Slideshow

The Slideshow shows your story one slide at a time, on a dark stage that fills the window: a slide for each scene, and one for each character. Use it to present your story, or to read it through without the rest of the workspace around it.

Open the Slideshow

In the Home view, click Slideshow among the view buttons.

The Home view's buttons: Timeline, Cards, Page, Characters, Story Stats, then Slideshow and Share

From any view, click the slideshow icon at the end of the view icons down the left-hand side (across the top on a phone).

The column of view icons on the left of the Timeline, with the slideshow icon last

The slideshow opens on the first scene slide. To leave it, click the × at the top right (Close slideshow) or press Esc.

People who view your story without editing it can also open it here: in the Home view, clicking a scene under Scene Slides opens the slideshow on that scene. And if the story's presentation settings hide every view from someone, the story opens straight into the slideshow for them, with no way to close it (see Update Presentation Settings). A slideshow embedded on another website works the same way (see Share).

Get Around

The slideshow open on scene 1: the header, the scene's image, its marker, characters and script, the next arrow and the progress dots

Next and previous: click the arrows at the sides of the slide, or press the → and ← keys. On a phone or tablet, swipe.
Scenes or characters: the Scenes and Characters tabs at the top left switch between the two sets of slides, and show how many slides each has. They use your story's own words, so they may read Chapters or Beats instead. They show when the story has both scene and character slides. Each tab remembers its own place.
Jump to a slide: click one of the dots along the bottom. Scene dots take their act's color. Point to a dot to preview its slide: the image, the scene number and marker, and a line from the scene.

The progress dots, one of them pointed to, with a preview of scene 3: its image, Inciting Incident marker and scene heading

Full screen: the button beside the × fills your whole screen with the slideshow (Enter fullscreen). Click it again to come back. It isn't offered on an iPhone.

A long slide scrolls: scroll inside it to read the rest.

The ☰ button at the top left (Menu) opens a list of every slide, with its image. Click a slide to go to it. The menu has the same Scenes and Characters tabs, so you can switch sets from here too. Click outside the menu, or press Esc, to close it.

The slideshow menu open on the left, with the Scenes (17) and Characters (35) tabs over a list of scene thumbnails

What's on a Slide

A scene slide shows the scene's images, starting with its primary one, with that image blurred behind the whole slide. Below it come the scene's details, such as its marker, its characters and its Body. A character slide shows the character's headshot beside their name and details, including how many scenes they appear in (Appearances).

Which details a slide shows is set by your story's format: its template, plus any features the owner adds in Advanced Settings. Each feature either has a place on the slide or doesn't. The feature articles say which ones show in the slideshow (see Scene Features and Character Features). A detail with nothing filled in is left off the slide.

If a scene has more than one image, the slide cycles through them every few seconds. Point to the image for arrows (Previous image, Next image) and a dot for each image. The images follow your story's image orientation and framing (see Change Image Orientation).

Filter What You See

The eye button at the top right (Filter) lists the details slides can show, in two groups: Scene Slides and Character Slides. Untick one to hide it from every slide; tick it to bring it back. A red dot on the eye means something is hidden. When a slide's image is all it shows, the image fills the screen, which is handy for presenting.

The slideshow's Filter menu, with Scene Slides (Featured Image, Characters, Body, Summary, Notes) and Character Slides groups, every item ticked

The filter changes only what you see. Your choices are kept for this story on your account, so they're still there next time. Nobody else's slideshow changes.

Choose Which Scenes and Characters Are Slides

Every new scene and character is added to the slideshow. To take one out, or put it back, open it in the Edit Window and click the slideshow button near the top: it reads In Slideshow or Add to Slideshow. See Toggle Slideshow Visibility.

To choose several scenes at once, go to the Home view and open the list button (Edit) beside Scene Slides. It lists every scene by act. Click scenes to add them to the slideshow or take them out; the menu stays open while you pick. These controls are for the story's owner and editors.

The Scenes and Characters tabs show only when both sets have slides. If only one set has slides, the slideshow shows that set. If neither has any, it shows just a message, for example: No scenes are marked for slideshow.