As you’re probably aware there are a lot of really useful design resources available online, especially in the form of tutorials and webinars. The information they contain can help you to learn new skills and expand your understanding of design.

In fact if you take advantage of online design tutorials and webinars regularly, odds are you’ve considered saving some as reference material. The good news is that there are several options that you can use to do just that:

Video downloader websites

Per their name, video downloader websites are essentially websites that provide you with the means to download online videos. Typically you just need to copy and paste the URL where the video is located, and it will find process it, find its source, and give you a link that you can use to download.

While easy-to-use, video downloader websites often have lots of limitations in terms of the quality, file size, and duration. On top of that they tend to work only with specific platforms, and mostly focus on the more popular options.

In short while this option will let you save online design tutorials from YouTube or other popular platforms – its effectiveness elsewhere can vary, especially for live webinars.

Browser extensions that download from source

Some browser extensions are really just browser-based versions of the video downloader websites mentioned above. However others will detect the source of videos on a webpage and give you a link to download directly from it.

The reason this option can be useful is because it has fewer limitations to the quality, file size and duration. However it too tends to vary in terms of effectiveness on some platforms.

Screen recording

By far the most versatile way to save online design tutorials and webinars is by actually recording them using a screen recorder. It can be used to record webinar and online videos and save them directly from your screen.

Compared to all other options, screen recording has practically no limitations and can record and save any video from any website or platform. It can even record webinars that may be livestreamed within apps – which other options that require a URL or are browser-based cannot do.

The only drawback of using screen recording is the fact that it is comparatively slower. It will need to record the video as it plays on your screen, and will take the length of its duration before it can be saved. Because of this drawback, it helps if your screen recorder has a timer or some other tool to automate the recording.

Between these three options you should definitely be able to save any online design tutorials or webinars that you find useful. As you can see none of the options are ‘perfect’ and each one has its own set of advantages and disadvantages.

Before you settle on an option, you should try out each one at least once. It will give you a better idea of what to expect, and how easy (or not) it is for you to download the videos that you need.

In any case it shouldn’t be long before you have saved some online design tutorials and webinars and can watch them offline, transfer them to mobile devices, or even trim out highlights and save them to make it easier to refer to the bits that are important.