How to Record an Online Course on a Mac

To record an online course on a Mac, record each lesson as its own short project. Read from a script your learners can't see, use the same look and audio settings for every lesson, and export each one as an MP4 (H.264) at 1080p.

macOS can record your screen for free with the Screenshot toolbar (⌘⇧5, Command-Shift-5). A dedicated recorder such as Screen Bolt adds three things that matter once you have dozens of lessons: saved presets, a teleprompter that stays out of the recording, and voice clean-up.

What a finished course recording looks like

A course feels professional when lesson 14 looks and sounds like lesson 1. Aim for:

• The same background, framing and webcam position in every lesson.
• Text that is readable at the size learners watch, often a laptop browser window rather than full screen.
• A voice at about the same loudness from lesson to lesson, without hum or room noise.
• One clear outcome per lesson, so learners can find and rewatch the part they need.
• Files named and ordered the way your course platform lists them.

Plan modules and lesson length

Break the course into modules, and each module into lessons that each teach one thing ("Connect your domain", not "Settings"). Shorter lessons are easier to re-record when the software you teach changes, and easier for learners to resume.

Plan length from your script, not from guesses. Screen Bolt's teleprompter shows a word count and an estimated reading time based on 150 words per minute at 1× speed, so a 450-word script runs about 3 minutes.

Keep each lesson in its own project:

• Point new projects at a folder for this course: Settings ▸ Recording ▸ Save new projects to ▸ Change directory. The default is ~/Screen Bolt Projects. Open Settings with ⌘, or the gear in the recording bar.
• After recording, click the title in the editor toolbar to rename the project, for example M02-L03 Connect your domain. A / or : in the name becomes -.

Set up your Mac to record an online course

Screen

• Choose a capture mode you can repeat. Window records one app window on its own, even if something covers it. Area records a rectangle you drag and shows its dimensions while you select, so you can match it in later lessons. Display records a whole screen.
• Keep the same window size for every lesson. If the window or area changes size between lessons, the framing jumps when learners move to the next video.
• Make text bigger than feels normal. Raise the font size in your code editor or app, and zoom the page in your browser. How to make text readable in screen recordings covers this in detail.
• Silence notifications. Open Control Center and turn on a Focus such as Do Not Disturb before each session.
• Set the frame rate once. In Screen Bolt, Settings ▸ Quick export ▸ Frame rate (30 or 60 FPS, default 60) sets the recording frame rate as well as the export frame rate. Pick one value for the whole course.
• Check disk space. Screen Bolt won't start recording unless the drive has room for 60 minutes at the estimated bitrate.

For a full pre-recording checklist, see how to prepare your Mac for a clean screen recording.

Audio

• Pick your microphone in the Mic menu. Before you record, a level meter shows at the bottom of the Mic button while the mic is on. You can also check it with the free microphone test. Choosing a microphone for screen recording covers hardware.
• Watch for an amber banner when you start. If Screen Bolt can't open the mic (for example, another app is using it), it keeps recording without the mic and shows an amber warning under the recording bar. Stop and fix the mic before you record the whole lesson.
• Turn system audio off unless the lesson needs it. In the Audio menu, choose Don't record system audio so notification sounds stay out. If you're demonstrating something that plays sound, choose Record system audio from all apps. The "selected apps" option currently records all apps too.

Camera

Turn on your webcam, or an iPhone through Continuity Camera, from the Camera menu. Set Max camera resolution to 720p, 1080p or 4K (default 1080p). If two or more cameras are connected, a Second camera section appears, so you can record your Mac's webcam and an iPhone at the same time for two angles.

The round preview bubble doesn't appear in the recording. Choose Hide camera preview if it gets in your way; the camera still records. To test the camera first, use the webcam test, and see how to use your iPhone as a webcam for setup.

Permissions

Screen Bolt needs Screen Recording access, plus Microphone and Camera access if you use them. On macOS 14, quit and reopen the app after granting Screen Recording. Help ▸ Screen Bolt Help shows the status of each permission. The getting started guide walks through the first recording.

Scripted or unscripted lessons

Scripted lessons are tighter, come out close to the planned length, and are easy to re-record word for word when a feature changes. The risk is sounding like you're reading. Unscripted lessons sound more natural but take longer to clean up. A middle path works well: a script for the intro and key explanations, and bullet points for the hands-on parts.

Read a script with the teleprompter

The teleprompter window doesn't appear in the recording, so you can place it wherever is comfortable. Just under your camera keeps your eyes close to the lens.

1. Click Script in the recording bar, or press ⇧⌘T (Command-Shift-T) while Screen Bolt is the active app.
2. Paste the lesson script, drag a .txt file onto the window, or click Import .txt.
3. Insert reminders from the Cues menu: [PAUSE], [CUT], [B-ROLL], [SLOW] and [EMPHASIS]. They appear as colored chips in the script.
4. Choose Auto Scroll and set the speed (0.25× to 4×), or choose Manual to step through pages, which suits a bullet-point outline.
5. Pick one of the three font sizes (the A buttons) and set the opacity (30% to 100%).
6. Start recording. Scrolling starts and pauses with the recording, and keeps its place when you resume.

While recording, with the teleprompter window focused:

There's no countdown, so scrolling begins the moment you hit record. Trim the first second or two in the editor.

The teleprompter saves its script automatically, but Settings ▸ General ▸ Reset preferences clears it. Keep each lesson's script as its own .txt file next to the course and import it before recording. For script structure, start from our tutorial video script template or the teleprompter script examples with cue markers.

Unscripted: fix mistakes afterwards

• Pause instead of rambling. The Pause button in the recording bar pauses the take. When you resume, the gap is removed and the screen, cameras and cursor stay in sync.
• When you stumble, pause a beat and repeat the sentence. A clean repeat is easy to cut.
• Restart bad starts. Discard and restart deletes the take and takes you back to setup without creating a project.
• Cut in the editor. Play the lesson and press M at each mistake to drop a marker. Use [ and ] to jump between markers. Then set In (I) and Out (O) points and press Delete to remove the section. How to trim a screen recording has more on this.

Click Stop in the recording bar before you quit the app. Quitting during a recording doesn't finalize the file.

Keep every lesson looking the same with presets

Style one lesson carefully, save that look as a preset, and apply it to every new lesson.

1. In your first lesson, set the look:
   • Screen panel: Aspect Ratio 16:9, plus padding and corner radius.
   • Background panel: a built-in wallpaper or your own course image.
   • Webcam panel: corner position, size, aspect, roundness and border.
   • Zoom panel: default zoom level.
   • Cursor panel: cursor size.
   • Audio panel: volumes and Audio Enhance toggles (see below).
2. Open Presets in the editor toolbar and choose Save Current as Preset.... Name it after the course.
3. For each new lesson, open Presets, find your preset and click Apply.

A preset stores padding, corner radius, shadow, inset, aspect ratio, background, cursor, zoom, device frame, reflection, speed, 3D camera, audio volumes and enhance toggles, sound effects, and camera-1 styling. Text overlays, annotations, blur regions and second-camera styling aren't on that list, so set those per lesson.

You can skip the manual step with Settings ▸ Editing ▸ Use last project settings as default for new recordings. New recordings then copy the look of the last project you edited. Be careful if you go back to fix an older lesson that used a different look.

Check your first export before you record the rest. A few settings show in the editor preview but are not exported:

• Device frames and reflection.
• Screen shadow and inset.
• Background blur.
• Custom gradient colors, which export as the selected wallpaper's gradient.
• Solid background colors, which export as a dark gradient.
• Show Cursor turned off: the export still draws the cursor.
• Text animations other than a fade. Every text animation exports as a fade.
• Speed ramps on a marked range. They play in the preview, but the export plays that range at normal speed.

Built-in wallpapers, wallpapers from your Mac, and your own images all export. A branded 16:9 image is the most reliable choice for a course background.

By default, your presets are saved in ~/Documents/Screen Bolt Presets/UserPresets.json (change the folder in Settings ▸ Editing ▸ Save presets in). Back that folder up with your course files. File ▸ Import preset... reads a preset .json file, but there is no command to export a single preset. For more on brand consistency, see keeping screen recordings on-brand with presets.

Clean up your voice

Clean audio does more for a course than visual polish, because learners listen to every minute. The free option is macOS's own Voice Isolation mic mode. If it's on when you start recording, Screen Bolt notices and skips its own noise reduction for that recording, so the voice isn't processed twice.

To clean up the mic track in Screen Bolt:

1. Open the Audio panel (⌘4).
2. Turn on Auto Audio Enhance. This switches on all three options below, and you can turn each one off on its own afterwards.
3. Wait for "Enhancing audio…" to reach 100%.

Normalization matters most for a course. Every lesson comes out at about the same loudness, so learners don't have to adjust the volume between videos. Presets store the enhance toggles, so saving them in your course preset applies them to every lesson.

Things to know:

• Enhancement runs on your Mac and applies to the microphone track only. System audio keeps its own volume slider.
• It can't rescue a clipped or distant recording, so get mic placement right first.
• The first export after enabling enhancement on a long recording shows progress in large jumps. That's expected.
• Right-click the microphone row on the audio track and choose Export Microphone Audio… to save the raw voice track as .m4a, without enhancement, if you want to process it elsewhere.

More detail: removing background noise from a screen recording and what loudness normalization is.

Export lessons for your course platform

MP4 with H.264 is the safe default; the export sheet describes it as "Plays everywhere." Check your platform's help pages for its maximum file size and resolution before you export the whole course.

MP4 and MOV exports carry AAC audio, 48 kHz stereo at 128 kb/s.

To export a lesson:

1. Click Export in the editor toolbar.
2. Choose MP4 and 1080p. Presets larger than your recording are grayed out, and the free version allows only 720p.
3. Check the size estimate (±30%). To plan ahead, use the video file size calculator.
4. Next to Save to, click Change… and pick your course's export folder. Screen Bolt remembers it.
5. Click Export or press Return. Finder shows the file when it's done.
6. Rename the file to match the lesson, since exports are named Screen Bolt <date> at <time>.mp4. There is no batch export. The editor holds one project at a time, so you export each lesson from its own project. If a lesson needs no editing, Settings ▸ Recording ▸ After recording ▸ Export to file renders the file as soon as you stop recording, with auto zooms and the cursor, using the Quick export settings (set Resolution to 1080p there, since the default is 720p). It skips your background and padding, renders only the first camera, saves the file inside the project package, and shows no message if the export is blocked. It suits screen-only lessons, not styled ones.

For full export details, see the export help page and MP4 vs MOV.

Which tool fits your course

The built-in route is enough if you talk over slides or a single app, don't need a teleprompter or a styled background, and are happy to edit in another app. In the Screenshot toolbar, choose a record option, open Options to pick a microphone and save location, then click Record. Apple's free iMovie can trim and arrange the clips; as of November 2026 its US Mac App Store listing requires macOS 26.6 or later. How to screen record on Mac covers the built-in methods.

Screen Bolt's free version is enough if you want to build and test your preset, or record short preview lessons where a watermark and 720p are acceptable. The 3-minute export cap is measured against the full recording, so trimming a longer take below 3 minutes doesn't get around it.

Screen Bolt Pro fits a full paid course: unlimited export length, 1080p, 4K and Original exports, no watermark, and no subscription. It runs on macOS 14 or later, and recordings are processed on your Mac and never uploaded.

Common mistakes

• Recording a whole module in one take. A single mistake means hunting through a long file. Use one lesson per project.
• Changing window size or zoom between lessons. The framing jumps from video to video. Reuse the same area or window size.
• Styling with a solid color, device frame or shadow. These look right in the editor but export differently or not at all. Use a wallpaper or image background.
• Missing the amber mic warning. You get a lesson with no voice. Glance at the bar after you hit record.
• Pressing J or L out of habit from other editors. In Screen Bolt they change the project's playback speed, and that speed is exported. Set it back to 1x in the speed menu.
• Mixing frame rates. Set 30 or 60 FPS once and leave it.
• Quitting the app mid-recording. The file isn't finalized. Stop first.

You can download Screen Bolt free to build your preset and test a lesson before you buy. For related workflows, see how teachers can record lessons on a Mac and how to record YouTube tutorials on a Mac.