Support

Getting started

kokofocus normally lives in your menu bar. Its six-circle icon fills in when the app is on. The menu shows only Turn On kokofocus and its shortcut hint while the app is off. A Dock icon appears during single-window setup or a presentation. At launch, only Tutorial opens automatically if you have not chosen “Don’t show again”; Settings and single-window setup open when you choose them.

The disk starts with Pointer, Laser, Arrow, Line, Rectangle, and Ellipse. In Settings → General, drag tools into its five editable positions; Pointer always stays at the top. Hover over a configured tool and click its × to remove it, or drag between positions to swap. Tools already on the disk are dimmed in the available list. The inner ring has Undo, Redo, and Clear. Clearing is undoable. Reopen Tutorial from the menu at any time.

More tools

Pen draws freehand ink, and Highlighter draws wider translucent strokes. Halo surrounds your mouse with a ring and can show an optional click ripple. In Settings → Tools → Halo, choose Steady, Pulse, Ripple outward or inward, Spin clockwise or counterclockwise, or Orbit. Animation speed ranges from 0.25× to 3×. Enable Fill halo to turn the ring into a translucent disk in the same color. The fill follows Halo’s opacity and works with every effect. Reduce Motion keeps it steady while retaining your fill choice. Spotlight darkens the screen outside the area around your mouse. Magnifying Glass enlarges live screen details. Halo, Spotlight, and Magnifying Glass let normal clicks reach your app.

Magnifying Glass needs Screen Recording permission for display content. Open Settings → Tools → Magnifying Glass → Permission Settings to see whether access is enabled and to open the macOS Screen Recording settings. If you grant access while kokofocus is open, select Magnifying Glass again to retry capture. Tutorial also links to the permission setting. Other display tools do not need this permission. Guided Window Share authorizes its selected source through Apple’s picker; direct staging requires Screen Recording permission. Frames stay in memory and are not recorded or uploaded by kokofocus.

Magnifying Glass still says Screen Recording is disabled

If macOS shows Screen Recording as enabled but kokofocus still cannot use Magnifying Glass after a restart, its saved permission may be out of date. Try these steps:

1. Quit kokofocus.
2. Open System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen & System Audio Recording. Select kokofocus and click the − button below the list to remove it. If it is not listed, continue to the next step.
3. Click +, choose /Applications/kokofocus.app, and turn on Screen Recording for it. Enter your Mac password if asked.
4. Reopen kokofocus and select Magnifying Glass. Its status under Settings → Tools → Magnifying Glass → Permission Settings should now say Enabled.

If it still says Disabled, quit kokofocus and enter tccutil reset ScreenCapture com.shutas.kokofocus in Terminal. This clears macOS’s Screen Recording decision for the App Store copy; it does not erase your tool settings. Reopen kokofocus, select Magnifying Glass, and allow Screen Recording when macOS asks. Apple documents this permission reset command. If the problem continues, please contact us below.

Text on your screen

Choose Text from the menu bar or press Control-B, then click empty canvas and type. Text supports multiple lines, clipboard commands, and Japanese input. The small “Aa” pointer badge shows where you can create a text box.

Creating, editing, moving, resizing, formatting, and deleting text support Undo and Redo. Empty new boxes are discarded. Text stays until cleared by default; enable Fade text automatically in Text settings for a 2–30 second lifetime. Typing, moving, and resizing pause fading and restart the delay when complete.

The Text settings preview lets you practice typing, moving, and resizing without changing your live annotations. Text also works in Annotate a Single Window, stays anchored to the source window, and appears in the shared output while you type. To return to your app and keep the text, finish editing and choose Pointer through the circular menu or its shortcut.

Smart Pen

Choose Smart Pen from the menu bar or press Control-G. Draw freely and release: recognizable strokes become straight lines, arrows, rectangles, or ellipses. Nearly square or circular loops become squares or circles. Tilted shapes keep their angle, and small gaps or uneven edges are tolerated. Uncertain marks and handwriting stay as freehand ink; ordinary Pen is unchanged.

Draw an arrow in one stroke, or draw a shaft and add a V-shaped head within ten seconds. You can also draw the two wings separately. Only the immediately preceding Smart Pen strokes with the same appearance on the same canvas can combine. Undo reverses one input stroke at a time, restoring the shaft when you undo a separately drawn arrowhead.

Smart Pen has its own color, stroke weight, opacity, and optional fading under Settings → Tools → Smart Pen, with a practice canvas. It works on the desktop and in single-window sharing. Recognition runs locally and needs no service, download, or additional permission. Both Smart Pen and Text can be assigned to circular disk slots or different shortcuts.

Clock: timer, stopwatch, and current time

Select Clock from the menu or use its default shortcut, Control-T. Choose Timer, Stopwatch, or Clock from the mode menu on the object. Each annotation canvas supports one clock. Selecting Clock keeps keyboard focus with the app you are presenting. You can immediately switch tools through the circular menu or a tool shortcut, keeping the clock visible and running; Undo, Redo, and Clear include it. Escape clears the clock and ink when returning to Pointer.

While entering a timer number, press Return to finish, or switch tools using the circular menu or a shortcut containing Control or Command. Your valid duration stays set, and ordinary keys keep editing the number. Clicking the clock’s background or a resize edge also finishes entry before moving or resizing it.

Drag the clock’s background to move it. Hover to reveal its corner guides, then drag an edge or corner to resize it while keeping its 16:10 proportions. Text stays sharp at large sizes. Clicks outside the clock reach your app without moving the clock. There is no separate control window.

Settings → Tools → Clock starts with shared appearance, followed by settings for each mode. Choose text and background colors from presets or saved custom colors, including a Transparent background option, and adjust opacity. With Clock selected, text and background colors are also in the menu bar. Color changes preserve running timers and lap records.

Timer and Clock have separate Show seconds settings. Stopwatch always displays seconds; Show hundredths of a second controls the smaller units, including in lap times. Hiding timer seconds rounds the displayed minutes up until completion. Choose the current-time format (12-hour or 24-hour) and city time zone in the Clock section. The Settings preview lets you switch modes and try controls without changing your live clock.

The clock appears with your annotations in display shares and in Window Share. Turning kokofocus off clears the clock along with other annotations.

Settings

General brings together the disk’s tools and background. Choose Light, Dark, Liquid Glass, or Transparent. Under Circular disk → Reveal speed, choose Instant, Fast, Normal, or Slow for the disk and all its buttons. The preview replays when you change the speed. Normal is the default; Fast uses the earlier release timing, Slow takes longer, and Instant skips the animation. Reduce Motion also reveals everything instantly. Reveal speed is separate from how long you hold the mouse to open the disk. General also controls the menu gesture, double-tap shortcut, hold length, and automatic update checks. The installed version appears beside Check for Updates. Turn on Show circular menu in screen shares to let viewers see the menu while it is open, along with brief tool-change notices, in full-display shares and the kokofocus presentation window.

Tools lists every available tool. Select one to adjust its appearance and try the live preview. Move the mouse within a cursor-tool preview; hold the left mouse button and drag to test ink. Depending on the tool, controls include color, size, width, opacity, fill, fading, and magnification. Pointer, Laser, and Halo each have a separate Show click ripple setting. Laser also offers Allow clicks through, off by default. Its preview and information popover explain that the normal macOS pointer remains visible when clicks pass through. Dependent settings are dimmed until enabled. Click an information icon to read about a setting.

Color controls offer built-in colors and your saved custom colors. Clock adds White, Black, and Slate, with Transparent available for its background. Use the standard color picker, give the color a name, then save it. Cancel closes the editor without saving. You can delete custom colors you no longer need. Rectangle and Ellipse use Shift for perfect squares and circles by default; choose a different modifier in their tool settings. Pointer settings also link to macOS’s native pointer controls.

Shortcuts lets you customize every tool, Undo, Redo, Clear, and Stage Frontmost Window. Defaults are Control-P (Pointer), Control-L (Laser), Control-A (Arrow), Control-I (Line), Control-R (Rectangle), Control-E (Ellipse), Control-D (Pen), Control-G (Smart Pen), Control-B (Text), Control-H (Highlighter), Control-M (Magnifying Glass), Control-O (Halo), Control-S (Spotlight), and Control-T (Clock). Action defaults are Control-Z (Undo), Control-Shift-Z (Redo), and Control-Delete (Clear). Stage Frontmost Window defaults to Control-Shift-W.

Tool and annotation-action shortcuts work while kokofocus is on. Stage Frontmost Window also works while it is off. Shortcuts pause while Settings is focused, Tutorial is open, text is being edited, a system menu is open, or sharing setup is active. During timer-number entry, tool shortcuts containing Control or Command remain available; ordinary keys edit the number. Undo, Redo, Clear, and Stage Frontmost Window pause until number entry ends. Switching tools through the menu or a shortcut preserves annotations. Outside text editing, text resizing, or timer-number entry, Escape is the emergency path and clears ink, text, and clocks. Existing customized or cleared assignments survive upgrades. New defaults are added where available; conflicts use Control-Shift. A previous Clear All remains cleared.

Use × beside a shortcut to clear it, or Reset to Default Settings to restore shortcut defaults without changing other settings. Assignments without Command or Control show a typing-conflict warning; combinations macOS cannot register remain saved with an availability warning.

In version 1.2.3 and earlier, appearance controls are in the Appearance tab, the disk has the original six tools, and Laser passes clicks to the underlying app.

Sharing your screen

Share your whole display and your annotations and clock appear automatically. Nothing else to configure.

Stage your selected window with a shortcut

1. Stop an existing meeting share. Click the original window you want to present so it is frontmost.
2. Press Control-Shift-W. This prepares the window’s stage directly. Change or clear this assignment under Settings → Shortcuts → Stage Frontmost Window.
3. Allow Screen Recording if needed. Direct staging needs permission to find and capture your focused window. If prompted, open the offered macOS settings, enable access for kokofocus, return to your source window, and press the shortcut again.
4. Share the stage in your meeting app. Select kokofocus — Share This Window from its window list. In Webex’s Mac picker, click the staged window on your desktop; kokofocus keeps the stage above the original until it is selected.

The shortcut prepares the stage; you start the meeting share yourself. It works while kokofocus is on or off. Once the share starts, continue working in the original window and choose your annotation tools. If another capture was already running, finish selecting the stage, then choose Laser or a drawing tool to begin annotating.

If the selected window closes or becomes unavailable, kokofocus reports the problem rather than choosing a different window. You can still use the guided route below. For Webex, enable its Mac system screen sharing picker as described in the Webex steps.

Guided single-window setup

Choose Microsoft Teams, Webex, or Zoom for a guide tailored to your meeting app. Each uses short instructions and an animation. Finish the step on screen, then click the button to continue. Click Cancel to close the guide.

Webex

1. Stop sharing first. End any active screen or window share in Webex. In kokofocus’s menu, choose Annotate a Single Window → Webex.
2. Prepare Webex. Open Settings → Sharing Content and turn on Use the Mac system screen sharing picker. The information icon in kokofocus explains why this is needed and offers optional motion guidance.
3. If you changed the picker setting, restart Webex. Fully quit and reopen Webex, then rejoin your meeting.
4. Choose your app window in kokofocus. Click Choose a Window…, then select the original app window you want to annotate in the macOS picker.
5. Share that same window in Webex. Click Continue to Sharing, then click Share in Webex. When the Mac picker appears, click the same window on your desktop that you just chose in kokofocus.

Your pointer and drawings appear in the shared window. Keep working in your original app.

Microsoft Teams and Zoom

1. Stop sharing first. End any active screen or window share in your meeting app. In kokofocus’s menu, choose Annotate a Single Window, then Microsoft Teams or Zoom.
2. Choose your app window in kokofocus. Click Choose a Window…, then select the original app window in the macOS picker.
3. Share the annotated window. Confirm macOS’s sharing offer when available. Otherwise, click Continue to Sharing, open Share in your meeting app, and select kokofocus — Share This Window.

While you’re sharing

When macOS reports that sharing has started, kokofocus returns you to the original app so you can annotate and present. If screen recording or another capture is already active, first finish starting the share in your meeting, then choose Laser or a drawing tool from kokofocus’s menu or use its shortcut. The guide reminds you of this extra step when overlapping capture is detected.

When macOS reports that capture has ended, kokofocus closes the window share and stays on with your selected tool. If screen recording continues after your meeting stops sharing, choose Stop Window Share from the menu. Use this command too if your meeting app does not report when sharing stops.

Single-window annotation includes video only. Annotations keep their size and position from the window’s top-left when you resize it; they do not follow scrolling or changes in page layout.

Window sharing behavior can vary by meeting app and capture method. If you have trouble, sharing your whole display also includes your annotations.

The circular menu, brief tool-change notices, and Text selection guides are hidden from captures by default. The Text pointer badge follows this preference on the desktop. Turn on Settings → General → Show circular menu in screen shares to include them in a full-display share or the kokofocus presentation window, including the stage selected through Webex’s Mac picker.

Draw with iPad

Pair kokofocus Companion on iPad with kokofocus 1.5.0 or later on your Mac. The Mac update is available. The iPad companion is awaiting App Store approval; use this feature once the companion is released. The companion is not a standalone drawing app.

1. Connect both devices to the same private local network. Guest networks, VPN-only connections, and networks that isolate devices can prevent pairing.
2. Turn on kokofocus on your Mac and choose Draw with iPad…. Allow Screen Recording and Local Network access, choose the display, and create a pairing code. If a presentation stage is active, only that window is mirrored.
3. Open the companion, tap Scan pairing code, and allow Camera and Local Network access. Scan the QR code on your Mac. No account, passcode, or second approval is needed. The code expires after five minutes and connects one iPad.
4. Use Apple Pencil to draw. Ink appears on both devices. Tool selection, line weight, and the Mac’s default and saved colors stay synchronized.
5. Hold a finger on the mirrored screen, flick toward a tool, and release. Fingers also move pointer effects and drag or pinch existing text and clocks. Pencil taps open text or clock settings; Pencil drags do not move objects.

Laser, Halo, Spotlight, and Magnifying Glass follow your finger. Pointer indicates a location for your audience; it does not click other Mac apps. The physical Mac mouse takes over when moved. The circular menu follows your Mac’s layout, background, reveal speed, and hold duration. Undo, redo, and clear affect the active Mac canvas.

During single-window annotation, the companion shows the composed presentation window with its annotations and effects, even if another desktop window overlaps it. Closing the stage ends the connection. Starting a stage during display mirroring switches to that window and clears the old display image. If you stop sharing in a meeting while the iPad remains connected, use Stop Window Share explicitly.

Mac menus, focused Settings, and local text or clock editing temporarily pause remote input. Finish those interactions to resume. Disconnect from either app to end mirroring; completed annotations stay on the Mac. Leaving the companion, device lock, sleep, or turning kokofocus off also ends the session. Reconnect with a new QR code.

Waiting for your Mac screen

If no image arrives, check the capture message in the Mac’s pairing window and confirm Screen Recording access. A connection without its first image ends with a reconnect message after twenty seconds. If pairing itself fails, check Local Network access on both devices, their network, and the address selected on your Mac, then create a fresh code. Screen images and input use encrypted local transport and are not uploaded or recorded.

Updates

Automatic checks are on by default. While kokofocus is on, it checks Apple’s catalog at the top of each hour, such as 10:00 and 11:00. At startup, when you turn it on, or after waking, it also checks if there has not been an attempt in the current hour. Checks pause while kokofocus is off and cannot run when the app is quit. Failed checks retry at the next hour. Turn automatic checks off in Settings → General, or use Check for Updates to check manually.

A newer compatible release quietly adds a small downward-arrow badge over the existing menu bar icon, without widening it or opening a window. Choose Update Available or Check for Updates to read the release notes and open Update in App Store. Notification permission is not needed. The App Store installs the update; kokofocus does not download or install it itself.

Update checks bypass stale catalog caches to improve detection of newly released updates. If an older kokofocus version says it is up to date while the App Store offers an update, use the App Store’s update. Availability still depends on your region and macOS version.

Common questions

I selected Rectangle and now I cannot click my slides

Drawing tools take the mouse so you can draw without holding a key. Select Pointer through the circular menu or a shortcut to return clicks to your app while keeping annotations. Press Esc for an emergency return that clears ink and clocks. The menu bar stays reachable.

Control-click stopped working

The menu modifier sends clicks to kokofocus while held. Choose another key in Settings → General → Hold to open the menu if you need Control-click. Fn has no click gesture to replace.

The right-click menu appears instead of the circular menu

Make sure kokofocus is on, close Tutorial or focused Settings, and hold the configured menu key before pressing and holding the mouse button. Laser requires this key in both input modes, so an ordinary long click or drag remains available to the underlying app when Allow clicks through is enabled.

Double-tapping Control conflicts with another app

Turn off double-tap in Settings → General. Tool shortcuts can be changed individually in Settings → Shortcuts; the app warns about assignments that may interfere with typing.

Why can’t I click my slides with Laser?

Open Settings → Tools → Laser and enable Allow clicks through. Clicks and drags then reach your slides, while both the laser and the normal macOS pointer remain visible. The laser and optional click ripples still follow your input. Leave the setting off to hide the normal pointer and consume clicks. In either mode, hold the configured menu key and long-press the mouse to open the disk. No additional permission is needed.

Can ink and text disappear on their own?

Yes. Select the tool in Settings → Tools, enable automatic fading, and choose a duration from 2 to 30 seconds. Text stays until cleared by default; typing, moving, or resizing pauses its fade timer and restarts the delay when you finish. Earlier versions keep this control in Settings → Appearance.

Does it need permissions or a connection?

No tool needs Accessibility or Input Monitoring permission. Magnifying Glass and direct window staging need Screen Recording permission. Guided Window Share uses the macOS picker to authorize one source for the session. Update checks contact Apple’s public catalog and quietly mark available updates on the menu bar icon; notification permission is not required. No account or tracking is used. See the privacy policy.

Contact

Questions, bugs or requests: shutas [at] umich [dot] edu. Replace [at] with @ and [dot] with ..