Help and tips for Hololith

• Hololith runs on macOS 13 Ventura or later, on a Mac with Apple Silicon.
• It is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so macOS opens it without a security warning.

• After you give the permissions on the first launch, Recording Setup helps you choose the webcam with a live preview, the microphone with a live level meter and a voice check, the webcam size, shape and border, the frame rate, the webcam default, the cursor style and the side widget.
• Each step saves only when you click Next. Skip keeps your settings. Back is always there.
• The camera and the microphone turn off when you leave their step or close the guide.
• Recording Setup also has the Shortcuts, Capture, Record and Side Widget lessons, so there is one guide only.
• Open it from the menu, Help, Recording Setup, or from Settings, General.

• Hololith has a menu bar icon and a Dock icon. The menu bar menu, the menu that the menu shortcut opens and the Dock menu have the same commands.
• The side widget on the edge of your display is optional.
• When you turn off the Dock icon, the menu bar icon comes back, so there is always a way in.
• Command Comma opens Settings. A click on the Dock icon also opens Settings when no Hololith window shows.

• Hololith shows the macOS permission prompt first, and opens System Settings only when the prompt cannot show.
• The Allow buttons for Accessibility, Screen Recording, Camera and Microphone open the right page of System Settings.

• After an update, macOS may ask again for Camera, Microphone and Screen Recording. Allow them once.

• Hover the side widget to open Capture and Record. CAPTURE has Window and Full Screen under it. RECORD has Screen + Webcam, Webcam Only and GIF under it.
• Pick the display, the webcam and the microphone right in the side widget.
• Right click or Control click the side widget for its options: the display, the edge, hide to a thin line, reset position, Settings and turn off.
• Choose the display for the widget in Settings, General, Side widget, Show on. Select Automatic or one of your displays.
• During a recording, the side widget shows Recording or Paused, with Stop Recording and Pause Recording.

• In the window before a recording, the mode sets the webcam. Only Last Region has its own Webcam switch.
• That window has all four frame rates and uses your microphone setting.
• Scroll your script in the teleprompter while you record. It can open as each recording starts.
• The recording controls have a Pause button and show Paused.

• Noise Reduction for the microphone is on by default. It removes low rumble and makes steady background noise, such as a fan, quieter when you do not speak. The sync of the voice with the video does not change.
• Turn Noise Reduction on or off in Settings, Recording, in the window before a recording and in Recording Setup.
• The Mic Mode button opens the macOS microphone modes, such as Voice Isolation.

• Cursor styles include macOS arrow, large arrow, soft dot, ring, Bold arrow, Bold hand, Blue arrow, Click burst, Flame, Candy stripe and Glove. Click a preview to select a style.
• Click highlights can be a ripple ring, a filled pulse, a soft glow or a double ring, in any color, with an optional second color for right clicks.
• With Cursor effects off, the newer styles such as Click burst and Flame go into the recording as you record. With Cursor effects on, Review and export draw them.

• Drag the gold handles to keep a range of the take. Add a zoom at the playhead on the timeline. Make the auto zooms again and your own zooms stay.
• Command Z in Review takes back zoom, cursor and trim changes. A slider drag is one step.
• Mute the microphone or the system audio in Review and the export leaves that track out.
• Review has one main Export button. The format, GIF export, GIF size, GIF frame rate and the Reveal in Finder and Copy options are in the More menu.
• The zoom and cursor inspector and the webcam look controls start closed so the video has the most room. Show them with the buttons under the timeline and next to the webcam controls.

• Click to select an item. Press Space for Quick Look, Return to open, the arrow keys to move and Command Delete to move it to the Trash.
• Drag an item from the Gallery to other apps.
• Search finds the kind, the date and the file names.
• Star the items you want to keep. Clear Unstarred asks first, then moves the unstarred items to the Trash.

• Mark up stills with arrows, shapes, pens, text, counters, highlights and blur.
• Click where you want text and type in the text field that opens there.
• The Watermark settings were named Annotations before version 1.0.6.

• Choose what happens after each still and each recording: open the editor or Review, copy, or save to your folder. Choose what Escape does in the editor too.
• The menus show the shortcuts that you set in Settings, Shortcuts.

• Delete in the Gallery moves the item to the Trash. Press Command Z to put it back.
• Discard in Review asks first, then moves the recording to the Trash. Files that you exported stay.

• When the recorded display disconnects or Screen Recording is turned off during a recording, Hololith stops the recording and keeps what it recorded.

• After a recording that did not stop, Hololith offers Review, Save to Gallery and Discard.

• The menu bar icon comes back when the Dock icon is off. Open Settings from its menu, or press Command Comma.

• Hololith checks for a new version shortly after launch and once a day, shows what changed, and asks before it installs.
• Turn the checks off in Settings, General.
• An automatic update check does not open the update window during a recording.

• Every version and its changes are listed in the release notes.

Read the release notes