Frequently Asked Question
How to Record Your Screen into a Movie
Last Updated 5 years ago
Recording with QuickTime Player
You can use QuickTime Player to make a video recording of your screen, or just a region of your screen to save as a movie file for later viewing. This can be helpful for showing others how to perform a task or workflow, or for training.Choose File > New Screen Recording. To start recording what's occurring on your Mac's screen, click the round record button.
You can record some of all of the screen:
- If you want to record the entire screen, click anywhere on the screen to start recording.
- To record just a smaller portion of the of the screen, drag your pointer to select the region of the screen you want to record, then click the Start Recording button within the region.
Clicking the triangle in this window gives you additional options, such as letting you choose whether to use the built-in microphone on your Mac, or another connected microphone, or no microphone at all. This menu also lets you select whether or not your mouse clicks are shown during the recording (the pointer is highlighted when you click). You can also choose where to save your screen recording when finished.
Editing Content
QuickTime Player lets you easily edit content you've created or downloaded. You can trim, combine, and rearrange clips. When you're done, just save or export your finished video.Trimming
To remove unwanted footage from your media:- Open the file in QuickTime Player.
- Choose Edit > Trim. The trimming bar appears.
- To select the portion of the recording you want to keep, drag the yellow trimming bar handles to the left and right as desired.
- When you are satisfied with your selection area, click Trim. The unwanted footage outside the the yellow trimming bar is removed.
Split and rearrange clips
If you decide you want to pull part of a clip out of a larger audio or video file, you can split a single file into multiple clips.- Drag the playhead ◆ to the location where you want to split the clip in half.
- Choose Edit > Split Clip.
Your media becomes two separate clips and the controls change to show you an editing timeline. If you want to rearrange the order of the clips in your media, drag them in the timeline.
When you're finished editing, click Done. You can then repeat the steps to split and rearrange your media further. If you want to rearrange clips further, choose View > Show Clips to return to the editing view.
Combine or paste clips
QuickTime Player also lets you cut, copy and paste your clips so you can add and remove portions of your media.- Choose View > Show Clips.
- Select the clip you want.
- From the Edit menu, choose Cut or Copy.
- Choose Edit > Paste to place a copy of the clip into the movie.
- Drag the clip to the area of the timeline where you want it to play.
- Click Done.
Rotate or flip clips
If you have a video file that is upside down or reversed, you can rotate or flip it to correct it. To rotate or flip a clip:- Open the in QuickTime player
- From the Edit menu choose Rotate Left, Rotate Right, Flip Horizontal, or Flip Vertical depending on the rotation or flip need to correct the clip.
Sharing your media
Saving your movie
To save your movie or audio file, choose File > Save. QuickTime Player prompts you to enter a name and destination. You can also export your video or audio to another format. Choose File > Export and select the output option you prefer.For video files, QuickTime Player also gives you the option to export just the audio portion of a file. To export only the audio portion of your video, open your video in QuickTime Player. Choose Export from the File menu. Type a name in the “Export As” field. Then from the Format pop-up menu, choose “Audio Only” and click Export.
Built-in sharing
You can easily share your media files with others through email, chat, Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo, Flickr, and other ways.- Double-click the media file that you want to share, if it's not already open.
- Click the Share button File:Screen Sharing - share button view.png in the playback controls.
- In the menu that appears, choose your sharing destination.
For some sharing options, you may be asked to log in to the destination before sharing your file.