FLO Student Support

Annotating as you record

The recorder has some basic inbuilt annotation tools you can use to add drawing, highlights etc to the content on screen as you record. You can use these tools over the top of any content displayed on your screen, including slides, images, and websites. 

You can use the annotation tools once you've started a screen recording. You can pause the recording while you add the annotation, if that works better for your style of video, but you don't have to.

• On the recording toolbar, click the pencil icon to open the annotations menu.
  
  
  
  
• Choose the annotation tool you want to use,
  
  

  The pencil icon allows free-form drawing. Select the ink colour and pen width, then draw. 
  

  The arrow icon lets you click and drag to draw arrow shapes. e.g to point at something on screen. Select the ink colour and line width, then click and drag to draw the arrow.  

  The T icon allows you to add a text box and type into it. Select the text colour and size, click and draw a textbox, then type into it.  

  

  

  

  
  
• Add your annotation. It'll stay on screen as an overlay, so if you scroll up or down or otherwise move or change the content underneath, the annotation won't move with the content. 
  
  

  You can use the Select icon to select and move/resize the annotation if need be.  

  To stop annotating and use your mouse cursor again, click the cursor icon.

  To clear the annotations, click the bin icon. This will delete all of the annotations on screen.  

  

  

  

The Whiteboard tool

This is a blank white 'canvas' that you can draw on electronically to create basic graphics and diagrams. Using this works best if you have a tablet and stylus to work with; drawing with a mouse is a bit clunky. This option can be useful for 'explainer' segments in an assignment video, where you'd like to illustrate a concept you're covering in your assignment as you discuss it. These 'drawing style' annotations are a good option if the graphic element doesn't need to be precise or perfect. 

Start a screen recording, then access the whiteboard as follows:

• On the recording toolbar, click the pencil icon to open the annotations menu, then click the whiteboard icon.  
  
  
  
  
• A whiteboard pop-up window appears over the the top of what's on your screen. Note: You can't adjust the size. Use the annotation menu to select the drawing pencil, arrow, or text tool, and add annotations to the whiteboard. 
  
  
  
  
• Before you stop the recording, decide whether you want to keep a copy of it as an image. 

• If you don't want to save it, just stop your recording. 
• If you want to save it, pause your recording, the click the download icon to save a copy. The system will launch a save window where you can name the file (it'll be a .jpg image file) and specify the save location.  
  
  
  

• When you finish the recording, save and upload your video as per the usual process (explained above).