Cursor & clicks
Get a smooth cursor and click effects in every screen recording. Make the pointer bigger, change its style, and mark and sound each click.
Smooth cursor and click effects #
ScreenCameo redraws your pointer, so every screen recording gets a smooth cursor and click effects without extra work. You can make the pointer bigger, calmer or a different style, and mark and sound every click. The original recording never changes.
Cursor changes work together with auto zoom, which follows your clicks. See both in action on the auto-zoom feature page.
Open the cursor settings #
- Press Esc so nothing is selected. Clicking the timeline only moves the playhead.
- Click Cursor in the toolbar, or press Cmd3.
- The tab runs from the settings you change most to the rarest: Pointer, How it moves, Clicks, Keyboard, Ending and Per-clip changes.
- Click a section’s title to open or close it. The round arrow puts that section back to how it started.
Change the pointer #
The preview at the top of Pointer shows your pointer at its real size next to a bit of a Mac window.
- Turn off Show cursor to hide the pointer in the whole video. Click effects go with it.
- Drag Size from 0.8× up to 3.5×. New projects start at 2.2×. 1× is the size of a Mac pointer; 2× or more is easier to follow on a phone.
- Under Style, click macOS, Outline, Bold, Touch or Playful. Touch and Playful also show a Variant row.
- Turn on Always use arrow to show the arrow everywhere, instead of the hand, the text beam and the others.
Cursor styles and variants #
The Style row draws each style as it looks in the video. The line under the row says what the selected style does.
| Style | What it looks like | Variants |
|---|---|---|
| macOS | Crisp Mac pointers: the arrow, the hand over links, the text beam and the others. | None |
| Outline | A hollow arrow with a dark edge, so the screen shows through. It has its own hand and text beam. | None |
| Bold | A black arrow with a thick white border and a soft shadow. The easiest to follow on any background. | None |
| Touch | A soft round dot for every pointer, like a finger on a phone. | White, Amber, Violet, Ink (a dark dot for light screens) |
| Playful | Chunky sticker-style pointers. The tip is always where you clicked. | Amber, Paper plane, Coral, Magic wand, Hand, Pencil, Rocket |
Outline and Bold use their arrow for rarer pointers, like resize arrows and the crosshair. Switching style keeps the variant you picked, so your rocket is still there when you go back to Playful.
How it moves #
Cursor smoothing decides how much ScreenCameo calms your hand. Each tile draws one shaky move: grey is what you recorded, color is what the video shows.
| Cursor smoothing | What it feels like |
|---|---|
| Smooth | Glides calmly. Best for tutorials and demos. The default. |
| Medium | Smooth, but keeps up with quick moves. |
| Rapid | Snappy. Only removes the shake. |
| None | Exactly as recorded, shake and all. |
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Tilt while moving | Leans the pointer into the direction it moves, a little like a real hand. Off at first. |
| Motion blur | Softly smears fast moves, like a camera would. On at first. Blur amount sets how much; it starts at 50%. |
| Hide when not moving | Fades the pointer out after 2.5 s without moving. It comes back as soon as you move or click. On at first. |
Add a click effect #
A click effect marks each click so viewers see exactly what you pressed. It’s on, as a white Ripple, in new projects.
- Under Clicks, turn on Show a click effect.
- Pick a style. Point at a tile to see it play.
- Click a Colour swatch, or the color well at the end for any color. Your brand colors from Settings → Brand come first.
- Drag Effect size from 0.6× to 2×. The tiles show the color and size you chose.
| Click effect | What it looks like |
|---|---|
| Ripple | A ring that spreads out. |
| Pulse | A soft dot that grows. |
| Rings | Two rings, one after the other. |
| Glow | A soft light that stays while you hold the button. |
Add a click sound #
- Under Clicks, turn on Play a click sound.
- Pick Soft (a muffled thump), Tap (a short, bright tick), Mechanical (a switch, pressed and released) or Pop (a bubble). Each tile plays its sound once when you pick it.
- Drag Sound volume to set how loud it is. It starts at 60%. Press the play button to hear it at that volume.
Show the shortcuts you press #
Under Keyboard, turn on Show shortcuts you press. Shortcuts such as CmdS then appear as a small pill near the bottom of the video for a moment.
Only shortcuts are shown: keys with Cmd, Option or Control, and keys such as Return, Tab, Esc and Delete. ScreenCameo never shows what you type.
The end of the video #
| Under Ending | What it does |
|---|---|
| Stop moving at the end | Holds the pointer still for the last 0.5 s, so the video ends calmly. |
| Loop to start at the end | Glides the pointer back to where it began in the last 0.8 s. Use it for a GIF or a looping video on a website, so there’s no jump. |
Change the cursor in one clip #
You can hide the cursor or turn off smoothing in just one part of the video.
- Split the video where the part starts and ends: move the playhead and press S.
- Right-click the clip on the timeline and choose Hide cursor in this clip or Turn Off Cursor Smoothing Here.
- Or move the playhead into the clip and use the Hide cursor and No smoothing buttons under Per-clip changes.
The list under Per-clip changes shows every clip with a change. Click the arrow to go to that clip, or the round × to remove the change. The cursor fades out and back in at the clip’s edges, so hiding it never looks like a jump. More on splitting in Editing.
Shortcuts on this page#
| Keys | What it does |
|---|---|
| Cmd3 | Open the Cursor tab |
| CmdK | Command Palette: find any cursor setting |
| S | Split at the playhead, before a per-clip change |
| CmdZ | Undo |
| Esc | Deselect, to show the tabs |
If something’s off#
- The inspector doesn’t show the Cursor settings
- Something is selected. Press Esc, then press Cmd3.
- Click effects don’t show
- Check that Show cursor is on. Hiding the cursor hides click effects too.
- Some clicks make no sound
- Clicks in muted clips, or in clips faster than 2×, stay silent.
- The Keyboard section says there are no shortcuts
- Turn on Detect typing & shortcuts before you record. Shortcuts can’t be added to a recording afterwards.
Checked against ScreenCameo 0.9.0 · October 20, 2026
Still stuck? Email support@screencameo.com. Replies come usually within 2 business days.
