Display, window or area

Click the first pill on the toolbar. Three modes, and a list of sizes below them.

Display

The whole screen. With more than one screen you are asked which, and each one is named and shown at its real resolution so a 4K screen and a 1080p screen beside it are easy to tell apart.

The one thing to watch: a 4K screen recorded whole is a lot of picture, and text in a corner of it will be small on a phone. If the video is for social, record an area instead.

Window

Click a window and Cilevi captures that window and nothing else. What is in front of it is not recorded, and neither is anything that appears over it later. The window keeps being captured if you move it.

This is the mode to use for a walkthrough of one program, because nothing else on your desktop can wander into the frame.

Two limits worth knowing. A window with transparency around its edge, which some Windows apps have, records with that edge as it is drawn rather than as you see it composited over the desktop. And a window minimised during the take records nothing while it is minimised.

Area

Drag a box on the screen. It gets eight handles for pulling the edges and corners around, and a small card showing the size and the position with each number as a field you can click and type into. So if the video has to be exactly 1080 wide, type 1080 rather than fighting with the mouse.

Use this for anything going to a phone screen, and for the common case of a browser window whose address bar and bookmarks you do not want in the video.

The selection panel

The panel that appears while you choose is not a modal dialog. You can click on your own windows while it is open, arrange things the way you want them, and then press the button on the card to accept. It is never captured, whichever mode you are in, and neither is the toolbar.