Presenting from the Canvas

Turn a finished canvas into a clear story with a distraction-free view, a laser pointer, a spotlight, and a slide deck.

A finished canvas shows everything at once, which is great for reference but harder to narrate. livediagram gives you a few ways to focus an audience as you walk through your work, whether you are on a call, a projector, or sharing your screen.

Zen mode

When you want the full canvas with nothing else competing for attention, Zen mode hides every part of the interface, the header, tab bar, palette, and panels, leaving only the canvas and zoom controls (plus a Following banner if you are following someone). It is purely a view setting: it changes nothing on the canvas and is not shared with other people, so each viewer focuses independently (view-only visitors can use it too). Turn it on with Z or Zen in the Palette's selection-mode dropdown (view-only visitors, who have no palette, get a Zen mode button on the zoom controls), and leave with Z, Escape, or the Exit zen mode button on the zoom controls.

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Zen mode clears every panel, leaving just the canvas, the zoom controls and the button that exits it.

The laser pointer

For pointing things out live, switch to the Laser tool (K). Moving the pointer leaves a trail, in your participant colour by default, that fades after about a second, and on a shared session other people see your laser in real time, so you can sweep across the canvas and direct the room's attention. Its panel sets the pen: width, colour, how long the trail lasts (Quick, Normal or Long) and its effect. See Laser.

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The laser leaves a bright trail in your colour that fades behind the pointer as you sweep.

The spotlight

To focus on one part of the canvas at a time, switch to the Spotlight tool (desktop only). It dims the rest of the canvas and casts a pool of light around your cursor, so the room's eye lands exactly where yours does. Unlike the laser, it is only on your screen: everyone else in the document still sees the whole canvas. It shines when you are sharing your screen or presenting in the room; move the cursor from shape to shape to walk through the canvas one piece at a time. Click to grow the light and right-click to shrink it. Its panel sets the light's size, how far the rest dims, its edge and its shape.

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Spotlight dims the canvas and keeps a bright circle around your cursor.

A slide deck

When the walkthrough has a running order, build one. The Slide Deck tool (desktop only, and for Editors) lets you make slides out of the elements you select (each slide shows one tab, a deck can span every tab, and the same element can appear on as many slides as you like), write presenter notes against each one, then present the lot full screen, one slide at a time. The deck itself broadcasts nothing: you show it by sharing your screen, the same as everything else in the meeting. While it runs, L arms the laser (which others in the document still see) and S the spotlight.

Two things worth knowing before a talk. Slides you are not going to use can be hidden rather than deleted, so last week's detail and the section you cut for time stay in the deck without turning up in the run. And the presenter settings (in Settings, under Presenting, and the cog in the Slide Deck panel) carry the transition, an Auto-Advance interval and Loop the Deck: set those two and a deck runs itself on a screen in the room with nobody driving. While a deck runs, the editor's own shortcuts are off and the deck's take over; see Keyboard Shortcuts.

Reveal a busy canvas gradually by building it up tab by tab, then switch to Zen mode and use the laser to walk the room through each step.

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