Recording an online course on a Mac with keys on screen

27 October 2026 · 6 min read

To record an online course on a Mac with keys on screen, record with the tools already on your Mac (Command-Shift-5 or QuickTime Player) and run a keyboard overlay such as Typebar, so every key and shortcut you press shows in the video. The part that takes planning is not the recording, it is consistency: the keys should look the same, sit in the same place and be the same size in every lesson, even when you record them weeks apart.

Here is a setup that holds up across a whole course, from the screen itself to the checks before each take.

Record with what your Mac already has

You do not need special software to record a lesson. Press Command-Shift-5 (⇧⌘5) and the Screenshot toolbar appears, with two recording buttons: Record Entire Screen and Record Selected Portion. Its Options menu lets you choose a microphone, set a timer, and turn on Show Mouse Clicks, which marks each click with a circle. To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar.

QuickTime Player opens the same toolbar from File > New Screen Recording, and its editing is enough for trimming the start and end of a take.

Two limits to know before you start a course this way:

App audio is not recorded. On Sonoma and Sequoia, the Screenshot toolbar records a microphone, not the sound your apps make. If a lesson needs app audio, you need a recorder that captures it, such as OBS.
No scenes or layouts. Every lesson is a straight capture of the screen. That is fine for most software courses, and it keeps your process simple.

OBS is free and gives you scenes, a camera overlay and more control over output size, at the cost of more setup. Either way, the keyboard overlay works the same, because it is a window on your screen and shows up in any recording that captures the area it sits in.

Set the screen up once, for every lesson

Students notice when lesson 12 looks different from lesson 11. Decide these once, write them down, and repeat them before every recording session:

Frame shape. Most course video is 16:9 widescreen, and MacBook screens are taller than 16:9. A full-screen recording of a MacBook will either get bars at the sides or need cropping. Recording a 16:9 area with Record Selected Portion, or recording on a 16:9 external display, avoids both.
Text size. In System Settings > Displays, pick a setting toward Larger Text for the built-in display. Fewer things fit on screen, and everything you show is easier to read once the video is scaled down.
A clean desktop. In System Settings > Desktop & Dock, turn off “On Desktop” next to Show Items, and turn on “Automatically hide and show the Dock”.
No interruptions. Turn on Do Not Disturb from Control Center so notifications stay out of the take.
The same browser window, zoom and account for every lesson that uses a web app.

Make the keys look the same in every lesson

A keyboard overlay has more settings than you will remember between sessions: theme, mode, size, position, pill, mouse effects, sounds. Changing one by accident halfway through a course is easy. Typebar has profiles for exactly this. A profile keeps the whole setup, and you can switch to it from the menu bar menu, from its own shortcut, or automatically when chosen apps are in front.

A setup that works for a course:

Pick a theme and stay with it. There are 40, from Space Black (the default) and Silver to Paper White and Blueprint. If the course has its own colors, Theme Studio lets you color any key or group of keys and pick the caps, legends and pill. Share it as a file with a co-instructor.
Pick a mode. Keyboard Only, Pill Only, or Keyboard and Pill, from the Show submenu in the menu bar menu. For a course about an app with many shortcuts, both work well: the board shows where the keys are, and the pill names the shortcut. Each mode keeps its own size and place on screen.
Place and size it, then leave it alone. Drag it by its handle to a corner your lessons rarely use.
Save it as a profile. In Settings > Profiles, add one from your current settings with +, name it after the course, and give it a “Switch with” shortcut. Start each session by pressing that shortcut.

If you would rather start from something, the built-in Recording profile is a good base, and you can change it. One setup for recording, another for teaching goes further into profiles.

So you never forget to show it, turn on “Show when a screen recording starts” in Settings > Recording. Typebar then appears by itself while your screen is recorded and hides again when the recording stops. The same pane has “Show in these apps” and “Never show in these apps” lists if you want more control.

Size the keys for the video, not for your screen

What matters is how big the keys are compared with the whole frame, because the frame is scaled to whatever player your students use, sometimes a phone. Keys that look generous on a large display can be hard to read in a 1080p video watched in a browser window.

A quick test saves a re-record:

Record 20 seconds with the overlay in place, pressing a few shortcuts.
Export or upload it at the size your platform plays.
Watch it on a phone and on a laptop. If you cannot read the pill at a glance, make it bigger.

Then check placement against your real lessons. Menus, dialogs and toolbars open in predictable places in each app, and the overlay must never sit on top of them. How big should on-screen keys be in a 1080p or 4K recording and Where to put a keystroke overlay so it never covers the action both go deeper.

If you record a selected portion of the screen, keep the overlay inside that area, or it will not be in the video.

Keep passwords out of hours of video

A course means many hours of recording, often with real logins to demo accounts. Settle privacy once rather than hoping to catch it in the edit:

Password fields. When macOS marks a field as secure, Typebar shows nothing you type there, and the pill says “Typing hidden in a password field”.
Password managers. “Hide typing in these apps” hides typing while 1Password, Bitwarden, Keychain Access or Passwords is in front, and you can add your own apps. Shortcuts still show.
Hide letters. For a lesson where you type something private, letters show as dots while shortcuts and special keys still show.
Pause. Pause from the menu or its shortcut and nothing shows until you resume.

Nothing you type is saved or sent anywhere. Show keys in a recording without leaking a password covers the details.

A checklist before each recording session

Do Not Disturb on.
Course profile switched on, overlay in its usual place.
Desktop clear, Dock hidden, same display resolution as last time.
Typing sounds off, unless you use them in every lesson.
A 10-second test recording, played back, before the first real take.

Typebar costs $9 once, with a 24-hour free trial that has everything on.

Questions

Should every lesson show keys on screen?

Every lesson where you use the software, yes. For lessons that are slides or talking, hide the overlay with Control-Option-Command-K (⌃⌥⌘K), or let it show only during screen recordings.

Will the overlay show if I record a single window?

No. It is a separate window, so record the whole display or a selected area that includes it.

Can I add the keys in my video editor instead?

You can type captions by hand for each shortcut, but across a full course that is hours of editing. Showing keys while you record puts them in the right place at the right moment with no editing at all.