How to Make a Software Tutorial Video on Mac

To make a software tutorial video on a Mac, plan it around one task and outline what you'll say. Then record just the app, not your whole screen, with the Screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5, Command-Shift-5) or a dedicated screen recorder. After that, cut the pauses and mistakes, zoom in where you click, and export an MP4 at 1080p or higher.

The built-in tools are enough for a quick one-off. A dedicated recorder helps once you make tutorials regularly and want zooms, a teleprompter and voice clean-up without opening a separate editor. The steps below are for general software: web apps, SaaS tools, design and office apps. If you're recording code, our guide to recording developer tutorials is a better fit.

Plan a software tutorial video around one outcome

A tutorial works when the viewer can do one specific thing by the end. "How to set up recurring invoices" is a tutorial. "Getting to know our billing module" is a tour, and tours are harder to follow.

Before you record, write down three things:

• The outcome: one sentence about what the viewer will be able to do. This often becomes the video title.
• The starting state: what the viewer has open and what is already set up. Recreate that exact state on your Mac, using a clean test account with realistic sample data. Empty tables and "test test 123" make it harder for viewers to map the steps to their own account.
• The steps: each click or field in order. If the list goes past 10 or so steps, consider splitting it into two videos.

Leave out anything that isn't on the path to the outcome. Settings you skip and alternatives you won't demonstrate can go in the video description or a help article.

Write an outline or a script

You have two options:

• Outline: a bullet list of steps and the one point you'll make at each. Good if you explain things comfortably off the cuff.
• Full script: every word written out. Good for tutorials that will stay up for a long time, for non-native speakers, and for anyone who loses their place while clicking.

Our tutorial video script template gives you a structure for either. Write the script to match the clicks: one short paragraph per action, so you're never talking about step 4 while doing step 3.

Read a script without it showing in the video

If you write a full script, keep it on screen where you can read it but out of the recording. Screen Bolt has a built-in teleprompter for this:

1. Click Script in the recording bar, or press ⇧⌘T (Command-Shift-T) while Screen Bolt is the active app.
2. Paste your script, click Import .txt, or drag a .txt file onto the window.
3. Choose Auto Scroll and set the speed (0.25× to 4×), or Manual to move page by page.
4. Lower the opacity (30% to 100%) if the window covers part of the app you're demonstrating.

The teleprompter window is not captured in the recording. Scrolling starts when the recording starts, pauses when you pause and keeps its place when you resume. While you're recording and the teleprompter window is focused, ↑ and ↓ change the speed in Auto mode, and →, ↓ or Space turn the page in Manual mode.

The Cues menu inserts markers such as [PAUSE], [SLOW] and [EMPHASIS]. They show up as colored chips, so you can see where to stop talking and let a click land. The header shows a word count and an estimated reading time, a quick check on length before you record. More tips are in how to read a script while recording.

Set up your Mac so the text stays readable

Small, unreadable text is the most common way a tutorial fails. Viewers often watch in a small embed or on a laptop, so what looks fine on your large display can turn into a blur.

• Record a window or an area, not your whole screen. The less screen you capture, the larger the interface appears in the final video.
• Make the interface bigger. In a browser, zoom the page in with ⌘= (Command-Equals). For the whole Mac, open System Settings, click Displays and pick an option toward Larger Text.
• Clear the clutter. Close unrelated tabs, hide desktop clutter, and turn on Do Not Disturb from Control Center so notifications don't appear mid-take. Our checklist for preparing your Mac covers the rest.

There's more on font sizes and framing in how to make text readable in screen recordings.

Record a tutorial with the built-in Screenshot toolbar

macOS can record your screen with no extra software.

1. Press ⇧⌘5 to open the Screenshot toolbar.
2. Click Record Selected Portion and drag a frame around the app, or click Record Entire Screen.
3. Open Options, choose your microphone, and turn on Show Mouse Clicks so viewers can see where you click.
4. Click Record.
5. To stop, click the stop button in the menu bar or press ⌃⌘Esc (Control-Command-Escape).

The file is saved as a .mov on your Desktop unless you picked another location under Options. See where screen recordings go on Mac if you can't find it.

What it can't do: it can't record a single window as video (only the whole screen or a fixed area). It records your microphone but not the sound your Mac plays (see how to record internal audio on Mac). It doesn't add zooms, text or a webcam overlay. To shorten the clip, open it in QuickTime Player, choose Edit > Trim (⌘T, Command-T), drag the yellow handles and click Trim. That removes footage from the start and end. QuickTime can also split a recording into clips and delete one, which gets slow once you have more than a couple of cuts.

Record a tutorial with Screen Bolt

Screen Bolt is the screen recorder we make. It records a display, one window or a dragged area, then opens the recording in a timeline editor with zooms already created from your clicks.

1. In the floating recording bar, click Window. Select the app in Select Window to Record and click Record Window (or press Return). Use Area instead to drag a frame, or Display for a full screen.
2. Open the Mic menu and choose your microphone. A thin level meter on the button shows it's picking up sound.
3. Optionally open the Camera menu and pick a camera (see the next section).
4. Click the red record button. There's no countdown, so recording starts right away.
5. Click Pause in the bar between sections if you need to reset something. The pause is removed from the recording.
6. Click Stop. The editor opens.

A few things that matter for tutorials:

• Window mode records the window on its own, even if another window covers it, so other windows on top of it don't end up in the shot.
• Clicks create the zooms. Auto zoom turns mouse clicks into zoom regions, merging clicks that happen within 1 second and 200 px of each other. Click deliberately where you want viewers to look, and avoid nervous clicks on empty space while you talk.
• Typing doesn't create zooms. If a step is keyboard-only, you'll add a zoom by hand in the editor.
• Frame rate is set before recording. Settings > Quick export > Frame rate (30 or 60 FPS, default 60) controls both the recording and the export. 30 FPS is enough for most software tutorials; keep 60 if you scroll or drag a lot.
• The recording shortcuts only work while Screen Bolt is the active app. Once you've switched to the app you're demonstrating, use the Stop button in the bar rather than ⌃⌘↩ (Control-Command-Return).

Voice and webcam

Get clean narration

A USB or headset mic close to your mouth usually beats a laptop mic across the desk. Our guide to choosing a microphone for screen recording covers options. Record a 10-second test and play it back before the real take, or check levels with our free microphone test.

In Screen Bolt, the microphone is saved as its own track, separate from system audio. In the editor's Audio panel, Audio Enhance has three options, all off by default:

Turn on Auto Audio Enhance to switch on all three. They apply to the microphone only and are used in both the preview and the export. If macOS Voice Isolation was active when you recorded, Screen Bolt skips its own noise reduction for that recording, since the mic was already cleaned. See how to remove background noise from a screen recording for other methods.

If you stumble, you don't need to restart. Pause for a second, repeat the sentence and cut the bad version later. If you'd rather narrate after recording, import a separate voiceover file with Add Audio Track. Our voiceover guide covers that workflow.

Decide whether to show your face

A webcam is optional for software tutorials. It helps in course and YouTube content where viewers come back for you. It adds little to a 90-second help center clip.

In Screen Bolt, pick a camera from the Camera menu. A round preview floats on your screen while you record; it isn't captured, and Hide camera preview removes it from view while still recording. In the editor's Webcam panel, set Position (one of the four corners) and Size (8% to 40%) so the camera never covers a button you're clicking. Fullscreen Moments lets the camera take over the whole frame for a marked range, which works well for a short intro and outro. More in our webcam overlay guide.

Edit: cuts, zooms and text callouts

Most of the editing in a tutorial is removal: pauses, loading spinners, mistakes and retakes.

Cut the dead time

1. Play the recording and press I at the start of a section you want to remove.
2. Press O at the end of it.
3. Press Delete (⌫) or click Cut I-O.
4. Repeat for every pause, mistake and wait.

Press S to split a clip at the playhead if you'd rather move or delete whole chunks. Undo is ⌘Z (Command-Z).

For a long wait such as a page load, cut it rather than speeding it up. Speed ramps play in the editor preview but are not applied in the exported file. Also, J and L change the speed of the whole project, and that speed is exported. Press K to pause, and check the speed menu shows "1x" before you export.

Check and adjust the zooms

Open the Zoom panel (⌘5, Command-5) to see how many zoom regions were created from your clicks.

1. Play through and delete any zoom that lands on an unimportant click: right-click it on the zoom track and choose Delete This Region.
2. Drag a region's edges to make it last longer, or drag the region to move it.
3. For a keyboard step or a moment you want to highlight, point the cursor at the right spot, move the playhead there and press ⌘K (Command-K) to Add Zoom at Playhead.
4. If the zooms feel too tight, set Default Level lower (for example 1.5×), then click Apply to All Regions.

Each zoom centers on where your cursor was at that moment, and there's no control to move the focus point afterward, so point at the thing you're explaining while you record. Don't turn off Auto Zoom on Click to get rid of a few zooms: it disables every zoom region, including the ones you added by hand. Our auto zoom explainer covers how the regions are created.

Add text callouts and arrows

Text on screen helps viewers who watch muted and anyone scanning for a step.

1. Move the playhead to where a step starts and press T to add a 3-second text overlay.
2. Type a short label, like "Step 2: Choose a billing period".
3. Set Position. Bottom Center is the default; move it if it covers the part of the app you're using.
4. Drag the overlay's end on the timeline, or change Duration, to match how long the step lasts.

Text animations other than Fade In show in the preview but export as a fade, so pick Fade In to avoid surprises.

To point at a specific button, the Annotations panel adds an Arrow, Rectangle, Circle, Highlight, Line or Callout. The Effects panel has Add Focus Region, which dims everything outside a rectangle.

If customer data, an email address or an API key is visible, press B to add a blur region, or use Effects > Blur / Privacy > Auto-Detect Sensitive Text to scan for email addresses (plus phone numbers and your own keywords if you set them). Review every detected region before exporting. If you cut, reorder or change speed after scanning, the detected blurs aren't re-timed, so check them on the Blur track again.

Mark sections in longer videos

For a long tutorial, press M to add a marker at the start of each section, then jump between them with [ and ]. Markers aren't exported. If you want YouTube chapters, take the timestamps from the exported file, since cuts change where each section starts.

Export for YouTube or a help center

In Screen Bolt, click Export in the toolbar, choose a format and quality, pick a Save to folder (Desktop by default) and click Export. The summary line shows an estimated file size before you commit.

Notes on these settings:

• MP4 uses H.264 and plays everywhere. MOV uses HEVC, which gives smaller files at matching quality, useful for archives or handing off to another editor. Our MP4 vs MOV comparison has the details.
• Studio compression uses twice the bitrate of the default Social Media setting; Web uses half. YouTube re-encodes uploads, so starting from a higher bitrate helps keep text sharp.
• Quality presets larger than your recording are disabled, so a small area recording may not offer 4K.
• Padding adds a background around the recording (default 5%). For a help center, where the video sits inside a page, set Padding to 0% for a plain look.
• Some looks are preview-only: device frames, screen shadow, background blur, and custom gradient or solid-color backgrounds don't export as shown. Built-in wallpapers and your own images do.
• GIFs export at about 10 fps with no sound and are limited to 60 seconds. They suit a single short step, not a full tutorial.

For the YouTube side (titles, thumbnails, upload settings), see how to record YouTube tutorials on a Mac. For help-center libraries, see how to make how-to videos for your help center.

Free version limits

The free version of Screen Bolt records without limits, but exports are capped at 3 minutes and 720p, carry a "Made with Screen Bolt" watermark, and can't be GIFs. That's fine for internal how-tos where a watermark doesn't matter. For public YouTube or customer-facing help content you'll want Pro, a one-time $79 as of November 2026 (see pricing).

Built-in tools vs Screen Bolt

Use the built-in tools if the tutorial is one short take in a tight area with few mistakes. Use a dedicated recorder if you'll edit, zoom or narrate from a script.

If it doesn't work

Text is still too small in the final video. You recorded too much screen. Record a window or a smaller area, increase the app's zoom level, and export at 1080p or higher. Add manual zooms with ⌘K on dense screens.

There are no zooms in the editor. Check that Create zooms automatically is on in Settings > Recording (it applies to new recordings), and that Auto Zoom on Click is on in the Zoom panel. Videos recorded in another app and opened in Screen Bolt have no cursor data, so they get no automatic zooms. You can still add zooms by hand.

The exported video plays at the wrong speed. You probably pressed J or L, which changes the project speed. Set the speed menu back to "1x". If a section looked sped up in the preview but plays normally in the file, it was a speed ramp, which doesn't export; cut that section instead.

1080p or 4K is grayed out. The free version only allows 720p. With Pro, presets larger than your recording are disabled; record a larger area or pick a lower preset.

Export says "Recording Too Long for Free Export" after you trimmed it. In the free version, the 3-minute check uses the full recording length, not the trimmed result. Record shorter takes, or upgrade.

The narration is missing. In Screen Bolt, an amber "Recording without microphone" banner means the mic couldn't be opened, often because another app is using it; close video-call apps and record again. A red "Microphone access is required to record mic audio." banner means the permission is off: turn on Screen Bolt in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Microphone. For built-in recordings, check that a microphone was selected under Options. Our no sound fixes cover more cases.

FAQ

Can I make a software tutorial on a Mac for free? Yes. Record with ⇧⌘5 and trim in QuickTime Player. Screen Bolt's free version also works, with exports limited to 3 minutes at 720p with a watermark.

Should I record in one take? Usually not. Record section by section, pausing between them, and cut mistakes in the editor. You'll redo far less.

Can Screen Bolt add captions? No. Screen Bolt doesn't create captions, subtitles or transcripts. Add them on the platform you publish to, or with a separate tool.

What's the best screen recorder for tutorials? It depends on how much editing you need. Our best screen recorders for Mac page compares the options, including free ones.