Show clicks and keystrokes together so viewers see the whole action
Many Mac actions are a key and a click at the same moment: Command-click to open a link in a new tab, Shift-click to select a range of files, Option-drag to copy instead of move. A screen recording shows the click but not the key, so viewers copy what they see and get a different result. To show the whole action, put both on screen at once: a mark for the click and a display of the key you are holding, ideally in one place, like the keystroke pill in Typebar, which writes “⌘ Click”.
Below: the everyday actions a recording hides, what macOS can and cannot show, and how to show keys and clicks together.
The actions a recording hides
These are ordinary, built-in Mac actions, and every one of them looks like a plain click or drag on video:
| Action | What it does | What viewers think they saw |
|---|---|---|
| ⌘-click a link in Safari | Opens it in a new tab | A click that opened a tab instead of the page |
| ⇧-click in a Finder list | Selects every item between two | One click that selected a dozen files |
| ⌘-click in Finder | Adds or removes one item from the selection | A click that somehow kept the others selected |
| ⌥-drag a file in Finder | Copies the file instead of moving it | A normal drag |
| ⌥⌘-drag a file in Finder | Makes an alias | A normal drag |
| ⌥-click a Finder window’s close button | Closes every Finder window | One click that closed everything |
| ⌥-click a folder’s disclosure triangle in a Finder list | Opens every folder inside it, too | A folder that opened oddly far |
| ⌘-click an app in the Dock | Shows the app in Finder | A click that opened Finder |
The Option-drag is the dangerous one. A viewer who drags without Option to a folder on the same disk gets a move instead of a copy, and the action seems to work. They only find out later, when the original is gone from where they expected it. A plain click that does nothing at least tells people they missed something.
Holding a key can also change a menu without any click at all. Open the Apple menu with Option held and About This Mac becomes System Information. Right-click a file in Finder and hold Option, and the Copy item becomes Copy as Pathname. On video, the menu item just changes by itself.
Why saying it is not enough
The obvious fix is narration: “hold Option and drag”. Do it; it helps anyone listening. It still falls short for two reasons.
First, modifiers are muscle memory. Experienced users press Command or Shift without thinking about it, so they forget to say it, especially halfway through a long take. You only notice in the edit, when the click on screen does something a plain click never would.
Second, many people watch tutorials with the sound low or off, or skip back to a step and watch it without the sentence that explained it. The key needs to be on screen at the moment of the click, not just in the audio a few seconds earlier.
What macOS can show by itself
The Screenshot toolbar can mark clicks. Press Command-Shift-5 (⇧⌘5), choose a record button, then Options > Show Mouse Clicks, and each click gets a black circle in the video. How to show mouse clicks in a screen recording on a Mac covers it in full.
The Screenshot toolbar has no option for the keys you press. So with it alone, you get half the action: the circle appears, the key does not. Your options are to say the modifier every time, or to add a title in your editor, such as “Option-drag”, at each spot. Titles work, but adding them by hand to a long tutorial is slow, and it is easy to miss one.
Show the key and the click at once
Typebar is a keyboard overlay for screen recordings, demos and learning shortcuts. It shows keys and clicks in the same recording, in two ways that work together.
The keyboard and the ripples. Every key you press lights up on an on-screen keyboard, so Shift, Option or Command lights up as you hold it. At the same moment, the click ripple appears where you click, with its own shape for left, right and middle clicks, and a drag leaves a trail behind the pointer. Viewers see ⌥ lit on the keyboard while the trail runs across the screen: Option-drag, without a word.
The pill. The keystroke pill shows what you press as keycaps and names each shortcut with the name it has in the app you are using, such as “⇧⌘4 Screenshot Selection”. With Show clicks in the pill turned on in Settings > Mouse, clicks join it, as Click, Right Click or ⌘ Click. A key and a click then read as one short line in one place, which is the easiest form for a viewer to copy.
You can show the keyboard, the pill, or both, from the Show submenu in the menu bar menu: Keyboard Only, Pill Only, or Keyboard and Pill. For teaching modifier-clicks, Keyboard and Pill is the clearest: the board shows which key is down, and the pill spells out the result. A full keyboard or a keystroke pill: which reads better in a video compares the two.
A few things to know before you rely on it:
- The ripples, trail and halo show while the overlay is on screen, so keep the keyboard or the pill up while you record.
- They are drawn on the screen, so they appear in the Screenshot toolbar, QuickTime Player, OBS, Loom and screen sharing. Record the whole display or an area that includes the overlay; a capture of one other app’s window leaves it out.
- Hold Command or Control for a moment and the keys on the board relabel with what they do in the app in front; hold Option and they show the characters each key types. That is Typebar’s cheatsheet, and a click does not cancel it. In a shortcut tutorial it can be a bonus. If you would rather keep viewers’ eyes on the click, keep the hold short.
- Turn off Show Mouse Clicks in the Screenshot toolbar if you use the ripples, or each click gets two marks.
Put the keys where the eyes already are
A key display only helps if viewers can see it and the click in the same glance. If the click is at the top of the screen and the keyboard is in the bottom corner of a large display, they watch one and miss the other.
- Record a smaller area. Recording a selected portion around the app brings the overlay and the action closer together and makes both bigger.
- Place the overlay near the work. Each mode, Keyboard, Pill and both, has its own size and place on screen, and you drag it by its handle. Keep it close to where you click, without covering it. Where to put a keystroke overlay so it never covers the action has layouts that work.
- Make it big enough for a phone. A pill that reads fine on your display can be a blur on a phone screen. Check your test recording at the size viewers will watch it.
Habits for key-plus-click moments
- Press the key first, click second, release last. Viewers see the key go down, then the click, in that order, which is the order they need to copy.
- Say the modifier as you press it. “Hold Option, and drag.” The words and the lit key arrive together.
- Show the result. After an Option-drag, point at both files: the original, still there, and the copy.
- Do it twice. Once slowly, while you explain, and once at normal speed, so viewers see what it looks like in real use.
- Keep your hands still between actions. Idle clicks and stray key presses all show up once both are on screen.
Questions
Can macOS show the keys I press in a screen recording?
Not as a recording option. The Screenshot toolbar can mark mouse clicks, but it has no setting for keystrokes. For that you need an app that draws them on screen, or titles added in your editor.
Do I need both the keyboard and the pill?
No. The pill alone reads a Command-click as ⌘ Click in one line, and the keyboard alone shows the held key lit while a ripple marks the click. Both together are clearest when the tutorial is about the keys themselves.
Does Typebar click or press keys for me?
No. It shows what you do. Typebar never moves the pointer or clicks for you, and its automation can change what the board shows but never types or presses keys. The one exception is Click to Type, which you turn on yourself for presenting: click keys on the board and it types them into the app in front.
Typebar is $9 once, and free for 24 hours with everything on.