Screen Recording Tips: How to Make a Good Screen Recording (2026)

A good screen recording is mostly decided before you press record. The tabs you left open, the notification that slides in at second twelve, the cursor that darts across the screen, the browser zoomed out so far nobody can read a label. None of that is fixed by a better editor. It is fixed by ten minutes of setup and a few habits while you record.

This guide covers those habits. How to prepare your screen, which recorder is already on your computer, what to do about audio, how to move the mouse, and what to do with the file afterwards. Almost all of it applies whatever tool you use.

#Short answer

To make a good screen recording, clean the screen first: use a separate browser profile, hide bookmarks and notifications, turn on Do Not Disturb, load realistic demo data and zoom the page so text is readable. Record a 16:9 window, one task per take. Move the mouse slowly and pause for a beat before each click. If your voice or room is not great, record in silence and add narration later.

#Prepare the screen

Viewers notice everything on your screen, not just the part you are talking about. Spend the setup time here.

#Use a clean browser profile

Create a separate browser profile just for recording. Chrome, Edge and Firefox all support multiple profiles. A recording profile has no personal bookmarks, no autofill suggestions popping up with your home address, no extension icons and no history that leaks into the address bar dropdown. Log in only to the accounts you need for the demo.

If you record often, keep this profile set up and never use it for anything else.

#Hide what doesn't belong

• Bookmarks bar. Hide it. It is clutter at best and private at worst.
• Other tabs. Close them. Tab titles are readable in a 1080p recording.
• Desktop icons and the dock or taskbar. Record a window rather than the full screen, or tidy the desktop if you must record it.
• Chat apps and email. Quit them. Hiding them is not enough if they can still show a notification.

#Turn on Do Not Disturb

One banner saying "Your invoice is overdue" or a message from a colleague can ruin an otherwise perfect take, and a notification you miss can end up in a published video. On a Mac, turn on a Focus mode such as Do Not Disturb from Control Center. On Windows 11, turn on Do not disturb from the notifications area or in Settings under System, Notifications. Also silence your phone if it sits near the microphone.

#Use demo data

Real customer data has no place in a screen recording. Set up a demo account or workspace with realistic but fake names, companies and numbers. Realistic matters: "Test Test" and "asdf" look careless, and an empty dashboard does not show what the product does. If you cannot avoid real data, plan to blur it afterwards and check every frame.

#Set the zoom level

Most people record at their normal zoom, and the result is unreadable on a phone or in a small embed. Zoom the browser to 110% to 150% so labels stay legible when the video shrinks. For a desktop app, increase the interface size or use the app's own zoom. Then watch a short test clip on your phone. If you cannot read the button you click, nobody else can either.

#Size the window to 16:9

Most video players, share pages and help centers expect a 16:9 frame. Record a window close to that shape, for example 1280 by 720 or 1920 by 1080, and you avoid black bars or awkward crops later. A smaller window also makes text bigger relative to the frame, which helps on phones.

Recording a mobile app is different. See how to make a mobile app demo video.

#Make the cursor visible

The cursor is how viewers follow you. On a Mac you can enlarge the pointer in System Settings under Accessibility, Display. On Windows 11, Settings has a Mouse pointer and touch page under Accessibility where you can change its size and color. Slightly larger than default is usually enough. The macOS screenshot toolbar also has an option to show mouse clicks in the recording.

#Use the recorder you already have

You do not need to install anything to make a decent screen recording. Each major desktop system has a built-in option.

#How to screen record on Mac

• Screenshot toolbar. Press Command, Shift and 5. The toolbar lets you record the entire screen or a selected portion. Under Options you can pick a microphone, set where the file is saved and turn on Show Mouse Clicks. Click Record to start, then click the stop button in the menu bar when you finish.
• QuickTime Player. Open QuickTime Player and choose File, then New Screen Recording. It brings up the same controls.

Recordings are saved as MOV files.

#How to screen record on Windows

• Snipping Tool. On Windows 11, the Snipping Tool includes screen recording. Open it, switch to the record mode, choose New, select the area and start. It saves an MP4.
• Xbox Game Bar. Press Windows, Alt and R to start and stop recording the active app window. It records one app at a time, not the whole desktop, which actually suits a focused tutorial. Recordings go to a Captures folder under Videos by default.

#How to screen record on ChromeOS

Open Quick Settings and choose Screen capture, then switch to video and pick full screen, a window or a partial area.

#When to use a dedicated recorder

Built-in recorders cover most tutorials. A dedicated recorder is worth it if you need your webcam in a corner, system audio and microphone together, or a recorder that uploads straight to a share link. Whatever you use, the setup and habits in this guide matter more than the tool.

#Audio: record well or record silent

Bad audio makes people stop watching faster than bad video. You have three options.

#Record your voice, properly

• Use a real microphone if you have one. A USB mic or even a wired headset mic usually beats a laptop's built-in mic.
• Pick a quiet, soft room. Hard walls and empty rooms echo. A room with a sofa, curtains or a bookshelf sounds better than a bare office.
• Stay a consistent distance from the mic. Turning your head to look at a second monitor changes the sound.
• Record a ten-second test and listen with headphones before the real take. Check the right microphone is selected in the recorder.

#Record silent, narrate later

This is underrated. Recording in silence lets you concentrate on the clicks, and narrating while you click makes most people slower and more hesitant. Record the task cleanly with no audio, then add narration afterwards, either your own voice recorded separately or an AI voice. Our guide on adding an AI voiceover to a screen recording covers the second route step by step.

#Move the mouse like a presenter

How you move the cursor decides whether a viewer can follow the recording.

#Move slowly and in straight lines

Your eyes know where the button is. The viewer's do not. Move the cursor at about half your normal speed, in a direct line to the target. Do not circle things, wiggle the pointer to point at something or drag it across the screen while you think.

#Pause before every click

Rest the cursor on the target for about a second before you click. That pause gives the viewer time to see where you are going, and it gives you a clean point to cut or zoom on later. It also helps tools that find steps automatically, because a still cursor followed by a click is easy to detect.

#Type at a steady pace

Type carefully rather than fast, and move the cursor out of the way first. For long text, paste it in.

#One take per task

Do not try to record a full product tour in one take. Record one task per file: "invite a teammate", "export a report", "change the billing plan". Short takes are easier to get right, easier to replace when the interface changes, and easier to reuse in a help article, an onboarding email or a step-by-step guide.

Before each take:

1. Write the steps down in order, even as a rough list. Our demo video script guide shows a fuller version.
2. Reset the starting state: same page, same data, no leftover changes from the last attempt.
3. Do one practice run without recording.
4. Count two seconds after you press record before you start moving, and two seconds after the last click before you stop. Those seconds are easy to trim and painful to be missing.

If you make a small mistake, pause, go back to the last clean point and carry on. You can cut the mistake out. If the mistake changes the data on screen, restart the take.

#File formats and settings

• MP4 (H.264) plays almost everywhere: browsers, phones, help centers, video hosts. It is the safest format to publish.
• MOV is what Mac recorders produce. It is fine to edit and upload to most tools, and easy to convert to MP4.
• WebM is common from browser-based recorders. Most modern tools accept it.
• Resolution. 1080p is plenty for nearly all software tutorials. Recording at higher resolution makes files bigger without making text easier to read once the video is scaled down.
• Frame rate. 30 frames per second is enough for software, where most of the screen is still.
• GIF is for very short loops of a few seconds, with no sound. If you need one, make it from the finished MP4.

#What to do after recording

A raw recording is rarely ready to publish. The usual steps:

1. Trim the start, the end, waits for pages to load and any mistakes.
2. Blur private data. Email addresses, names, API keys, card numbers, notification previews and anything in the address bar. Check every frame where the data appears, not just the first.
3. Add narration or captions so the video works with and without sound.
4. Zoom on small actions so a click on a tiny control is visible on a phone.
5. Write a short text version of the steps for people who prefer to read and for search engines.

For the craft details of each of these, read demo video best practices.

#Where Nook fits

Nook does not record your screen. It starts from a recording you already made, with any of the recorders above, and turns it into a narrated video with captions, zoom on clicks and blurred private data, plus a written guide with a screenshot per step. You can also turn the same recording into a click-through interactive demo.

Nook works best with recordings made the way this guide describes. Pausing before each click helps it find the steps and place the hotspots in an interactive demo, because it follows the mouse pointer and reads the on-screen text to decide where each click happened. One task per recording gives it a clean set of steps. A readable zoom level helps it read the screen when you recorded in silence.

What it does not do: it will not fix a recording full of private data you never meant to show, though it blurs emails, phone numbers, card numbers, API keys, names and addresses it detects, and you should still check. It has no timeline editor, by design, so you edit by script and steps. Recordings can be up to 15 minutes on paid plans.

#Common mistakes

1. Recording the whole screen when one window would do.
2. Leaving notifications on. One banner can leak private information.
3. Real customer data on screen.
4. Default zoom level, so text is unreadable on a phone.
5. A cursor that never stops moving.
6. Clicking without pausing, so the viewer misses where you went.
7. The wrong microphone selected, often the laptop mic instead of the headset.
8. One long take for everything, so one UI change means re-recording it all.
9. Publishing the raw file without trimming, blurring or captions.

#Checklist

#FAQ

#How do I screen record on a Mac?

Press Command, Shift and 5 to open the screenshot toolbar, choose whether to record the entire screen or a selected portion, then click Record. Use Options to pick a microphone and show mouse clicks. Stop from the menu bar. You can also use QuickTime Player, File, New Screen Recording.

#How do I screen record on Windows 11?

Use the Snipping Tool, which has a screen recording mode that saves an MP4. Or press Windows, Alt and R to record the active app window with the Xbox Game Bar. The Game Bar records one app window, not the whole desktop.

#What resolution should I record at?

1080p in a 16:9 frame suits almost every software tutorial. Higher resolutions make larger files, and the text does not get easier to read once the video plays in a small player. Zooming the interface matters more than raw resolution.

#Should I talk while I record?

Only if you are comfortable doing both. Many people get a cleaner result by recording the clicks in silence and adding narration afterwards, either their own voice or an AI voice. If you do talk, use a decent microphone in a quiet room.

#How long should a screen recording be?

As long as one task takes and no longer. Short single-task recordings are easier to follow and easier to update. If a process has many parts, record each part separately and link them together.

#How do I hide private information in a screen recording?

Prevent it first: use a clean browser profile, demo data and Do Not Disturb. Then blur anything that still appears, checking every frame where it shows. Tools that detect and blur private data automatically help, but always review the result.

#Turn your recording into something useful

A clean recording is the hard part. Once you have one, you can trim and narrate it yourself, or upload it to Nook and get a narrated video, a written guide and, if you want, an interactive demo from the same file. See how it works for software tutorial videos, or try it free with one recording.