Recording Types

There are five types of recordings available in Studio:

Basic – Generates a full selector for each activity and no container. The resulted automation is slower than one that uses containers and is suitable for single activities.
Desktop – Suitable for all types of desktop apps and multiple actions. It is faster than the Basic recorder, and generates a container (with the selector of the top-level window) in which activities are enclosed, and partial selectors for each activity.
Web – Designed for recording in web apps and browsers, generates containers and uses the Simulate Type/Click input method by default.

Note: It is recommended to run your web automations on Internet Explorer 11 and above, Mozilla Firefox 50 or above, or the latest version of Google Chrome.
Image – Used to record virtualized environments (such as VNC, virtual machines, Citrix, and more) or SAP. It permits only image, text and keyboard automation, and requires explicit positioning.
Native Citrix - Is the equivalent of the Desktop recorder, but for Citrix environments. Only use this in your Native Citrix automation projects. Find out more about Native Citrix Support.

To see all the available types of recordings and select the one most suited for your project, click Recording, in the Wizards group of the Design ribbon tab.

All recording types come with their own controllers (or toolbars) that give you access to actions particular to each environment, but also some common ones.

The Desktop, Basic and Web Recording toolbars are quite similar and enable you to:

Automatically record multiple actions performed on the screen
Manually record single actions, such as:
- Starting or closing an application or web browser
- Clicking an interface element
- Selecting an option from a drop-down list
- Selecting a check box
- Simulating keystrokes or keyboard shortcuts
- Copying text from a UI element or performing screen scraping
- Looking for elements or waiting for them to vanish
- Finding an image
- Activating a window

The Image Recording toolbar enables you to:

Click an image or text
Simulate keystrokes or hotkeys
Select and copy text from a window
Scrape UI elements
Look for elements or wait for them to vanish
Find an image or wait for it to vanish
Activate a window

Note: The Image Recording toolbar supports only manual recording (single actions).

The Native Citrix Recording toolbar enables you to:

Automatically record multiple actions performed on the screen
Manually record single actions, such as:
- Clicking an interface element
- Selecting an option from a drop-down list
- Selecting a check box
- Simulating keystrokes or keyboard shortcuts
- Copying text from a UI element or performing screen scraping
- Looking for elements or waiting for them to vanish
- Finding an image
- Activating a window

To figure out if you should use automatic or manual recording in your project, you should better understand the differences between the recording types and their capabilities.

Automatic Recorder	Manual Recorder
Left-click on windows, buttons, check boxes, drop-down lists etc. Text typing	Keyboard shortcuts Modifier keys Right-click Mouse hover Getting text Find elements and images Copy to Clipboard

Keyboard shortcuts that you can use while recording:

F2 – pauses for 3 seconds. A countdown timer is displayed in the bottom left corner of the screen. Can be useful with menus that automatically hide.
Esc – exits the automatic or manual recording. If you press the Escape key again, the recording is saved as a sequence, and you return to the main view.
Right-click – exit the recording.

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