How to Record a Webinar in 5 Steps [Free & Easy]

July 7, 2023
By Erkki Muuga

How to record a webinar so that your ideas can truly shine and get your audience excited? How to record and publish your own webinar or web seminar?

In this article you’ll learn step-by-step how to record a webinar on Windows or Mac using screen recording and webinar recording software.

We’ll cover in detail how to use a screen recorder to capture your computer screen with slides in full screen and include a webcam video feed. You’ll find recording a webinar easy if you follow this step-by-step guide.

Follow these 5 steps to record a webinar:

Step 1: Choose Your Screen Recording Software

There are tons of screen recording software out there which allows you to record your entire screen and capture your webcam video as well.

There are also tons of free webinar recording software out there. By using some of the free webinar software platforms, you can also run a live webinar session, which has a built-in automatic webinar recorder.

However, in this section, we’ll focus on recording a webinar and producing a video file as a result. That video file can later be used to create pre-recorded webinars using automated webinar software.

How to Record a Webinar on Windows?

To record a webinar presentation, we recommend downloading the Movavi Screen Recorder or the OBS Software, which are free screen recorders.

It’s a widely popular free recording software, which lets you:

You can record your webcam video and record your screen (for showing your powerpoint presentation).

OBS is one of the most popular video recording software with a robust control center. It can also be used to record game clips, streaming for any xbox app or mobile device screen capture.

How to Record a Webinar on Mac?

To record a webinar on Mac, you can actually follow the same steps as laid out before. The same OBS Software is available for Mac as well.

Alternatively, you can use the Mac native QuickTime Player, which is already installed on your Mac. It’s actually a viable webinar recording software.

Once you launch QuickTime Player, go to File -> New Screen Recording.

From there, a small recording box will appear on your screen. Just click the record button and it will create a new screen recording and capture everything that happens on your whole screen.

To stop the screen recording, click on the tiny “Stop” button at the top of your screen to stop recording.

After that, the screen recorder will prompt you to save your screen recording file. By default the screen recording file is saved to the “Movies” folder.

Step 2: Create Ideal Settings for Recording Webinars

Creating the ideal settings to record webinars comes down to the webinar recording software and the webinar hosts. In this section, we’ll prepare both.

Prepare Your Recording Software

Before you start recording videos, let’s prepare all the features for quality recording. In the OBS screen recorder, you can access the recording options in the bottom left control center.

Set up different presets for your screen capture video. For example:

Screen capture your whole screen or specify a recording area.
Show only a web page on your browser tab.
Insert your webcam video feed into the screen as well. You can adjust how large you want it to be. You can also make your webcam video feed as a circle profile.
Create presets on the bottom left corner, so you can switch between:
1. Entire screen for slideshow
2. Defined recording area of the screen
3. Entire screen for webcam
4. Recording tab on your internet browser
5. Combination of any of these

I do recommend inputting the webcam video feed (the camera icon). Showing your face helps to create a better connection with your audience.

During your screen recording, you can easily switch between these presets. For example, you can show the entire screen only with a single click. Then switch to show only the host with another single click.

Another vital part of your recording options is the video output quality and format. Here are the recommended video recording output settings:

Be sure to configure your microphone sound as well. First of all, check your system audio icon on Windows and make sure your computer recognizes the microphone. Once you see the microphone sound receive the input, you can further configure if the microphone volume level is right.

Do a test round and hit the “Record” button, say something in your normal talking voice and then stop recording. The local recording file will be stored in your My Videos folder on Windows.

For Mac computers, all the recorded videos will be stored in your main Movies folder.

Prepare Your Environment and Yourself

Delivering your webinar content is at least equally important part of the recording process. Before you start recording, follow this checklist and make sure you:

It’s worth going over some important webinar tips to ensure you have the ideal settings and preparation to record a webinar.

Step 3: Record the Webinar Presentation

If you’ve made it here, you’re ready to begin recording a webinar.

You can access screen recording controls at the bottom right corner. Just hit the “Start Recording” button to start.

You can pause recording at any time and resume when you’re ready. If you pause recording, it will continue recording to the same video file.

Hit the “Stop Recording” to when you’re done with a section. This will save the captured video file.

When you’re just learning how to record a webinar, it might take you several attempts of going through the recording process before you get the recorded webinar raw footage into how you want it to be. And that’s okay.

Check each output file. If you’re not satisfied, you can easily record the doubtful parts again. Once you’ve already started recording, make sure you will have enough material and you don’t have to recreate the same recording environment again.

Step 4: Edit the Webinar Recording

The great thing about a pre-recorded webinar is that you can review it, redo some parts and edit it to perfection before you publish it.

To edit your webinar recording, you would need a third party video editing software.

I recommend downloading DaVinci Resolve video editing software.

It’s a very powerful video editor and it’s completely free!

If you’re a Mac user, you can also use DaVinci Resolve, but keep in mind to download the Mac version of the software. Get the Mac download here.

An alternative option to edit your webinar recording on a Mac, you can use the iMovie, which is natively available on your Mac.

Some tips on editing your webinar video:

You might also want to remove the background or any unwanted sounds to ensure clear and crisp audio quality throughout the video.

It’s recommended to also add a downloadable video transcript. Especially if you’re recording a webinar that will be evergreen. Having a written video transcript enables your webinar attendees to search within the webinar video.

Finally, export the new movie recording file and proceed to the next step.

Step 5: Publish the Webinar Recording to a Webinar Platform

If you’ve made it this far, you already have your pre-recorded webinar file and you’re ready to publish it.

There are 2 main ways you can publish the webinar recording and create webinar sessions out of it – hosting automated webinars or hosting hybrid webinars.

Run Automated Webinar Series

Hosting an automated webinar series allows you to schedule the webinar sessions to automatically run on certain times and set them completely on autopilot. Attendees can play them on computers or mobile devices.

Each attendee is still required to register for the automated webinar before they’re allowed to have access to the webinar recording. This allows you to capture their contact details and use it as a lead generation tool.

Your webinar recording will be played to every registered attendee on demand. If you’re using the best automated webinar platforms, you can even set up automatic audience engagement triggers, like polls, chat messages and call-to-actions.

This is especially helpful if you’re running automatic sales webinars. One excellent tool for that is WebinarKit.

Host Hybrid Webinar Sessions

Hybrid Webinar is a combination of a live webinar and automated webinar. It’s still using the pre-recorded webinar video, but you are still in the webinar room as the session goes on.

Since you don’t have to focus on delivering the webinar content, you can fully focus on audience engagement.

In case you want to host live, automated and hybrid webinars with rich audience engagement features, then an excellent tool for that is BigMarker.

Frequently Asked Questions When Recording a Webinar

Can I Use a Webinar Recording from a Live Webinar?

Yes, if you’ve used a live webinar platform to host your webinar sessions, you can simply export your live recording file.

Most of the best webinar software have a built-in webinar recorder, which will automatically record webinars on every session. Then you can repurpose the webinar recording and use them in automated webinar series.

Can I use the Movavi Screen Recorder and Video Editor?

Yes, the Movavi screen recorder is a great tool for screen recordings.

Movavi also has a Video Editor software available.

However, both of them are not free to use all the features. The Movavi screen recorder is a paid tool. The Personal license costs $39.95 one-time fee for a lifetime access. It has a free version, but it leaves a watermark on the recording export.

The Movavi Video Editor also costs $39.95 for a single license. It also has a free 7-day trial.

How to Record a Webinar with Zoom?

Yes, you can use the Zoom desktop app or the Zoom mobile app to record a session.

Keep in mind that in order to host webinars with Zoom, you would have to purchase the Webinars add-on. You can still record a Zoom meeting for free, though. Just hit “Start recording” when you start the meeting.

The Zoom recordings are stored in this destination folder for Windows users: C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Zoom

On Mac computers, they are stored in: /Users/[Username]/Documents/Zoom

Key Takeaways for How to Record a Webinar

To summarize how to record a webinar, first you need to download a screen recorder like OBS or Movavi screen recorder.

Then configure the settings and decide if you only want to record your screen or do you want to capture your webcam video feed as well. Configure the microphone settings and do a couple of test runs.

Before you start recording, make sure your environment is silent and you have rehearsed what you’re going to say. Know your slides and smile.

Once you’re done pre-recording a webinar, import all the recording files into a video editing software. Cut, edit and match them together and ultimately export the file.

If you’ve followed all these steps on how to record a webinar, then you can pat yourself on the back. Congratulations! You’ve just recorded, edited and published your own webinar.

To create automated sales funnels with webinars, we recommend using an automated webinar platform

12 best autowebinar platforms rated and compared

Erkki Muuga

Erkki has over 10 years of experience as a software product manager and a proven track record in building and growing SaaS products. He has a keen eye for key differentiating factors and spotting truly valuable software features that enable business use cases.