Zoom in on screen recordings

Zooms draw attention to a detail in a screen recording or uploaded video. They are not available on camera-only clips.

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Open the Zoom tool

1. Open your video in the Tella editor.
2. Click Zoom in the sidebar.

The Zoom timeline shows zoom cards over the clip’s waveform, with transcript words underneath.

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Generate zooms automatically

Auto Zoom can generate zooms from cursor movement recorded by the Tella Mac and Windows apps, or from a Chrome tab recorded with the Tella Chrome extension.

1. Open Zoom on an eligible screen recording with no existing zooms.
2. Under Auto Zoom, choose a Style:
   • Adaptive — follows your clicks as you work. This is the default style.
   • Subtle — fewer, shallower zooms with longer durations.
   • Moderate — a balance between Subtle and Intense.
   • Intense — more frequent, deeper zooms with shorter durations.
3. Click Generate zooms.

Tella remembers the last style you chose, so your selection replaces Adaptive as the default for future videos. You can move, resize, retarget, split, or delete generated zooms just like manual zooms.

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Add a zoom to a selected range

1. Drag across the time you want to zoom. You can also click or drag across words in the transcript row.
2. Click Add zoom, press Z, or right-click the range and choose Create zoom.
3. Select the new zoom card. Under Mode, choose:
   • Manual — use Target to choose a fixed focus point, then set Scale.
   • Auto — follow the recorded cursor movement throughout the zoom.

Each selected range must be at least one second long. If a new zoom overlaps an existing one, Tella trims, splits, or replaces the existing zoom so the cards do not overlap.

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Add a zoom from the playhead

With no range selected, move the playhead and click Add zoom. Tella creates a zoom up to five seconds long, stopping sooner if it reaches another zoom or the end of the clip. Hold Cmd on Mac or Ctrl on Windows while clicking to change the action to Add until end. The zoom fills the available gap.

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Work with the Zoom timeline

Move and select zooms

• Drag a zoom card to move it, or drag either edge to change its duration.
• Hold Cmd on Mac or Ctrl on Windows and click zoom cards to select several. You can change their scale, copy or cut them, or delete them together.
• Hold Cmd/Ctrl and drag across several cards to select them as a group.
• Press Escape to clear range and card selections.

Navigate precisely

• Scroll to pan. Hold Cmd/Ctrl and scroll to zoom around your pointer. Shift + scroll over the timeline zooms too.
• Zoom cards and selections snap to transcript word boundaries, other zoom edges, and the parked playhead. Hold Option on Mac or Alt on Windows while dragging to turn snapping off.
• Click a card edge or a seam, then press the left or right arrow key to move it by one pixel at the current timeline zoom. Hold Shift to move it by 10 pixels.

Use connected zooms Place two zooms directly beside each other to pan between different targets without zooming out. Drag their shared seam to move the boundary while both cards stay connected. Hold Option/Alt while dragging the seam to pull them apart. Right-click for more

• Right-click a zoom card to Split at playhead, switch between manual and auto zoom, or Delete zoom.
• Right-click an empty gap to Add zoom here.
• Right-click a selected range to Create zoom.

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Copy, cut, and paste zooms

1. Select one or more zoom cards.
2. Press Cmd/Ctrl + C to copy, or Cmd/Ctrl + X to cut.
3. Move the playhead and press Cmd/Ctrl + V to paste.

Tella preserves each zoom’s mode, target, scale, duration, and spacing. You can paste into another video, and Tella fits the pasted zooms around existing zooms.

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Split, delete, or reset zooms

• Split: Select a zoom, move the playhead inside it, then click Split or press X. Both halves keep the original mode, target, and scale.
• Delete: Select one or more zooms, then click Delete zoom or press Delete or Backspace.
• Reset: Open More actions and choose Reset all zooms to remove every zoom from the current clip. Click Undo in the confirmation message if you want to restore them.

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Combine zooms with layouts

Zooms and layouts can overlap. Use Layouts to change how the camera and screen are arranged while a zoom focuses on the important part of the screen.