Auto zoom
Let Playback find the moments worth zooming in on — and frame them for you.
A screencast recorded at full size is hard to follow. A well-placed zoom pushes the camera in on the button you’re clicking or the field you’re filling, then eases back out. It’s the single biggest thing you can do to make a demo feel polished — and Playback can do it for you automatically.
One click
In the editor toolbar, press Auto zoom. Playback reads your recording’s activity — where the cursor moved, paused, and clicked, and where you were typing — and places smooth zooms on the busy moments, framed on the action.
The zooms land on the timeline as effects you can review, nudge, or delete like any other. See Adjusting zooms and Reframing a zoom.
Presets
The plain Auto zoom button uses a balanced style, but right-click it (or open the ⋯ overflow menu) to pick how aggressive the framing should be:
| Preset | Feel |
|---|---|
| Gentle | Softer push-ins that stay wider — good for calm, readable walkthroughs. |
| Balanced | The default. A confident push-in on the busy moments. |
| Punchy | Pushes closer and leans harder into clicks and right-clicks — good for snappy, high-energy demos. |
Gesture options
The same menu has two toggles that change what Auto zoom reacts to. They stick between sessions, so set them once to match how you record:
- Zoom on dwell — off by default. Turn it on to also zoom when you hover and pause over something, not just when you click.
- Stay wide while scrolling — on by default. Keeps the camera pulled back while content scrolls, so the view doesn’t lurch around chasing a moving page.
What counts as a “busy moment”
Playback looks for the parts of your recording where something is happening and the viewer’s eye should be led in:
- Clicks and cursor activity — a burst of pointing and clicking in one region becomes a zoom framed on that region.
- Typing — filling in a form or writing in an editor reads as activity too, so Playback frames a zoom on where you’re typing instead of treating it as dead space.
Quiet stretches with no clear focus are left at full size, so your video breathes between zooms rather than lurching around.
Re-running it
You can press Auto zoom again any time — after trimming, say, or if you didn’t like the result. Each run replaces the zooms Playback generated before, but keeps every zoom you placed or adjusted by hand. So you’re free to auto-zoom, keep the two you like, tweak them, and re-run without losing your manual work.
Tips
- Auto-zoom first, then refine. Let Playback do the placement, then delete any zoom that doesn’t earn its keep and adjust the rest.
- Record deliberately. Clear, purposeful cursor movement and distinct clicks give Playback stronger signals than fast, wandering motion.
Want to place or reshape a zoom yourself? See Adjusting zooms.