The first two methods will take a picture of your screen and create a computer file. The files are images named Picture 1, Picture 2 etc. They are located directly on your desktop.

Command Shift 3

This will take a picture of your entire screen.

Command Shift 4

Your cursor becomes a cross hair. This will allow you to press and drag your cursor over the area you would like to capture.

Variation:

If you click on the spacebar, after you use command shift 4, you should see that your cursor has become camera. This will allow you to take a picture of a window or a dialog box.

The next two methods do something similar. The only difference is, instead of creating a computer file named Picture, the information is stored in memory. This means that you can go to Microsoft Word and paste the image into your document.

Command Control Shift 3

This will take a picture of your entire screen.

Command Control Shift 4

Your cursor becomes a cross hair. This will allow you to press and drag your cursor over the area you would like to capture.

Variation:

If you click on the spacebar, after you use command control shift 4, you should see that your cursor has become camera. This will allow you to take a picture of a window or a dialog box.

For the Power User

Go to the Jing Project and download a free piece of software called Jing. Jing allows you to take screen captures but it also allows you to save your files as images locally or to the web and it also allows you to save your captures as video files. Another great feature, is that once you capture an area of your screen, you can draw arrows, boxes or write text on the capture before you save the file.

1. From the Apple Menu, choose System Preferences.
2. Click on International and then on the Input Menu.
3. Scroll down the list of keyboards and click the checkbox next to the keyboard you want to enable. Notice that a flag will appear in the menu bar.

Switch Keyboard Layouts
When you want to switch keyboard layouts, go up to the menu bar (where the flag has appeared) and then choose the keyboard layout you would like to use.

Keyboard Viewer
In order to see the new keyboard layout, turn on Keyboard Viewer from the Input Menu.

When you go back to the menu bar and choose the command Show Keyboard Viewer, you’ll see exactly where the new symbols are mapped out on your keyboard.

Canadian French Keyboard
 

Character Palette
Go to the top on the input menu and place a check mark beside the Character Palette. From the menu bar, choose the command Show Character Palette. This will help you find unique characters.

If you want to go back to how your computer was originally setup then simply take the check marks off beside the keyboard layouts and viewers that you had enabled. 

From the apple menu, choose System Preferences.

Click on International.

Make sure that you are in the languages tab.

On the left hand side, you will see a list of languages installed on your computer. Drag the language you want the operating system to use for its application menus and dialog boxes to the top.

Once that is done, either log out of your account or restart your computer. The changes will take into effect.