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Best Screen Recording Software (for MAC)

In today’s live stream and video we are covering the best software for recording your screen. This is specifically for Mac. We’re going to look at some of my favourite software options and I’m also going to not only talk about them but I believe in also showing you guys. So it’s going to be a bit of a show and tell.

🕒Timestamps🕒
Loom: 3:23
Snagit: 10:05
Screenflow: 14:10
Mac inbuilt (Shift + Command + 5) : 17:52
Quicktime: 20:18

1️⃣Loom: https://www.loom.com/

2️⃣Snagit: https://www.techsmith.com/screen-capture.html

3️⃣Screenflow: http://www.telestream.net/screenflow/overview.htm

4️⃣Mac inbuilt (Shift + Command + 5)

5️⃣Quicktime: https://support.apple.com/downloads/quicktime

🔴Get your free Facebook Live Cheat Sheets🔴: https://saranguyenonline.com/special/facebook-live-cheat_sheets/

Best Screen Recording Software (for MAC) – Video Transcription

We’re going to talk you through my favourite ones and then also do a little bit, a little bit of a demo so you can actually see what it’s like so you can decide whether or not it’s right for you. I’ve got a couple of budget options, different price points so you can choose for yourself.

For those of you who don’t know me, my name is Sara Nguyen, and I help awesome entrepreneurs like yourself, build and grow their businesses and income using video on social media. Now, make sure you check out the links in the description ’cause I’ll also at the end of this broadcast, put links to everything that I mentioned in this video.

Let’s get right into it. What are the best, what’s all the, there’s a lot of software out there, and this is a strange time, so one of the things that I know for myself is that I use a lot of software to record my screen and you may as well, you may be looking to, whether that is recording tutorials, recording my screen to-do lessons for my courses or recording my screen to-do instructions or just to communicate with people remotely.

It’s something that I’ve used a lot, but I know that I’ve used even more now that a lot of people are remote. I’m going to go through some really good players in the game right now. Let’s get right into it.

The first software for recording your screen and this one does work for PC and Mac and it also is one that you can use both web based using the browser, the browser option or using the app and they are loom. I really like loom. They have a free version plus a paid version and the paid version is actually really affordable. I actually have the paid version because I believe in supporting developers and supporting, you know, businesses so they can grow. With the free version you get pretty much as much as you get in the paid version, the paid version, you do get a little bit more features, but you can get away with just the free version.

If you are a teacher, if you’re in education you actually get it for free as well. That’s why this one really touched me a little bit because I was like, yes they are a great software and they’re supporting the teachers and education because it’s a really strange and challenging time right now for teachers. Anyone who supports teachers, they get a thumbs up in my book.

As I said, you can use it either from the app so you can install it on your computer or you can use the browser version and it’s incredibly easy to use. I’m going to show you exactly how to use it. Let me go over and share my screen. I’m also going to hide myself. Please let me help myself. Flawless. We are absolutely flawless. I’m going to move myself because it won’t let me hide myself for the time being. Very strange. Let’s look at loom now.

I’ve installed loom and it looks a little something like what you see here. When you select the little icon, you can see that you have an option to choose which camera you want. This is a little bit confusing. You can see this circle version. This is from loom, this central one here is me.

It’s just a little bit confusing. I don’t know why the software is doing that, but I’m just rolling with it. But you get to choose the size of your circles so you can be bigger or smaller in the corner. You can also in the top right-hand corner here, you can see that you can choose which camera you want to use.

At the moment it’s using the same camera that I’m live streaming through. but you can, if you have a webcam or if you have your laptop cam, you can choose whichever cam you want.

You can also choose whichever microphone input you want. This is also picking up my USB microphone, but there’s other microphones that you have. You can choose whichever one you want there. You can choose to record your entire screen or you can choose to just record the screen only and or with the camera only if you want it to.

This is about recording the screen. That’s what we’re going to do. Okay. I really love, Oh, there you go. It’s disappeared again. I really love loom for a couple of reasons. I’m going to do a bit of a demo. The app version is misbehaving a little bit of course while I’m live, but that’s okay. It’s making my screen disappear, but I actually found it really useful. There you go. Now it’s working.

You see you’ve got the option of using it from the app in the top corner or you can install it on your Chrome browser. And when you do that, you have the same options that you have with the app version. And I’m in the corner here in very blown out yellow, because that’s choosing that camera. Let’s fix that. You can choose the size of your actual circles. You can choose to be really big or you can choose to be a mama bear or you can choose to be baby bear size. In terms of recording your actual screen, you have the option of either the entire desktop or just part of the screen. Full desktop and then, this is not exactly how, it’s a bit buggy right now. It’s very odd.

Anyway, you can record the full desktop and then you can choose which monitor, if you have different monitors you want to record from. And then you select start recording and there you go. It’s letting me choose now. then you get a countdown.

I’m in the corner and it’s recording. I can see loom is sharing your screen and I can talk and I can go through things and I can still be in the corner if I wanted to stay there and I can record and record and record. Then once I’m done, I select that green button there. Here is where I can do quite a few things. The first thing I can do is this is a page that I can send people.

You can download the video, there’s this button here and you can then edit that in an external video editor or you can just send this link to someone if you wanted them to view it from this page. That way they don’t need to install any software. They can just click on the link and watch the video. This is really great.

Particularly if you work with virtual assistants or you work with virtual team members, you can communicate using, the, well this functionality. It’s really cool. In terms of editing, I thought that the editing capability was a little bit limited, but it wasn’t bad. You could use this to record and then use another tool to edit.

Otherwise I’ve got some basic editing functionality. If you select trim, then it lets you select sections to cut out the video, like this, then you go remove. You can only remove one section at a time and then you go publish changes and then it makes those changes.

If you wanted to remove another section, you would go back in and trim it again. That’s how you would actually edit it. I really liked it because it’s really easy to use once, the software doesn’t bug out on you when you’re on a live stream.  You get to choose adding yourself in there. You can do just a screen and close any, the icon of you here or you can, you know, switch between different monitors as well.

I really like the simplicity of it. That’s really great. That’s the first option that I have. loom, they are really easy to use,

Let me switch back to here, a really easy to use screen recorder software and I highly, highly recommend them. They’re really amazing. The second one that I use all the time and really love is SnagIt. SnagIt is one that is a paid one. I find them really good to use because you can do both recording your screen and take screenshots and annotate your screenshots really easily.

I think they are actually a lot stronger as a screenshot software so you can take screenshots and then edit them, crop them, add annotations, add texts really, really easily. But they also do video recording as well if you needed that functionality and it’s just another option for you to consider.

Let’s have a look now at SnagIt. Alright, so I’ve installed SnagIt, so it is a software based, I’ll share my screen again, it is a, I’m gonna move you ’cause you’re distracting me, it is a software so it’s not web based and you install the app and now it is not allowing me to– what’s going on today? I’m just going to take a second to try to sort out this software. Software is misbehaving today and I don’t know why. Okay. Let me try this again. Trying to share my screen and it’s not showing the actual top of the screen.

Hopefully this is working a little bit better now. What a day, what a livestream. Now you can see it. This is SnagIt in the top right-hand corner here. What happens with SnagIt is that when I select the video option here, I can choose to record the entire screen or a region.

If I want to just record a section, then I can just select that part. And then I can also choose to record audio over that as well as I can choose a microphone if I wanted to, if there’s system audio. If you’re playing a video that you want included, that will also be an option that you can include as well. You can choose to include the webcam or not and when you select capture, so this is if I choose a region, so let’s just say I only want to show this part, and then I simply have the monitor here so I can see the audio come through. I can see the size of it and then I hit record.

That’s how easy it is to use. Now there’s a countdown and then I can talk and walk people through whatever is in that section there. That’s how you use SnagIt. I really like SnagIt.

Now that the video is complete, I’ve got it here and I can either export it, so I go to file and then save as and I can save it as a video or I can save it as a gif image. Or I can connect my account and share it so you can upload it directly to Google drive or to, you know, the other Dropboxes and whole range of other sharing destinations. SnagIt is the second option that I have for recording your screen. It’s a really good option as well.

The third option is my personal favourite and this is ScreenFlow and I really love ScreenFlow because they give you the best of everything.

They give you the option to record your screen. You can also record your device. I use it to record my iPhone. If I’m showing people things through apps, how to use apps or just a particular software on my iPhone or my iPad as well. And I really, really love it.

It’s a really versatile piece of software because you can record and then you can edit it and you get the layers so that you can add overlays on it. You can crop things out. It’s a really beautiful piece of software and I’ve been using it for a very long time and I, it’s my go-to one that I cannot live without. I think if you want the ability to edit the screen recordings that you have, ScreenFlow is by far the most powerful and the easiest to use that I’ve seen on the market.

Let’s have a look at what ScreenFlow looks like. Okay, so I’m going to minimise a couple of things. Oh, dang! What’s happening today? Let’s delete you. Now, as you can see, all of my apps are open here. I swear I’m more organised than this.

This is ScreenFlow here and with ScreenFlow, you can choose to record your, you know, different desktops. You can also choose to record video from a camera into ScreenFlow as well. You can also choose different microphone inputs as well. If you’re recording your desktop, you, in this case, I can choose, either monitor and I’m going to choose my iMac and then I’m going to select record.

I also can choose just a region, but I’m going to record my entire computer so you can see. And it’s just setting up now. And there’s a countdown. I can see it’s recording the desktop and audio and then I record. Alright, so I’m just recording now and let’s go.

Now once I’m done with the recording, I hit stop. This is the editor, so I, I’ve got the soundtrack here. I can scrub through the sound and cut out sound. I can look at the screen recording here and then I can also add text really easily as well, so I can, you know, annotate or add text here. It’s really a, one of the best pieces of software for recording your screen that I’ve ever used and I really, really love it.

I think the downside is that it’s Mac only, but if you’re on this watching this video, you probably are a Mac user, so that’s not really your problem. I think in terms of price it’s not too bad. I can’t remember the price off the top of my head, but they do have yearly upgrades and I think it’s quite affordable in the grand scheme of things for something that you use all the time. Really, really love ScreenFlow and highly, highly recommend it.

Now I’ve talked about three options. I’ve talked about loom, I’ve talked about SnagIt and ScreenFlow and they’re all paid options, but what about some free options? I’m glad that you asked because there are a few free options that I’d like to go through as well.

The first one is a Mac one specific and you probably already have this feature, but you may just not be aware of it and it is in-built into Mac. If you have the operating systems, either Mojave or Catalina, you already have it and you may just not be aware of it. And all you have to do to record your screen is select the shift command and the number five. This will open up the options for you to actually record your screen.

Let’s have a look at how you actually do that. This is my screen, I can see that you can see it. I’m going to select shift command five and I’m going to move myself and get out of there. I’m going to move myself ’cause it hid there. Shift command five and in the bottom you can see there’s options here to capture the entire screen.

There’s options here to capture selected window, capture selected portion, all the entire screen or select a portion. I can also choose to add a microphone there as well. I can also choose to save it to my desktop or wherever I want to save it. And I’m going to put a five second timer and then select record.

It’s really tiny, but the time is happening and it’s recording my desktop. I can see there’s a faint like darkness around the edges and now it’s just recording. Once I’m done, I hit the button and if I go to my desktop, this is the file. Just going to close this so I can show a better example and that’s it. This is a recording from the free Mac application. 

That neat little trick, you may already have it. Try it out for yourself. Shift command five to record your desktop from a Mac. Pretty cool, huh?

The last one is another free one, which you may or may not know exists and it is QuickTime. A lot of people aren’t aware that QuickTime allows you to actually record your desktop as well. I’m going to bring up the software. Okay. The computer is doing all sorts of weird things. Of course it’s doing weird things while I’m on a live stream, but that’s okay. We roll with the punches. I’m going to share my screen again.

Now I’ve opened up QuickTime, and to record your screen, you simply go to file, new screen recording. Then similar to the other option there, you’ve got options to choose which portion of your screen you want to record and then when you hit record, there’s that tiny little countdown that’s happening in the bottom.

Okay. Allow it to access everything, then in theory it’s recording my screens. I’m gonna wave my mouse around and move stuff around. Once I’m done, I hit that button there. And this is the recording. This is the recording. There you go. And it’s really cool.

In terms of editing it, you can’t actually edit it in QuickTime player, but you can export it to, well send it to a video editor. You can use iMovie to cut it up. You can use ScreenFlow to cut it up. There’s lots of options for you there. 

Yeah, that essentially wraps up the five different options and the tutorial walkthrough of the best software for recording your screen. I talked about loom as an option, really amazing one for both PC and Mac where you can use the app or you can use the Chrome extension if it doesn’t freak out on you when you’re in a livestream.

You can also use SnagIt, a great one as well. It’s really good to do short snippets of video. My personal favourite ScreenFlow such a versatile piece of software. Allows you to record your screen, multiple devices and edit it all in one tool. It’s definitely my favourite.

There’s the free Mac in-built option where you just have to hit shift command and five and then you can start recording. And then there’s also QuickTime. QuickTime allows you to record your screen just using that software there and you already have it. If you have a Mac, it’s, and if you don’t you can download it, but it comes with typically comes with your Mac as well.

Hopefully you found this video, this video useful, and the walkthrough is useful as well. If you like this video, give me a thumbs up and don’t forget to subscribe to my channel. And if you’re looking for more ways to grow your business using video, make sure you check out my Facebook Live Cheat Sheets. It’s a super simple way of getting you up and streaming on Facebook live, even if you’ve never hit record before.

I’m going to put a link to the cheat sheets in the description and somewhere on the screen, hopefully and I appreciate you being here and appreciate just the opportunity to go live and connect with you.

 

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Sara Nguyen
Sara Nguyen
AI Educator and Content Creator | Wine Lover | Matcha Addict |:D Helping small businesses grow using AI design and tech with ease
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About Sara
I'm an over caffeinated matcha lover, coffee addict, introvert and bookworm who loves learning technology.

If you’re a thoughtful creator or small business owner who wants to use AI to share your message, build trust, and invite the right clients in, I’m here to help you do it with ease, honesty and heart.

Learn more about me

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Professional on the outside (mostly)….Dance party Professional on the outside (mostly)….Dance party on the inside 💃🏻💃🏻💃🏻
😂
All the things that happen off camera 🤣.
She's faster than she looks. 🐉 Sound on. Take it She's faster than she looks. 🐉
Sound on. Take it all in.
Comment DRAGON RIDER if you want the prompts I used to make this.
#dragonpovs 
Made in Adobe Firefly
#adobefireflyambassadors
How to make a YouTube thumbnail using the AI assis How to make a YouTube thumbnail using the AI assistant in Adobe Express: 
🖼️ Open the AI Assistant from the Adobe Express homepage and ask for a YouTube thumbnail
📸 Give it three things: a photo of you, a few words for the text, and what the video is actually about 
💬 The context is what stops you getting a generic design 
✨ Pick one of the starting options, or keep prompting until one is close 
✏️ Tweak the text right there, remove anything you don't want, and download it 
🎨 Or open it in the editor and describe the change: a different outfit colour, an extra element, and it styles them to match the design 
🧩 Everything is on layers, so it stays easy to edit 
🔍 If you'd rather search for elements yourself, turn the AI Assistant off and use the regular Adobe Express tools
Thanks to Adobe Express for sponsoring this video. 
#ad #adobeexpressambassadors #HowToAdobeExpress
🔗 Try Adobe Express AI Assistant: adobe.ly/ExpressSeptember26
Want better audio on your phone videos without buy Want better audio on your phone videos without buying a fancy microphone? 
I show you how to get crispy audio in Adobe Premiere Mobile, on iPhone and now on Android, with one switch called Enhance Audio.
This video is sponsored by Adobe. @adobelive
#Ad 
#AdobePremiereAmbassadors 
#MadeWithPremiereMobile
Here's what happens: I upload my video into the Adobe Premiere Mobile app, tap the clip, open Audio, select Enhance Audio and turn on Enhance. Then you hear the before and after, so you can decide for yourself.
📱 Download Adobe Premiere mobile: adobe.ly/PrM
✅ How to open the audio tools in Adobe Premiere mobile 
✅ Where to find Enhance Audio and turn it on 
✅ What your audio sounds like before and after
This is for anyone filming on their phone who wants to sound clear without extra gear: coaches, small business owners and creators who would rather talk to camera than learn audio software.
Comment. "Download" and I'll send you the links to download
How to make a dragon POV video with AI in Adobe Fi How to make a dragon POV video with AI in Adobe Firefly: one dragon image, Generate video with Kling 3.0 Omni, multi-shot on. 
Comment "dragon rider" for the full prompts
Thanks to @AdobeFirefly for sponsoring this video. 
#AdobeFireflyAmbassadors #Ad #HowToAdobeFirefly
Here's how I do it: 
🐉 I uploaded a dragon I liked and asked Firefly for an image seen through the rider's eyes 
🎬 In Generate video, that picture became the first frame 
⚙️ I chose Kling 3.0 Omni, turned on multi-shot and set it to 15 seconds 
✍️ I wrote what happens in each shot and hit generate 
🔁 For a longer flight I ran it a second time, starting from the last frame of the first, with new shots (that is why there are six shots below)
▶️ Try Adobe Firefly at https://firefly.adobe.com
Stop searching stock libraries for royalty-free mu Stop searching stock libraries for royalty-free music and sound effects. In Adobe Firefly I drop in my video, and it writes a custom soundtrack that matches the story, plus any sound effect I can describe. Everything it makes is safe for commercial use.
Thanks to Adobe Firefly for sponsoring this video. #AdobeFireflyAmbassadors #Ad #FireflyAIStudio
Finding music for a video is the job most of us leave until last, when we are tired and just want it done. So we scroll a library for twenty minutes, settle for something close enough, and hope the licence covers us. Here the track gets written to fit the video instead, and the licence question is already answered.
What happens in this one: 
🎬 I drop my dragon video straight into Adobe Firefly 
✍️ Adobe Firefly writes the music prompt for me, and I pick the vibe, style and details 
🎵 It watches the video and gives me four tracks matched to the story to choose from
 🐉 Sound effects come from the same place: I typed "gentle dragon huff" and hit generate 
✅ Everything is custom made and safe for commercial use
▶️ Try Adobe Firefly now at firefly.adobe.com
@adobelive
How to add captions to a video in Adobe Express, a How to add captions to a video in Adobe Express, and then actually style them: your font, your size, your colours, so the captions look like your video instead of a default. Auto captions in about a minute, no second app.
Thanks to Adobe Express for sponsoring this video. #ad #adobeexpressambassadors #HowToAdobeExpress
Most caption tools give you one look and that is the end of the conversation. You get whatever the app hands you, and every video you post ends up wearing someone else's font. The generated style is a great starting point, it gets you most of the way in one tap, but it is a starting point and not the finish. Changing the font, the size and the colours takes seconds, and it is the difference between captions that sit on your video and captions that belong to it.
How to add captions to your video:
🎬 Upload your video, then hit the CC icon at the top of the timeline 
🌐 Pick your language and tap Generate, and it transcribes the whole thing 
✨ Grab a caption style, one tap gets you most of the way there 
🎨 Then make it yours: swap the font, size it how you want, colours to match your brand 
✏️ If a word came out wrong, fix the text and it updates on the video straight away
No second app, no extra subscription, and it is free to try.
▶️ Try Adobe Express for your video captions here: 
https://adobe.ly/ExpressAugust26
The Adobe Digital Academy is an online learning pl The Adobe Digital Academy is an online learning platform for AI, design and marketing skills, and you can start with zero experience. Here is what is inside it, where to find the courses, and what you actually walk away with.
Thanks to Adobe for sponsoring this video. #ad #AdobeAmbassadors #AdobeDigitalAcademy
Most people I talk to want to learn this stuff and have no idea where to begin. The courses are hands-on, they are built for people starting from nothing, and they sit on platforms you already have an account on. You pick one, you go at your own pace, and at the end there is something you can show for it.
What is in this one: 
🎓 What the Adobe Digital Academy is, and where the courses live: Coursera, LinkedIn Learning and YouTube 
🧠 The Create and Enhance Visuals With AI series, six courses start to finish 
✏️ It opens with AI foundations, so no experience genuinely is fine 
🔥 Prompting for generative AI, then AI-Powered Exploration With Adobe Firefly Boards 
📄 You finish with a shareable certificate that goes onto your LinkedIn profile
▶️ Start here to learn with the Adobe Digital Academy: https://adobe.ly/DABTS
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Here is how that pile turns into a logo, a banner, a storyboard and a finished video, without ever leaving the board.
Thanks to Adobe Firefly for sponsoring this video. #AdobeFireflyAmbassadors #Ad #FireflyBoards
Most advice about starting a brand assumes you are staring at a blank page. Running a business is the opposite problem. You have far too many ideas, all of them half formed, scattered across your notes app and your camera roll, and none of them finished. A board is where they all land in one place and start turning into something.
What happens in this one: 
🐉 Everything goes on the board, notes, reference images, colour palettes 
🎨 Presets shape the mess, and the dragon images become logo options
🖼️ The logo becomes a banner, finished off in Adobe Express 
🎬 The shots get generated as images and laid out into a storyboard 
▶️ Those same images become actual video clips, right there on the board
🩷 Try Adobe Firefly Boards now at firefly.adobe.com/boards
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