you were actually setting the key.
posted by rokusan at 10:04 PM on February 26, 2008

Rokusan has it — just click on the "Restore Defaults" button to get things back to normal.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 10:05 PM on February 26, 2008

You're right that command-shift-3 is the same as shift-command-3. The modifier keys can be pressed in any order.

What seems to be happening is you're invoking the 'partial' screen shot command. Normally this is command-shift-4, but that may have been changed somehow on your system. The crosshair would be used to draw a rectangular selection box, and the screenshot would only contain the contents of that rectangle. Useful for taking a screenshot of just part of the screen, or just of one window or one picture.

However, when you invoke this and the crosshair appears, you cannot scroll any windows up/down with the scroll on your mouse or any keys on the keyboard until you've either taken the screenshot or hit Escape to exit the screenshot mode.

If you're sure you're not accidentally hitting 4 instead of 3, try going to your System Preferences. Click on Keyboard&Mouse. Click on Keyboard Shortcuts. If necessary, click the disclosure triangle to the left of Screen Shots. See how your shortcut keys are mapped there, it's possible they got reversed somehow.

Here's how mine are:
Save picture of screen as a file: shift-cmd-3
Copy picture of screen to the clipboard: ctrl-shift-cmd-3
Save picture of the selected area as a file: shift-cmd-4
Copy picture of the selected area to the clipboard: ctrl-shift-cmd-4

Hope that helps!
posted by churl at 10:06 PM on February 26, 2008

Or, in other words, what the above posters said. When will I learn to preview?
posted by churl at 10:07 PM on February 26, 2008

Awesome! It seems so obvious now - You are absolutely right, Rokusan, I must have been thinking I was scrolling down to look at shortcuts. I was preparing to try to re-map a key, and now feeling nervous about trying again. Your theory really helps me understand what is going on there. THANKS. You guys have made my day.

side comment - it seems to me that many questions on the Apple discussion boards are going unanswered, as compared to a few years ago. that doesn't seem worth a Mefi question, but as a tag on, does anyone else have that experience? or , tell me I should post the question.
posted by judybxxx at 6:27 AM on February 27, 2008

JudyBxxx... if you mean the official Apple website's support threads, I've never found those very useful.

It's Google-for-the-answer or come to MeFi when all else fails, I think.
posted by rokusan at 3:58 PM on February 27, 2008