Your First Recording

This guide walks you through creating your first screen recording with Recorded.

Step 1: Choose a Capture Mode

When you open Recorded, you’ll see the main window with three capture modes:

  • Monitor — Records your entire display
  • Window — Records a specific application window
  • Area — Records a custom rectangular region

Select the mode that fits your needs. For your first recording, Monitor is the easiest option.

Step 2: Select Your Target

Depending on the mode you chose, Recorded will open a picker overlay:

  • Monitor: A monitor picker shows all connected displays. Click the one you want to record.
  • Window: An overlay shows all open application windows. On macOS, hover over windows to highlight them and click to select. On Windows, choose from a list of windows with titles and icons.
  • Area: An overlay lets you click and drag to draw a custom rectangular region. Use the resize handles to fine-tune the selection.

You can press Escape at any time to cancel the selection and go back.

Step 3: Configure Audio (Optional)

Before recording, you can configure audio sources in the main window:

  • Microphone — Toggle to record your voice narration. You can select which microphone to use from the device list.
  • System Audio — Toggle to capture sounds from your computer (music, app sounds, notifications, etc.).

Click the microphone or speaker icons to enable or disable each source.

Step 4: Enable Webcam (Optional)

If you want to include a camera feed in your recording, enable the webcam toggle. A small live preview will appear so you can check your framing before you start.

Step 5: Start Recording

Click the Record button to begin. A compact floating control panel will appear showing:

  • A recording indicator (pulsing red dot with “REC” text)
  • An elapsed time counter
  • Stop and Cancel buttons

If you enabled your webcam, the control panel also shows a live camera preview and audio waveform indicators.

Step 6: Record Your Content

Perform the actions you want to capture. Recorded tracks your cursor movements and clicks in the background — this data is used later to generate automatic zoom effects that highlight the important parts of your recording.

Step 7: Stop Recording

When you’re done, click the Stop button on the floating control panel. Recorded will process your recording (encoding, metadata extraction, and waveform generation) and then open the editor automatically.

If you want to discard the recording instead, click the Cancel button — this deletes all recorded files and returns you to the main window.

Step 8: Edit (Optional)

After stopping, Recorded opens the editor where you can:

  • Trim and cut unwanted sections from your recording
  • Add zoom effects — Recorded automatically generates smart zoom points based on your cursor activity, and you can add or adjust them manually
  • Customize the background with gradients, solid colors, or wallpaper images
  • Adjust cursor appearance, size, and click effects
  • Position the webcam overlay and choose its shape and style
  • Add text overlays and AI-generated captions
  • Control playback speed for different sections
  • Add background music from preset tracks

Step 9: Export

Click Export to save your recording. Choose your preferred format (MP4, GIF, or MOV), resolution, and quality preset, then click Export to render and save the file.

Your recording is saved to:

  • macOS: ~/Movies/Recorded/Recordings/
  • Windows: Videos\Recorded\Recordings\

Congratulations — you’ve created your first professional screen recording!