Wouldn’t it be cool if you could enable pause in QuickTime for macOS? Well, you can (before macOS Catalina) and here is a demonstration.
macOS Mojave and Earlier
Once your recording starts, QuickTime for macOS may hide itself leaving only the stop button on the menu and its icon on the dock. You will want to click on the QuickTime for macOS icon on the dock and that will make it the focus on the menu where you can now click on the ‘Esc’ key on your keyboard to bring up the Screen Recording window. The Screen Recording will give you the option to pause where you can now press and hold the ‘Alt’ key on the keyboard. Please note that the action will vary between Mac and Windows keyboards as the keys are not mapped the same.
1. Click the QuickTime icon on the dock.
2. Press the ‘Esc’ key on the keyboard.
3. Press and hold the ‘Alt’ or ‘Option’ key.
4. Press the Pause button in the QuickTime window.
macOS Catalina and Later
Sadly, macOS Catalina and later versions remove the option to press and hold the ‘Alt’ key on the keyboard to bring up the pause button feature so you need to go slowly between your actions so that you have sufficient lead to use the TRIM feature in post-production. This way you can cut out private information such as email addresses, usernames and password lengths.
QuickTime App
Are you thinking of using an older copy of QuickTime? Sadly, copying the QuickTime for macOS app from Mojave or early will not work.
Virtualization
If the host is macOS Mojave or earlier and the guest is macOS Catalina and later, then record with the host with the client in fullscreen mode.
Stephan Pringle
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