Originally published at: AppBITS: Visualize Clicks and Keystrokes with KeyCastr - TidBITS
One thing I find awkward about demonstrating software is that I have to force myself to use the mouse than usual (actually a Contour Design RollerMouse Pro connected to my 27-inch iMac or the trackpad on my M1 MacBook Air). Typically, I rely heavily on the keyboard, but during demonstrations, people struggle to follow along when I press keyboard shortcuts. Even when I try to use the mouse pointer so that people can see me clicking buttons and choosing items from menus, they sometimes have difficulty pinpointing where I clicked.
For my next presentation, I plan to use a free and open-source keystroke visualizer called KeyCastr. In my testing so far, it seems to provide the core features I need, displaying keystrokes in a customizable lozenge and indicating mouse clicks with a circle around the pointer, as in the Audio Hijack drag shown below.
If the circle around the pointer isn’t sufficient, KeyCastr can display a visualizer (a picture of a Magic Mouse) or both. The default visualizer seems excessive for mouse clicks in most situations since the circle is clear, but I’m sure there are cases where it’s useful. (KeyCastr’s alternative Svelte visualizer is smaller and combines keys and clicks—it may be too subtle for some.)
For keystrokes, the default visualizer shows a lozenge that you can drag to your desired location and customize with your preferred font size, bezel color, and text color. You can configure KeyCastr to display command keys, all modified keys (which includes Shift), or all keys. Additional options allow you to adjust the linger time and fade duration. If you wish to display all the text you’re typing, extend the line break delay so each key appears to the right of the previous one instead of stacking on top of one another.
General options let you put KeyCastr in the menu bar, Dock, or both, and set a keyboard shortcut to toggle its “casting” on and off. I’m just quitting the app entirely until the next time I need to demonstrate how to accomplish some task during a presentation.
KeyCastr is compatible with macOS 10.13 High Sierra and later. It needs permission to monitor keyboard input while you’re using other apps, so on the first launch, you’ll be prompted to provide this in System Settings > Privacy & Security > Input Monitoring.
One final note: If you’re unfamiliar with downloading software from GitHub, go to the Releases page and look for the KeyCastr.app.zip link under the latest release. Download and unzip the file, then drag KeyCastr into your Applications folder.
If KeyCastr doesn’t offer the specific features you need, commercial alternatives include Keystroke Pro and Mouseposé.