Zoom and trim are the two most-used timeline edits in Open Recorder. Zoom smoothly punches in to a region of the video so viewers can focus on a specific area of the screen; trim removes unwanted seconds from the middle or ends of a clip without touching the source file. Both edits are applied at export time — your original recording is never modified.Documentation Index
Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.openrecorder.xyz/llms.txt
Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
Adding a zoom region
To add a zoom region manually, move the playhead to the moment you want the zoom to start and press Z. Open Recorder places a one-second zoom region starting at that position. You can also click directly on the zoom layer row at any position to drop a region there. Once placed, click the region to select it and use the inspector panel on the right to adjust the following settings.Zoom depth
The depth controls how far in the camera zooms. The available values are:| Value | Label |
|---|---|
| 1.0 | 1x (no zoom) |
| 1.25 | 1.25x |
| 1.5 | 1.5x |
| 1.75 | 1.75x (default) |
| 2.0 | 2x |
Focus point
The focus point determines which part of the frame the zoom centers on. It is expressed as a normalized X/Y coordinate (0–1 in each axis). A value of 0.5 × 0.5 centers the zoom on the middle of the frame. Drag the focus point crosshair in the inspector to reposition it, or set it numerically. Adjusting the focus point automatically switches the region to manual mode.Zoom mode: auto vs manual
Each zoom region has a mode property:- Manual — you placed and configured the region yourself. The focus point and depth are exactly what you set.
- Auto — the region was generated by the auto-zoom feature. Auto regions are labeled with an “Auto” badge on the timeline pill.
Zoom animation
Open Recorder applies a smoothstep ease-in over 0.22 s at the start of each zoom region and a smoothstep ease-out over 0.25 s at the end. These ramp durations are capped at 40% of the region’s total duration for very short regions. The result is a smooth, natural-feeling zoom that never snaps abruptly.Auto-zoom
Open Recorder can generate zoom regions for you automatically based on click telemetry captured during recording. The generator looks for mouse click events, groups nearby clicks into clusters, and creates a zoom region that starts just before each cluster and holds for 1.35 s after the last click in the group.Enabling auto-zoom
To have Open Recorder generate zooms immediately after every recording, go to Settings → Recording and turn on Create zooms automatically. After each recording stops, Open Recorder runs the generator and populates the timeline with auto zoom regions before you see the editor. You can also regenerate auto-zooms for an existing recording at any time from within the editor. Auto-zooms use the default depth of 1.75x and set the focus point to the location of the last click in each cluster.Auto-zoom requires that cursor telemetry was captured during the recording. Telemetry is only recorded when Open Recorder has Accessibility permission. Without it, click data is unavailable and the generator produces no regions.
How the generator clusters clicks
Clicks that occur within 0.9 s of each other are merged into a single cluster. The generator leaves a minimum gap of 0.2 s between consecutive zoom regions. Each generated region starts 0.25 s before the first click in the cluster.Adding a trim region
Use clip splitting to remove sections of a recording. Press T at the current playhead position to split the clip at that point. This divides the clip into separate segments on the timeline. You can then select a segment and delete it, or adjust clip speeds per segment. The source recording file is never modified. Splits exist only in the project file and are discarded if you reset the timeline.Crop and resize output
To change the framing of the output video — for example, to crop to a specific region of the screen — click the Crop button in the video preview toolbar to open the crop dialog. The crop dialog lets you:- Drag a crop rectangle directly over the video frame
- Type exact pixel dimensions and position in the toolbar fields
- Choose a preset aspect ratio from the Any / 16:9 / 4:3 / 1:1 / Custom menu
- Fine-tune position and size with the arrow keys (1 px) or ⇧ arrow (10 px); hold ⌘ with an arrow key to adjust width or height instead of position