Thanks, luomat, for thoroughly commenting the script.





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Nice script! Works just as expected.
The only odd thing, which is really no big deal, is that if you hit Escape after invoking it, to exit out of the screengrab crosshairs, you get an error from the script, presumably because it wasn't designed to handle cancels, so it can't locate the file it 'thought' it created.
As I said, no biggie, but just thought you should be aware of that.

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Nice! Thanks for this.

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To make it easier to change the fileformat, I added a variable
EXTENS="jpg"

So that FILENAME becomes
FILENAME="Screenshot $TIME.$EXTENS"

and the screencapture arguments become
-t$EXTENS

The original script suggested changing the file name extension would change the fileformat, but the command argument had -tpng. I don't know that changing the file extension would override the png argument ??

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luomat - Thanks for the script! I've been wanting to do something like this for a long time, but didn't know how to go about it. I've always wanted to be able to name my screen shots at the time they are taken. Your script really got my wheels to turning... So, I modified it a bit and hope you don't mind. Below is my AppleScript "tweak" on your already well written script.

AppleScript starts below this line:


-- This script was written by user macsadmn on macosxhints.com and is a
-- modification of a script originally designed by luomat on macosxhints.com

-- Prompt for the new screenshot name
display dialog "Name for screenshot: " default answer "" buttons {"OK"} default button 1

-- assign the variable pic_name the string value entered by the user
set pic_name to text returned of the result

do shell script "

# If you want to change the filename format,
# do so by changing the .png to some other extension. Also note,
# that if you change the extension, then you need to
# change the format from PNG
# using the -t flag of screencapture (next to last line).

FILENAME=\"" & pic_name & ".png\"

# This is where files will be moved to
TARGET_DIR=\"$HOME/Desktop\"

# Line 1: Like cmd+shift+4, offer a crosshairs to select what will be captured
# and save it as a PNG
# Line 2: By default, the file gets saved to the top level of
# the users home directory. So, since we want it on
# the desktop, we move it to the TARGET_DIR as defined above.
# We use mv -n to NOT overwrite existing files.

/usr/sbin/screencapture -tpng -i \"$FILENAME\" &&
/bin/mv -n \"$FILENAME\" \"$TARGET_DIR/\"
"


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some refinements... now, less error-prone!

do shell script operates at working directory / so giving the screencapture command just a filename without a path saves it to boot root /filename which is considered sub-optimal.

eliminate the mv and ambiguity by specifying the full pathname of the image file to screencapture.

---

-- msb - manage screenshots better; save named screenshots somewhere other than the desktop

-- prompt for screenshot name; cancel stops the script from continuing

display dialog "Name your screenshot?" default answer "" buttons {"OK", "Cancel"} default button 1

set picName to text returned of the result

-- this just adds a . delimeter after the picName, if supplied

if (picName is not "") then set picName to picName & "."

do shell script "

# timestamp to make unique filename; format is like Sat.07.Oct.06_12.44.15

timestamp=$(/bin/date \"+%a.%d.%b.%y_%H.%M.%S\")

# screencapture -t pic type and filename extension; default is png

fileExtension=png

# save screenshots here

targetDir=\"$HOME/Pictures/screenshots\"

# if targetDir is missing, make it

if [ ! -d $targetDir ]; then /bin/mkdir $targetDir; fi

# craft the full /path/to/image/filename

filename=\"$targetDir/" & picName & "screenshot.$timestamp.$fileExtension\"

# emulate command-shift-4 screenshot function in interactive mode; see man screencapture

/usr/sbin/screencapture -i -t$fileExtension \"$filename\"

# open the image with preview.app; check for file in case the user cancels the screencapture with escape

if [ -f $filename ]; then /usr/bin/open -a preview \"$filename\"; fi
"

-- end

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ack! regrets, variables $targetDir and $filename in the above if statements should be quoted \"foo\" like the others to be bullet proof.

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