Add zooms and screen effects

Add zooms in the Effect tool in the editor sidebar (press E), which was called Zoom until September 2026. A zoom draws attention to a detail in the footage shown in a layout’s Screen slot: a screen recording, an uploaded video, or image or video B-roll used in a media layout. Looking for a control that used to be somewhere else? See Where did the Zoom tool go?

​

Open the Effect tool

1. Open your video in the Tella editor.
2. Click Effect in the sidebar, or press E.

The Effect timeline shows zoom, blur, and highlight cards over the clip’s waveform, with transcript words underneath.

​

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. Web recordings and Chrome extension recordings of a window or entire screen do not include cursor data for automatic zooms.

1. Open Effect on an eligible screen recording with no existing zooms.
2. In Zooms, click Generate (the sparkles button).
3. 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.
4. Click Generate at the top. The menu stays open while you compare styles and closes after you generate the 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. If the recording is still uploading, Generate is unavailable until the upload finishes. If Tella finds no cursor data, Generate becomes unavailable and the Zooms panel explains why. You can still add a manual zoom. A temporary error loading cursor data does not mark the recording as lacking it; try generating again if the request fails.

​

Apply zooms automatically after recording

Turn on Auto-apply zooms to add click-based zooms to eligible screen recordings automatically after you finish recording:

1. Click your avatar and open Settings.
2. Go to Preferences under Account.
3. Under Recording, turn on Auto-apply zooms.

Tella uses the last Auto Zoom style you selected in the editor. If you have not selected one, Tella uses Adaptive. Tella adds the zooms after the recording’s uploads finish, so they may take a moment to appear in the editor. You can then adjust or remove them.

​

Customize screen effects

The Effect panel keeps zooms, cursor styling, blurs, and highlights together. Under Zooms, expand Advanced zoom settings to control motion blur, camera shrinking, zoom animation style, and clip-specific settings. If your video has several clips, motion and cursor styling use the video-wide settings unless you turn on Adjust this clip only under Advanced zoom settings. That checkbox only appears when the video has more than one clip. With video-wide settings, turning on Cursor enables it on the selected clip and on eligible clips that already have zooms. Tella skips clips recorded with System. Turn on Adjust this clip only first when you want to control only the current clip.

​

Reuse effect settings in your next recording

When you change video-wide settings, Tella uses them as the starting point for your next Mac or Windows app recording made with Animated. Tella remembers:

• Cursor on or off, size, smoothing, movement tilt, click effects, and visibility settings
• Motion blur on or off and its amount
• Shrink camera during zooms on or off

Tella chooses the cursor style for the operating system you record on. Changes made with Adjust this clip only turned on apply only to that clip and do not change the starting settings for your next recording.

​

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.

Auto is available only when the footage at the start of the zoom includes cursor data. Zooms on image or video B-roll are always manual. Each selected range must be at least one second long. Its start must contain footage in the Screen slot. If a new zoom overlaps an existing one, Tella trims, splits, or replaces the existing zoom so the cards do not overlap.

​

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.

​

Work with zooms on the Effect timeline

Move and select zooms

• Drag a zoom card to move it, or drag either edge to change its duration. While you resize it, the video previews the moving edge while the red playhead stays parked.
• Drag across an empty part of the timeline to select a time range. The preview follows the moving edge while the playhead stays parked, then the playhead moves to the selection’s start when you release.
• Hold Cmd on Mac or Ctrl on Windows and click zoom, blur, or highlight cards to select several. You can move or delete the selected effects together. When you select only zooms, you can also copy, cut, or change their scale together.
• Hold Cmd/Ctrl and drag across several effect 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.

​

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 target, scale, duration, and spacing. You can paste into another video, and Tella fits the pasted zooms around existing zooms. If you paste an Auto zoom onto media or other footage without cursor data, Tella changes it to a manual zoom.

​

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.

​

Combine zooms with layouts

Zooms follow the footage in the layout’s Screen slot at the start of the zoom. If a media layout puts image or video B-roll there, the zoom applies to that media. Media in the Camera slot is unaffected. When the Screen-slot media changes, create a separate zoom for the new media. Use Layouts to control which source appears in each slot.