If you want to do something on your screen, a screenshot is fine. However, screenshots do not work in all cases. Sometimes you may need to grab a clip, film a tutorial, or record something as it happens on your Mac.
Luckily, Mac has a built-in screen recording feature that lets you record and save some or all of what is playing on your screen. You can also record external audio or whatever comes in through the microphone.
Follow the instructions to learn how to record your screen on Mac.
How to Record Screen on Mac Using MacOS Mojave Screen Capture Tool
You can record the entire screen or a selected portion of it using the screen capture tool built into macOS. The screen capture tool was added in September 2018 as part of the new features that shipped with macOS Mojave.
With this tool, you can capture video from your screen using the onscreen quick-access controls. You can also set a timer and choose where to save screenshots or recordings.
To access the screen capture tool, press Shift + Command + 5 keyboard keys to open the screen capture toolbar.
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The toolbar has on-screen controls that you can use to record a selected portion of the screen or the entire screen, or to capture still images.
- Click the Record Selected Part icon in the toolbar to take screenshots.
How to record part of your screen with the screen capture tool
- Select the Record Selected Part icon on the Screenshots toolbar.
- Then drag to select the area of ??the screen that you want to record, and then select “Record†from the on-screen controls to start screen recording.
- When you’re done recording, you can press Command + Control + Esc or select the Stop button from the menu bar.
- A floating thumbnail of your entry will appear in the lower right corner of your screen. From here, you can click on the thumbnail to open your post and edit or share the video. You can also swipe right on the thumbnail to save the recording, or drag the thumbnail to move the video to another location.
- There are other options that you can change in the Options section of the screenshot toolbar. These settings include:
- Save to, which allows you to choose where your recordings will be automatically saved.
- If you are filming a tutorial or guide, you can select Microphone to record your voice or other sound along with the screen recording.
- The timer option allows you to choose when to start recording, which can be immediately or a few seconds after you. click to record.
Note. You can choose if you want a black circle to appear around the cursor when you click on different areas of the screen while recording video. To do this, select the Show Mouse Pointer (or Clicks) option to enable it.
- Click the Capture Entire Screen button on the toolbar to capture screenshots.
How to record your entire screen to a Mac with a screen capture tool
- Select the Record Entire Screen button in the Screenshots toolbar.
- Once your pointer changes to a camera, click on the screen you want to record and then click the Record button on the on-screen controls to start recording.
- When you’re done recording, you can press Command + Control + Esc or select the Stop button from the menu bar.
Your Mac saves the screen recording as “Screen Recording [date] at [time] .mov”. You can change the file name to any other name for reference. You can also use editing options (crop, share, save) when the recording becomes available.
Note. You can use the Escape (Esc) key if you want to cancel the recording, before clicking to write.
How to Record Your Entire Screen to Mac Using Quicktime Player
If your use case involves complex filters, annotations, and editing, you can use QuickTime Player to record screen on Mac. QuickTime Player is a simple and reliable screen recorder and video player that comes free with your Mac.
- To record a screen using QuickTime Player, open the player and click File New Screen Recorder.
- The screen capture popup menu appears. The pop-up offers options to record screen and sound on Mac.
- Select the area of ??the screen you want to record, and then select the microphone from the arrow next to the Record button to add audio.
Like its own screen capture tool, QuickTime Player also offers a Show Mouse Clicks in Recording option to display a black circle around the pointer when clicked.
- Click the Record button to start recording. To record a portion of the screen, drag to select the area you want to record, and then select the Start recording in selected area option. You can also click anywhere on the screen to start recording the entire screen.
- When you finish recording, click the Stop button to stop recording, or press Command + Control + Escape.
QuickTime Player will automatically open the recording, and you can use video editing tools like crop, split, rotate to edit the video. You can also play or share videos, and use the app to convert videos from one format to another depending on your preference.
Note. QuickTime Player allows screen recording, but there are other applications, such as DVD Player, that do not allow screen recording in their windows.
If the built-in screen capturer and QuickTime Player don’t have everything you need from a screen recorder, you can use other third-party tools. There are some good feature-rich screen recorder apps for Mac with full-fledged video editors. These apps include Camtasia, SnagIt, ScreenFlow, and Movavi
How to record your screen and sound on a Mac
You can record your screen for academic or educational purposes, such as hiring new employees or teaching a group of students online You can record your screen and sound on Mac to help others understand what you have to say.
Mac computers don’t have a dedicated tool that you can use to record your screen with sound. However, you can use your own QuickTime Player, as described in the previous section, to tell what’s happening on your screen.
There are other third-party apps you can use to record your screen with voice or sound, such as CleanShot X or Dropshare These apps let you create professional screen recordings, edit and publish as needed. You can also gradually increase or decrease the sound, and mute the sound for professional sound without keyboard noise and clicks.
Record a video of anything on your Mac
Screen recording helps other users keep track of what’s happening on your screen and solves the problem of writing a description of everything you have to say. Plus, if you are hosting a FaceTime call or Zoom meeting, you can record videos and save them for safekeeping.
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