Running the show

Press Play and the editor window becomes your control room: the program, your script in the prompter, timers, and the navigator marking the next slide. ArcLight renders one clean program picture and sends it everywhere at once: the virtual camera, a recording, and Monitor Presentation for screen sharing or another display.

Play and stop

Select the slide to start from, then click Play in the toolbar, choose Play ▸ Play Show, or press ⌥⌘P. To stop, click Stop, press ⌥⌘P again, or press Esc.

While playing, these keys drive the show from any of the document's windows:

Play ▸ Next Slide (⌘]) and Play ▸ Previous Slide (⌘[) do the same from the menu.

The Play screen

While the show plays, the editor window swaps its editing tools for show controls:

• The program, as large as it fits, with transitions and builds exactly as your audience sees them.
• The prompter, in a strip below the program, when the show has a script. Your notes are the script. See Teleprompter.
• The status bar at the bottom: elapsed time, recording time while recording, the clock, the live slide's builds, Record, Go Live and the sound level.
• The navigator, wider, with the next slide marked.

The toolbar shows Previous and Next, Stop, Record, and a Live menu with the slide number (for example Live · 3 of 12). Choose any slide from that menu to take it live. You can also click a slide in the navigator to take it live.

Edit while playing

Click Edit in the toolbar, or choose Play ▸ Edit While Playing (⇧⌘E). The navigator, canvas and inspectors come back while the show keeps running. Edits to the live slide go straight to the program; selection handles never do.

A bar above the canvas shows what's live, with Previous, Next, Program, Record, Done and Stop Show. While you edit, the arrow keys edit layers, so only a clicker's Page Up and Page Down move the show. Press Esc or click Done to go back to the Play screen.

Where your audience sees the show

There are two ways, and you can use both at once:

• ArcLight Camera: the show as your camera in a video call. Nobody shares a screen. See below.
• Monitor Presentation: a clean window of the show, without ArcLight's controls, script or slide list. Share it in a call, or put it full screen on a projector, TV or capture card. See below.

The editor window is always yours: while the show plays it's the Play screen, and the prompter can have its own display.

Use ArcLight in Zoom, Meet and Teams

ArcLight installs a virtual camera called ArcLight Camera. Any app that takes a camera can use it.

1. Install it once. Open Settings ▸ General. Under Video Calls, click Install beside ArcLight Camera. ArcLight must be in your Applications folder. If macOS asks, click Approve…, allow the extension, and click Check Again.

2. Choose it in your call. In Zoom, Meet, Teams or Webex, pick ArcLight Camera as your camera.

3. Press Play. With Use ArcLight as a camera in video calls on (the default), the call sees your program.

When the show isn't playing, or ArcLight is closed, ArcLight Camera shows your real camera, the one you last put on air, so you can pick it before you start and the call still sees you. If no camera works, it shows an ArcLight card. Zoom mirrors your own preview; the people in the call see it the right way around.

Settings ▸ Advanced ▸ ArcLight Camera has one button for where the camera stands: Install, Update when this ArcLight carries a newer camera, or Uninstall.

Monitor Presentation: share it, or put it on a screen

Prefer to keep your own camera in the call and share your slides instead, or show them on a screen in the room? Monitor Presentation is a clean window of your show, without ArcLight's controls, script or slide list. It's always there:

• To share it in a call, choose to share a window in Zoom, Meet or Teams, and pick the one named Presentation followed by your show's name, for example Presentation — Weekly Update. It sits behind the editor and moves with it; you never need to look at it.
• To show it on a projector, TV or capture card, choose the display in Settings ▸ Presenting ▸ Displays ▸ Monitor Presentation: a display by name, or Full screen on another display for any display the editor isn't on. Off keeps it behind the editor.

It shows the same thing wherever it is. While the show plays: the program, with its transitions and builds. While you edit: the slide you're on as it starts (before its builds), cameras live. Clicking another slide changes it straight away, without a transition, so your audience sees what you're about to talk about.

With a second display, View ▸ Show Program Output, or the Program button in the toolbar while playing, puts it full screen there until the show stops, and View ▸ Hide Program Output brings it back. If the display is disconnected, or you move the editor onto it, or the prompter goes full screen there (its Full Screen button), it goes behind the editor so screen sharing keeps working, and returns when the display is free.

With several shows open, only one fills the display: the one playing, otherwise the one you used last. Behind the editor, it stays live in the show you used last and the one you last played; the others hold a still picture until you come back to them.

Record the program

Choose Play ▸ Record Program (⇧⌘R), or click Record in the Play screen's status bar. If the show isn't playing yet, recording starts it from the selected slide. Press the same button or keys to stop. Stopping the show also stops the recording.

Recordings are QuickTime movies (.mov) at the show's canvas size and frame rate (Document ▸ Format), named like ArcLight 2026-09-26 at 14.05.12.mov. They save by themselves to ~/Movies/ArcLight, or the folder you pick under Settings ▸ General ▸ Recording. Nothing asks when you stop: a Recording saved card appears with Show in Finder and Rename/Move…, and File ▸ Show Last Recording finds it later.

The sound is the audio mixer's mix: the microphones, app audio and video clips you've added, at their levels. Open the mixer with Audio in the toolbar, or the level meter on the Play screen. With a mobile layout, Document ▸ Mobile Layout ▸ Also record mobile writes a second movie of it, named … Mobile.mov, with the same sound.

Frames come straight from ArcLight's renderer, not from a screen capture, so windows and menus on your screen never end up in the recording.

The teleprompter during the show

If your show has a script, the prompter can start by itself: turn on Start when the show plays or Start when recording starts in the script settings. While playing, the prompter sits on the Play screen; Pop Out moves it to its own window and Bring Back (or Pop In on the prompter's own bar) returns it. The Play menu has Start Prompter, Prompter Faster, Prompter Slower, Next Cue, Previous Cue and Prompter Back to Top. Details are in Teleprompter.

Global hotkeys

Global shortcuts work system-wide, even while Zoom, Meet or another app is in front, and need no Accessibility permission. They control the show that's playing, or the ArcLight document you used last. Settings ▸ Presenting shows the main ones; change any of them with Customize Shortcuts…: click a shortcut and type a new one (it needs ⌃, ⌥ or ⌘), press Delete to clear it, or click Restore Defaults. A warning sign means another app or macOS already uses that shortcut. Turn them all off with Shortcuts that work in any app.

Clickers

Most presentation clickers send Page Down and Page Up, or the arrow keys. ArcLight treats them as next and previous while playing, including while you edit live. Keep an ArcLight window in front for a clicker; to control ArcLight while another app is in front, use the global hotkeys or a Stream Deck.

Stream Deck

Settings ▸ Presenting ▸ Set Up Stream Deck… lists every command with its hotkey and a link you can copy. There are two ways to set up a button:

• Hotkey action (recommended). Add a System ▸ Hotkey button and press the command's global shortcut. It works while you present in another app and never changes focus.
• Open action. Add a System ▸ Open button with an arclight:// link. ArcLight runs the command and hands focus back to the app you were in.

Links also work from Terminal, Shortcuts or any script that can open a URL:

open "arclight://next"

Prompter links go to the document whose prompter is on screen. Everything else goes to the show that's playing, or the ArcLight document you used last.