How to make a product demo video
Last updated 2026-11-02
To make a product demo video, record your screen, then edit it. Cut dead time and mistakes, zoom into the part of the interface that matters, add arrows and captions, lay a voiceover under it, and export at the size each place needs. Show one job from start to finish, not every feature. Woven Video, a Mac editor, does the editing by chat or on a timeline.
What a demo video is for
A product demo video shows software or an app doing a real job, so a viewer can decide whether it fits their problem. It is not a feature tour and it is not a tutorial. A tutorial teaches every step; a demo shows the shortest path to a result that someone wants.
Most teams end up with a few cuts of the same recording, each for a different place. The lengths below are this guide's advice, not platform rules.
| Cut | Where it plays | What it shows | Length to aim for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Website demo | Landing page or pricing page | The one job the product is bought for, start to finish, with a voiceover or captions | 60 to 120 seconds |
| Walkthrough | YouTube, help center, onboarding email | A fuller path through the product for people who already care | 2 to 5 minutes |
| Social cut | Shorts, Reels, TikTok, LinkedIn | One result, shown fast, with captions, in the frame shape the feed uses | 15 to 45 seconds |
| Sales or follow-up demo | Email or chat to one buyer | The path that matches what that buyer asked about | 1 to 3 minutes |
A simple structure for a demo
Plan the demo before you record, even if the plan is four lines. The order below works for most software and apps. Give each part the time it needs, but keep the order.
- The problem, first 5 to 10 seconds. State the situation your viewer is in, in their words: the spreadsheet that takes an hour, the report nobody reads. Show the starting screen, not a logo.
- One job, start to finish. Pick the single task people buy the product for and do it once, in real order, without skipping the middle. A viewer trusts what they watch happen.
- The result. Hold on the finished output long enough to read it: the dashboard filled in, the file exported, the message sent.
- A call to action. One ask, on screen and said aloud: try it, book a call, read the docs. Keep the address on screen long enough to read twice.
Record the screen on a Mac
Woven is an editor and does not record, so capture the screen first. Apple's Screenshot tool does it. Press Shift-Command-5, or open Screenshot from Spotlight, to show the toolbar. Choose Record the entire screen, Record a window or Record a portion of the screen, then click Record. Click the Stop Recording button in the menu bar to finish.
Before you record, open the Options menu. Save to sets the folder, Timer sets a delay before recording starts, Microphone lets you pick an input or None, and Show Mouse Pointer includes the pointer. Apple says the recording is saved as a .mov file whose name starts with Screen Recording and the date and time.
QuickTime Player uses the same tools: choose File, then New Screen Recording, and it opens Screenshot. Woven imports MOV, MP4 and M4V video, so the .mov goes straight in.
Recording checklist
A clean recording saves more time than any editing trick. Run through this list before you press Record.
- Write the click path. List the exact steps in order. Rehearse once without recording, so the real take has no wrong turns.
- Use real-looking data. Fill the product with believable names, numbers and content. Remove anything private: real customer names, email addresses, keys and tokens.
- Quiet the screen. Close other windows, tidy the desktop and turn off notifications so nothing pops in mid-take.
- Make the interface big. Increase browser zoom or the app's text size so labels stay readable on a phone screen.
- Move slowly and pause before clicks. Rest the pointer on a button for a moment before you click. It gives the viewer time to see it and gives you room to zoom later.
- Record in short takes. One take per step is easier to cut than one long take. If you slip, pause, then repeat the step from its start.
- Capture at your screen's full size. A recording with more pixels than your final video gives a zoom something to work with.
- Decide on the voice. Talk live while you record, or record the screen in silence and add a voiceover after. A voiceover recorded separately is usually cleaner and is easy to redo.
Edit the recording
The edit turns a raw recording into a demo. Do these in this order, because each step changes where the next one lands.
- Cut first. Remove the start where you get set up, wrong clicks, long waits and any stumble. If you narrated, cut the long pauses and filler words too. Close each gap so the demo keeps moving.
- Speed up waits. A progress bar, an upload or a build that you cannot cut is better sped up than shown at real speed. A constant faster speed such as 4x reads as a fast-forward. Say on screen or aloud that it is sped up, so nobody thinks the product is that fast.
- Zoom into what matters. A full screen recording makes everything small. Zoom into the button, field or result you are talking about, then come back out. Start the zoom as you mention the thing, and use it only where it helps; a demo that is always zooming is tiring.
- Point at it. Add an arrow, a circle or a highlight for the one thing to look at, and a short label when the interface does not explain itself. Remove it when you move on.
- Add the voiceover, then captions. Place the voice, then caption the finished cut so the words match the edit. Some viewers watch with the sound off, so captions keep the demo understandable.
- Put music under the voice. A quiet instrumental bed makes a demo feel finished. Keep it low enough that every word is clear, and lower it further where you say something important.
- Finish with the call to action. End on one clear ask and the address, not a long outro.
Export for each place
Choose the canvas for where the demo will play, then export. YouTube's help calls 16:9 the standard aspect ratio on a computer, and it counts square or vertical videos up to three minutes long as Shorts. TikTok's ads help recommends a vertical 9:16 frame for in-feed ads. A wide frame also suits a website or an email.
A wide screen recording does not fill a tall frame. Either crop to the part of the interface that matters, which is often a better demo anyway, or record a narrow window in the first place. Check the result frame by frame, since the interface text must stay readable.
Each platform has its own size, length and safe-area rules, and they change. For Instagram, LinkedIn and other feeds, check the size guides on this site rather than trusting a remembered number: YouTube video resolution, social media video sizes and horizontal to vertical video are linked below.
| Where it plays | Shape | Woven canvas |
|---|---|---|
| YouTube, website, landing page, email | 16:9, wide | Horizontal 1920x1080 |
| YouTube Shorts, TikTok and other vertical feeds | 9:16, tall | Vertical 1080x1920 |
| A feed or ad that asks for a square | 1:1, square | Square 1080x1080 |
Edit a product demo video in Woven
Record the screen with Apple's Screenshot tool, then bring the .mov into Woven. Ask for the edit in chat, or do each step by hand on the timeline. In chat, Woven cuts silences and filler words from a narrated recording and can reframe a wide video for a tall frame. It does not record your screen, and it has no automatic zoom on clicks or the cursor, so you tell it where to zoom or aim the zoom yourself. Captions, hosted voiceover and generated music use Woven credits. Try Woven on a recording of your own.
Ask in chat
- Cut the long pauses and the ums from this narrated recording.
- Speed up 0:40 to 1:05 to 4x and mute it.
- Zoom in on the Export button from 0:12 to 0:16, aimed at the button.
- Circle the Export button at 0:12 and have it draw on.
- Put a pill label saying New next to the toggle and pop it in.
- Make a voiceover from this script and place it under the recording.
- Duck the music from 0:20 to 0:24 so the key line is clear.
- Make a vertical 9:16 cut for Shorts, with captions.
Or do it by hand
- 1Import and set the canvas. Choose Add, then Video, or drag the .mov from Finder onto the timeline. Open Format and choose Horizontal 1920x1080 for a website or YouTube. If the recording's shape differs from the canvas, choose Fit to see all of it or Fill to crop the edges, under Framing in the Crop tab.
- 2Cut dead time and mistakes. Put the playhead where a bad stretch starts and press ⌘B, split again where it ends, select that piece and press Delete. Drag the later clips left to close the gap. To cut pauses and filler words across a narrated recording, ask in chat.
- 3Speed up the waits. Split the wait into its own clip, select it, open Speed in the toolbar and choose 2x. For 4x or any other speed up to 16, ask in chat. Each clip has one speed, with no ramps. Press M to mute the clip.
- 4Zoom into the interface. For a fixed zoom, split the clip and slide Zoom under Framing in the Crop tab. For a moving one, choose Add, then Video Effects, and click + on Push-in or Focus Zoom. Click the effect on the Effects track, then drag the focal point onto the button or field on the Framing page. To time a zoom yourself, key the clip's Size and Position with the keyframe diamond or Option-K.
- 5Add arrows, callouts and labels. Click the + (Add) button and choose Shapes. Pick an Arrow or Circle from the Basic or Hand-drawn shelf, or choose Draw for freehand. On the Animation tab set In to Draw so it draws on, and drag it on the timeline to start on your word. For a pill label, add a Pill shape and a text box, select both and press ⌘G to group them.
- 6Add the voiceover. To use your own narration, drag the audio file from Finder onto the timeline; it lands on the Audio track. MP3, WAV, M4A, AAC and FLAC import. To generate a voice from your script, ask in chat for a voiceover. It uses Woven credits and lands in the workspace's generated folder, and the agent can place it on the timeline.
- 7Caption it. Once the voice is in, choose Add, then Generate captions. Captions come from speech, so a silent recording has none until the voiceover is added. They are burned into the exported video. Check names and product terms.
- 8Put music under the voice. Choose Add, then Audio, for your music. A track you add by hand comes in at full volume, so lower its Volume until the voice is clear. To silence it for a moment, ask in chat for a duck with start and end times. A duck silences the music fully in that window, with a short fade at each end.
- 9Export. Click Export and choose 1080p or 1440p for an H.264 MP4. For a vertical cut, set Format to Vertical 1080x1920 first and check the framing. Export from chat is always 1080p. There is no 4K export.
Common questions
A product demo video shows software or an app doing a real job, usually as a screen recording with a voiceover or captions. It shows the product solving a problem for the viewer, not a list of every feature.
There is no fixed length. As a guide, aim for 60 to 120 seconds on a website, 15 to 45 seconds for a social cut and a few minutes for a full walkthrough. If a part repeats something the viewer has already seen, cut it.
Press Shift-Command-5 to open Screenshot, choose Record the entire screen, Record a window or Record a portion of the screen, then click Record. Click Stop Recording in the menu bar to finish. Recordings save as .mov files.
Scale the clip up and aim it at the part of the interface you are describing, then come back out. In Woven, use the Zoom slider in the Crop tab, a Push-in or Focus Zoom effect, or Size and Position keyframes.
No. Woven has no automatic zoom on clicks or the cursor. You tell it where to zoom by chat, with a time and a target, or you add and aim the zoom by hand.
No. Woven is an editor and does not record the screen, a camera or a microphone. Record with Apple's Screenshot tool or QuickTime Player, then import the recording.
Record your narration in any audio app and drag the file onto the timeline, or generate one from your script. In Woven, ask in chat for a voiceover from hosted text to speech, which uses Woven credits. Then caption the finished cut.
Use 16:9 for a website or YouTube. YouTube counts square or vertical videos up to three minutes as Shorts, and TikTok's ads help recommends 9:16 for in-feed ads, so a vertical 9:16 cut suits both. For Instagram, LinkedIn and other ads, check each platform's current rules. Woven's canvases are Horizontal 1920x1080, Vertical 1080x1920 and Square 1080x1080.
Sources
- Take screenshots or screen recordings on Mac - Apple Support, checked November 2, 2026
- Record your screen in QuickTime Player on Mac - Apple Support, checked November 2, 2026
- Video resolution and aspect ratios - YouTube Help, checked November 2, 2026
- Understand three-minute YouTube Shorts - YouTube Help, checked November 2, 2026
- TikTok Auction In-Feed Ads - TikTok Ads Manager, checked November 2, 2026
Try Woven free for 3 days
Then $129/yr or $15/month on Starter, or $299/yr or $39/month on Pro. Native Mac app for long and short video.
Paste into Claude Code to install and connect Woven.