How to record a tutorial (software demo or how-to video)

A good tutorial video does one thing well: it shows someone exactly how to do something on screen, step by step, so they can follow along. Whether it is a software walkthrough, a coding demo or a how-to for your students, the recipe is the same — capture your screen clearly, narrate each step, make clicks and keys visible, and cut the fumbling afterward. Here is how to record a tutorial that people can actually follow.

Plan the steps first

The most common tutorial mistake is winging it and wandering. Before recording, jot down the steps in order — even five bullet points is enough. Open the app or files you need ahead of time, close anything distracting, and know your starting point. A little planning means fewer restarts and a tutorial that goes straight to the point.

Capture: screen, voice, clicks

Start a recorder that captures your screen and microphone at once, so your narration lines up with what you are doing. If your tutorial involves an app that plays sound (a video, a notification you are demonstrating), make sure it records system audio too, not just your mic.

For anything involving software, the game-changer is showing input: click highlights (a ring appears where you click) and keystroke overlays (the keys you press appear on screen). Without these, viewers constantly ask "wait, what did you click?" Built-in screen recorders generally don’t offer them; a purpose-built tool does.

Make each step obvious

Screens are busy. Help the viewer’s eye land on the right spot:

• Zoom in on the exact button, field or line of code you are talking about, then zoom back out.
• Annotate live — circle, underline or draw an arrow to the thing that matters as you say it.
• Go one step at a time and pause briefly after each, so viewers can follow or replicate.

These small touches are the difference between "I got lost" and "I did exactly what you did."

Trim the fumbles, add captions

Tutorials are full of little detours — a wrong menu, a "hang on", a long pause while a page loads. You don’t have to nail it live; record naturally and cut those out afterward. Tools that let you edit by deleting words in the auto-generated transcript make this quick: delete the sentence where you fumbled, and the matching video is removed too — no timeline required.

Finish with captions — many people watch tutorials muted or in a second language, and captions also let them skim to the step they need. Penbeam brings this together: record with click and keystroke overlays, zoom and annotation, then auto-generate subtitles and cut filler right after recording, and export a clean MP4. Everything is processed locally. Record the tutorial once, tidy it in a couple of minutes, and share.