Editing slides and themes in Present

Present's slide editor is where you change the words, styling and backgrounds of a presentation. Themes dress many slides at once, so a whole song or service can share one look. Changes save as you make them.

Where to find it

Go to Present, open a presentation, and click Edit in the toolbar. Themes have their own workspace: click Themes in the toolbar (in the More tools menu when the window is narrow). Click Present in the toolbar to go back to the slide grid.

Open a slide in the editor

1. Go to Present and open a presentation from Library or a playlist.
2. Do one of these:
   • Click Edit in the toolbar.
   • Double-click a slide in the grid.
   • Right-click a slide and choose Edit slide.
3. The editor opens: the slides down the left, a Layers list under them, the slide in the middle, and the inspector on the right with four tabs: Presentation, Text, Shape and Build.
4. When you are done, click Present in the toolbar.

Change the words on a slide

1. Go to Present, open the presentation and click Edit.
2. Click the slide in the strip on the left.
3. Double-click the text box on the slide and type.
4. Click outside the box (or press Esc) to finish. The change is saved.

If the slide is on the screens right now, the change shows at the next slide change.

Add text, boxes, timers, clocks, pictures and web pages

1. Go to Present, open the presentation and click Edit.
2. Use the buttons above the slide: Add text, Add box, Add timer, Add clock, Add image / video and Add web page.
3. Drag the new item to move it, and drag its handles to resize it.
4. To line several items up, Shift-click them (or drag a box around them) and use the align and distribute buttons.

A web page plays from Tech Manager on the booth computer. On the web app the editor shows only where the page will sit.

Style text

1. Go to Present, open the presentation and click Edit.
2. Click a text box, then open the Text tab in the inspector.
3. Change Font, Size, Style (bold, italic, underline, strikethrough), Color, Case and Line height.
4. Use Scale to choose how text fits its box: Shrink to fit, Grow to fit, Shrink or grow or None.
5. Add an Outline, a Text shadow, or Lines only (a band behind each line, useful over busy backgrounds).

To use your church's own font, open the Font menu and choose Add font…. This opens Add fonts: upload .ttf, .otf or .woff2 files (up to 20 MB each) and confirm you have the right to use the font on screens and livestreams. Fonts can also be added from Plan > Media.

Add, copy, delete and label slides

1. Go to Present, open the presentation and click Edit.
2. Above the slide strip, use Add slide, Duplicate this slide or Delete this slide. The last slide cannot be deleted.
3. Drag slides in the strip to reorder them.
4. To label a slide (Verse, Chorus, Bridge and so on), go back to Present, right-click the slide in the grid and choose Label. The label colours the bar under the slide.
5. In the inspector's Presentation tab, the Slide section has the slide's Label, Background colour and Notes. Notes show on stage layouts that use them.

Apply a theme to slides

A theme dresses a slide: fonts, colours, text boxes and background. Themes are grouped (for example Sunday, Christmas, Youth), and each group holds several variations.

1. Go to Present and open the presentation.
2. To change several slides, select them first: Ctrl-click (Cmd-click on a Mac) or Shift-click in the grid, or drag a box around them.
3. Right-click a slide (one of the selected ones, if you selected several), point to Theme, then to a group, and click a variation. The slides keep their own words and take the variation's look.

Or use the Themes workspace:

1. Select the slides in the grid as above, then click Themes in the toolbar.
2. Pick a group in the Theme group menu.
3. Hover over a variation on the left and click Apply. It goes on the selected slides, or on the live slide when none are selected.

Make or change a theme

1. Go to Present and click Themes.
2. Pick the Theme group. Its variations are the slides down the left; edit them like any slide.
3. Click Add slide to add a variation, and name it in the inspector's Label field.
4. Right-click a variation and choose Set as default look to dress every song with it. The default shows a Default badge.
5. Click Manage… to open Manage themes. There you can add a New theme group, rename or delete groups, install WorshipMetrics stock themes (Install theme), and keep Saved themes with the church's name, colours, font, logo, slide layout and default background (Apply to Present uses one).

Change the aspect ratio

1. Go to Present, open the presentation and click Edit.
2. In the inspector, open the Presentation tab.
3. Pick an Aspect ratio: 16:9, 4:3, 16:10 or Custom.
4. To make it the church default for new presentations, click Use for new presentations.

Outputs draw at their own size, so only the shape changes the picture.

Set the slide transition and builds

1. Go to Present. Under the slide grid, click Cut (instant) or Crossfade. For a crossfade, drag the slider to set its time.
2. This is one setting for the whole church: it applies to every slide change in every presentation. The editor's Build tab sets the same thing.
3. For one slide, open Edit, select the slide and open the Build tab:
   • Auto-advance On moves to the next slide by itself; set the time with After.
   • Reveal lines One by one shows one line per click or key press, then moves on.

Undo a change or restore an earlier version

1. Press Ctrl + Z to undo and Ctrl + Y to redo.
2. To go further back, open Edit, then the Presentation tab, and click Version history….
3. It shows when the presentation was Last saved and by whom, and a list of Earlier versions.
4. Click a version to restore it for everyone. A restore is saved as a new version, so it can be undone too.

Troubleshooting

A slide shows an amber triangle that says "Font not loaded"

The slide uses a font this computer does not have, so it draws in Inter Tight instead. Upload the font from the Font menu's Add font… or in Plan > Media. The triangle shows only to you, never on the screens.

My change did not show on the screens

An edit to the slide that is on the screens shows at the next slide change. Version history shows "Shows at the next slide" while it waits.

It says "Not connected. Your changes are kept here and sent when the connection is back."

The internet dropped. Keep working; your changes are sent on their own when the connection returns.

A coloured outline with someone's name is on a slide

Another person is editing that slide right now. Everyone edits the same presentation; if you both change the same thing, the last change wins.

Good to know

• A theme dresses slides. A look (in Settings > Looks) decides which layers reach which screens. They are separate settings.
• Theme changes never change a song's words.