Turn a screen recording into a TikTok people watch

Short answer: vertical screen content works when three things are true, the video is genuinely 9:16 (not a letterboxed rectangle), the action is zoomed enough to read on a phone, and something happens in the first two seconds. Miss any one and the swipe takes you.

1. Actually go vertical

A landscape recording letterboxed into 9:16 reads as "repurposed desktop content" and underperforms. Reframe so the interface fills the tall canvas: crop to the app area, zoom in, and let the camera follow the cursor into the vertical frame. Cursor-aware exporters do this automatically; see the aspect-ratio guide for the manual paths.

2. Zoom like your viewer is on a phone, because they are

Text that's comfortable at a desk is illegible at 6 inches wide. Aim for interface text that would be at least ~3% of the frame height after zoom. Practically: zoom to a quarter of the screen or tighter whenever you interact with something.

3. The first two seconds

Don't open with your logo or an establishing wide. Open mid-action: a click that triggers something visual, a before/after cut, or the boldest moment of the demo. Cold-open the payoff, then explain.

4. Pace ruthlessly

• Cut every second where nothing changes on screen.
• Speed-ramp typing, loading and scrolling 2–4×.
• Target 20–45 seconds total. Longer only if every second earns it.

5. Sound on, but designed

Click sounds and keyboard thocks make screen content feel tactile in a feed. A quiet music bed (30–40% volume) keeps energy up. If you talk, talk fast and cut the gaps.

The workflow, condensed

1. Record the task at normal speed in landscape (with clicks tracked).
2. Auto-zoom + effects; delete any zoom that doesn't serve the story.
3. Trim to the hook → payoff arc; ramp the slow middle.
4. Export 9:16, upload natively, put the one-line promise in the overlay text.

Girato does steps 2–4 in one pass: record once, export 9:16 with the camera following your clicks, click/typing sounds included.