Slides

One slide is one thing you put on stage. Add it → order it → adjust its values → send it out. This page covers the first three. Sending out, and the layers, are in Output.

What you can add

Kind	Card badge	How to add it
Video	Video	Add File, or drag and drop
Image	Image	Add File, or drag and drop
Audio	Music	Add File — sound only, nothing on screen
Text (captions)	Text	Make it in Edit, or paste text
YouTube	YouTube	Paste the address into Link
Web	Web	Paste the address into Link

The extension decides which is which.

Video	mp4 · mov · m4v · mkv · webm · avi · mpg · mpeg · ts · wmv
Image	jpg · jpeg · png · heic · gif · webp · tiff · bmp
Audio	mp3 · m4a · aac · wav · flac · aiff · ogg

An extension it does not know

comes in as video. Whether it plays depends on the file.

Some extensions do not show up in the file picker

mpg · mpeg · ts · wmv are left out of the picker’s media filter. Switch the file type to the one that shows every file and they appear; once added they come in as video and play.

Adding

Press Add File (+) at the right of the playlist title bar, or right-click the title bar and choose Add File. You can pick several at once, and they land at the end of that list.

You can also drag them in from the Finder. Drag a file over a list and a line appears between the slides to show where it will land. Drop it there and it is inserted at that spot — drag two files and two slides appear there.

Drop it right on a card and it swaps the media. When that card takes a border, it is a place you can drop. No new slide appears; only the picture or video on that slide changes. One file at a time here.

What survives a swap, and what does not

Three things survive: text boxes, layer, background. Everything else goes back to the way it is for a freshly added file — in and out points, crop, speed, loop, audio, and any frame you had picked as the thumbnail. An in point left over from the previous video would start the new one in the wrong place.

When a file of the same name is already there

If the name is taken, A file with this name already exists appears and offers three ways out.

Choice	What it does
Use existing	Uses the file you already have. This is the one if you are reusing the same picture
Replace	Overwrites it. Every slide using that file shows the new picture
Keep both	Adds a number and keeps both

It looks at the name only. It does not check whether the contents match.

For YouTube and web, use the chain button Link in the title bar. Paste the address into the Add Link (YouTube / Web) window.

YouTube addresses you can paste
youtu.be/… · watch?v=… · /embed/… · /shorts/… · /live/… · an 11-character video ID

Any other address becomes a Web slide, named after the domain. A YouTube title fills itself in a moment later. Until then the video ID stands in as the name.

⌘V adds things too, when the slide list has focus. It takes files, images, addresses and text.

What you paste	What you get
A file	A slide of that kind
An image itself, such as a screen capture	Dropped into the media folder as png, as an image slide
Text starting with http	A YouTube or web slide
A long block of text	Split into several slides, one screenful each

Why a card says Copying

A file from outside the media folder goes into the list at once, and the copy runs behind it. Meanwhile the card is covered with Copying and a progress bar, and when the copy finishes the slide switches to the one in the media folder. It plays from the original the whole time, so you can keep using it.

What happens when you click a card

Gesture	What it does
One click on the thumbnail	Sends it out from where it is
Two clicks on the thumbnail	Sends it out again from the beginning
One click on the card’s name row	Selects it — loads it into Slide settings on the right
Two clicks on the card’s name row	Opens the editor
Option + click	Loads it into Slide settings only, without sending it out
Right click	Card menu

A click is a send

Click a thumbnail plainly and it goes to the audience screen that instant. To check a slide without sending it out, Option + click it, or click the name row under the card. That is what Option + slide to load next to the Slide settings header means.

The two are kept apart on purpose, so you can set up one slide while another one is out. That is why clicking a thumbnail to send it out does not pull the settings panel on the right along with it.

Selecting several

Gesture	What it does
⌘ + click	Add and remove one at a time
Shift + click	From the anchor to here
Shift + ⌘ + click	Add that range to the current selection
⌘A	Everything in this playlist
Drag from an empty spot	Rubber band — touching a card is enough to catch it
Click an empty spot	Clear the selection

The count appears in the status bar at the bottom as a purple badge, like 3 selected. It is there so you do not delete or re-layer a selection you had forgotten was there.

Ordering

Press a card and pull it a little and the drag begins. A purple vertical bar shows where it will land. Go to the top or bottom edge of the list and it scrolls by itself.

• If the card you pressed is outside the selection, only that one is dragged
• If it is inside, everything selected moves together (the drag image carries the count)
• On a touch screen you hold for about 0.4 seconds before it drags, so it is not mistaken for a scroll

The keyboard works too.

⌥⌘← / ⌥⌘→	One place forward / back
⌥⌘↑ / ⌥⌘↓	To the very front / to the very end

Sending them to another playlist

Drop them on another playlist’s section further down, or on a playlist row in the left sidebar. Either way they go to the end of that list.

The default is copy, not move

The drag image carries a Copy badge. To really move them, hold Option as you drop — the badge changes to Move. What counts is the moment you drop, so you can change your mind after the drag has started.

You cannot drop on a folder row in the sidebar. Rest on a collapsed folder for about 0.6 seconds and it opens by itself, then drop on a list inside it.

Duplicate · Copy · Cut · Paste

⌘D	Duplicate the selection right after that block
⌘C	Copy
⌘X	Cut
⌘V	Paste

Cut does not remove anything on the spot

It only marks them, and they move at the moment you paste. If you cut and then copy something in another app, the slides stay where they are.

The right-click menu also has Show in Finder, below Paste format. It opens the Finder with that slide’s file already selected. It does not appear on text, YouTube or web slides, which use no file.

A duplicate is a separate slide from the original

Duplicating and pasting make a new slide. The point you fixed with Set as thumbnail comes along, though, so the duplicate renders the same frame again.

Deleting

Delete or Backspace, or Delete in the card’s right-click menu (with several selected, Delete 3).

A confirmation appears in two cases only.

When it asks	What the window says
The selection holds a slide that is on air	Some of these are on air right now.
Ten or more at once	Delete 12 slides?

Otherwise it deletes at once and shows a notice. Press Undo ⌘Z at the right of the notice, or press ⌘Z, to bring them back.

Delete and Backspace remove the slide only. Right-click a card and Delete (Delete 3 for several) opens into a submenu.

Choice	What goes
Slide only	It leaves the list. The file stays where it is
Slide and file (to Trash)	The slide, and the original file goes to the Trash
Delete download	Keeps the slide and removes only the downloaded YouTube file — that slide goes back to streaming

Delete download appears only on a YouTube slide you have downloaded.

Deleting the file when other slides use it

LayerCue tells you first: N other slide(s) use these files. It does not stop you. Go ahead and those slides are not deleted — they stay where they are and show as File missing.

Undo takes the file back out of the Trash

Press ⌘Z after deleting a slide together with its file and the slide comes back with the file returned to its place. If you emptied the Trash in between, the file cannot come back.

Values saved on each slide

You handle these in the Slide settings panel on the right. Once set, that slide always goes out that way.

Value	Starting value	Range
Scale	Fit	Four of them
Crop	No crop	0–95% per side
Anchor	Center	Nine positions
Playback speed	1×	0.25–3.0×, in steps of 0.05
In point · Out point	None	—
Slide volume	100%	0–100%

Scale

Press the gear at the top right of the thumbnail and the Crop & fit sheet opens. The same four icons are always out in the right panel too, so you can change it without opening the sheet.

	What it does
Fill	Fills the screen and cuts off what overflows
Stretch	Ignores the ratio and stretches to fill
Fit	Puts the whole picture in and leaves the rest as margin
Fit + blur bg	Lays the same picture, blurred, in the margin

Crop

Drag the blue frame on the large picture at the top of the sheet. Drag the inside and the whole box moves, drag the white handles on the corners and edges and it changes size.

To type numbers, use the four fields under the picture — Left · Top · Right · Bottom. The number is not the area you keep — it is the % trimmed from that side. The hint line says so as well.

• Between 0 and 95, to one decimal place
• Neither width nor height goes below 5%
• To undo it, Clear crop
• Result at the lower left is what will actually go out
• When you are done, Done at the top right

Only three kinds can be cropped

Images, videos, and YouTube playing as a Downloaded file. For anything else the picture area shows only Can’t crop this kind (download YouTube first). Scale reaches further than this — everything except web slides.

Anchor

The 3×3 grid at the lower right of the sheet. Under Fill it decides which side is kept when the rest is cut off; under Fit, which side the margin gathers on.

It does nothing under Stretch

There is nothing left over and nothing overflowing.

In point · Out point

These trim the clutter at the head and the empty space at the tail. Watch the video in the right panel and, at the moment you want, press the left arrow (In point) or the right arrow (Out point) under the progress bar. Once set, the button turns blue and shows the time. To clear both, press the X beside them (Clear In/Out).

Layer	When it reaches the out point
Slide	Output stops
Background · Overlay	Rewinds to the in point and repeats

Click the progress bar once and ← → move one frame at a time, ten frames with Shift.

The order you set them in matters

Set an in point after the out point and the out point clears itself. Set an out point before the in point and nothing happens.

Playback speed

Press the speed chip (1×) under the progress bar and adjust it. Reset to 1× puts it back. It appears for video, audio and YouTube only.

There are two speed chips

The chip on the stage side at the left touches only what is going out right now and is not saved. Only the chip in Slide settings on the right is saved to the slide, so it goes out at that speed next time too. They look the same, so check which one you are touching before you press.

Slide volume

The purple bar under the thumbnail. Press the speaker and it goes between 0% and 100%. This value is that slide’s share, and the layer volume and the master volume are multiplied onto it in turn.

Moving it to the background sets the sound to 0

Backgrounds are usually laid down for atmosphere, hence the default. Move it back to the slide layer and it returns to 100%. A value you set by hand after that is left alone.

Thumbnails

They are rendered automatically when a card comes into view. For video the frame at 5 seconds is taken — many videos start on black.

If you want a particular frame, park the video on it in the right panel and press the picture button under the progress bar (Set as thumbnail). It appears only on slides that play as video.

It is not a picture of the screen

It writes ‘the current position’ onto the slide and pulls that point out of the original again. So the card follows at once when you change the crop later, and the same frame comes back if the thumbnail is thrown away.

When a file has gone missing

A card that cannot find its original is covered in red and says File missing. Point it at the file on this computer with Locate file — inside the cover, or at the top of the right-click menu — and Relinked appears. A relinked file is copied into the media folder too.

A list received as a bundle is like this to begin with

A bundle carries images only; video and audio are not included (they are heavy, so only the path travels). Video slides showing File missing on the receiving end is not a fault. Reconnect them with Locate file.

Same filename, and the rest follow

If the file you pick has the same name as the original, every other slide that used that file is relinked too (Also relinked N other slide(s) using the same file). A moved folder is the usual case.

Pick a file with a different name and only that slide changes (Changed this slide only — N other slide(s) still point at the old file). Sometimes you mean to swap just one picture, so the two cases are kept apart.

YouTube, web and text slides use no file, so they can never become File missing.

Which layer it goes out on

Set it with the layer chip at the top right of the card. Layer and Overlay in the right-click menu do it too.

Gesture	What it does
Click the layer chip	Slide ↔ BG
Press and hold the layer chip	Moves it over to the overlays (hold again to come back)
Click while on an overlay	1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 1

If that card is inside the selection, the layer changes for everything selected at once. How the layers stack, and what can go on which layer, is in Output.

When the layer chip is missing altogether or will not respond

• Web pages — these always go out on the foreground
• YouTube streaming — only the background is off limits. Foreground and overlays work, and clicking the chip toggles Foreground ↔ Overlay 1. Download it and switch to Downloaded and the background works too
• Music — there is nothing to draw, so it goes on no layer at all
• If the playlist is forcing a layer, the chip is dimmed

Working with text slides

You compose the text in Edit; in the list you split slides, merge them and carry formatting across. Right-click a card.

Menu	When	What it does
Split into slides	One slide selected	Into several slides, one screenful each
Merge 3 into one	Several selected	Merges them into one
Merge with previous	Not the first slide	Attaches it to the slide before
Copy style	Text slides	Picks up the style of the first text box
Paste style	A style has been copied	Applies it to every selected slide

Merging loses something

Only the look of the first slide survives; the backgrounds and shapes of the slides being absorbed are gone. That is why it asks first. It also asks first when you split a slide that is on air. Splitting and merging both come back with one ⌘Z.

Paste style does not carry position or the text itself. Only the formatting travels. It is here for the moment in rehearsal when you find the text is too small and do not want to open twenty slides one by one.

The name of a text slide

It is set automatically from the first 40 characters of the first line of the first text box. Edit the text and the name is overwritten again.

Card size

Drag the slider in the status bar at the bottom, or press ⌘+ and ⌘-. Settings also has S · M · L buttons under Slide card size.

Slider	130–340 pixels
S · M · L	170 · 210 · 260 pixels
⌘+ / ⌘-	20 pixels at a time

It is saved when you let go, so it is the same next time you open the app. It cuts down on hitting the wrong slide in a dark booth.

When editing is locked while presenting

When editing is locked, adding, deleting, reordering and setting layers are refused and Editing is locked while presenting appears. Selecting, copying and sending out work regardless of the lock. You can unlock it with the padlock in the status bar at the bottom.

Some places are ignored without a word

Crop, Scale and Anchor changed inside the Crop & fit sheet are thrown away with no notice while it is locked. If a value looks like it went back by itself, check the padlock first.

Shortcuts

They only listen when the slide list has focus

When the cursor is in a rename field or the link popup, the shortcuts switch themselves off.

⌘Z and ⇧⌘Z are the exceptions — they listen wherever the focus is in the window. While you are inside the caption editor, though, undo does not reach the list. Nothing you are not looking at should quietly roll back.

Key	What it does
← → ↑ ↓	Moves along and sends that slide out immediately
Option + arrow key	Moves the cursor only, without sending it out
Shift + arrow key	Widens the selection, without sending it out
Home / End	To the very front / the very end (it sends out too)
PageUp / PageDown	Three rows at a time (it sends out too)
Enter	Send out the slide at the cursor
⌘A	Select all
⌘D	Duplicate
⌘C / ⌘X / ⌘V	Copy / Cut / Paste
Delete · Backspace	Delete
⌘Z	Undo
⇧⌘Z · ⌘Y	Redo
⌥⌘← ⌥⌘→	One place forward and back
⌥⌘↑ ⌥⌘↓	To the very front / the very end
⌘+ / ⌘-	Bigger / smaller cards
⌘B	Collapse or open the left sidebar

The arrow keys send slides out as they go

Look around with the arrow keys during the event and the audience screen follows along. To look around without sending anything out, hold Option while you use them.

YouTube features are not guaranteed

YouTube features lean on what YouTube gives us. When YouTube changes how it works, they can change or stop without notice, and we cannot promise to bring them back. If something that worked yesterday doesn’t today, try again a little later.

If a video absolutely has to play on the day, have a local file ready too. That’s less a limit of LayerCue than the nature of putting someone else’s service on stage.