Basics of PinPoint Pro

PinPoint Pro is controlled through the menu item you will find at the top of your screen, next to some of the other built-in items from macOS. To call up its Settings Window or Quit PinPoint Pro, select the appropriate option from that menu.

Selecting Pointers

PinPoint Pro can display multiple effects at once. You select which effects are enabled by using the checkboxes next to each one.
Once selected, you can still toggle each one on or off by setting a Shortcut key or using the Action menu at the bottom of the list.

Keyboard Shortcuts

To set a shortcut for each pointer, click on the pointer in the list, then set its Keyboard Equivalent at the bottom right of the Settings window.


You can also set multiple pointers to use the same Shortcut by assigning a first one to a pointer, then, for subsequent ones, select the name of the other pointer from the list.

A shortcut can be set to Toggle a pointer when it is always visible, or simply turn it on until it disappears again automatically either because you moved it or after a delay.

Flipping between two pointers

When you tie two pointers to the same shortcut key, you can use the Action menu at the bottom of the list, to toggle one pointer separately. This allows you to toggle between two pointers using the same shortcut key.

Adding and removing pointers

PinPoint Pro comes with a list of preconfigured pointer effects, but you can also create your own. Do not worry about changing the parameters of existing pointers, they can all be added back in their original state by using the + sign at the bottom of the window. You will also discover additional pointer types in this list.

Display options & Master toggle

You can set PinPoint Pro to display when you move the mouse only, or when it is idle and set delays before it appears or disappears.

General Settings

At the top of the settings window, you can select the Settings tab, which brings you to the settings which are not tied to any specific pointer. You will find quite a few useful options here.

Master Toggle

You can set a general toggle key which will toggle All pointer effects at once.

Hide with System Pointer

Automatically hide PinPoint Pro when your Mac hides the system pointer, such as when a movie is playing or when you are typing.

Disable PinPoint during screenshots

Hides PinPoint when you try to take a screenshot. You can do this for regular effects, but also to hide Pointer effects which display Steps or Pressed keys.

See how you can adjust your display options and master toggle. Also explore soe of the other General settings available.

Layers

Each pointer effect is built of one or more layers. Each layer has its own characteristic and behaviour, which means you can build some intricate effects tailored to your needs.

Masks

One layer type is called the Mask and it is different from the others in that it reverses the effect and cuts a hole out of a full-screen layer, to reveal only what is in the shape you choose.

Watch this tutorial to see how to adjust multi-layered pointers and use masks.

Advanced Layers

There are many ways to use layers, probably too many to list here. So we built a tutorial which goes through many options. You will most certainly find novel ways to use them. Or find some impossible combinations…

Most importantly, each layer has three types of possible controls: 

Appearance

Controls the visual aspects of the layer, such as color, size, transparency…

Layout

Related to how the layer stretches, follows the mouse or displays content (for steps)

Animation

Enables setting animations displayed by default, or when the mouse buttons are clicked.

More in-depth layer effects.

Displaying Steps

One type of layer allows you to display content on the screen. For example, this is useful to display extra information to your audience as you record your screencast. Another use is to display Keyboard presses to clarify what you are doing.

For steps, you must have a Step type layer and set the contents in the Layout tab of the step. You can then display the next step, previous step or return to the first step by using the keyboard shortcuts set in the General tab.

Displaying steps during a screencast.

Displaying Key presses

The is a pre-made Keyboard Visualizer pointer, but you can add the same feature to your own pointer creation. There are a few options which should be self-explanatory.

Using the keyboard visualizer pointer.