Copy Text from a Zoom Screen Share on Mac
By Eduard Bruch, developer of Optic · Updated
You cannot select text in a Zoom screen share, because what you see is a video of the other person's screen. To copy it, read the pixels with a screen OCR tool on your Mac, or ask the presenter to paste the text in the chat.
Short answer: for a link or a command shown during a call, my pick is Optic, a menu bar app that copies the text in any area you drag across the screen, including a shared screen in Zoom, Teams or Meet ($4.99, a one-time purchase on the Mac App Store).
Disclosure: I build Optic.
Why you cannot select it
When someone shares their screen in Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, your Mac receives a moving image. Their browser, terminal or spreadsheet is not running on your computer, so there is no text to highlight. Live Text works where Apple supports it: images in Preview, Photos, Quick Look and Safari. It does not work on arbitrary app windows, video calls or text drawn inside an app's interface.
So the usual options are to ask the presenter to paste it in the chat, type it yourself while they wait, or find it in the recording later.
Ask for the chat first
If the text matters, the most reliable copy comes from the source. Ask the presenter to paste the link, command or value into the meeting chat. That is the original text, with no recognition step. Screen OCR is for when that is not practical: the meeting is moving fast, the value is one of many on a dashboard, or you just want it without interrupting.
Copy from the shared screen with Optic
- Click the Optic icon in the menu bar.
- Choose Capture Text.
- Drag a box over the text in the shared screen.
- Paste it into your notes, browser or terminal with Command-V.
Optic reads only the pixels inside the box, recognizes the text on your Mac, and puts it on the clipboard with a small "Copied to clipboard" confirmation. If the shared screen is on a second display, that works too: Optic shows its selection on every connected screen.
Get a clearer capture
A screen share is compressed video, so small text can be soft. To improve the result:
- Make the Zoom window bigger or switch to full screen before you drag.
- Wait until the presenter stops scrolling.
- Ask them to zoom in on the text if it is tiny.
- Check what you pasted, especially in passwords, IDs and numbers.
Commands and code
For terminal commands or config snippets, turn on Code mode in Settings. It keeps the indentation of each line and turns off language correction. Read the command once before you run it.
Links and QR codes on slides
If a slide shows a QR code, choose Capture QR Code and drag over it. Optic copies the code's content, and if it is a link you can open it from the capture history with one click.
Keep track during the call
Each capture goes into Optic's history in the menu bar popover, which keeps the last 20 with a thumbnail and the time. After the meeting you can re-copy anything you grabbed. The history stays on your Mac and is never uploaded.
Also by me: if music or a video keeps playing loudly while you are on a call, SoundDial is a volume mixer for Mac that sets the volume of each app separately and can lower other apps during calls in Zoom, Teams and other call apps (SoundDial facts).
Where Optic does not fit
- It cannot read text that is too blurry in the video. If you cannot read it, OCR probably cannot either.
- It does not record meetings or transcribe what people say. It reads text that is visible on screen.
- It does not extract tables. You get plain text, not cells.
- It needs the macOS Screen Recording permission.
Be considerate about what you copy. A shared screen can show things the presenter did not mean to share, like credentials. Related reading: copy text from video on Mac and copy text from anything on your screen. The same capture works on a paused YouTube tutorial and on images people post in Slack.
FAQ
Can you copy text from a screen share in Zoom?
Not directly, because it is a video feed. A screen OCR tool can read the visible text, or the presenter can paste it into the chat.
Does this work in Microsoft Teams and Google Meet?
Yes, the same way. Optic reads what is on your screen, whatever app shows it.
Does the other person see that I copied text?
Optic does not send anything to the meeting app or over the network. It only reads your own screen.
Why is the copied text wrong in places?
Screen shares are compressed video. Enlarge the window, wait for the image to settle, and check the result.