If you make computer, internet or software guides, tutorials and courses, you need a screen recorder. It grabs the screen and saves what you do as a video that you can share online. Here’s one.
RecordCast is a website that enables you to record whatever happens on the computer screen. Up to 30 minutes of activity can be recorded in one go and the resulting video can be downloaded in its raw unedited form or edited online and then the finished video downloaded and saved to disk
It is not the only website offering screen recording and others include Fluvid, Online Screen Recorder and Screen Capture. However, it works well and the simple video editor is good enough for editing your recordings.
There are countless tutorials and guides on YouTube for computers, software, operating systems, WordPress and website builders, and other things. They are very popular and you may have watched some of them. There are also many online courses that also include videos showing how to perform tasks on the computer, use software or do things online.
If you have wondered how to record the computer screen for these and have wanted to create your own, one way is by using a website like RecordCast. One of the advantages of it over software on the computer is that it works in a web browser, which you already have. It also does not matter what computer you are using and a Windows PC or Apple Mac is fine. It works best in Chrome and that is recommended, but other web browsers may be OK.
Let’s take a look at recording the screen using RecordCast website.
1 Go to Recordcast
Go to the RecordCast website. It is free and you don’t even need to sign in to record the screen. There is also nothing to install, not even a plugin. It just works. However, you will find that you have to click through several permissions windows to allow it to work, but that’s a minor thing.
2 Choose how to record
You can record the screen and show a webcam image of yourself in the corner, record only the screen, or only the webcam. I chose to record the screen only.
3 Audio recording settings
It automatically records from the computer’s microphone, so you can provide a voice-over for the recordings to explain what you are doing and what is happening on the screen.
I used RecordCast on an Apple Mac and it said that system sounds (audio produced by the computer like sound effects or music), could only be recorded when using Chrome on a Windows PC. Recording you speaking does work OK on Mac or PC, it’s just system sounds that are limited to PC.
4 Choose what to record
The entire screen can be recorded, just an application window or the Chrome tab. The entire screen is probably best and if only a small part is required, the video can always be cropped afterwards.
This is the last step before recording starts. The web browser can be minimized and then you can do whatever you want during the recording, such as opening and using an application.
When you have finished, open the browser window and stop the recording.
5 View and download the video
When the recording has ended, a preview window appears on the web page and you can play the recording and watch it. A Download button enables the video to be saved to the computer.
If you have video editing software on the computer, you could edit it there, but there is also an online editor that works well enough. Click Edit and Export in MP4.
6 Edit the screen recording
The video editor opens in the browser and it is very basic, but really you don’t need whizzy features and special effects for a screen recording. You are showing a how-to hands on guide or tutorial for an app, OS, website or service, so plain and simple features are all you need.
You can trim the start and end of the video where you start recording and minimize the browser, then maximize it to stop recording at the end. You can add a title screen at the start or ending credits and there are several templates to choose from.
The video can be split, so you can cut out bits you don’t want to include in the screen recording. If you make a mistake while recording, just do it again and cut out the mistake afterwards. You can also skip slow bits where you are waiting for something to happen onscreen and cut them shorter so the viewer does not have to wait.
An audio track can be added to the video from the computer. This could be music or you could record the audio separately and then add it afterwards.
The export button (you may need a free account to export), offers 480, 720 and 1080 video resolutions. Once the video is on the computer, you could edit it further using a video editor, share it online, upload it to YouTube or wherever you share videos, and so on.
Conclusion
I like online tools and RecordCast works very well if you use Chrome. (I could record, but not edit in Safari). It is free and you can create a free account to enable video editing and downloading. The results are good and the whole process of recording the screen is very easy. It is recommended.
