Option to highlight mouse cursor and mouse clicks

S

spare change

New Member
Hi,

The ability to highlight mouse cursor and mouse clicks is helpful when you're making a video tutorial or a video to demonstrate a bug when doing software testing (e.g. to demonstrate clicking a button not doing anything). I don't think I see this feature in OBS Studio so may I suggest adding it as a feature?

Here's a video showing what I mean. The software used is Screencast-O-Matic


This is another example using Camtasia.

I did a search on this forum and found several other posts asking about this feature so I think this is something that people would find useful to have

 
C

Code-Remote

New Member
I've been looking for a nice mouse highlight tool for 2 hours and find something different but really nice!

http://screenbrush.imagestudiopro.com/

With the free version, you can easily draw on your screen and also highlight the screen with the shift key.

If you're still looking for a cursor highlighter I've found Mouse Locator App (http://www.2point5fish.com/)
but it's not very polished and has few configuration options

When I found Screenbrush it already made my day and stop searching, but I read on a forum post somewhere that if you change your search query to "mac Screen annotation software" you will have more results, maybe it helps in finding a better Cursor highlighter app. (https://apple.stackexchange.com/que...annotation-software-to-draw-on-any-app-in-osx)

Good luck!
 
D

Dmitry83

New Member
Dear all, I tried PointerFocus and CursorAttention, but it does not work for me. I can see the cursor highlight, but it is not recorded in OSB. Can you advise if I should change any setting? I'm using Windows 7. Thank you!
 
Rafael Linux User

Rafael Linux User

New Member
Solutions given here are commercial applications and for Windows. As a Linux user, KDE Plasma brings some "Desktop effects" as "Mouse click animation" (https://youtu.be/a_JDhssrsMI?t=434) or "Track mouse", similar to Camtasia mouse effects. However, when I tried to capture that effects using OBS Studio on a XComposite window, they are not recorded (https://obsproject.com/forum/threads/kde-plasma-effects-on-xcomposite-source-not-captured.116078/).

Anyway, to avoid this issues, a common feature in OBS Studio to capture mouse clicks / wheel move and keyboard keystrokes (like "screenkey" application) would be the best idea.
 
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L

lblb

New Member
Maybe Windows users might be interested in the Cursor Highlighter program I created to help me with my online teaching. See a short demo video here, which has link to my group's website for the free download (sorry, PC only):
youtu.be

Free programs for online lectures

UPDATE!!! "Cursor Highlighter" and the "PowerPoint Inking Toolbar" have been updated! See the following videos showcasing many of the new features: Cursor Hi...
youtu.be youtu.be

Let me know if you encounter any issues using it.
 
Wisket

Wisket

New Member
Hello. I may have already posted this message, so apologies if this is the case. I saw your video on YouTube and the program looks great. I'm having to get to grips with OBS (since yesterday), which seems to be a great piece of software and being able to highlight the cursor will be especially useful. Can you let me know how to get hold of your program? Thanks
 
L

lblb

New Member
Hi,
If you follow the link below the YouTube video, you should be able to get to my lab's website and the download link. Let me know if you need more help!
Cheers!
 
Wisket

Wisket

New Member
After trying PowerPoint Inking Toolbar.exe I find this:
Threat found - action needed.
Status: Active
Threat detected: Trojan:Win32/Fuery.B!cl
Alert level: Severe
Category: Trojan
Details: This program is dangerous and executes commands from an attacker.

Please respond...
 
L

lblb

New Member
Hi,

First, you can be sure there is no virus or trojan in there. I have made these programs available through my research group's website and sharing something with a virus in it would not be very good for my career!

Second, the programs were written in the AutoHotkey language, and programs created in this language are often frequently flagged by antivirus software even though they don't contain any virus. (For example, here is a recent thread where it was discussed and where it says the same thing I just mentioned: https://www.autohotkey.com/boards/viewtopic.php?t=56520). If it's of any interest, I'd be happy to upload the source code of these programs.

Third, several of my programs are widely used and available and there has never been any report of virus in them (even though when users try to install them they might get the same kind of message you are getting). For example, my most widely used program is Toolbar Creator. It is also written in AutoHotkey and has been downloaded over 100,000 times:

TechnologyGuide

Thank you for visiting the TechnologyGuide network. Unfortunately, these forums are no longer active. We extend a heartfelt thank you to the entire community for their steadfast support—it is really you, our readers, that drove
forum.tabletpcreview.com forum.tabletpcreview.com
 
Q

qaywsx

New Member
Sorry if I don't get the point but mouse highlighting works for me, of course only with "Desktop recording"? (obviously, it doesn't work with "Window recording", as the mouse is part of the OS-desktop, not part of the window).
And no third party software is actually needed on Windows, as you can use the "Lens" or the internal "Show pointer location" options with Ctrl pressing. I'm sure analog solutions are also available on other OS.
 
L

lblb

New Member
Hi qaywsx,
If you don't need mouse highlighting, that's fine. But as you can see from the many threads about it just in this forum, many people have a need for it.
Also, it seems like the arguments you are using to say that it's not necessary are the exact arguments why people are trying to find ways to highlight the cursor. Whatever you mean by "mouse highlighting works for me", you said that this is very limited to "desktop recording". So this means it won't work for many, many situations. And if you are trying to prepare some kind of tutorial (or doing online teaching) where you want your audience to be able to follow the cursor more easily, the Ctrl thing in Windows or the Lens are really not what is needed.
As an example, trying to show things in Photoshop or in PowerPoint where the cursor becomes a single dot when you are using a pen is very difficult without some way to make the cursor more obvious.
But hey, to each their own. If you don't need it, that's fine. For my part, our whole school has switched to online teaching and many students have praised the use of a cursor highlighter in my lectures and asked me to show other instructors!
 
Q

qaywsx

New Member
Damn right, lblb... my user case is much more limited (or my needs much less constrained), which has led me to the (hurried) conclusion that it would fit everybody's needs. Sorry, this time I wasn't of much help, I hope to be of better use next time.
 
S

Slowfly

New Member
lblb:
Your application look way cool! Unfortunately (running Win10-64) I found no way to overcome the download "virus" prevention from your Google Drive page. I do not doubt your confirmation that there is no virus - alone, I tried every flavour of browser to no avail. It could be that Google Drive prevents this as there is an alert mentioning that only you as the owner of the drive can download the doubtful file.
I'm sure your tool set in combination with OBS could be very useful for many users: do you have a possibility to store the files somewhere else for downloading?
Thanks for your great work!
 
L

lblb

New Member
@Slowfly:
Yeah, it's annoying! Which program are you interested in? The cursor highlighter or the PowerPoint Toolbar? Or both? If it's the cursor highlighter, have you tried downloading the source code (which there shouldn't be any problems with), and either running the .ahk file directly or converting to a .exe file and using that (in both cases you would first need to install AutoHotkey)? This has worked with several people who contacted me by email because they were in your situation.
 
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R

rampatra

New Member
If anyone is still looking for a simple app to highlight cursor then Presentify might be a good option. You can highlight your cursor/mouse in different styles and also annotate any screen.

cursor-styles.jpg


Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/presentify/id1507246666

Disclaimer: I am the developer of this app.
 
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