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Press Shift+Cmd+H to put a highlight ring around your pointer. Press it again to turn it off.

What it’s for

A highlighted pointer is easier for your audience to follow on a screen share, especially on a video call where the far end’s frame rate can make a small system cursor hard to track, and on some apps (Discord’s Go Live, for example) the system cursor doesn’t show up at all. The highlight is drawn by Cue Canvas itself, so it shows up regardless.

Turning it on

  • Shift+Cmd+H toggles it from anywhere, whether or not Cue Canvas is the active app.
  • No permission prompt, no setup. Unlike zoom and the magnifier lens, the cursor highlight doesn’t need Screen Recording or Accessibility access. It just follows your pointer.

Customizing it

Shape, colour, size, opacity, and border width are all configurable. Open Settings (Cmd+,) and choose Cursor Highlight.

ControlWhat it doesDefault
ShapeRing, filled circle, squircle or rhombusRing
ColourThe halo’s colourYellow
SizeDiameter in points48
OpacityInvisible to solid0.5
Border widthRing, squircle and rhombus border thickness2
Click rippleA ripple when you clickOn

Changes apply straight away, on whatever is already on screen. There is nothing to save and nothing to restart.

Multiple displays

The highlight follows your pointer across every display it’s plugged into. You don’t need to turn it on separately for each one.

Keystroke display

Press Shift+Cmd+K to show the last key or shortcut you pressed in a corner of your screen, fading out after a few seconds. Press it again to turn it off.

What it’s for

Presenting a shortcut (“now I press Command-Z to undo”) is easy to say and easy for your audience to miss. They’re watching your screen, not your hands. A small on-screen readout means they see exactly what you pressed, the moment you press it, without you needing a second camera on your keyboard.

Turning it on

  • Shift+Cmd+K toggles it from anywhere, the same as the cursor highlight above.
  • Needs Accessibility. Unlike the cursor highlight, this one watches for keystrokes system-wide, which macOS only allows once you grant it. If you haven’t, Cue Canvas tells you so instead of silently doing nothing. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Accessibility, switch Cue Canvas on, then quit Cue Canvas and open it again.

What it shows, and what it doesn’t

It shows the key or chord you pressed: Shift+Cmd+D, Esc, Space. The same glyphs macOS’s own menus use. It never blocks a keystroke from reaching wherever it was actually headed: this is a readout, not a remap, so typing still types and shortcuts still fire normally everywhere, including in Cue Canvas’s own text tool.

While you’re actively typing an annotation label with the text tool, the indicator goes quiet. The text tool temporarily takes over the keyboard for your typing (the same way it always has), so there’s nothing separate for the indicator to show until you finish. Your typed label is unaffected either way.

Customizing it

Position, text size, and how long it stays on screen before fading are all configurable. Open Settings (Cmd+,) and choose Keystroke Display.

ControlWhat it doesDefault
PositionWhich corner it appears inBottom right
SizeText size in points28
FadeHow long a key stays on screen: off, one, three or five seconds, or a custom timeThree seconds

“Enabled at launch” decides whether the display is on the next time Cue Canvas starts. It does not switch it on right now; Shift+Cmd+K does that.

Multiple displays

The indicator appears on your primary display only, regardless of where your pointer is. Unlike the cursor highlight and spotlight, a keystroke isn’t tied to any one display.

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