How to Record Part of Your Screen on a Mac

You rarely want the whole desktop in a recording — the dock, the notifications, the second monitor. Recording just a portion keeps the viewer on the app that matters and your clutter out of the shot. Here are three ways to do it on a Mac, including how to get a region at an exact size.

Why a region beats the whole screen

• Focus — the viewer sees the app you're demonstrating, not your wallpaper and menu bar.
• Privacy — whatever isn't inside the rectangle is never captured in the first place.
• Right shape, smaller file — a 16:9 region drops into a docs page or video platform without letterboxing, at a fraction of the full-display file size.

Method 1 — The built-in selection (Shift + Cmd + 5)

1. Press Shift + Cmd + 5.
2. In the control bar, choose Record Selected Portion.
3. Drag the handles to frame the area, then click Record.
4. Stop with the ■ button in the menu bar or Cmd + Ctrl + Esc.

Quick and built in. The trade-offs: the selection is freehand only — there's no way to snap to 16:9 or type an exact pixel size — and what you capture is what you get, with no editing beyond a basic trim afterwards.

Method 2 — QuickTime Player

1. Open QuickTime Player and choose File → New Screen Recording.
2. Click record, then drag across the part of the screen you want.
3. Click Start Recording inside the selection; stop from the menu bar when done.

Same engine as the shortcut with a window-based flow — and the same limits: freehand selection only, no zoom, captions or effects afterwards.

Method 3 — ScreenTailor (exact sizes + editing)

ScreenTailor is a native macOS recorder built around region capture. Drag a region like the built-in tools — then snap it to an aspect-ratio preset (16:9 and friends) or set the exact pixel size, so the recording comes out at the dimensions the destination needs instead of "whatever I dragged".

1. Open ScreenTailor from the menu bar (or press the global shortcut).
2. Drag to frame the region; snap to a preset or type the exact size.
3. Record, with pause and resume whenever you need them.
4. Land in the built-in editor: trim dead air, zoom into the action, add captions, blur anything sensitive with effects — then export a share-ready MP4.

Every editing tool is free; the free plan caps each recording at 5 minutes with a small watermark on export, and a 14-day Pro trial or a Lifetime license ($39) removes both.

Recording the whole display instead? Start from how to screen record on a Mac.

Frequently asked questions