Whether you’re walking through a pitch deck, product demo, or team update, Descript makes it easy to record, edit, and polish a slideshow-style presentation — all in one place. This guide walks you through the key steps: setting up your recording, capturing your slides, and enhancing your presentation using Descript’s editing tools.

This guide focuses on recording a slideshow presentation using the Editor Recorder in Descript.

Looking to create quick, low- or no-edit screen recordings instead? You can use the Screen Recorder for fast, streamlined recordings — just note that it captures your screen and camera as a single track and offers fewer customization options. 

Record your presentation

1. Open a new or existing project in Descript, and click Record in the play dock at the bottom of the Descript Editor.

2. Choose the camera, microphone, screen, and computer audio input you'd like to record.

   • If recording in the Descript desktop app, you'll have the option to record your Entire Screen or a specific app window. The toggle for system audio can be adjusted in the bottom left corner:
     
     
     

   • If recording from a web browser, you can choose to record a single tab, a single window, or the entire screen. Audio can only be captured when recording a specific tab in a web browser.
     

     Want to record with speaker notes open?

     Choose to share just your presentation window (not your full screen)–Descript will record the window with your audience view while you read from your presenter notes.

3. Make any needed adjustments to your recording settings.

4. Do a final visual check - check the preview to ensure you're in frame. Note, there is not currently a preview for your screen or camera feed available while the recorder is running.

5. Click Record to start capturing with Descript. The recorder will run quietly in the background, allowing you to minimize the Descript window while recording your screen. 

6. Once you've completed your recording, navigate back to the Descript window, and stop recording.

Edit your presentation

Once you're finished recording, Descript will automatically group your multi-track recording into a sequence, and then insert the sequence into the script. This ensures you're able to make an edit to your script without having to manually realign your camera, microphone, and screen sharing tracks. Learn more about sequences.

Polish your presentation with Descript tools

Once you’ve recorded your presentation, you can refine it using Descript’s editing tools:

• Create scenes to match your slides – While Descript doesn’t automatically add scenes for each slide, you can insert them manually as you edit. Learn more about scenes.
• Apply layouts for a polished look – Layouts let you quickly style your video with clean framing options, background colors, and presets — no design skills needed.
• Remove filler words – Instantly cut out “ums,” “uhs,” “likes,” and other common speech fillers.
• Studio Sound – Apply this audio enhancement to remove background noise and echo, giving your voice a more polished, studio-quality feel.
• Add captions – Make your presentation more accessible. Click Captions in the sidebar to turn them on and choose a style.