Recording your Mac screen is one of the easiest ways to share information with others. 

You might want to document your fastest run in your much-loved arcade game and show it to your friends. Or, you may want to capture just a little part of the screen – it might be a part of a restaurant menu or a brochure – and send it to someone else. 

Or, you may want to explain tasks to someone and the simplest way would be through screen recording, especially now that everyone is working from home and face-to-face discussions are limited. 

A lot of Mac users get intimated with the idea of screen recording on their device. But, do not let that bother you. Here are some screen recording tips and tricks to help you master your very first screenshot. 

Know that anything on your Mac screen can be captured 

Mac screen

Do you know the biggest benefit of screen recording? If you can see it on your screen, you can capture it. 

Be it spreadsheets,  PowerPoint presentations, website pages, or anything else that you’re viewing right now – everything is fair game!

However, since whatever is seen on your screen can be captured, you need to clean the desktop icons and also disable pop-up notifications so that they don’t get captured as well.  

If you want to capture a screenshot of your entire screen or display, you need to tap Shift + Command + 3. You’ll find the picture on the desktop of your computer. 

Tap Shift + Command + 4 to only capture a part of your Mac screen. 

The audio quality matters

audio quality

Mac allows you to video record the screen with audio. If you have already practiced how to take screenshots on your Mac, it wouldn’t take you long to be skilled in how to screen record with sound on Mac

But, before you start recording the audio, you need to take care of the following things – 

  • Using the microphone built into your Mac might seem convenient, but it will not give you the desired results. To enhance audio quality, you need to use an external microphone. 
  • Do something about the background noise and ensure that it doesn’t make its way into your screencast recording. Even though there are screencast programs available that let you eliminate background noise later, it’s better to deal with it before itself. 
  • Make sure that the microphone is placed strategically so that your voice is recorded clearly. 

Be wise about the length of your screen recording 

screen recording

The length of your screencasting video can impact its effectiveness. But, how long a screen recording will be is not an easy question to answer. 

Short videos are definitely preferred, but you cannot miss important information. When crucial information is skipped, viewers will get unhappy. Long videos, on the other hand, might bore the viewer. So, the best solution is to focus on the content of the video and make it as concise as possible without skipping any detail.

Focus on recording an appropriate size 

You can record the entire screen, but this might result in an inferior viewing experience. If you only need to capture a part of the screen and share it with someone, you have to focus only on the details. Don’t let anything else come in the way of the important details that you wish to share. 

When you’re recording a section of your screen, ensure that the dimensions are going to work, regardless of where the video will be hosted. You need to stick with standard ranges. If your video is too wide or too tall, it might have dark-filled bars on the top or sides when viewed on Vimeo, YouTube, and so on. 

However, if you have any confusion, the best solution would be to capture everything that there is on your screen. It is always better to have everything than miss out on crucial details. 

Don’t ignore the mouse cursor

mouse cursor

The humble mouse cursor can be seen in every screencast video (almost). It shows viewers where they should look and also helps them understand where you are and what you are talking about. So, you need to make sure not to circle anything using the mouse cursor and not to make the cursor move at lightning speed. You need to move the cursor slowly and with purpose. 

So, if you’re getting ready to record your Mac screen and share it with someone, keep in mind the aforementioned tips. These should help you get started and also assist you in becoming a great creator of screen recording videos with audio.