Presenting with only a mouse: type by clicking an on-screen keyboard

When all you have is a mouse or trackpad, you can still type on a Mac by clicking keys on an on-screen keyboard. macOS has one built in, the Accessibility Keyboard, in System Settings > Accessibility > Keyboard. If you are presenting, the Click to Type mode in Typebar does the same on the keyboard your audience is already watching: press Control-Option-Command-T (⌃⌥⌘T), and each key you click types into the app in front.

When a pointer is all you have

There are plenty of reasons the keyboard is out of reach while you present:

• The laptop sits at the side of the stage and you present from a lectern with a wireless mouse or trackpad.
• You walk the room with a trackpad so you can talk to people instead of to the screen.
• You use an iPad as a Sidecar display and point with Apple Pencil, which clicks like a mouse.
• You run a workshop with the Mac on a big screen and a mouse on the table.

Most of the time a pointer is enough. You click through slides and menus. Then the demo needs a search term, a URL, Return to confirm, Escape to cancel or Command-Z to undo, and the choice is to walk back to the laptop or type with clicks.

The built-in option: the Accessibility Keyboard

macOS includes an on-screen keyboard made for typing without a hardware keyboard. To turn it on:

1. Open System Settings and click Accessibility in the sidebar.
2. Click Keyboard.
3. Turn on Accessibility Keyboard.

A keyboard panel appears and floats above your windows. Click a key and it types into the app in front. Click a modifier such as Command and it applies to the next key you click, so Command then Z sends Command-Z. Its settings include fading the panel after a spell of inactivity and whether a key goes in on mouse down or mouse up.

It is free, it works in every app, and for anyone who types with a pointer every day it is the right tool. It also offers dwell, where holding the pointer still clicks for you, and custom panels you build in Panel Editor.

For presenting, it has drawbacks. It looks like a system utility, with a toolbar of its own, and it is laid out for the person using it rather than for a room. And if you also show the audience your keys with an overlay, you end up with two keyboards on screen. The macOS Accessibility Keyboard and when an overlay suits you better covers it in more detail.

Click to Type in Typebar

Typebar is a keyboard overlay: it shows the keys you press and names each shortcut, for recordings, demos and talks. Click to Type turns that same board into one you can click.

• Turn it on and off with Control-Option-Command-T (⌃⌥⌘T). You can change the shortcut in Settings > Shortcuts, and the Shortcuts app has a Turn Click to Type On or Off action if you would rather run it from a shortcut of your own.
• Click a key and it types into the app in front, where the text cursor is.
• Modifiers latch. Click Command and it holds for the next key you click, so Command then Z undoes and Command then V pastes.
• Keys repeat while held. Keep the mouse button down on Delete and it keeps deleting, the way a held key does. The arrow keys work the same way, so you can move along a line without clicking again and again.

Because the board is the one the room is already watching, they see the pointer land on each key, and there is one keyboard on screen instead of two.

Typebar types for you using the Accessibility permission, the only permission it asks for. It needs no Screen Recording or Input Monitoring access. Why a keyboard overlay needs Accessibility permission on a Mac explains what that permission allows.

Setting it up for a talk

A few minutes before the talk make the difference between a smooth click and a fumble at the lectern:

• Show the keyboard. You click keys on the board, so the board has to be showing. From the keyboard icon in the menu bar, choose Show > Keyboard Only, or Keyboard and Pill.
• Make it big enough to hit. A board sized for viewers in a corner can be a fiddly target from a lectern trackpad. Each mode keeps its own size and place, so make the board larger for the talk and put it where it will not cover what you are typing into, usually the bottom of the screen.
• Make the pointer easy to find. Turn up Pointer size in System Settings > Accessibility > Display, or turn on Typebar’s cursor halo, a circle that follows the pointer. Both help you and the room.
• Keep it in a profile. A profile keeps the look, mode, sizes and places, pill, mouse and sounds. Adjust the ready-made Presenting profile once, and switching to it from the menu brings the whole setup back. One setup for recording, another for teaching covers profiles.
• Turn it off afterwards. When you are back at the keyboard, press Control-Option-Command-T again.

What to type by clicking, and what not to

Clicking keys is slower than typing. Plan the demo around that.

Good by clicking: a search term, a short URL, a file name, Return, Escape, Tab, the arrow keys, and shortcuts like Command-Z, Command-C and Command-V.

Prepare instead: anything longer than a line. Copy it before the talk and paste it by clicking Command then V, or have it already typed in the file or field before you step away from the keyboard.

Never by clicking: passwords. Every key you click is in full view of the room, whatever any display hides. Sign in with Touch ID, let your password manager fill the field, or sign in before the talk starts.

Questions

What about shortcuts with two or more modifiers?

Modifiers latch for the next key you click, which covers one-modifier shortcuts like Command-Z. For anything longer, check it in rehearsal, or use the menu instead: most commands, such as Redo, are also in the app’s menus, and you can click those with the pointer.

Do I need the Accessibility Keyboard as well?

No. Click to Type types on its own. If you already use the Accessibility Keyboard every day, keep using it; Click to Type is made for presenting.

Where do the clicked keys go?

Into the app in front, the one you are presenting. Click in its text field first so the text lands where you want it.

Typebar is $9 once for up to five Macs, free for 24 hours with everything on, and runs on macOS 14 Sonoma or later.