Show the keys you press while screen sharing in Zoom or Meet

To show the keys you press in a Zoom or Google Meet call, run an on-screen keystroke overlay and share your entire screen, not a single window or a browser tab. The overlay is a window of its own, so a share of one app or one tab leaves it out. Neither Zoom nor Meet shows keystrokes by itself.

Getting the keys into the share is the easy part. Making them readable for someone watching on a 13-inch laptop, with your face and three others squeezed in beside your screen, takes a little more thought. Here is how to share the right thing in each app, how big to make the keys, and how to keep private typing out of the call.

Zoom: share the screen, not the app

In a Zoom meeting on a Mac:

1. Click Share in the meeting controls (labeled Share Screen in some versions of Zoom), or press Command-Shift-S (⇧⌘S).
2. In the Basic tab, pick the thumbnail of your whole screen rather than an app window. With two displays, there is one thumbnail for each; pick the one the overlay is on.
3. Click Share.

If you only want part of the screen, the Advanced tab has Portion of Screen, which shares whatever is inside a green frame you can move and resize. The keys appear when the frame covers them, so drag it a little wider than the app, or move the overlay into it.

Sharing a single app window is the one choice that drops the keys. Zoom shares that window and nothing else, and the overlay belongs to a different app.

While you share, Zoom gathers its meeting controls into a toolbar, usually at the top of your screen, which you can drag elsewhere. Keep the overlay away from it, so you can see both and reach the controls without the keys in the way.

Google Meet: the entire screen, not a tab

In Google Meet in Chrome:

1. Click the present button at the bottom of the call. Google’s help calls it Present now; some versions of Meet label it Share screen.
2. Choose your entire screen (Your entire screen or Entire Screen, depending on the version). A window or a tab leaves the overlay out.
3. Pick the screen and click Share.

The first time you share your entire screen from a browser, macOS asks for permission. If you missed the prompt, open System Settings, choose Privacy & Security, then Screen Recording, and turn on your browser. In macOS 15 Sequoia and later the list is called Screen & System Audio Recording. Quit the browser and open it again before you retry. Zoom needs the same permission to share your screen, and asks for it the same way.

A tab share has one real advantage: it hides everything else on your Mac. If you choose the entire screen to get the keys in, the next sections are about making up for that.

Make the keys big enough for someone on a laptop

Your shared screen is scaled down to fit each viewer’s window. On a call, that window is often a laptop screen with a strip of faces beside it, so your 27-inch display might end up a fraction of its size. Text that is comfortable for you is hard to read for them, and the keys shrink by the same amount.

• Check from the other side. Join the call from a second device, a phone or another computer, and look at your share there. It is the surest way to see what your viewers see.
• Make the overlay bigger than feels right. On your own screen it will look oversized. In the share it will look normal.
• Use the pill for most calls. A keystroke pill shows only the keys you press, with the shortcut’s name, so each key can be large without covering much. A full keyboard shows where keys are, which is good for teaching someone their way around the keyboard, but it needs more room to stay legible. A full keyboard or a keystroke pill: which reads better in a video compares the two.
• Make everything bigger. In System Settings, choose Displays and pick a resolution toward Larger Text while you share. Everything on screen grows, the app you are showing as well as the keys. Screen sharing to a big room: what to make bigger on your Mac has more settings worth changing before a call.

In Typebar, the pill names each shortcut with the name it has in the app you are using, taken from that app’s own menus, such as “⇧⌘4 Screenshot Selection”. When someone on the call asks “what did you just press?”, the answer is already on screen, in words they can find in the same menu. You drag the pill or the board by its handle, and each mode keeps its own size and place.

Show the keys only while you share

You probably do not want a keyboard on your screen all day. Typebar can handle that for you: in Settings > Recording, turn on “Show when a screen recording starts”. Screen sharing counts, so the overlay appears when you start sharing in Zoom or Meet and hides again when you stop.

The same pane has “Show in these apps” and “Never show in these apps” lists, for when you want the keys to follow the app in front instead. To show or hide by hand, press Control-Option-Command-K (⌃⌥⌘K) or triple-tap fn.

If you run training sessions often, Settings > Profiles has a ready-made Presenting profile. A profile keeps the look, the mode, sizes and places, pill, mouse and sounds together, so one switch from the menu bar sets up the whole thing. The mouse options help on calls too: click ripples and a cursor halo show in the share, so people can follow the pointer as well as the keys.

Make a keystroke overlay appear only while you record covers the automatic options in more detail.

Keep private typing out of the call

Sharing the entire screen means sharing everything you type while it is up, not just the shortcuts you meant to show. A quick reply in Slack, a search, or a login can all end up on the pill in front of everyone.

• Turn on Do Not Disturb from Control Center before you share, so message previews do not appear on screen in the first place.
• Password fields are handled by macOS. When a field is marked as secure, nothing typed shows, and Typebar’s pill says “Typing hidden in a password field”.
• Hide typing in these apps, in Typebar’s Privacy pane, starts with 1Password, Bitwarden, Keychain Access and Passwords. Add your chat apps to it, and nothing you type in them shows. Shortcuts and special keys still do.
• Hide letters keeps shortcuts and special keys on screen but shows letters as dots, which suits a live demo where you type real data.
• Pause, from the menu or its own shortcut, stops everything showing until you resume.

Questions

Can people see the keys if I share only one window?

No. A window share includes that window and nothing else, and the overlay is a separate window. Share the entire screen, or in Zoom a portion of the screen that includes the overlay.

Does the overlay show up in my camera video?

No. The overlay is on your screen, not in front of your camera, so it only appears in the screen share.

Will a recording of the meeting include the keys?

Yes, as long as they are in the share. A Zoom or Meet recording captures the shared screen, so the keys appear wherever they were in the share. If you shared a single window, they will be missing from the recording too.

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