How to show mouse clicks in a screen recording on a Mac

To show mouse clicks in a screen recording on a Mac, press Command-Shift-5 (⇧⌘5), choose Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion, open Options and choose Show Mouse Clicks. From then on, every click draws a dark circle around the pointer in the video. QuickTime Player’s File > New Screen Recording opens the same toolbar, with the same option.

That covers plenty of tutorials. It does not cover recordings made in other apps or live screen sharing, and it has no settings for how a click looks. For those, you need something that draws clicks on the screen itself, such as the click ripples in Typebar. Below: the built-in option step by step, where it stops, and how to make clicks easy to follow whichever you use.

Turn on Show Mouse Clicks in the Screenshot toolbar

The Screenshot toolbar is the recorder built into macOS. To set it up for clicks:

1. Press Command-Shift-5. The toolbar appears at the bottom of the screen.
2. Click Record Entire Screen or Record Selected Portion. If you choose a portion, drag the frame around the area you want.
3. Click Options and choose Show Mouse Clicks, so a checkmark appears next to it.
4. Click Record.
5. To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar, or press Control-Command-Escape (⌃⌘⎋).

While the Options menu is open, check the rest of it. Save to decides where the finished file goes, Timer gives you a few seconds to get ready, and Microphone lets you record your voice into the same file.

Show Mouse Clicks is a recording setting, so select one of the record buttons before you open Options. The capture buttons on the left of the toolbar are for still screenshots.

QuickTime Player uses the same switch

In QuickTime Player, choose File > New Screen Recording. On current versions of macOS that opens the same Screenshot toolbar, not a separate QuickTime window, so the steps above apply unchanged: Options, Show Mouse Clicks, Record.

The only difference is where the file ends up. If you want each recording to open straight in QuickTime Player for a quick trim, choose QuickTime Player under Save to in the same Options menu. The keyboard side of the same recording is covered in Show your keystrokes in a QuickTime Player screen recording.

Where the built-in click circles stop

Show Mouse Clicks is free, already on your Mac, and fine for a quick clip. Before a long session, know its limits:

• It belongs to one recorder. The circles are part of the Screenshot toolbar’s recording. OBS, Loom, a Zoom or Google Meet screen share and other recorders do not get them; each handles the pointer its own way.
• It is baked in. The circles are drawn into the video as it records. You cannot hide them afterwards, and you cannot add them to a recording you made without them, short of drawing markers by hand in an editor.
• No settings for the marker. The Options menu has a single Show Mouse Clicks switch: nothing for the circle’s size or color, and nothing for marking right clicks or drags in a look of their own.
• It can be hard to see on dark screens. A dark circle shows up well on a white page and less well over Dark Mode windows or a dark code editor.

None of this matters for a ten-second clip in a bug report. It matters in a tutorial where viewers need to know which button you pressed, because “click the file” and “right-click the file” lead to different places, or in a demo you record in OBS or present live on a call.

Show every click, by button, in any recorder

Typebar is a keyboard overlay for the Mac: the keys you press light up on an on-screen keyboard, and a keystroke pill names each shortcut as you press it. It also draws the mouse:

• Click ripples. Left, right and middle clicks each get their own shape, so viewers can tell a right click from a left click without you having to say so.
• A drag trail, so a drag from one place to another reads as a drag, not as two separate clicks.
• Clicks in the pill. The pill can list clicks next to your keystrokes, as Click, Right Click or ⌘ Click. A Command-click is easy to miss in a video, because the key and the click happen at the same moment; the pill spells it out.
• A cursor halo and a spotlight, for pointing rather than clicking.

Because these are drawn on the screen, they show up in whatever records or shares that part of the screen: the Screenshot toolbar, QuickTime Player, OBS, Loom or a call. Two things to know before you rely on them:

• Ripples, the drag trail and the halo show while Typebar’s overlay is on screen, so keep the keyboard or the pill up while you record. The spotlight is separate: it has its own shortcut and works without the overlay.
• Like any window, they are not part of a capture of one other app’s window. Record the whole display, or an area that includes them, and share your entire screen rather than one window on a call.

If you use Typebar’s ripples, turn off Show Mouse Clicks in the Screenshot toolbar, or every click gets two markers on top of each other.

There is more on telling buttons apart in Show right clicks and drags clearly in a tutorial video, and on pairing clicks with key presses in Show clicks and keystrokes together so viewers see the whole action.

Make clicks easy to follow, whatever marks them

A click marker helps only if viewers are looking at the right place when it appears. These habits do more than any setting:

1. Arrive, pause, click. Move to the target, hold still for half a second, then click. Clicking mid-flight puts the marker somewhere the viewer’s eye has not reached yet.
2. Stop idle clicking. Every click gets marked, including the ones you make on empty space while you think. Rest your hand while you talk.
3. Record only what matters. A whole large display shrinks to almost nothing on a phone. Recording a selected portion around the app makes every click bigger in the final video.
4. Make the pointer bigger. A larger pointer is easier to follow between clicks. Make the Mac pointer bigger and easier to find has the setting.
5. Say what you click. “Right-click the file, then choose Get Info” matches what the marker shows, and helps anyone listening without watching.
6. Test for ten seconds. Record a few clicks, stop, and watch the file at the size your viewers will.

Questions

Can I add click circles to a video I already recorded?

Not with Show Mouse Clicks; it works only while you record. A video editor can add markers by hand, one click at a time, which is slow for anything long. Recording again with clicks turned on is usually quicker.

Why don’t my clicks show in a Zoom or Google Meet screen share?

Show Mouse Clicks belongs to the Screenshot toolbar’s recorder and only affects recordings made there; a call app captures your screen its own way. Anything drawn on the screen, such as Typebar’s click ripples, does show, as long as you share your entire screen rather than one window.

Does Typebar need Screen Recording permission to show clicks?

No. It asks for one permission, Accessibility, and never for Screen Recording. Typebar draws the effects on screen; your recorder or call app captures them.

Typebar is $9 once for up to 5 Macs, and free for 24 hours with everything on.