With Loom, you can record videos to help you communicate certain ideas to other employees, both in the office and remotely.
You need a way to convey a specific idea or process to your colleagues, and you want to do it visually, without email and phone calls. That’s when a short video might be enough, and for that you can use a free program called Loom. With Loom you can record and share quick videos of you communicating with other employees.
You can use Loom for multiple purposes. Perhaps you share a document or screen on your PC and want to add a background video to the content. You may want to provide feedback on a specific topic to other people on a team. You may want to share information before a meeting to reduce the time everyone has to spend on that meeting.
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Loom allows you to trim the video before sharing it. You and other people can even record videos at different times and on different devices. You can then merge all the individual videos into a single presentation. Loom works on the web as well as on Windows, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and Android. For our purposes here, I’ll cover the process of recording a video from the website.
Recording a video from the Loom website
First scroll to the Loom website and click the button for Get Loom Free. You need an account to use the program, but you can sign in with Google, Slack, Outlook or Apple, or create a new account with your own email address. Set up your account with your name and a password.
After verifying your email address, Loom will ask you how you plan to use the service — personal, professional, or educational. You will then be prompted to name your online workspace where all your videos can be accessed.
On the next screen, add the email addresses of any colleagues you want to be able to access and collaborate on videos stored in your online library. Then click the link for Continue to workspace.
In your Workspace window, you can perform several tasks, but I recommend watching the short pre-recorded videos first that explain how and why you should use Loom (Image A†
Image A
Then you can create a video from your browser. In that case, you might want to take a colleague on a tour or demonstration of a document, website, or other screen on your PC. Click the button for Record a Loom. Click the Start Recording button. Choose whether to share your entire screen, a single window, or a Chrome tab. Click Share (Figure B†
Figure B
Record your video and tell it. A small recording toolbar appears at the bottom left where you can pause or cancel the recording.
When you are done, click the Stop button. Your video will appear on a different browser page for you to play (Figure C†
Figure C
Repeat that process for any additional videos you want to record.
Let’s say you have a few videos that you need to edit. In your Workspace window, click the library to view thumbnails of the videos you’ve recorded. Click on a specific video. In the small menu on the right, click the option for Crop and add clips (Figure D†
Figure D
To trim the video at the beginning, move the playhead on the timeline to the trim area and click the Split to trim button. At the beginning, select the part you want to remove from your video and click the button for Remove Clip (Figure E†
Figure E
To add additional videos to your current one, click the Add Clip button. Select the video you want to add (Figure F†
Figure F
You can then reorder the clips. To do this, select a clip and then click the left arrow to arrange it to the left or the right arrow to arrange it right. Click Undo to cancel your last action. To cancel any changes you’ve made to the video, click “Revert to Original.”
When you are happy with all your edits, click Save Changes (Figure G†
Figure G
Finally, now it’s time to share your finished video. Click the Share button at the top. Type the names or email addresses of the people you want to share the video with. Add a message if necessary. Then click the Share button (figure H†
figure H
Alternatively, you can share your video through social media channels for your organization. Click the Social heading at the top of the Share window. You can now choose to share the video via LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook or Gmail (figure I†
figure I
