Getting Started with Presentation Assistant

Presentation Assistant is a macOS utility that highlights your mouse pointer, visualises your clicks, and displays keystrokes on screen. It is designed for live demonstrations, screencasts, tutorials, and presentations where your audience needs to follow exactly what you are doing.

Launching the App

Presentation Assistant runs as a menu bar app. When you first launch it, a small mouse pointer icon appears in your Mac's menu bar. The app is enabled by default, and you will see a spotlight effect following your cursor across the screen.

A welcome screen provides a brief overview of the app's capabilities. From there, you can access the full settings panel to configure each feature to your liking.

Core Features

Presentation Assistant includes four main features that help your audience follow along:

• Mouse Pointer Highlighting -- Draw attention to your cursor with a ring, spotlight, or disk effect.
• Click Effects -- Show animated ripple effects each time you click, with distinct colours for left and right clicks.
• Keystroke Display -- Display your keystrokes on screen in real time so viewers know which keys you are pressing.
• Desktop Hiding -- Cover your desktop icons with a clean overlay to eliminate visual clutter during a presentation.

Multi-Display and Full-Screen Support

Presentation Assistant works across multiple displays. Cursor highlights, click effects, and keystroke overlays follow your pointer to any connected screen. The app also works seamlessly in full-screen mode and across all Spaces, so your presentation tools remain visible regardless of which app or desktop you navigate to.

Keyboard Shortcuts

You can assign custom keyboard shortcuts for the following actions:

• Toggle the mouse pointer highlight on or off.
• Toggle click effects on or off.

These shortcuts allow you to quickly switch features during a live presentation without opening the settings panel.

Tips for Presenters

• Use the spotlight pointer style when you want to draw focus to a specific part of the screen while dimming everything else.
• Set distinct colours for left and right click effects so viewers can tell which button you pressed.
• Enable the keystroke display with modifier-only filtering to show shortcuts like Cmd+C without cluttering the screen with every letter you type.
• Turn on desktop hiding before starting a screen share to keep your desktop clean and professional.