Playlists

One event is one playlist. The small header at the top of the left sidebar is Playlists, and the lists and folders sit under it.

For how the window is divided up, read A tour of the window first.

Making them

What you want	How
A new playlist	The blue New List at the bottom of the sidebar
A new playlist inside a folder	Hover over a folder row and a + appears at its right edge
A new folder	New Folder at the bottom of the sidebar

A new list appears at the bottom and is selected right away. Make it inside a folder and that folder opens, with the new list in it.

The button name and the name you get are different

The button says New List, but the list it makes is named New Playlist. For folders, the button and the name are both New Folder.

A new list inherits Crossfade · Fade out · Auto-dismiss from Defaults for new playlists in the Settings window. After that, each list goes its own way.

The first time you start the program, if there are no lists at all, one list is made for you, with a single Welcome text slide in it.

Renaming

Right-click the row in the sidebar and choose Rename. Type the new name in the field that appears in the middle and press OK, or hit Enter. An empty name is ignored.

The saved file is renamed too

One playlist is one file. Rename the list and the file name follows. Characters a file name cannot hold (/ \ : * ? " < > |) become _, and the name is cut at 80 characters. The name shown in the list stays as you typed it.

Grouping into folders

Once you have a lot of lists, group them into folders. There are two ways to put one in.

• By dragging — drop a playlist row straight onto a folder row. When the folder’s border glows blue, that is a spot you can drop on. The list goes to the end of that folder.
• From the menu — right-click the playlist row and choose Move to Folder → the folder name. To take it back out, use No folder in the same menu.

Dropping into a collapsed folder

Hold still over a collapsed folder for about 0.6 seconds and it opens by itself. You can then drop straight into the spot you want inside it.

Folders are one level deep

You cannot make a folder inside a folder. Folders are always made at the top level, at the bottom of the sidebar. Folder rows cannot be dragged, so there is no way to reorder folders among themselves — they sit in the order you made them. The only thing you can drag is a playlist row.

Reordering

Grab a playlist row and drop it on the top half or the bottom half of another row. A blue horizontal line shows where it will land.

Drop it between rows inside a folder and it moves into that folder, in that spot.

Collapsing, expanding, and the right-hand view

Click a folder row and two things happen at once. The collapsed state flips, and at the same time that folder is selected, so the right side shows its playlists strung together from top to bottom.

Choosing in the sidebar does not split the view

Choose a playlist and the right side scrolls to that list’s title row. Collapse a folder and the right side still shows that folder’s lists.

The number at the right edge of a playlist row is how many slides that list holds. Add or remove slides and it changes right away. Folder rows have no number — while the pointer is over one, a + appears in that spot.

If the sidebar takes up too much room, collapse it with ⌘B. If Settings › General › Remember window layout is on, it opens collapsed the next time you start the program. In Edit mode the sidebar is not shown at all.

Deleting

Right-click the row in the sidebar and choose the red Delete at the bottom. A confirmation dialog appears once.

	Playlist	Folder
Dialog title	Delete this playlist?	Delete this folder?
Shown with it	The list name and N slides	The folder name
What actually goes away	That list and all its slides	The folder alone
Playlists that were inside	—	Not deleted — they come back out to the top level

After the delete, the first playlist is selected.

Deleting a playlist or a folder cannot be undone

The dialog says This cannot be undone., and that is exactly what it means. ⌘Z undoes only things on the slide side. Delete a list and the undo history piled up in it is thrown away with it. The saved file goes to the Trash, so if you are in a hurry, look in the Trash first.

Lock editing does not protect playlists

The editing lock during output blocks slide operations only. Making, renaming, deleting and reordering playlists and folders all still work while it is locked. During the show itself, the safe thing is to leave the sidebar alone.

Playlist settings

Right-click a sidebar row and choose Playlist settings, or click the gear at the far end of the title row on the right. Right-clicking anywhere on the title row brings up the same menu (Edit · Add File · Link · Playlist settings).

Value	What it sets	Range
Crossfade	How long the next slide overlaps as it comes in	0–5 seconds
Fade out	How long it takes to disappear when you stop	0–5 seconds
Layer for this list	Sends every slide in this list to one layer	Per slide · Slide · Background · 1–5
Auto-dismiss	How long until an overlay takes itself down	0–120 seconds (0 means Off)

These values live separately for each list. For how layers and fades look on stage, see Output.

Changing it in Settings does not change the list you are using today

Settings › Stage has values with the same names, but those are Defaults for new playlists. Underneath them it says Existing playlists keep their own value. To change the list you are using now, you have to open Playlist settings.

Moving to another computer

You move one playlist as one file (a Playlist bundle, .pplistx).

Exporting — right-click the sidebar row and choose Export bundle. Pick where to save it and a .pplistx file is made under the list’s own name, and Exported appears.

Importing — in Settings › Files & YouTube › Import bundle, click the Choose… button and pick a .pplistx file. The list that comes in is selected right away and Imported appears. If the file is wrong you get Import failed — not a bundle or damaged.

What goes into the bundle	What does not
The list name and its settings (fades and so on)	Video
Every slide	Music
Images, and the thumbnails you picked

Video and music do not go into the bundle

Those files are heavy, so only their paths are sent. That is why video and music slides show up as File missing on the receiving computer — this is not a fault. Use Locate file on that card to point it at the file on that computer. Get this done before the event, without fail.

If you import the same bundle twice

Nothing is merged; you get one more list. If the name already exists, a number is added on the end (for example Event 2).

Trading files through the Finder

A playlist is one file per list (.pplist). These files sit in Playlists, inside the program’s folder in your Documents folder.

What you did in the Finder	What the program does
Copied a .pplist into Playlists	It is picked up as a list right away
Left a .pplistx bundle sitting in that folder	It is imported by itself, and the original is moved to Backups
Deleted a .pplist	It disappears from the list too
Changed only the file’s name	It follows

Do not edit the contents of a file from outside

Edit the contents of a file the program already knows about, in another program, and it will not follow. You may be editing that list at that very moment. The next time it saves, the program’s copy wins and what you changed outside is gone.

It is fine if .pplist files written by another program are mixed into the same folder. Files that are not ours are not read, not written, not deleted — they are left alone.

Undo

Press ⌘Z. The notice names what it undid — Undone — Delete, for instance. Redo is ⇧⌘Z or ⌘Y.

Right after you delete a slide, you can also press the Undo ⌘Z button on the notice.

Undo stacks up to 50 steps. When you undo, whatever was out on stage at that moment comes back with it. Undoing a delete that took the file too brings the file back out of the Trash — unless you emptied the Trash in between.

Only slides are undone

Making, deleting or renaming a playlist or a folder is not undone by ⌘Z. And while a small dialog like Rename is open, ⌘Z does nothing at all.

Undo does not reach what you are not looking at

While you are inside the caption editor, undo does not reach the list; and once you leave the editor, ⌘Z does not run back through the text you were editing. The line is drawn there so nothing rolls back out of sight.

Opening the list you had open last

There is nothing to set up. Each time you choose a playlist the program notes it down, and opens that list the next time you start. If that list is gone, the first list opens.

Shortcuts

Key	What it does
⌘Z	Undo
⇧⌘Z or ⌘Y	Redo
⌘B	Collapse or expand the sidebar
⌘Q	Quit — it asks first

⌘B works only when your hands are on the slide list. ⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z listen wherever the focus is in the window, except that they do not reach the list while you are inside the caption editor.

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How to put slides in and work with them is in Slides; how to send them out to the stage is in Output.