Dadan Mac desktop app overview

Dadan is a modern, native macOS screen recording application designed for creating professional-looking screen + webcam videos with minimal friction. It emphasizes clean UI, quick sharing, built-in annotation tools, camera bubble (PiP-style overlay), cursor effects, focus/zoom modes during recording, and seamless cloud upload & sharing workflows.

It positions itself as a user-friendly tool, especially strong for tutorials, async video updates, product demos, support videos, and educational content.

Dadan interface & recording modes #

The main recording window offers three primary capture modes (selected via large toggle buttons):

• Screen & Cam: records screen + floating webcam overlay.
• Screen Only: desktop/screen capture without camera.
• Cam Only: webcam/face recording (great for talking-head style videos).

Capture area choices #

When starting a Screen & Cam or Screen Only recording, dadan offers three main ways to choose what portion of your display(s) to capture:

• Full Screen: Captures the entire selected display (or the primary screen if only one is connected).
  
  
  • Choose the Full Screen option to open the Select Display screen.
  • This shows all available screens with their resolution (e.g. “Screen 1 – 1,680 × 1,050”) and a checkmark on the active/selected one.
  • Useful for: recording your whole desktop, presentations, or multi-monitor workflows when you want everything visible.

• Specific Window: Lets you record only one application window.
  • Choose the Full Screen option to open the Select Window overlay, which displays:
    
    
    • Active Window (highlighted at the top with a purple accent and ✦ star) – the currently focused window (e.g. a Safari sign-in page).
    • All Windows section below – thumbnails of every open window across apps, including title, app name, and a small preview screenshot.
      
      
  • Clicking any thumbnail begins recording that exact window.
  • Useful for: clean app demos, tutorial videos focused on a single program, or async updates without showing your full, messy desktop.

• Custom region: Allows free-form selection of any rectangular area on the screen.
  
  
  • After choosing this mode, the screen dims, and a dark overlay appears with centered instruction text: “Click and drag to select recording area. Press ESC to cancel.”
  • You click and drag to draw the desired rectangle; the selected area highlights while the rest stays dimmed.
  • Release to confirm?; press ESC at any time to abort and return to the recording setup screen.
  • Useful for: zooming in on a specific part of an app, cropping out distractions, recording only a portion of a large window or browser tab, or creating precisely framed shots.

Additional notes visible in the flow #

• Display selection always comes first if multiple monitors are connected (even for window or custom modes, you pick which screen the window/region lives on).
• The interface is modal and non-intrusive: thumbnails are high-contrast/dark-mode friendly, active window is clearly prioritized, and custom drag uses the standard macOS-style selection overlay.
• Once the area is chosen, you proceed to camera/mic settings (if applicable) and hit Record.?

This gives users flexibility from “everything” → “one clean app” → “exactly what I want” without ever leaving the native macOS feel.

Global hotkeys & shortcuts #

Configurable system-wide shortcuts (work while Dadan is running):

• Start Recording → ⌘ + ⇧ + 5.
• Stop Recording → ⌘ + ⇧ + S.
• Focus Mode (Hold) → ⌘ + ⇧ + D (temporary zoom/follow cursor during recording).

Annotation mode shortcuts:

• Undo → ⌘ + Z.
• Redo → ⌘ + ⇧ + Z.
• Exit → ESC.

Typical workflow #

1. Choose recording mode (Screen & Cam / Screen Only / Cam Only).

2. Select area/display/camera/mic.

3. Hit Record (or use global hotkey).

4. Use annotations, hold Focus Mode zoom, and highlight the cursor.

5. Stop → processing → share bubble appears with link copied.

Dadan aims for a polished, modern macOS-native experience with strong emphasis on camera presentation (bubble customization + background effects), helpful recording aids (focus/zoom, cursor highlights), and frictionless sharing, making it especially attractive for async video communication, tutorials, and customer-facing recordings.