Be it for a YouTube video, or may the reason be to show someone which buttons to click, macOS Monterey provides ways to video record Mac’s screen.
If the reason was to capture the screen so that it’s useful to someone else, then you could just share your screen with them over Messages. Or maybe you just want to do screen recording to help yourself.
Now there is a screenshot toolbar, as well as a new Command-Shift 5 keystroke. This replaces the old system of having to use the QuickTime Player. The app can still be used.
How to video record your whole screen using the screenshot toolbar?
- While using your Mac, hold down Command along with Shift, then tap the number 5
- Click on the middle icon, which will be showing a screen with a Record button
- Your cursor will turn into a camera icon, click anywhere away from the toolbar, this will start the recording
- If you want to stop the recording, click on the Stop icon in the menu bar
- By default, the screen recording will first appear as a thumbnail pop-over from the bottom of the Mac’s screen. You can click on this thumbnail like you would for a screengrab image.
- Unlike a screengrab, however, you can’t annotate the screen recording. What you can do is trim it. So, if you’re only interested in the middle bit of the recording, you have the ability to shorten it from the start and end.
Note – After you have used Command-Shift 5, to record your screen, that is the option that will be set when you next use the particular keystroke. So, for the second or for the subsequent times you need to record your screen, you use that keystroke. Then immediately click to set the recording going.
- There are more options available, however, with a particularly key one regarding where your recording will be saved. Press Command-Shift 5, then select Options.
- At the top, there will be a section displaying Save To. It will provide you suggestions, for example, Desktop or Documents, however, you can add others, too.
- Wherever the list displays, that is where the recording will be saved.
The next most significant option is to do the recording with is when you have to record only a portion of the screen. So, if you want to make sure you’re only showing the part your viewer wants, be it a particular window or a particular control, etc., follow the steps below.
How to video record part of your screen using the screenshot toolbar?
- While using your Mac, hold down Command along with the Shift key, then click the number 5 key
- Click on the icon that is fifth, when counted from the left, this will be having a dotted rectangle with a Record button
- Most of the screen will transform dim, only leaving a rectangular area that has normal brightness
- Drag that bright area around to adjust. Adjust the grab handle at each corner until it covers the area you want to record
- Click the Record button on the toolbar
- If you want to stop recording, click on the Stop icon in the menu bar.
What are the Other key options available?
- The screenshot toolbar can be accessed with multiple possible settings.
- You can choose to either show or hide the thumbnail
- You can select the location where you want to save the video
- You can set a countdown, so you have time to position something on the screen
- You can have the video record where you click with your mouse/trackpad
- All of these settings are available in the screenshot toolbar, in its Options button.
- This is also the only place where you can control audio recording.
How can the audio be recorded? Can you do it simultaneously with the video?
With this built-in feature for recording your screen, you cannot record any audio that the Mac is playing. However, you have the ability to record a voice track at the same time. So, you can record the screen and include audio.
- Use the Command-Shift 5 keystroke, but before you choose to record the whole/a portion of the screen, click on Options. There you can spot a section labeled Microphones; it will list any that are plugged into your Mac.
This also offers an option named None, which is set as default.
If you are wondering, QuickTime Player isn’t gone
If you were used to launching a screen recording from within the QuickTime Player app, then edit it in the same app. A good thing is, things have only changed a little. The old Screen Recording pane with its red button along with the hard-to-spot drop-down list of audio sources has been gotten rid of.
However, that list of audio sources is now much clearer in the Options of the screenshot toolbar.
Plus, if you open QuickTime Player, record your screen, then stop the recording. The video will open in the same QuickTime Player app, immediately.
There is still not much editing that can be performed. You can do the regular trim at the start and end of the recording. Plus, you can append other clips.
What are the alternatives? Enter third-party options
Screenflow, as an example, allows the users to perform much more elaborate editing. Instead of just the regular trimming at the start or the end, it provides the ability to chop bits out of the middle, and the users can also rearrange as you need.
It also lets you zoom in on a section of the screen, it also lets you annotate the video. It can also record audio from the Mac, and audio from microphones connected.
Screenflow costs around $149 from the developer, Telestream. This is also available on the Mac App Store.
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