Annotate Your Mac Screen While You Record

What You Need

• Padmote on an iPad running iPadOS 17 or later.
• Padmote Host on a Mac running macOS 14 or later. Padmote Host is free.
• Both devices on the same Wi-Fi network or a USB-C cable between them.
• Apple Pencil is optional. You can draw with your finger.

Set Up Before You Record

1. Open Padmote Host on your Mac. It shows a six-digit pairing code.
2. Open Padmote on your iPad. Your Mac appears in the list.
3. Enter the six-digit code to connect.
4. Start your screen recorder, then draw on the iPad.

What Gets Recorded

Padmote Host draws your marks on the Mac screen. A recorder that captures the whole screen records the marks with the app underneath. A recorder set to one app window records only that window.

Why an Overlay Helps a Tutorial

• You point from the iPad, so you never drag a cursor across the Mac to show where to look.
• Undo removes the last stroke and Clear removes every mark, so you can reset between takes.
• The laser pointer follows your finger or Apple Pencil hover and leaves no mark.
• The iPad toolbar can mirror onto the Mac screen when you want viewers to see the tool you pick.

Framing for Vertical Video

Padmote shows 9:16 and 9:8 framing guides on the Mac. Use a guide to keep the part you are explaining inside a vertical crop before you record.

Tools You Can Use

• Pencil and highlighter, with adjustable color, line width and opacity.
• Rectangle, circle, line and arrow, each with a filled variant.
• Eraser, selection with resize handles, undo and clear.
• Canvas background color and opacity, with grid, dots, lines and graph patterns.