Cursor highlight for screen recording, in the take instead of the edit
Viewers lose a small cursor, miss clicks and can’t read the detail you mean. SHARA puts a cursor halo, click flashes, zoom and keystrokes on screen while you record, so OBS or Camtasia captures them in the take and your edit skips the effects pass.
How do you highlight the cursor and mouse clicks in a screen recording?
Either add cursor effects in your editor after recording, or run an overlay that draws them live so the recorder captures them. On Windows, SHARA draws a cursor halo that flashes on every click for free, plus live zoom and a keystroke display in Pro. In OBS, record it with Display Capture, not Window Capture.
The recording takes an hour. The edit takes three
Most of that extra time goes on the same fixes, clip after clip.
A tiny arrow on a 4K desktop
You record at 4K, publish at 1080p, and plenty of viewers watch on a phone. The default pointer vanishes, so you go back and highlight it by hand.
Keyframing every detail
A dropdown, a line of code or a toolbar icon is unreadable at full-screen scale. You scrub, zoom in, hold, zoom out, and repeat for every detail.
Adding keystrokes to the recording by hand
You press Ctrl+Shift+P in half a second, then spend minutes building a callout so viewers know what happened. Then you re-cut it all for 9:16.
Move the effects from the timeline into the take
Each effect is a hotkey you press while you talk. The recorder captures it like any other pixel.
- 01Record the screen
- 02Trim mistakes
- 03Add cursor highlight and click effects
- 04Keyframe zoom-ins on small details
- 05Build keystroke callouts
- 06Reframe every shot for 9:16
- 07Export
- 01Turn on the halo and keystroke display
- 02Record, zooming and marking as you talk
- 03Trim mistakes
- 04Export
- Before you hit record.Turn on Presenter Mode so the Ctrl+Space Wheel stays out of the video. Press Ctrl+Win+H for the halo and Ctrl+Win+T for the keystroke display.
- Point while you explain.Every click flashes, and Pro lets you give left and right clicks their own colours, so a selection never looks like a context menu. Open the Wheel with Ctrl+Space, or use the docked toolbar, for the Laser or Pen.
- Zoom at the detail.Hold Ctrl+Win+G, scroll to zoom in, explain, release. That is the zoom your editor would have keyframed.
- Clear and move on.Ctrl+Win+B wipes every mark before the next step. Ctrl+Z undoes your last stroke, and pressing Esc exits annotation instantly.
Try it in your next recording. The halo and click flash are free, and every install starts with a 14-day Pro trial.
Which SHARA tool fits which moment in your video
| Moment in the video | SHARA tool | Key | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|
| Follow the pointer | Cursor halo (Circle, Squircle or Rhombus) | Ctrl+Win+H | Free |
| A click or a menu | Click flash on every click | On with the halo | Free |
| “Look at this one” | Laser with a fading trail, or Arrow | Ctrl+Space | Free |
| Circle a setting | Pen | Ctrl+Win+X | Free |
| A label | Text labels | Ctrl+Win+I | Free |
| A mark to remove | Erase a stroke or everything | Ctrl+Win+Y | Free |
| A still image | Screenshot | Wheel or toolbar | Free |
| Highlight a line | Highlighter, Line, Rectangle, Circle | Wheel or toolbar | Pro |
| Small text or icon | Live Zoom or the Magnifier lens | Ctrl+Win+G | Pro |
| One panel matters | Spotlight dim | Ctrl+Win+G | Pro |
| A shortcut press | Smart Keystroke Pill | Ctrl+Win+T | Pro |
| A password on camera | Privacy mode in password fields | Automatic | Pro |
| A blank board | Whiteboard: white, black or grid | Ctrl+Win+K | Pro |
Every default key is on the SHARA keyboard shortcuts page. The lens key opens whichever zoom mode you set as active.
What to capture, and which editing pass you can drop
Four decisions make SHARA show up in the file the way you want.
1. Pick a capture source that sees the overlay
OBS Display Capture
Records the whole monitor, overlays included. Keep Capture Cursor on. No plugin needed.
OBS Window Capture
Grabs one app’s window only, so anything drawn over it, SHARA included, is left out. Crop a Display Capture instead.
Camtasia Recorder
Full screen or a custom region: halo, ink, shapes, click flashes and the keystroke display all land in the recording.
The same rule applies in live calls. In Zoom or Teams, share your entire screen: a single-window share doesn’t capture SHARA’s overlay.
2. Swap an editing pass for a hotkey
| Editing pass you do today | What replaces it in the take | Tier |
|---|---|---|
| Keyframed zoom-ins | Live Zoom (scroll to zoom, move to pan) or the Magnifier lens | Pro |
| Arrows, circles and callout boxes | Pen, Arrow, Text, Highlighter, shapes | Pen, Arrow, Text free |
| Cursor highlight and click effects | Cursor halo in three sizes, any colour, with a click flash | Free |
| Keystroke callouts | Smart Keystroke Pill: shortcuts as key chips, typing as words, repeats like Backspace ×5 | Pro |
| Reframing for Shorts and Reels | 9:16 Broadcast Window that follows your cursor | Pro |
One overlay instead of five editor panels. Every effect comes from the same app and the same Wheel or toolbar, so you learn one set of keys and use them in every video.
“Wonderful, clearly stands out from other applications with this functionality, due to the scope and variability. Thank you for your creativity.”
Microsoft Store review, Germany
3. Frame the vertical cut while you record
The 9:16 Broadcast Window is one of SHARA Pro’s four zoom modes. Set it as your lens, hold Ctrl+Win+G, and a vertical frame follows your cursor smoothly. The action stays inside a Shorts, Reels or vertical-stream frame instead of wandering out of a crop you set later.
4. Know the trade-off: baked in, not adjustable
When the effect is part of how you explain
Effects are in the pixels, so there is no effects pass, and they work the same in live streams. You can’t restyle or remove them afterwards, so decide before you record.
When you want to change your mind later
Camtasia records cursor data separately, so its cursor and click effects stay editable in the timeline. That is the better choice if you often restyle old footage. If you use both, switch one highlight off. Hiding Camtasia’s cursor later won’t remove SHARA’s halo.
The questions creators ask first
Will it slow my recording down?
SHARA is GPU-rendered with 1000 Hz input response, so the halo keeps up with fast mouse moves. Lightweight background process running on your PC, online or offline, with zero telemetry. The network is used only to buy or restore Pro.
What if I type a password on camera?
The keystroke display switches to Privacy mode the moment a password, PIN or credential field has focus, and shows nothing.
I record at 4K on two monitors
SHARA is DPI-calibrated, so ink, halo and zoom stay sharp and aligned on 4K and on setups with mixed scaling.
What does it cost?
The halo with its click flash, Laser, Pen, Arrow, Text labels, Eraser and Screenshots are free forever. Zoom modes, the Keystroke Pill, Highlighter, Line, Rectangle, Circle, Whiteboard and custom click colours are Pro. Free forever tier. SHARA Pro is a $19.99 one-time lifetime license with a 14-day money-back guarantee, usable across your personal Windows devices via the Microsoft Store.
Screen recording with SHARA, answered
Does OBS capture SHARA’s cursor highlight?
How do I highlight mouse clicks in OBS?
Does SHARA record my screen?
Can I use SHARA with Camtasia’s own cursor effects?
Is SHARA Pro a subscription?
Try it in your next recording
Turn on the halo, record one lesson in OBS or Camtasia, and see how much of the edit is already done. The Pro tools are unlocked for your first 14 days.
Mashyo makes SHARA. Camtasia is a trademark of TechSmith; OBS Studio is a project of the OBS Project; neither is affiliated with SHARA. Camtasia details are from TechSmith’s cursor effects tutorial and OBS capture behaviour from the OBS forums, both checked October 16, 2026. Last updated: October 16, 2026.