Record Your Screen on Mac

There are many times when you’ll want to make a recording of what you’re doing on-screen. You may want to capture some steps for an instructional video, or try your hand at machinima.

Steps

Using QuickTime (Preinstalled)

  1. Launch QuickTime Player. It’s located in your Applications folder, which you can access quickly by typing Shift-Command(⌘)-A, then pressing the letter Q.
  2. Open a recording session. From the QuickTime Player File menu, select New Screen Recording.
  3. Click the red dot in the middle of the Screen Recording window.
  4. Determine the dimensions of the recording. You can click to begin recording, or click-and-drag to make a selection of just what part of the screen you wish to record. For this article, we'll select a smaller screen area.
    • Keep in mind, the larger the selection, the more disk space the recording will require. Only select as much of the screen as you need.
    • When you're ready to begin recording, press the Start Recording button in the middle of the selected recording area.
  5. Wait a few seconds. It will take a couple moments for the recording to begin. When you see the recording timer start counting, it's safe to proceed with the actions you are capturing.
    • Note: Once recording begins, you will not be able to screen-capture the Recording controller. This is so it doesn't appear in your final movie!
  6. Finish recording. When you're done with your screen capture, press the stop button in the Recording controller interface, pictured below.
  7. You may cancel the recording at any time by closing the Recording controller window. You will be prompted to keep your recording, or discard it.
  8. Your screen capture is complete! Your movie can be found in your Movies folder, where you may view it, edit it, and share it with your friends!

Using Jing (Free Download)

  1. Discover Jing. Jing is a free image and video capture utility for both Mac and PC. It much of what QuickTime does, and adds a few extra features. We'll focus on the video capture capabilities of Jing.
  2. Download Jing. You can find it at TechSmith.com
  3. Install Jing. The installer for Jing is drag-and-drop. Simply drag the application into your Applications folder, then launch.
  4. Launch Jing. When running, Jing will appear like a "sun" in the top right of your monitor. Alternately, you can choose to install it into the menu bar. Mousing over the sun will bring up the menus.
    • Shown is the Capture option. There is also a History option, which keeps a log of your captures, and a More button, which gives you access to the settings.
  5. Select your capture area. When you select the Capture option, two crosshairs will appear on screen, with your total screen size shown.
  6. Click and drag. This will let you select the area for either screen capture or record.
    • From the menu that appears below the selected area, click one of the 4 buttons shown:
      • Capture an Image
      • Capture a Video (shown)
      • Redo Selection (let's you redraw the selection area)
      • Cancel (closes the window)
  7. Click on the Capture a Video button. A countdown timer will appear, with a yellow-framed "filmstrip" outlining the area that will be recorded.
  8. Click the Stop button when you are done. The yellow square button on the bottom left is the Stop button. When you are finished recording, click that. You will be shown the video window ready for you to review.
    • The 4 buttons on the bottom function as follows:
      • Share to Screencast.com. This lets you share your video or screen capture files with anybody by saving the file to a service called—you guessed it—Screencast. You can share this link with anybody for review.
      • Save to disk. This will save your video or screen capture to your hard drive, in the location of your choice.
      • Cancel. This will cancel and discard your recording.
      • Customize. This will allow you to customize the buttons shown.
  9. Your screen capture is complete!

Tips

  • Jing has a number of useful features when you are drag-selecting an area to capture.
    • Drag, then hold down the Shift key, and you will be be constrained to a widescreen 16:9 aspect ratio capture area.
    • Drag, then hold down the Control key, and you will be constrained to the standard 4:3 aspect ratio.
    • Drag, then hold down either the Shift or Control keys, and then add the Option key, and you will be shown all the standard capture sizes in either 16:9 or 4:3, respectively.

Warnings

  • If you are recording long and lengthy screen recordings then it can take up a large amount of memory. However this can be solved by saving your videos to an external hard drive or even a flash memory stick.

Things You'll Need

  • Mac OS X 10.7 or later (debatable Quicktime Method works on 10.6)
  • Quicktime 10.1 or later
  • Jing

Related Articles

  • Create a Video Screencast with Jing
  • Install Jing
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