Show keyboard shortcuts on screen while you record a Mac tutorial
To show keyboard shortcuts on screen while you record a Mac tutorial, run a key display during the recording. macOS has nothing built in for this: the Screenshot toolbar and QuickTime Player record the screen and can mark clicks, but never keys. Typebar shows each shortcut as keycaps and adds the name it has in the app you are using, such as “⇧⌘4 Screenshot Selection” or “⌘K Insert Link”.
The name is the part that helps viewers most: it tells them what happened, not only which keys did it. Below: why shortcuts get lost in tutorials, two habits that help with no app at all, and how to choose between showing only shortcuts and showing every key.
Why viewers miss shortcuts
A click is easy to follow. The pointer travels to a button, the button reacts, and something happens. A shortcut has no visible cause. A window opens, a sidebar collapses or the text changes, and the viewer has no idea what made it happen.
That is when people pause, rewind and squint at your hands, which they cannot see. Narration helps, but it has limits:
- Spoken shortcuts are slow to decode. “Shift-Option-Command-V” takes a moment to say and longer to turn back into keys.
- Plenty of people watch muted, or at faster speeds, or jump around with the scrubber, and miss what you said.
- You forget to say it. After years of using a shortcut, your hands press it before you think to narrate it.
Keys on screen do not depend on any of that. They appear in the frame, in time with the change they cause.
Two habits that help without any app
Before reaching for a tool, two recording habits make shortcuts easier to follow, and they cost nothing.
Use the menu once, then the shortcut. The first time an action comes up, choose it from the menu bar. Viewers see where the command lives, with its shortcut printed beside it in the menu. From then on, use the shortcut and say it. Anyone who forgets the keys can find the menu item again.
Leave the result on screen for a beat. After a shortcut, stop moving for a second before the next one. Two shortcuts pressed back to back look like one change to a viewer, even with keys on screen.
Both are worth keeping when you add a key display. The display shows the keys; the habits give viewers time to read them.
Show each shortcut with its name
A key display draws the keys you press on screen as you press them. Typebar has two: a full on-screen keyboard where every key you press lights up, and a keystroke pill that shows what you press as keycaps.
For shortcuts, the pill adds the action’s name. “⌘K” on its own means little to a beginner. “⌘K Insert Link” tells them what just happened and gives them a word to look for. Typebar reads the names from the menus of whatever app is in front, so they are the names your viewers will see in that app’s menus rather than a generic label.
Two more details keep the pill readable during a real tutorial:
- Typing gathers into one chip. A sentence you type does not flood the screen with single letters.
- Repeats count up. A shortcut pressed again counts up as ×2, ×3 instead of stacking copies.
Clicks can show in the pill too, as Click, Right Click or ⌘ Click, which helps when a step mixes the mouse and the keyboard.
Only shortcuts, or every key
The pill can show everything you press or only shortcuts, with or without keys like Return and Tab. Pick by what the tutorial is teaching.
| Kind of tutorial | What to show |
|---|---|
| A design, photo or video app, driven by shortcuts | Only shortcuts |
| Writing, email or notes, with lots of typing | Only shortcuts, so typed text stays out of the way |
| Forms or spreadsheets, where Tab and Return move you around | Shortcuts plus Return and Tab |
| Terminal, a code editor or Vim, where every key matters | Everything |
Showing only shortcuts also keeps personal text out of the frame. When you need more than that, Typebar hides typing in password fields macOS marks as secure and while 1Password, Bitwarden, Keychain Access or Passwords is in front, and Hide letters shows shortcuts and special keys while letters appear as dots. Hide what you type but keep shortcuts visible in a recording goes further into this.
Pill, keyboard, or both
The pill takes up the least room and puts the shortcut name front and center. The full keyboard shows where each key is, which helps viewers who are new to the Mac, or who need to find Option and Control without looking down. Typebar’s board follows your input source and comes in MacBook, Magic Keyboard and tenkeyless shapes, in ANSI, ISO and JIS, so it can match the keyboard you are teaching on.
Choose Keyboard Only, Pill Only, or Keyboard and Pill from the Show submenu in Typebar’s menu bar menu. Each mode keeps its own size and place on screen, so switching does not undo your layout. A full keyboard or a keystroke pill: which reads better in a video compares them in more detail.
Show what else is on the keys
Sometimes the lesson is the shortcuts themselves: “here is everything Command does in this app”. Hold a modifier (⌘, ⌥, ⌃ or ⇧) for a moment and Typebar’s keys relabel with what each does in the app in front. Hold Option (⌥) to show the characters each key types.
For the shortcuts that menus leave out, Typebar has hand-made packs for 20 apps, including Figma, Photoshop and Final Cut Pro, and holding fn shows their single-key tools. That makes a quick, honest overview segment: hold the key, give viewers a few seconds, move on.
Setting up the recording
- Show the overlay with Control-Option-Command-K (⌃⌥⌘K), or triple-tap fn.
- Drag it by its handle to a corner your work does not need.
- Record the entire screen, or a selected portion that includes the overlay. A capture of a single app’s window leaves the overlay out, because it is a separate window.
- Optional: switch on “Show when a screen recording starts” in Settings > Recording, and Typebar appears by itself when the recording or screen share starts and goes away when it stops.
Typebar also comes with a ready-made Recording profile that you can switch to from the menu. For the rest of the craft, from pacing to cursor size, see How to record a software tutorial people can actually follow on a Mac.
Typebar costs $9 once and is free for 24 hours with everything on.
Questions
Does macOS have a built-in way to show shortcuts on screen?
No. The built-in recorders can show mouse clicks, not keys. Showing shortcuts takes a key display running while you record.
Will the shortcut names match the app my viewers use?
They come from the menus of the app in front on your Mac, so they match what that app’s menus say. If your viewers use the same app, they will find the same names.
Can I show shortcuts without showing everything I type?
Yes. Set the pill to show only shortcuts. For live demos, Hide letters keeps shortcuts and special keys visible and turns letters into dots.