Running slides live in Present

This article is for the person running slides during the service: turning the screens on, taking slides, going to black, clearing, and using timers, overlays, macros, loops and live cameras.

Where to find it

Go to Present. The controls for going live are in the toolbar (Back, Black, Logo, Audience, Stage), in the slide grid, and in the right panel: the Audience monitor, the row of layer buttons under it, and the inspector tabs Audio, Overlays, Clocks and Macros.

Turn the screens on

1. Go to Present.
2. Click Audience in the toolbar to start every audience screen that is switched on in Settings > Outputs. Click Stage for the stage screens.
3. Read the button:
   • Audience alone (red) — off.
   • "Audience · 2 live" (green) — on, and two screens are showing.
   • "Audience · on · 0 live" (amber) — you turned it on but nothing is showing on this computer yet. A note under the button lists each screen and why.
4. Click the button again to turn the screens off. It always flips.

Show slides

1. Go to Present and open a presentation from Library or a playlist.
2. Click a slide. It goes on the screens and is highlighted in the grid. The Audience monitor on the right shows what the room sees.
3. Move on with the Right arrow, Space or Page Down. Go back with the Left arrow or Page Up. Home and End jump to the first and last slide.
4. To put back the slide the audience saw before this one, click Back (or press Shift + Left arrow).

Taking a slide also lifts black. If a slide reveals one line at a time, the monitor shows "Line 1/4" and each Next shows another line before moving on.

Go to black or show the logo

1. Go to Present.
2. Click Black (or press B) to fade every screen to black. Click it or press B again to come back.
3. Click Logo to clear to the church logo on every screen. Click it again to come back.
4. To set the logo, right-click Logo and choose Choose a file…, From the media bin, Replace from file… or Remove logo.

Esc never changes the screens. It only closes menus and dialogs.

Clear one layer

The screens are built from layers. The buttons under the Audience monitor are, from left to right: Live video, Background, Slide, Timer, Overlays, Audio and Clear all. A lit button means that layer is showing.

1. Go to Present.
2. Click a lit layer button to clear just that layer. For example, click Slide to take the words down but keep the background video playing.
3. Click Clear all to clear every layer at once.
4. Click a slide to bring it back.

Preview a single output

1. Go to Present.
2. Above the Audience monitor, open the menu beside Live ·.
3. Pick Audience (all screens), Stage (default layout), or any one output by name. The monitor shows that output's picture.

Put a live camera on the screens

1. Go to Present.
2. Click Live video (the first layer button under the monitor).
3. Pick a camera, capture card or NDI source. It plays at the bottom, under the slide's background.
4. To take it off, click Live video again and choose Take down.

An opaque slide background hides the camera. For a camera slide, give the slide no background, or use a transparent picture.

Run a countdown or other timer

1. Go to Present and open the Clocks tab in the right panel.
2. Click + beside Timers. Click the pencil to edit it: give it a Name and a Type (Countdown, Count up or To time), then a Length or Time.
3. To show it on a slide, click Edit, click Add timer, then in the inspector's Text tab pick it under Timer.
4. In the Clocks tab, use Start, Pause and Reset.
5. The Timer layer button under the monitor takes timers off the screens.

Clocks in the same tab show the time of day, in this computer's time zone or another; add them to a slide with Add clock.

Show an overlay (name key, lower third, logo bug)

1. Go to Present and open the Overlays tab in the right panel.
2. Click an overlay to put it on the screens; click it again to take it off.
3. Click its clock to make it leave by itself after some seconds.
4. Show / hide sets how overlays come and go: Match slides, Cut or Fade.

To build or change overlays, click Overlays in the toolbar (or the pencil on an overlay row).

Run a macro

1. Go to Present and open the Macros tab.
2. Click a macro to run it. Its steps (for example Clear to Logo, Set background, Play audio, Wait (ms)) run in order. While steps are still waiting, click Stop on its row to cancel them.
3. Click + ("New macro") to make one.
4. Drag a macro onto a slide to run it whenever that slide goes live.

Make slides happen by themselves

• Slide actions: right-click a slide and choose Add action…. Actions run when the slide goes live: Start timer, Stop timer, Stage layout, Clear layer, Go to slide, Run macro or Switch look.
• Loop a few slides: select two or more slides, right-click, and choose "Loop these 3 slides…" (the number is how many you picked; it repeats) or Play through once…. Enter the Seconds per slide and press Enter. A video slide plays its clip through, then moves on. Any slide you take stops it; Clear timing removes the timing.
• Pre- and post-service loops: in the left rail, click + beside Loops ("Add loop"). Drag presentations and media into the loop. Set Background music, a Countdown to the service start, and Start automatically (Before the service or When the room opens). Click Start to run it; a "Loop running" note with Stop appears in the toolbar. Skip today stops an automatic start for today's service. Present must be open on the computer that runs the screens for a loop to start by itself.

Troubleshooting

Slides are not on the screen

1. Look at Audience. If it is grey, click it.
2. If it reads "on · 0 live", read the note under it. Each screen is listed with the reason. Click "Try Audience again", or Open Settings > Outputs to fix the screen.
3. Check Black and Logo are not lit. Press B or click the lit button.
4. Check the Slide layer button is lit. If not, click a slide.
5. In a room, if the buttons are greyed out with "This window is observing", click Control at the right end of the toolbar.

It says "Your browser blocked the window for …"

The browser's pop-up blocker stopped a screen's window. Click "Open the Audience screen" (or "Open the Stage screen"), then allow pop-ups for the site from the icon at the end of the address bar so it does not happen again.

The arrow keys do nothing

The keyboard is in a text box, a menu or a dialog. Click an empty part of the slide grid and try again. Keys also do nothing in Edit, Themes, Bible, Stage Layouts and Overlays; click Present first.

A video is playing but I can't hear it

The preview on this page is silent. If you see "Audio plays on the output window", click it to turn the audience screens on; the sound plays with them.

The live camera says "Live input unavailable"

Point at the camera's warning to read why: it may be unplugged, used by another app, or on a different computer. A browser can only show cameras plugged into its own computer.

Good to know

• On the web app, screen outputs need Chrome or Edge and pop-ups allowed. NDI cameras and NDI or DeckLink outputs work only in Tech Manager.
• In Tech Manager, Pop out opens a second window that drives the same screens, and the output windows accept the same arrow keys, Space and B.