Record Your Screen With the DepCut Mac App

A tutorial, a bug report or a product walkthrough starts with a screen recording. The DepCut Mac app includes a recorder that lives in the menu bar, so you can capture a take and drop it into the editor afterward. Recording needs macOS 15 or later. On older versions the menu item does not appear.

Start a recording

1. Click the DepCut icon in the menu bar and choose Record Screen.
2. A control bar appears at the bottom center of your main display.
3. Pick what to capture and which audio to include.
4. Press Record.

The first time, macOS asks you to allow Screen Recording for DepCut. If you decline, the bar tells you to allow it in System Settings and then try again, and System Settings opens so you can flip the switch. The macOS dialog appears when you press Record, so nothing pops up while you look around the bar.

Pick what to capture

The control bar has a close button on the left, then three capture modes, an audio menu and the Record button. Hover a mode to see its name.

• Record Entire Screen is the default and captures the whole display.
• Record Window dims your screen and highlights the window under your pointer. Click the one you want.
• Record Selected Portion lets you drag a rectangle, then resize it from its grips or move the whole box. A label shows its width and height in pixels.

Record stays dimmed in the window and portion modes until you have chosen a window or drawn a region. Press Escape to leave a picker, and the bar returns to full-screen capture.

Pick the audio

The audio menu lists System Audio, each microphone connected to your Mac by name, and None. System Audio is selected by default and captures the sound your Mac plays. Choose a microphone to record your voice.

The menu records one source per take. If you want your narration and the sound of the app together, record the screen first, then add the voice-over in the editor from the Record menu in the top bar. Choosing a microphone also brings up the macOS Microphone prompt the first time you press Record.

While you record, and where the file goes

The Record button turns into Stop, and a clock counts up beside it. The control bar and the dimmed area around a selected portion stay out of the file, and the pointer is visible in the footage. Stop from the bar, or open the DepCut menu again and choose Stop Recording.

DepCut saves the recording as a .mov on your Desktop. The name starts with "Screen Recording" followed by the date and time, and a (2) follows if that name is already taken. Finder opens with the new file selected.

Bring the take into the editor

Choose Go to App from the menu bar to open the editor in your browser. In your project, you have two ways to add the .mov:

• Open the Media tab and press Upload. The file joins your project's assets and lands at the end of the timeline.
• Drag the file from the Desktop onto the timeline. It lands where you drop it. Dropped onto the Media panel, it waits there until you click the + on its tile.

Make a test take

Start a short test take from the menu bar, then drop it into a project in DepCut to see how it looks on the timeline.