Present

Press Present in the top bar, or [Y], to fill the screen with your structure and turn it slowly for a room to watch.

Where: Top bar › Present · Publisher Studio › toolbar under the graph › Present · Keys: [Y] · Plan: Included in Pro

What it is

Present is our third studio, beside Space and Publisher. It shows your project as the Publisher draws it, on the whole screen with nothing else on it. It's for the ten minutes before a meeting starts, while people are arriving and taking their seats, or for a stand at an exhibition where the screen has to do the work of stopping somebody walking past.

How to use it

Three ways in: the top bar's Present button or [Y], from either studio, or Present in the toolbar under the Publisher's graph, beside UFO Spin. [Y] doesn't fire while you're typing.

The screen fades, the panels go, and the whole structure is fitted to the screen and starts to turn. Nothing is lit and any Pathfinder route is cleared, so the room sees all of it, and your selection comes back when you leave.

Choosing a hub page: Present shows the Publisher's graph, which starts from a hub page, the homepage of your document. If the project hasn't got one, Filamental asks you to Choose a hub page: pick Blank page (new) or one of your most connected nodes and press Present, and the presentation starts. See Publisher Studio.

The controls sit along the bottom and fade, with the pointer, after three seconds of stillness. Move the mouse and they come back.

• Flow [N] and Breathe [M]: light along the connectors, and groups drifting out and back, with Stars. See Flow and Breathe.
• Slower [,] and Faster [.]: five speeds, and the slowest holds the structure still.
• Further and Closer: step the distance, reversibly: three presses in and three out land on exactly the framing you started with. The scroll wheel and a touchpad pinch step it the same way.
• Legend: shows or hides the colour key, once more than one classification or connector type is in use.
• Exit [Esc]: back to the studio you came from.
• [T] shows or hides the labels, as it does in the studios.

Speed, the legend and Breathe are remembered on this computer, while the distance starts level every time.

Nothing else responds. A click on a node lights it for the room, and a click on empty space clears it. Beyond that the canvas is inert, so a stray hand or a knocked table can't drag, spin or open anything in front of everybody, and the keyboard ignores all but the keys above.

Presenting from a shared link: every link you publish and every HTML file you download carries the same Present button under its graph, so whoever you sent it to can put it up in their own meeting, without you there and without installing anything. It answers to [N], [M], [,], [.], the wheel and a pinch, and [Esc] leaves it. In a browser it turns from the view on screen and ignores clicks, and on a phone there's no Present button.

Tips

• Present takes the whole screen, title bar included. In a browser, the tabs and the address bar go too.
• In 2D the structure still turns, passing edge-on halfway round each revolution, so switch to 3D first if that isn't the look you want. See 2D and 3D.
• A background image or video shows behind the structure, so this is where a branded or animated one earns its place. See Backgrounds.
• On the free plan the top bar's Present button greys, and every way in explains what Pro adds instead. The trial includes Present. See Plans: Free and Pro.

How this helps you

• Use it on a reception screen nobody touches, as well as before a meeting.
• Use it when someone asks about a node: slow the turn to a stop with [,], click the node to light it, and answer.

Related

• Flow and Breathe: the two motion modes and the five speeds.
• Publisher Studio: the hub page, and the graph Present shows.
• Sharing a Document: publish the link that carries its own Present button.
• Cards and Stars: draw your nodes as Stars to bring in Flow and Breathe.
• Keyboard Shortcuts: every key, the presenting ones included.