ShotPanel: Organize and Keep Screenshots Off Your Mac Desktop
I work across three screens, and I take a ton of screenshots. A campaign review, a broken layout, a slide someone asked for in chat: each one lands on the Desktop, and by the afternoon I cannot tell them apart.
Taking the shot is the easy part. Finding the one I need, then getting rid of the rest, is what I dread. The cleanup is always the same. I open the folder, sort by name, select from the first screenshot to the last, right-click, and move the whole range to the Trash.
The system already knows how to take the picture. I wanted a place for those pictures to wait, large enough to recognize, close enough to copy into an email or ticket, and easy to clear when the work is done.
I built ShotPanel, a free native app for macOS 14 and later. It gathers the screenshot files macOS already saves into one floating panel, so those images do not cover my Desktop.
The Idea Behind the Panel
Tendedero, an open-source macOS app by Alejandro Buján, was the spark. Tendedero’s clothesline was the idea I wanted: screenshots should gather in one place instead of covering the Desktop. ShotPanel is a totally separate app, but his work inspired it.
I wrote ShotPanel entirely with Grok. I pointed Grok at Tendedero’s GitHub repository, then ran dozens of tests and optimizations with Grok myself. Grok also produced the overview video.
The film below is the 48-second overview that ships with version 1.1.0. Grok produced it.
A Calmer Place for the Shots I Take
Finding the shot was the slow part, not taking it. I was tired of scrolling through a Desktop full of exports, logos, and downloads that happen to be images. The panel holds only the automatic screenshots.
ShotPanel keeps new shots from landing on my Desktop. Files already in the screenshot folder move into the panel, and the floating thumbnail steps aside while that option is on. When I turn the option off or quit, the old save location returns.
From the panel I can open a shot, copy it, or drag that one file into a browser, a ticket, or a folder. Clearing one image, or the whole group, asks first and then moves the files to the Trash. Nothing is deleted outright.
The same group also appears as a ShotPanel folder in the Dock, just after Downloads, for as long as a screenshot is in the panel. I can reach the files without opening a folder and sorting by name, even when the panel itself is minimized.
What the Panel Can Do
I kept the controls small on purpose. Each one does a single job with the files already in the screenshot folder.
- Arrow keys: Pointing at the panel shows arrows on the ends that still have shots. The arrow keys move the row.
- Copy: Puts the selected image on the clipboard. The button then says Copied.
- Delete: Asks Are you sure? on that image, then moves that one file to the Trash.
- Delete all: Asks Are you sure? in the bar, then moves the whole group to the Trash. The same action is on the menu-bar icon.
- Desktop capture: While ShotPanel is open and this option is on, shots already in the screenshot folder move into the panel, new ones skip the Desktop, and the floating thumbnail is turned off. Quitting, or turning the option off, restores the previous save location.
- Dock folder: While any screenshot is in the group, a ShotPanel folder sits in the Dock just after Downloads.
- Drag out: A drag that starts on a photo moves that one file into another app, a browser, or a folder.
- Full-screen hide: The panel hides while a Space is in full screen.
- Horizontal or vertical: Right-click to stack shots upright or sideways. Vertical swaps the panel’s width and height. Each orientation remembers its own size. The info bar stays at the bottom.
- Info bar: Shows the selected shot’s name, date and time, pixel size, and file size.
- Menu bar: Hide or show the panel, turn Desktop capture on or off, open at login, delete the group, or quit.
- Minimize: The minus button, or Command-M, sends the panel to the Dock.
- Move: Drag the bottom bar to move the panel.
- Newest first: The newest shot sits at the start of the list, large enough to read.
- Open: Double-click, or right-click and choose Open, to open the file.
- Open at login: ShotPanel asks before the panel opens. The answer can be changed later from the ShotPanel menu.
- Quit: From the menu bar item, with Command-Q, or by right-clicking the panel.
- Resize: Drag an edge or a corner. The panel keeps that size, and the shots scale to it. One shot scales down so the whole image stays inside. When several fit, they sit side by side with space between them, and the next shows as a faded sliver at the edge.
- Screenshot folder permission: The app asks to read the screenshot folder and stays closed until that is allowed.
- Select: Click a shot. Copy and Delete appear on that image.
- Slide: A finger on the top of the mouse, or a press-and-slide on the trackpad, moves through the list. Shots enter and leave at the edges.
Taken together, the panel is the holding shelf I wanted. I open a shot, copy it, drag it into the app that needs it, or send the group to the Trash, without sorting a folder by name and selecting from the first shot to the last.
Install It and Take a Screenshot
Download the disk image, open it, and drag ShotPanel to Applications. The first launch may say macOS cannot verify the developer. Allow from System Settings:
- Click Open Anyway and enter your Mac’s administrator password to confirm.
- Try to open the app normally. It will be blocked with a warning message.
- Open System Settings from the Apple menu.
- Click on Privacy & Security in the sidebar.
- Scroll down to the Security section. You will see a message that the app was blocked.
- Click Allow.
Right-click ShotPanel, choose Open, then Open again. The app asks to read the screenshot folder and whether to start at login. During screen sharing, that question can appear on the computer itself.
I still take a screenshot the way I always have. With Desktop capture on, the new file shows up in the panel instead of on the Desktop. I double-click it to open it, or select it and copy it.
The source is Swift on macOS 14 or later. A build script in the repository produces the app. A local build is signed just enough to run, and macOS may ask the same questions before the app can read the Desktop.
