> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://www.tella.com/docs/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Crop screen recordings

> How to crop a screen recording in the Tella editor to cut out your dock, tabs, and anything else you did not mean to show.

<iframe src="https://www.tella.tv/video/cmcx7cdkx000f0cl19xxpela2/embed?b=0&title=0&a=1&loop=0&t=0&muted=0&wt=0" width="100%" style={{ aspectRatio: "16/9", border: "none", borderRadius: "8px" }} allow="autoplay; fullscreen" />

Cropping your screen recordings helps you focus your viewer's attention by removing unnecessary parts of the screen, like browser toolbars, menu bars, or extra UI elements.

In this guide, we'll show you how to crop a screen recording inside Tella's video editor, whether you're working with a single clip or multiple clips with different layouts.

#### What cropping does

Cropping lets you **visually trim** your screen recording by selecting the part you want to keep, everything outside of that is hidden from view.

#### Example

Say your screen recording includes your full desktop: menu bar, browser, and slide content.

With cropping, you can isolate just the slide area and hide the rest.

## How to crop a screen recording

1. **Select the clip you want to crop**

   * Click on your screen recording in the timeline.

2. **Set the focus point or open the crop tool**

   * In **Adjust**, drag the target in the **Screen crop** preview to choose which part of the recording stays centered. Hold **Cmd** on Mac or **Ctrl** on Windows while dragging to keep the target on a horizontal or vertical line.

   * Click **Crop** beside **Screen crop** to trim the frame.

   * You'll see:

     1. A **purple crop frame** that you can drag and resize.

     2. Crop settings for **position**, **size**, and **aspect ratio** (like 16:9 or 1:1).

     3. A live preview of what your viewers will see.

3. **Adjust the crop**

   * **Freeform crop**: Choose "Custom" from the aspect ratio dropdown to move and resize freely.

   * **Constrained crop**: Choose a preset aspect ratio to maintain specific dimensions. Available presets:

     * **16:9:** standard widescreen
     * **16:10:** slightly taller widescreen, common for laptop displays
     * **4:3:** classic standard ratio
     * **1:1:** square
     * **4:5:** portrait, optimized for Instagram and Facebook feed posts
     * **9:16:** full vertical, ideal for TikTok, Reels, and Stories

   * **Manual input**: Type in exact pixel values for precision.

   * **Automatic zoom**: When your selection gets small, the preview zooms in and centers on it so the crop handles stay easy to grab. This only changes your view of the preview. Your crop values stay exactly where you set them.

<Tip>What's inside the purple frame is what will be shown in your final video.</Tip>

If the clip has both screen and camera footage, use the dropdown in the crop window title to switch between **Screen** and **Camera** without closing the tool. If you have unsaved changes, Tella asks **Save crop changes?** first. Click **Save and switch** to keep them and move to the other frame, or **Cancel** to stay on the current frame and keep editing.

## Choose how far the crop reaches

Next to the **Crop** button is a scope dropdown with two choices:

* **All layouts in this clip** (the default) applies the crop to every layout in the clip you're working in, and adjusts the screen recording to fit each layout cleanly.

* **All layouts in all clips** applies the same crop to every layout in every clip, saving you from repeating the process. If your video has 4 clips and 37 layouts in total, all 37 update instantly.

<Note>A crop always covers at least the whole clip: every layout in that clip shows the same crop. Cropping one layout differently from another layout in the same clip isn't supported.</Note>

## Reset if needed

At any point, you can click Reset to remove your crop and return to the full screen recording.

## Final tip

Once cropped, your screen recording will automatically resize and align itself inside each layout, with no extra tweaking needed.

This makes your video look cleaner and more professional, especially when switching between layouts or clips.


## Related topics

- [Adjust your camera frame](/docs/help/editing/adjust-your-camera-frame.md)
- [Model Context Protocol (MCP)](/docs/mcp-server.md)
- [Auto-crop a clip's screen recording](/docs/api-reference/clips/auto-crop-a-clips-screen-recording.md)
- [How to edit a video](/docs/help/editing/edit-a-video.md)
- [Export raw camera and screen recordings](/docs/help/export-videos/export-raw-recordings.md)