A Screen Recorder Built for Tutorials
A tutorial fails in predictable ways: the viewer can't see where you clicked, can't hear why, or watches you fumble through a menu for twenty seconds. ScreenTailor is a native macOS recorder-and-editor aimed at exactly those failures — record the flow, then make every step legible before you share it.
Make every click followable
Screen recordings get watched in small players, where full-desktop captures turn buttons into specks. Record just the app with a pixel-exact region, then add an eased zoom at each click so the viewer's eye lands where yours did. A spotlight or arrow from the effects palette handles the moments zoom is too much.
Survive the sound-off viewer
Half your audience watches muted. Captions that name each step — "Open Settings → License", "Paste the key" — keep the tutorial usable without narration, and a style preset keeps every caption consistent across the whole series. Here's how to add captions step by step.
Fix the flub, keep the take
The worst tutorial tax is take seven of a nine-step flow because step eight went wrong. Checkpoint Recording splits the take into clips as you record — flub a step, re-record that clip, and the other eight stand.
A tutorial workflow that holds up
- Frame the app in a 16:9 region so the video drops cleanly into your docs or platform.
- Record with narration; drop a checkpoint before each tricky step.
- In the editor: trim dead air, zoom on the clicks, caption the steps, blur anything private.
- Export a share-ready MP4 — and grab an annotated still of the key screen for the written version.
Record your next tutorial with ScreenTailor
Free download for macOS 12 and later — Apple Silicon & Intel. Every editing tool is free.
Get ScreenTailor — freeFrequently asked questions
What's the best way to record a software tutorial on a Mac?
Record the app region rather than the whole desktop, zoom in whenever you click something small, caption each step so it works with the sound off, and cut the dead air before exporting. A recorder with a built-in editor like ScreenTailor covers all four without switching apps.
How do I avoid re-recording the whole tutorial after one mistake?
Record in clips. ScreenTailor's Checkpoint Recording drops a marker mid-take, so when you fumble a step you re-record just that clip — the rest of the take stays.
Do viewers really watch tutorials without sound?
Very often — in an office, on a docs page, in a Slack thread. Captions that name each step keep the tutorial usable either way, and they help non-native speakers follow along too.