Read along while you record with the Teleprompter (Beta)

What it is

The Teleprompter is a small floating panel that appears while you record. It shows your prepared script and karaoke-highlights one word at a time at a pace you set, so you can read along naturally instead of memorising or improvising.

The panel itself is excluded from the screen recording — it's visible to you but not in the exported video, even if you record the whole screen.

Set it up before you record

  1. Open Highlight Studio and click New Recording.

  2. On the right side of the recording sheet, scroll to the Teleprompter section.

  3. Switch Show During Recording on.

  4. Paste or type your script into the text area. You can include line breaks and full paragraphs — it'll wrap naturally.

  5. Adjust Pace (in words per minute) and Font Size to taste. 150 wpm is conversational; 180–200 is a faster delivery.

  6. Pick your screen / window / iPhone source as usual and hit Start Recording.

The teleprompter floats at the top-center of your screen during the countdown and starts auto-advancing the moment recording begins.

What you see during recording

  • The current word is highlighted in white with a soft yellow glow and slight scale-up. As you read, that highlight moves forward through your script.

  • Words you've already passed dim out so your eye stays on the live spot.

  • Upcoming words show in a softer white so you can see what's coming next.

  • The current line auto-centers in the panel — you don't have to scroll.

Manual controls

Buttons in the panel header let you take over from the auto-pacing:

  • ◀︎ / ▶︎ — step one word back or forward.

  • ⟲ — restart from the top of the script.

  • Pause / Play — freeze auto-advance or resume it. Useful if you want to ad-lib for a moment, then jump back to the script.

  • Pace slider at the bottom — bump speed up or down without leaving the recording.

The header also shows a counter (e.g. 42 / 280) so you know how far through the script you are.

On-screen cues with [brackets]

If you want visual reminders of what to show on screen at each beat, wrap them in square brackets:

Here's the recording flow.

[SHOW: full screen of the recording sheet]

You pick your source on the left and toggle camera overlay on the right.

[SHOW: cursor hovering camera toggle]

Hit Start Recording and the countdown begins.

Anything inside […] is treated as a cue — it's shown in a subtle cyan bracket box, but the karaoke pacing skips over it. The current-word highlight only moves through your speaking words, so cue cards never throw your reading off rhythm.

Tips

  • If you suddenly need a longer pause, hit Pause in the panel header. The current word stays highlighted; resume when you're ready.

  • Faster than the auto-advance? Drag the pace slider higher mid-recording. Slower? Drag it down. Both update live.

  • The pace is a guide, not a metronome. The current-word highlight is a target your eye glances at — speak naturally and let it gently lead you.

  • Your script, pace, and font size are remembered between sessions. Pastes don't get lost when you close the recording sheet.

It doesn't appear in the recording

The teleprompter window is configured so that ScreenCaptureKit (the underlying macOS recording engine) skips it. Even if you record the entire display, the teleprompter is excluded from the captured frames. You can verify by playing back the export — it's just your screen and you, no script overlay.

Troubleshooting

  • I switched it on but the panel didn't appear when I started recording. Make sure your script isn't empty — if there's no text, the teleprompter won't show. Add a sentence and try again.

  • The panel is in the way. Drag it by its background to anywhere on the screen. The next session will reset to the default top-center position.

  • The pace feels off. Default is 150 wpm. Conversational delivery is 130–170, podcasting 150–180, fast skim 200+. Use the slider in the panel to tune mid-recording.

  • I want to start over partway through. Hit the ⟲ restart button in the panel header — it jumps back to the first word without ending the recording.