A screen recording checklist for clear, useful videos
Prepare your Mac, frame a readable recording, and review audio, captions, and sharing permissions before sending.
Prepare the screen before the story
Close unrelated tabs, hide personal notifications, and open a clean example account. Remove customer names, tokens, and private messages from the capture area. Choose a window or region when the full desktop adds no useful context. Enlarge small interface text before recording rather than relying on viewers to watch full-screen.
Make a short audio test
Record a sentence using the same microphone and room you will use for the real take. Listen back through headphones. Check for clipping, echo, keyboard noise, and a microphone that was accidentally muted. If you need application audio, test it separately from your voice so you know both are audible.
Keep the recording easy to edit
Explain one action at a time. Leave a small pause before changing topics. Move the cursor with intent and avoid circling buttons while thinking. When you make a mistake, pause and repeat the full sentence. These habits create cleaner edit points than trying to repair a sentence halfway through a word.
Review the exported file
Play the actual export, not only the editor preview. Check the first and last seconds, any cuts near speech, caption spelling, and text near the frame edges. Review in a smaller window to approximate an embedded player. If a vertical crop hides the important action, reframe it or publish the landscape version instead.
Check the recipient experience
If you share a Drive link, verify access with a separate account or signed-out window appropriate to your audience. Confirm that the file can be played and that private viewers have not accidentally received public access. Include one sentence explaining what the video answers and what the recipient should do next.