Presentify Keyboard Shortcuts
Master Presentify's keyboard shortcuts to annotate your screen, highlight your cursor, spotlight key areas, and zoom during presentations on macOS.
Presentify is a powerful macOS app that lets you annotate your screen, highlight your cursor, and spotlight or zoom in on key areas during presentations and content creation. In Presentify 8 and later, shortcuts are much more flexible: global shortcuts, cursor-session shortcuts, and annotate-mode shortcuts can all be customized from settings.
The shortcuts below are the defaults. Use them as a starting point, then change the ones that do not fit your workflow.
Global shortcuts
These system-wide shortcuts work from anywhere on your Mac.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Annotate Screen | ⌃ + A |
| Annotate Without Controls | ⌃ + ⌥ + A |
| Highlight Cursor | ⌃ + S |
| Spotlight Cursor | ⌃ + L |
| Zoom Cursor | ⌃ + Z |
Cursor shortcuts
These shortcuts are global too, but Presentify only keeps them active while the related cursor feature is running. Size shortcuts work while Highlight Cursor, Spotlight Cursor, or Zoom Cursor is on. Zoom-specific shortcuts work while Zoom Cursor is on.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Decrease Highlight, Spotlight, or Zoom Size | ⌃ + - |
| Increase Highlight, Spotlight, or Zoom Size | ⌃ + = |
| Decrease Zoom Level | ⌃ + , |
| Increase Zoom Level | ⌃ + . |
| Toggle Full Screen Zoom | ⌃ + / |
Annotate shortcuts
These shortcuts work while the annotate overlay is active. In Presentify 8 and later, these annotate-mode shortcuts can also be customized in settings.
Colors
Quickly switch between your favorite annotation colors.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| First Favorite Color | 1 |
| Second Favorite Color | 2 |
| Third Favorite Color | 3 |
| Fourth Favorite Color | 4 |
| Fifth Favorite Color | 5 |
| Random Colors | 6 |
Drawing tools
Select annotation tools instantly while the annotation screen is active.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Free Hand | F |
| Arrow | A |
| Rectangle | R |
| Circle | C |
| Text | T |
| Clear Annotations | ⌫ |
Controls
Toggle features and adjust settings on the fly.
| Action | Shortcut |
|---|---|
| Show Annotate Shortcuts | / |
| Highlighter | H |
| Decrease Line Weight | [ |
| Increase Line Weight | ] |
| Set Line Weight | ⌃ + ⌥ + 1–9 |
| Draw with Touch | D |
| Whiteboard | W |
| Save Screenshot | S |
| Select Items (press and hold) | ⌘ |
| Undo | ⌘ + Z |
| Redo | ⇧ + ⌘ + Z |
| Interact with underlying apps (press and hold) | fn |
Modifier keys
Hold these keys while drawing to unlock additional behaviors.
| Modifier | Effect |
|---|---|
⇧ (Shift) | Draw straight Free Hand lines, square Rectangles, and round Circles |
⌥ (Option) | Fill Rectangles or Circles with a semi-transparent color |
⌃ (Control) | Toggle Auto-Erase behavior while drawing |
⌘ (Command) | Select and delete specific items—drag or click to select multiple |
Esc (Escape) | Exit Text mode |
Customize shortcuts
Open Presentify's settings and navigate to the Shortcuts tab. Shortcuts are grouped into Global Shortcuts, Annotate Shortcuts, and Cursor Shortcuts, so you can quickly find the action you want to change.
Click a shortcut recorder to set a new key combination, clear a shortcut you do not use, or reset it to the default. This is especially handy if you want to map Presentify actions to a Stream Deck, presenter remote, keyboard macro, or your own muscle memory.
Show your shortcuts on screen
Creating tutorials or presenting live? KeyScreen displays your keystrokes beautifully on screen so viewers always know what you pressed—perfect when paired with Presentify for professional-looking presentations.