How to Record Your Screen With Microsoft PowerPoint

How to Record Your Screen With Microsoft PowerPoint

If you have been looking for an easy way to do a quick screen recording or screenshot on your computer, you don't need to look for any special software other than one which you might already have which is the Microsoft PowerPoint. Yep, you read correctly! Microsoft’s software for creating slides and presentations actually has a screen recording function hidden in its tools.

To create a PowerPoint screen recording, open up a new presentation or an existing one, and then do the following:

1. Go to the Powerpoint Insert tab and click on Screen Recording.
2. In the dock that comes up, click Select Area or use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Shift + A.
3. Using the crosshairs tool that comes up, click and drag to select the part of your screen that you want to record.
4. By default, both the audio and the mouse pointer are recorded. If you do not want to record them, click the buttons that are in the dock to remove them.
5. Click on the Record button or use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Shift + R to start the recording. You can also use this shortcut to pause and continue the recording. You can switch over to a different program or window and PowerPoint would keep recording.
6. After you have finished your recording, move your mouse point back to where the dock was and it would reappear. Click on the Stop button or use the keyboard shortcut Windows key + Shift + Q to end the recording. (If you want to pin the system doc during recording, click on the pin icon in the bottom right corner.)
7. To save the recording to your files, right-click on the still shot of the video and select Save Media As.
8. In the dialog box that comes up, you can enter your desired file name and file location, and click on Save.

This feature works only on computers that are running Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 and also the updated versions of PowerPoint 2013.

How to Take a Screenshot With Microsoft PowerPoint

You can also use PowerPoint to take screenshots. What is especially convenient about using PowerPoint to take screenshots is that you can easily select any of your open windows to capture a screen, with the click of one button.

1. Create a new presentation and go to Insert then click on Screenshot.
2. You will see a grid of all the windows that are windows on your computer, with the exception of minimized windows.
3. Click on the window you want to take a screenshot of. If you would rather select an area on the screen, click on Screen Clipping. This would minimize the PowerPoint window, therefore, allowing you to click and drag to take a screenshot of whatever is directly behind the PowerPoint window.
4. The screenshot would appear in PowerPoint. To save it to your computer right-click the image and click on Save as a picture.
5. In the dialog box that comes up, you can select the name, file format (e.g. JPG, PDF, PNG, BMP, GIF), and the file location.

This feature works on both Mac and PCs that are running Microsoft PowerPoint 2016 and updated versions of 2013.