How To Screen Record On A Mac

MacOS’ Screenshot Toolbar (as present on MacOS Mojave and later) is a versatile tool. It not only allows you to screenshot, but also to record your screen at the touch of a button.

To access the toolbar, simply utilise the keyboard shortcut ‘Cmd+Shift+5’, or if you own MacBook with a Touch Bar, then you also choose to access it from there. Doing so will bring up the general Screenshot menu, and on the right-hand side of this, there’s the option to either record the entire screen or record a select portion. To record a select portion, simply pull your cursor across the screen to create a boundary.

To start recording, simply press the Record button once you’ve selected your option, and if you’ve got a MacBook with a Touch Bar, you’ll see that it will change to show the duration of the recording, total file size, and also gives you the option to stop the recording when you need to. You can also use the keyboard shortcut ‘Control+Esc’ to stop recording.

If using the Screenshot Toolbar isn’t your jam, then Apple also allow you to utilise the old-reliable QuickTime Player to screen record, too.

To do so, open QuickTime Player, head to ‘File’ and hover over it to bring up the drop-down menu. In the top three selections, you should see an option for ‘New Screen Recording’, which can also be accessed via the shortcut of Control+Command+N.

Doing so will bring up the Screenshot Toolbar, and then it’s a case of hitting Record to start, and the Stop button to stop (or you can use the keyboard shortcut Control+Esc).

Once you’ve stopped recording, QuickTime will automatically open up the newly created video file and it should be tagged with the title ‘Screen Recording date at time.mov’. You can then choose to save them and decided where they should be stored.