10 Screen Recording Tips: Create Better Video Tutorials

Screen recording has become one of the most effective ways to create video tutorials—whether it’s for software demos, training and development, onboarding guides, or how-to videos. It allows you to show and tell, making it incredibly easy for end users to understand how to perform a specific task.

As more businesses shift toward video documentation for customer education and product support, those still relying solely on static documents are quickly falling behind. Video tutorials not only boost engagement but also simplify complex processes through visual clarity.

In this blog, we’ll guide you through 10 essential screen recording tips to help you create clean, professional, and engaging tutorials. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to refine your workflow, these best practices will make the process smoother—and stick around till the end where we’ll introduce a tool to help you create high-quality screen recordings with ease.

Tip 1: Set the Purpose of Your Video Tutorial Before Recording

Before hitting "record," it’s crucial to determine the purpose of your screen recording video. Whether you’re demonstrating software features, walking through a task, or creating employee training videos, your recording’s goal shapes everything from what you show to how you explain it.

Think about:

What action or result do you want the viewer to achieve?

e.g., installing software, learning a feature, completing a task

Who is your audience?

e.g., beginners vs. advanced users, internal staff vs. customers

What’s the best format for your tutorial?

e.g., step-by-step guide, high-level overview, or troubleshooting walkthrough

By defining your video’s purpose early, you ensure that your content stays focused, your screen recording is concise, and your tutorial delivers maximum value.

Tip 2: Script or Outline Your Steps for a Smooth Flow

Once you’ve defined the purpose of your video tutorial, the next crucial step is to script or outline your content. Pre-planning is key to ensuring a smooth and professional screen recording.

Here’s why:

1. Keeps your narration on point: A script or outline helps you stay focused, avoid rambling, and make sure you cover everything clearly.
2. Eliminates filler content: Without a plan, you risk long pauses or irrelevant information that can distract or confuse viewers.
3. Improves pacing: By outlining your steps, you can ensure the flow of the tutorial is logical, helping your audience follow along easily.

Whether you jot down bullet points or write a full script, taking a few minutes to plan will lead to a more efficient recording process and a higher-quality tutorial.

Tip 3: Prepare a Clean Workspace for a Professional Look

Before starting to record your screen, it’s important to clean up your digital workspace. A cluttered desktop or multiple open tabs can distract viewers and diminish the professionalism of your video tutorial.

To ensure a clean, distraction-free recording:

1. Close unnecessary tabs and applications that won’t be part of the tutorial.
2. Turn off notifications—both system pop-ups and messaging alerts, to avoid interruptions.
3. Organize your desktop by hiding files or using a clean virtual workspace.

By preparing your workspace, you not only create a polished and professional look but also help keep your viewers focused on the content without any visual distractions.

Tip 4: Use the Right Screen Recording Tool for Quality and Ease

Choosing the right screen recording tool is essential for creating high-quality video tutorials. The right software can make your recording process smoother and the final product much more professional.

When evaluating a tool, look for these key features:

1. HD Video Recording and Capture: Ensure your tool records both the screen and your actions in crisp, high-definition quality, so your viewers get a clear, professional experience.
2. AI-Powered Voiceovers and Avatars: Recording your own voice can be cumbersome, requiring quality equipment and careful editing. With AI voiceovers, you can easily add narration to your tutorials, even creating a custom AI avatar to enhance engagement without needing a microphone or voice recording setup.
3. The Tool You Choose Should Have a Chrome Extension for Quick Access: For maximum convenience, choose a tool that comes with a Chrome extension. This allows you to start recording directly from your browser, eliminating the need to open a separate application. This feature makes creating tutorials faster and easier, especially for web-based apps or software demos. Check out our list of Top Chrome Extensions for Screen Recording to find the best options available.

Tip 5: Record with Clear Narration and Easy-to-Follow Steps

When creating video tutorials, clear narration is key to helping your viewers follow along. A well-paced, articulate explanation ensures your audience grasps each step without confusion.

To make your narration effective:

1. Use simple, clear language that aligns with the viewer’s skill level—avoid jargon unless necessary.
2. Speak slowly and with a natural cadence so the information is easy to digest.
3. Guide viewers through each step in an organized, easy-to-follow manner. Break down tasks into smaller, manageable actions for smoother understanding.

Tip 6: Use Visual Cues and Cursor Highlights

In screen recording tutorials, visual cues are essential for guiding your viewers through the steps. Adding elements like cursor highlights, zooms, and click effects helps keep viewers engaged and ensures they can easily follow your instructions.

1. Cursor Highlights: Make your cursor stand out with a bright, bold color or a circle around it, so viewers can easily track what you're pointing to.
2. Zoom In on Important Sections: Use zooms to focus on critical areas of your screen, especially when explaining small details or important features.
3. Click Effects or Annotations: Highlight clicks with a visual effect or add annotations to emphasize key points. This not only helps viewers understand the actions but also makes the tutorial more engaging.

Tip 7: Keep Each Recording Focused and Short

One of the most important aspects of creating effective tutorials is ensuring they are concise and to the point. Long-winded videos can lose the viewer's attention, so it’s essential to keep each video focused on a specific task or concept.

1. Break Long Topics into Chapters or Parts: If you have a lengthy topic, consider dividing it into smaller segments. This makes the content easier to consume and allows viewers to watch sections at their own pace.
2. Better Engagement and Retention: Shorter videos, especially those under 10 minutes, tend to have higher viewer retention rates. By staying focused and offering just the right amount of information, you’ll keep your audience engaged and more likely to finish the video.

Tip 8: Edit to Remove Mistakes and Pauses

Editing plays a critical role in ensuring your video is polished and professional. Remove unnecessary mistakes, awkward pauses, or irrelevant sections to keep the flow smooth and engaging.

1. Trim Fluff and Speed Up Loading Screens: Cut out any long pauses, repeated actions, or sections where nothing is happening, like loading screens or waiting times. Speed up these parts to maintain viewer interest.
2. Add Titles, Captions, and Transitions: Titles can help introduce new sections, while captions provide clarity for viewers. Adding smooth transitions between sections improves the viewing experience and makes the tutorial flow more naturally.
3. Support Multiple Languages for Global Audiences: Consider adding voiceovers, subtitles or captions in multiple languages to make your tutorials accessible to a global audience. This not only increases the reach of your content but also helps non-native speakers follow along more easily.

Tip 9: Export and Host Your Screen Recording in the Right Format

Once your screen recording is complete, it's essential to export it in the right format to maintain video quality and keep file sizes manageable. Hosting your videos in a knowledge base or a centralized platform ensures your audience can easily find and access all related content in one place.

1. Host All Related Videos in a Knowledge Base: Centralize all your tutorials, training videos, and how-to guides in a video knowledge base or training platform. This provides a common place where users can find everything they need, creating a seamless experience. Ensure the video format is compatible with your hosting platform to allow for smooth streaming and easy access.
2. Ideal Export Settings for Web: Export your videos in MP4 format with 1080p resolution. MP4 is the most widely accepted format for web video, providing excellent quality without overly large file sizes. This is especially important for smooth streaming and fast loading.
3. Maintain Quality Without Bloating File Size: While exporting, adjust the video settings for optimal resolution and compression to ensure high-quality playback while keeping the file size manageable. This will prevent long load times and ensure a smooth viewing experience for your users.

Tip 10: Practice and Refine Your Process

Great screen recording doesn’t happen overnight. The more you create, the better your workflow, delivery, and editing will become.

1. Review and Learn from Each Recording: After publishing, watch your own tutorials as a viewer. Identify moments that felt unclear, rushed, or too slow, and take notes for future improvement.
2. Gather Feedback: Share your video tutorials with a small audience—colleagues, team members, or early users—and ask for honest feedback. Insights about audio clarity, pacing, or visual flow can be incredibly valuable.
3. Refine Your Setup and Workflow: With every recording, you’ll find ways to speed up the process—be it script writing, tool usage, editing shortcuts, or exporting settings. Optimize and document your process so you can scale tutorial creation without sacrificing quality.

By continuously improving, you’ll build a smooth, repeatable system for producing clean, engaging screen recordings that get better every time.

Best Tool for Screen Recording: Why WowTo Stands Out

Choosing the right screen recording tool is key to creating tutorials that are both professional and easy to produce. WowTo is purpose-built for anyone looking to create high-quality video tutorials without the complexity.

Here’s what makes WowTo a powerful choice:

1. HD Screen Recording – Capture sharp, clear visuals ideal for product walkthroughs, training modules, and how-to videos.
2. AI Voiceovers & Avatars – Skip the need for recording your own voice. WowTo lets you generate realistic voiceovers in multiple languages using AI, saving time and ensuring consistency.
3. Chrome Extension for Quick Recording – Launch recordings instantly from your browser, making it ideal for web-based tutorials and SaaS demos.
4. Built-In Knowledge Base Hosting – Host and organize all your tutorial videos in one place with a ready-to-use knowledge base your users can easily search and navigate.

With WowTo, screen recording becomes a streamlined, scalable process—perfect for businesses that want to educate, onboard, or support users efficiently. Start today to record your video tutorials and effortlessly host them on a no-code knowledge base, complete with multilingual support to serve your global audience.

Get started for free.