When trying to explain how a particular feature works on a Mac to someone who isn’t in the same room as you, sometimes only a video will do. A handful of applications exist to help you perform this task, but they've all been blown away by a newcomer, ScreenFlow.

With it, not only can you record actions on your screen, you can also capture video from your iSight camera, blending them together to create a unique, highly polished film, ready to be uploaded to the Internet—as long as your Mac is running Mac OS 10.5 Leopard.

There's a lot you can do with this application. We'll show you some of the basics to help you get started quickly, then follow up with some more advanced power-user tips later on. So download a trial copy and let's get started.

Difficulty: Medium

What You Need: ScreenFlow ($99.99, www.varasoftware.com, or get a demo version here), G4 or Intel Core 2 Duo Mac (Intel recommended), an iSight camera (optional), and about 30 minutes of time.

 

1. Installation Station

Move ScreenFlow from the Downloads folder to your Applications folder, or the software may not function properly (all commands in the menubar could be grayed out, for example). Once that’s done, launch it. You’re greeted with a simple semitransparent window that holds three options. The first two let you record video from your iSight camera (if you have one) and give you the ability to record external sound using your Mac’s built-in microphone or any other mic hooked up to it. Let’s keep these two off for now.

2. Oh, Driver?

Select Record Computer Audio. ScreenFlow will ask for permission to install a special audio driver that it needs for perform this function. Allow it to do so, and enter your administrator password when prompted.

3. And…Action!

Time to record! Click the big red button. After a countdown, ScreenFlow will begin recording your entire Desktop. Perform various actions like launching other apps, selecting commands from the menubar, using keyboard shortcuts, opening and navigating through folders, even use Fast User Switching to move to another account. ScreenFlow will record it all. When you’ve finished, press Shift-Command-2 to stop the recording.

4. Honey, I Shrunk the Screencast

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ScreenFlow will then open up its video-editing window. The first thing we need to do is reduce the Canvas area: By default, the Canvas matches your screen’s current resolution, which would be much too big for the Web. Also, you most likely only need to focus on a small section of the interface anyway, so cropping can help.

Click the Resize button located at the lower-left of the Preview section. Reduce the size until it’s somewhere within 640x480. Click Apply to set this change.

 

5. Tweak a Little More

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Clicking the Preview section selects your video clip. You can then drag it until you can see the section you wish to focus on. To the right are the Video Properties. Drag the Scale slider to the left to fit more of your Desktop image in the window.

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6. “You Can Edit That Out, Right?”

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You might decide to edit out the first few seconds of your screencast, especially if they just show you getting ready. To do this, look at the Timeline section, at the bottom of the interface. On the far left is a red line with a triangular-shaped object above it. This is the playhead. 

Click the red triangle and drag it to the right to move the playhead along. Place it just before the moment when something interesting happens. Next, move the cursor to the beginning of the video clip. It changes to a resize tool. Click on it and drag it to the right to trim that clip. As it nears the playhead, it will snap to it, facilitating the edit process.

 

7. Changing the Focus

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To focus on another area of the screen after a time, move the playhead to another point in time. Go to Actions > Add Video Action. A thin purple rectangle appears to the left of the playhead (you can resize it by dragging its edges; it turns yellow when selected). With the playhead set at the end of this action, move the clip in the Preview window or resize it to display another area. The longer the action, the slower the move will take.

 

8. Show Me the Mousing

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You can also make your mouse clicks visible. Move the playhead to a desired location. To the right of the interface are a series of tabs. Select the third one from the left, and click the button that reads Add Screen Recording Action.

Change the Click Effect pull-down menu to Radar. You can tell ScreenFlow to use a sound effect on each click, and even have any keys you pressed appear on screen —useful if you used any keyboard shortcuts.

 

9. Put a Face on It

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You can add an additional clip at any time, so we’ll record one using the iSight. Go to File > Add Additional Recording. Deselect the Record Desktop and Record Computer Audio options, and instead choose Record Video From Built-in iSight and Record Audio From Built-In Microphone. Click the Record button at the bottom-right of that window.

 

10. Talking Heads

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We’ll be recording a video voiceover to add to our demonstration, so play the existing footage back, making sure your Mac is mute. You will not see yourself as the recording happens, but the little green light next to your iSight will show that everything is working as it should. Stop the recording, and a new clip appears in the Media List on the right side of the interface.

 

11. All Together Now

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Drag that clip from the top right to the Timeline. As you do, a new video layer is created. Hold down the Shift key and click and drag one of the new clip’s corner handles to resize it in order to see both recordings at the same time, one on top of the other. Under the Video Properties tab (first on the left), you can even rotate your clip in 3D by changing the Y Rotation angle.

 

12. Export It

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To prepare your file for the web, go to File > Export. Change the Preset to Web - High (Best Quality). Since we already reduced our canvas’s size, click Scale To Custom Size—this will select the current canvas dimension. To make the movements across your screen look a little more realistic, you could select the Use Motion Blur option, but bear in mind that this will greatly lengthen your export process. When ready, click Export.