Messages
Messages put a short text on the screen, such as "Five minutes left" or "Please wrap up". They show on the Viewer, and on the Moderator's preview of it.
Write a message
Open the Messages tab and click Add Message. Type your text, up to 500 characters. Enter saves, Shift+Enter starts a new line and Escape cancels. Each message keeps its last few versions, so you can restore an earlier one.
Style it with the buttons on the message:
- White, Green or Red text
- Bold
- UPPER for capitals
Style changes reach the screen at once, even while the message is showing.
Show a message
Click Show to put a message on the Viewer. Only one message per room shows at a time, so showing one hides the other. You can't show an empty message.
- Fullscreen fills the Viewer with the message and hides the timer. The on-air dot stays.
- Flash blinks the message to catch someone's eye. Click it before showing to flash when the message appears, or while it's showing to flash right away. Click again to cancel.
The ⋯ menu has Duplicate and Delete. Delete has no confirmation, but you can get the message back from the activity log.
Placeholders
Insert placeholder adds a value that fills in by itself when the message shows, such as the next speaker's name. Placeholders follow the cued stage, so they stay current as the show moves on.
| Placeholder | Fills in with |
|---|---|
$ROOM_TITLE | The room's name |
$CURRENT_TITLE, $NEXT_TITLE | The timer's title |
$CURRENT_SPEAKER, $NEXT_SPEAKER | The timer's speaker |
$CURRENT_NOTES, $NEXT_NOTES | The timer's comment |
$CURRENT_LABELS, $NEXT_LABELS | The timer's labels |
$CURRENT_START, $NEXT_START | The timer's start time |
$CURRENT_FINISH, $NEXT_FINISH | The timer's finish time |
$CURRENT_DURATION, $NEXT_DURATION | The timer's duration |
For example, Next up: $NEXT_SPEAKER might show as "Next up: Ada Lovelace".
Keyboard shortcuts
On the Controller, Shift+1 to Shift+9 show or hide messages 1 to 9, and Shift+0 hides whichever message is showing.
Who can send messages
Anyone with the Controller can, and so can anyone with a Moderator link, without signing in. That makes the Moderator a good page for a producer or stage manager.
Audience questions arrive in a tab of their own and can be shown in the same way. See Submit Questions.
Limits
How many messages a room can hold depends on your plan. Questions don't count.