Using the Screen Recording Feature in MS PowerPoint to Record Demonstrations

Instructional Guide: Using the Screen Recording Feature in MS PowerPoint to Record Demonstrations

Overview

• This is a useful and simple feature of PowerPoint that allows you to create a video to capture whatever you are doing on your computer screen, with narration/audio explanations. This is critical for those of us who use software other than PowerPoint (e.g. computer simulations) as teaching resources.

• The video can be left embedded in a PowerPoint presentation (as intended), or saved to disk as a Media file (.MP4 format) for editing/compression/uploading as desired.

• A recording of 4:49 minutes with pointer recording and audio is around 13.7 MB. Once saved, compression software like VLC or Handbrake can be used to reduce the file size.

Prepared By: Mary-Anne Good, School of Education

Instructional Guide

Step 1:

Open an existing, or create a new presentation.

Step 2:

Insert a blank slide, or remove the unnecessary boxes from the title screen to create a blank slide if you are not going to embed the video in the ppt.

Step 3:

Click on the ‘Insert’ menu/tab, and then ‘Screen Recording’ option on the far right of the screen.

Step 4:

The ppt will be minimized and the menu on the right will appear at the top of the screen with your Desktop as the background. The cursor will have changed into a black cross. The first step is to define the portion of the screen for recording (‘Select Area’ option). At this point use your mouse to draw a rectangle (black with a dashed red border) anywhere, and any size on the screen. You can change the recording area once you have opened the programme that you want to use for the recording.

Step 5:

Open the application that you want to use for the recording/ demonstration. Resize to fit below the recording menu and then redefine your recording area. Click on ‘Select Area’ to remove the previous area and define a new one around your application, as shown in the next image below.

Step 6:

Decide on whether you want to record the movements of the mouse pointer and/or audio (Make sure that your sound is enabled and on for the latter). Both will record if they are highlighted in peach as in the image above. Click on the options to disable them if they are not required.

Step 7:

Now either click on ‘Record’ or use ‘Shift + Windows logo key + R’ to start the recording. Do whatever you want to demonstrate with the application, providing the narration/audio while you are working.

Step 8:

Once the demonstration is complete, click on ‘Stop recording’ or use the shortcut ‘Shift + Windows logo key + Q’ to stop the recording. The video will automatically be embedded in your ppt slide. Click on the ‘Play’ button to review the recording.

Step 9:

If you are unhappy with the recording then simply delete and repeat the process to do a new recording.

Step 10:

To save the recording as a Media file, right-click on the video. The menu that appears should include an option to ‘Save Media as…’. Click on this option and then save to the location where you want the file to be. The default file name is Media followed by a number. The video can now be viewed/edited/ compressed using any programme that can work with MP4 files (e.g. Windows Media Player, VLC Media Player)

Step 11:

If you choose to leave the video embedded in a ppt, then clicking on the recording brings up menus for Video Tools for both formatting and playing back the video.

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