The Stage
The Stage displays the layers of the currently selected slide. The layers can be freely sized, positioned, and rotated on the Stage. In addition to the slide layers, there may also be an optional background layer and an optional foreground layer (watermark). Both can be set in
in the menu.If animation is enabled for a slide, the stage is displayed twice. The start of the animation is displayed on the left side, and the finish of the animation is displayed on the right side. That way you can quickly drag around the layers to create the desired animation effect.
Dragging to the Stage
Dragging files from the Finder or from the media brows1s in the Sidebar adds new layers to the currently selected slide:
- Image File - Adds a new image layer to the currently selected slide. If the Option key is pressed, the layer below the mouse highlights in yellow, and its image file will be replaced instead when you drop it.
- Movie File - Adds a new movie layer to the currently selected slide. If the Option key is pressed, the layer below the mouse highlights in yellow, and its movie file will be replaced instead when you drop it.
- RTF Text File - Adds a new title layer to the currently selected slide. If the Option key is pressed, the layer below the mouse highlights in yellow, and its title will be replaced instead when you drop it.
Positioning Visual Items
You can position, zoom, and rotate items on the stage in several different ways:
- Click on an image, movie, or title layer to select it. The item displays a thin white outline and four resizing handles at the corners to indicate that it is selected. This item will also be selected in the Storyboard or Timeline.
- Drag the layer around on the Stage to position it.
- Click on one of the resizing handles at the corners and drag to resize the layer.
- Use the jog wheels at the bottom of the stage to change the zoom or rotation of the selected layer.
- Optionally, you can also enter the zoom and rotation value numerically in the text fields above the jog wheels.
- Press the ⌥ key and click on a layer and drag up/down to change the zoom value.
- Press the ⌘ key and click on a layer and drag around the center to rotate it.
- Click just outside a layer’s boundary and drag to rotate the layer.

Guidelines
As image, movie, or title layers are positioned, zoomed, or rotated on the Stage, guidelines will appear to help you align the items. By default items snap to these guidelines:
- Green guidelines help to snap to the center or the edges of the Stage.
- Yellow guidelines help to align an image, movie, or title with itself - on the other side of the stage. This is helpful when creating certain animation effects, e.g. a completely horizontal pan across an image, without any vertical motion and no zooming effect.
- Press the Control key to suppress automatic snapping to the guidelines.
Use the yellow guidelines to create perfectly horizontal or vertical panning animations.
Contextual Menus
Right-click or Control+click on an item reveals a contextual menu. The commands in this contextual menu depends on whether an image, a movie, or title was clicked:
Clicking on a slide or title in the Stage:
Menu | Submenu | Description |
Animation | Enabled | Enables or disables the animation for the current slide. |
Reverse | Exchanges the start and finish state of the selected layer, thereby reversing the animation. | |
Randomize | Sets a random animation for the selected layer. | |
Zoom In | Creates a zoom in animation for the selected layer. | |
Zoom Out | Creates a zoom out animation for the selected layer. | |
Pan | Pans across a panorama image or a vertical image. | |
Zoom | Fill Stage Completely | Fills the Stage with the selected layer, so that no part of the Stage background is visible. |
Show Whole Image | Displays the entire layer. If the aspect ratio of the layer differs from the Stage aspect ratio, then some of the Stage background will be visible. | |
Show at 100% | Displays the selected image at 100%. | |
Layer | Send to Front | Sends the selected layer to the front. |
Send Forward | Sends the selected image forward. | |
Send Backward | Sends the selected image backward. | |
Send to Back | Sends the selected layer to the back. | |
File | Get Info | Shows the Info panel for the selected image or movie. |
Quick Look | Opens the Quick Look panel which displays the selected image or movie. | |
Is Placeholder | Lets you choose a different image or movie file for the selected layer. All other parameters will be kept intact. If you choose an image or movie file with different dimensions, you will have to make some additional modifications to restore the previous appearance. | |
Cut | Cuts the selected layer. | |
Copy | Copies the selected layer to the clipboard. | |
Paste | Pastes the previously copied layer on top of existing layers. | |
Delete | Deletes the selected layer. | |
Copy Geometry | Copies all geometry parameters (position, zoom, rotation) of the selected layer to the clipboard. | |
Paste Geometry | After changing the selection, the geometry parameters can be pasted onto another layer. That way layers can be precisely aligned within a single slide or across multiple slides. | |
Copy Animation | Copies all animation parameters of the selected layer to the clipboard, so that they can be pasted to other layers. | |
Paste Animation | After changing the selection, pastes previously copied animation parameters onto the selected layer. That way animation effects can be transferred between slides. |
Clicking in Stage background:
Menu | Submenu | Description |
Show Action Safe Area | Displays a dashed rectangle indicating the area of the stage that is 'safe' for displaying action (animation). | |
Show Title Safe Area | Displays a dashed rectangle indicating the area of the stage that is 'safe' for placing titles. |