Mobile Clicker for presentations

The Clicker is a mobile control panel for your presentation, opened in a browser. It's an alternative to laptop control — keep the projector on a laptop/TV and run the presentation from your phone. Plus integration with Q-Live and internal speaker notes.

Two URLs — projector and clicker

After creating a presentation in Builder you get two links:

The Projector URL is visible in the Builder left panel (section "PROJECTOR URL"). Copy it and send to the venue tech — they open it on the projector laptop and see "Waiting for presenter…".

Open the Clicker URL by clicking the Clicker button at the bottom of the left panel in Builder, or via "Present" in the top toolbar. Bookmark the Clicker URL on your phone — always the same link.

Where the presentation opens — tab or separate window

The Present button in the top toolbar has an arrow on its right. It opens the choices for how the projector is opened; the choice is remembered for your browser and the main click then uses it.

When the browser reports a second screen, an extra option appears: Open on the second screen right away. The browser asks once for permission to place windows; without it the window opens on the current screen and you move it yourself.

The second pair of choices says where to start:

• From the beginning (default) — the projector first shows the start screen where sound (voice, music) and captions are set. This is the normal route.
• From the open slide — projecting starts immediately with the slide you have in the editor. The start screen is skipped, so treat this as rehearsing a single slide rather than starting a live presentation. Hidden slides are skipped.

Presenter bar in the Builder window

As soon as you start the presentation, a presenter bar appears at the bottom of the Builder — your half of the "two screens":

• a preview of the next slide,
• notes for the slide being projected (written in the slide Properties panel),
• elapsed time,
• Back / Next arrows and an End button (closes the projector window).

Click into the bar and you can switch with ← →. Until you click it, arrows in the editor keep moving objects — you don't lose that.

The bar can be moved: grab it with the mouse by its header (the strip with the timer and arrows) and drag it up or down so it doesn't cover what you need to see. Double-click the header to send it back to the bottom.

The bar can also be resized: grab its top edge (the light handle in the middle, the cursor turns into a two-way arrow) and drag upwards. The next-slide preview and the notes font grow with it — on a large bar they stay readable from a metre away. Double-click the top edge to restore the default size.

Both position and size are remembered for next time. Two spots, two things: header = move, top edge = resize.

The state is shared across all routes: it doesn't matter whether you switch from the presenter bar, from the phone in the Clicker, or with an arrow key in the projector window itself.

The phone always follows the presentation that is running now

Every press of Present in Builder creates a new "session" and ends the previous one. You don't need to reload the phone: it reconnects on its own to the newest session (within 3 seconds) and takes over its state — so it knows the presentation is already running and which slide it's on. When you move a slide from the presenter bar or with an arrow key in the projector window, the phone shows it too.

When the presentation ends and no new one is running, the phone returns to its start screen with an explanation; the button there starts it again. An older /clicker/{token} link from an earlier run redirects you to the phone's stable address.

Workflow before the presentation

1. Venue tech: open the Projector URL on the projector laptop. You'll see the PMG logo and "Projector ready. Waiting for presenter…".
2. Click anywhere on the screen — this unlocks the browser's audio context. The audience sees nothing, but music will now work.
3. Presenter: open the Clicker URL on your phone.
4. Tap the big ember "Start presentation" button → the projector switches to slide 1, music starts.

Any amount of time can elapse between "click on the screen" and "Start presentation" — the venue can pre-stage, presenter arrives later.

Clicker tabs

"Presentation" tab

• ◄ Back / Forward ► — large buttons, thumb-friendly
• Slide preview — see the current slide
• Counter — "Slide 3 / 12, Step 1 / 2" (step = progressive animation reveal)
• Jump to slide — grid of all slides, tap = jump
• Start — when on slide 1 and you go back, the "Back" button becomes "🔄 Start" (amber) — returns the presentation to waiting state and resets music

"Q-Live" tab

If the current slide has a Q-Live widget (Results or QR), the Clicker renders the full Q-Live presenter controls:

• Activate poll
• Gong + countdown
• Pause, restart poll
• Q&A moderation
• Pin questions

Auto-detection — Clicker sees which Q-Live event is on the current slide and controls it. When you switch to a slide without a Q-Live widget, the tab shows a placeholder.

"Notes" tab

Shows the text from the "Notes (just for me)" field on the current slide — an internal cheat sheet for the presenter. Not subtitles (those are in narration_text), this is a private hint.

In Builder you write notes in Properties → Slide → "Notes (just for me)" — amber field. They never appear on the projector or in exports.

Keyboard + USB clickers

When the Clicker tab is in focus, these keys work:

Standard USB clickers (Logitech R400, R800, etc.) typically send Page Down / Page Up — works out of the box. Just keep the Clicker tab as the active window.

Keyboard control directly on the projector

If you're signed in as the author and open the Projector URL on your laptop, the same keys work there. A USB clicker plugged into the projector laptop then controls the slides.

In Builder (left panel under the projector URL) there's a checkbox "Allow arrows from projector URL" — when enabled, anyone with the projector URL can control with the keyboard (even without signing in). Useful when the presenter's laptop is offline and the venue runs a USB clicker from the projector. Default off.

Security

• Clicker URL requires login as the presentation author. A stranger with the URL gets 403.
• Projector URL is public read-only — who knows it, sees it. That's intentional (you share with venue, audience).
• Internal notes never reach the projector or exports.
• Token-based sessions expire after 24 hours of inactivity.

Tips

• Bookmark the Clicker URL on your phone as a web icon (Add to Home Screen) — works like a native app.
• Before the presentation click the projector's waiting screen to unlock the audio context — when the moment comes, music plays instantly.
• USB clicker fallback — if your wifi is weak, set the phone next to the laptop and use a USB clicker. The projector reacts the same.
• Start button resets music position — useful when running repeated rehearsals.

Common scenarios