How to use Presentations

How to use Presentations

Introduction

A Presentation is the core of your content in Q-Play. It defines what is shown on your screens and how your information is structured and displayed. Everything you build and configure comes together inside a presentation to create the final output for your viewers.

What is a Presentation

A Presentation is a container for the content shown on your screens in Q-Play. It is similar to a PowerPoint presentation, but with much more flexibility and functionality.
Instead of only displaying static text and images, a presentation can include dynamic content, automated data, and integrations with external tools. You can schedule when slides appear, pull live data from platforms like Power BI, display social media content such as Instagram posts, show RSS news feeds, and more.

What can you do in a Presentation

A Presentation in Q-Play gives you many possibilities for displaying dynamic and automated content. You can, for example, set up a birthday overview that automatically shows who has a birthday today, display a list of external visitors arriving during the day, or show the daily cafeteria menu.
Presentations also support recurring automations. For instance, you can schedule a message to wish your coworkers a happy weekend every Friday. Once set up, it will repeat automatically each week without manual updates.

APPS PANEL

The left panel lists all available apps. Use the search bar to find an app quickly, or scroll through the grid. Click any app to add it to the currently selected slide.
 

Adding an app

Clicking an app places it on the canvas and immediately opens its settings in the right panel. Each app has its own configuration options such as data sources, templates, fonts, and colors.
 

Multiple apps per slide

You can add as many apps as you need to a single slide. Apps can be resized and repositioned freely on the canvas, letting you compose layouts like a clock in one corner and a feed in another.

LAYERS PANEL

Switch from Apps to Layers in the top of the left panel to see a list of every app currently on the slide. Top layers appear in front, bottom layers appear behind.
 

Reordering layers

Drag and drop any app in the list to change its depth order. You can also use the up and down arrow buttons on each row. This is especially useful when apps overlap — for example, placing a background image behind a clock and a text layer in front of both.

Selecting apps

Clicking a layer in the list selects that app on the canvas, making it easy to pick apps that are hidden behind others.

APP TOOLBAR

When an app is selected on the canvas, a floating toolbar appears above it. From left to right:
 

Send to back

Moves the app behind all others on the slide. Ideal for background images or videos.
 

Send to front

Brings the app in front of all others on the slide.
 

Duplicate

Creates a copy of the app on the same slide with all its settings intact.
 

Lock position

Locks the app in place so it cannot be accidentally moved or resized on the canvas.
 

Transparency

Controls how transparent the app appears. Useful for shading effects or layering content subtly over a background.
 

Rotation

Rotates the app by a set number of degrees using a slider.
 

Free rotation

Lets you drag the app to rotate it freely at any angle, rather than using a fixed degree slider.
 

Show on slide X

Links this app across multiple slides. A linked app shares the same settings and position on every slide it's assigned to — editing it on one slide updates it on all others. You choose which slides to link it to from a dialog, and can also enable "show on all slides including new ones" for persistent elements like a logo or clock. To remove it from a specific slide, uncheck that slide in the dialog. Deleting a linked app removes it from all slides.
 

More actions

Contains additional options including resize to fullscreen, which stretches the app to fill the entire slide canvas.
 

Delete

Removes the app from the slide. Requires two presses as a confirmation step.
 

SLIDE SETTINGS

Click on an empty area of the canvas to deselect all apps and the slide settings panel opens on the right.
 

Background media

Set a background image for the slide from your media library.
 

Background color

Set a solid background color for the slide.
 

Slide duration

How long this slide is shown before moving to the next one. Maximum is 1800 seconds. Setting the duration to -1 makes the slide never advance automatically — useful for touch/kiosk setups where you want a homepage to stay put until the user interacts with it.
 

Time schedule

Control exactly when this slide is active. You can set a date range (e.g. 20 Dec – 26 Dec) and/or recurring weekly time slots (e.g. every Friday 10:00–15:00). Slides outside their schedule are automatically hidden and shown as "hidden by schedule" in the slide strip.
 

Next slide

Specifies which slide this one transitions to when its duration ends. Primarily useful for touch/kiosk setups where you want a persistent homepage — the presentation returns to a specific slide rather than just looping in order.
 

SLIDE STRIP & SLIDE ACTIONS

The slide strip at the bottom shows all slides in your presentation with their duration. Click a slide to select it. Use the + button to add a new slide.
 

Slide context menu

Click the three-dot menu on any slide in the strip to access:
  1. Transition.
  2. Rename slide.
  3. Duplicate slide.
  4. Delete slide.
  5. Clear slide contents.
  6. Slide settings.
  7. Hide slide.

Hide slide

The slide stays in your presentation but is skipped during playback. It appears with a "Hidden" overlay in the strip. Slides hidden by a time schedule show a "Hidden by schedule" overlay instead.
 

TOP TOOLBAR

Undo / Redo

Step backwards or forwards through your recent changes.
 

View options

Toggle layout aids for the canvas. Show margins displays safe zone boundaries at a size you choose (10, 20, 30, 40, or 50px). Smart guides enables snap-to-edges, snap-to-center, and spacing indicators so you can see exactly how far apart two apps are.
 

Zoom

Zoom in and out on the canvas using the + and − buttons. The current zoom level is shown in the centre and can be clicked to reset to 100%.
 

Save status

Shows whether your latest changes have been saved. Updates automatically as you work.
 

Draft / Published status

Draft means your latest changes are not yet live — they won't appear on any screen. A newly created presentation won't show up on a player at all until it has been published at least once.
 

Preview

Opens a local preview of your presentation without publishing. See the Preview section below.
 

Publish

Publishes your changes and makes them live on all screens showing this presentation.
 

PREVIEW MODE

Preview gives you a full-screen local view of how your presentation will look on a player, without needing to publish first.
 

Slide strip

All slides are shown along the bottom. Click any slide to jump directly to it.
 
Use the previous and next arrows in the bottom right to step through slides one at a time. The current position (e.g. Slide 1 / 2) is shown alongside.
 

Pause

Pause the presentation on the current slide so you can inspect it without it advancing automatically.
 

Close preview

Exit preview using the X button in the top right corner.
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