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AlltraShow User Guide

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Getting Started Interface Overview Building Playlists Live Presentation Controls & Features Settings Keyboard Shortcuts Tips & Tricks Troubleshooting

🚀 Getting Started

Set up AlltraShow and create your first presentation in minutes

What is AlltraShow?

AlltraShow is a professional presentation control application designed for teams that need reliability, simplicity, and power. Build a playlist of images, videos, audio files, PDFs, and PowerPoint presentations, then control everything live from a dedicated control window while your audience sees a clean, full-screen presentation.

Installation

  1. Download AlltraShow
  2. Run the installer and follow the setup wizard
  3. Launch the application from your Start menu
  4. Create your first playlist!

Licensing

AlltraShow is free to try. The free tier limits your playlist to 5 items and allows a maximum of 50 individual slides across all items. To unlock unlimited playlists, unlimited slides, and all features, activate a license key via Help → License Management.

⚠ī¸ Free Tier Limit

Without an active license, playlists are limited to 5 items and a maximum of 50 individual slides. Purchase a license key to remove these limits.

đŸŽ¯ Interface Overview

Understand the main areas of the AlltraShow control window

📋 Playlist Panel (Left)
  • Lists all media files in order
  • Drag items to reorder
  • Right-click for context menu
  • Double-click to send live
  • Drop files from Explorer to add
👁ī¸ Program Panel (Center)
  • Shows exactly what the audience sees
  • Live video mirror (can be disabled in Settings)
  • Countdown timer for video and audio
  • Green border = queued, Red border = playing
📝 Notes Panel (Center-Right)
  • Presenter notes for the current slide
  • Loaded automatically from PowerPoint files
  • Read-only display
đŸ–ŧī¸ Slide Preview Strip (Bottom)
  • Thumbnail strip of all slides for the selected file
  • Click to select a slide
  • Double-click to send live immediately
  • Green border = queued, Red border = playing
🎮 Presentation Control (Bottom Bar)
  • Presentation ON/OFF toggle
  • Play, Pause, Stop, Previous, Next
  • Video position slider with elapsed/remaining time
  • Volume slider and mute button
  • Loop, Shuffle, AutoPlay checkboxes
  • Image Duration spinner (images and slides)
❓ Help Panel (Right, toggleable)
  • Click the ? button in the toolbar to open or close
  • Use the drop-down to browse help topics
  • Includes full keyboard shortcut reference
  • Link to this online guide

Display Mode Indicator

The menu bar always shows a DISPLAY MODE status. This tells you whether AlltraShow is running in Single Display or Multi Display mode, and shows your current license status next to it.

In Single Display mode the presentation window shares your screen with the control window and cannot go fullscreen. In Multi Display mode the presentation can take over a dedicated screen and a fullscreen toggle button appears in the Presentation Control bar.

đŸŽĩ Building Playlists

Create and organize your media for presentations

Supported Media Formats

📷 Images

JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, ICO, RAW

đŸŽŦ Videos

MP4, MKV, MOV, AVI, WMV, WebM, and many more via VLC

🔊 Audio

MP3, WAV, FLAC, AAC, OGG, M4A, WMA, OPUS, and more

📊 PowerPoint

PPTX — slides and presenter notes imported automatically

📄 PDF

PDF — each page becomes an individual slide

📝 Documents

DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF

Create Your First Playlist

  1. Add Media: Click the ADD MEDIA TO PLAYLIST button, or drag and drop files directly from Windows Explorer onto the playlist
  2. Arrange Order: Drag items up or down to reorder, or right-click and choose Move Up / Move Down
  3. Preview Slides: Click any item to load its slides into the Slide Preview strip at the bottom
  4. Save: Go to File → Save Playlist and give it a name
💡 Drag & Drop

You can drag files or folders directly from Windows Explorer onto the Playlist panel. AlltraShow will import all supported media files automatically.

Playlist Context Menu

Right-click any item in the playlist to access:

  • Move Up in Playlist — move the selected item(s) one position up
  • Move Down in Playlist — move the selected item(s) one position down
  • Delete Selection — remove the selected item(s) from the playlist
  • Clear Playlist — remove all items and start a new empty playlist

You can select multiple items (Ctrl+click or Shift+click) and move or delete them all at once.

Playlist Files

Playlists are saved as .playlist files. They store references to your media files and their presentation order. Re-open a saved playlist at any time via File → Open Playlist.

⚠ī¸ Media File Paths

A Playlist file stores the paths to your media files, not copies of the original media files. If you move or rename the original media files after saving a playlist, AlltraShow will not be able to find the media files. So please keep your media files in a stable location.

đŸŽŦ Live Presentation

Present to your audience with confidence

Starting a Presentation

  1. Build your playlist and select the item you want to start from
  2. Click the Presentation Toggle button in the Presentation Control bar
  3. The Presentation Window opens on the configured display
  4. Double-click a playlist item or slide thumbnail to send it live immediately

Display Modes

đŸ“ē Single Display Mode

Only one monitor is available. The control window and presentation window share the same screen. Fullscreen mode is not available.

đŸ–Ĩī¸ Multi Display Mode

Two or more monitors are detected. The presentation window is placed on the audience display. A fullscreen toggle button appears in the Presentation Control bar.

💡 Configure Your Displays

Go to Settings → Configure AlltraShow to assign which monitor is used for the presentation and which is used for the control window. Click Identify Screens to see a numbered label on each connected monitor.

Stopping or Hiding the Presentation

Press the Presentation Toggle button again, or press Esc on the keyboard, to hide the presentation window. Any currently playing video or audio is paused automatically when the window is hidden. Press the toggle again to bring it back.

Presenter Notes

The Notes panel displays read-only presenter notes for the currently active slide. Notes are loaded automatically when you add a PowerPoint file — no extra steps are needed.

🎮 Controls & Features

Master live playback and navigation

Presentation Control Bar

âģ Presentation Toggle

Shows or hides the Presentation Window. Pauses active media when the window is hidden.

â›ļ Fullscreen Toggle

Maximizes or restores the Presentation Window. Only visible in Multi Display mode.

⏯ī¸ Play / Pause

Starts or pauses playback of the current video or audio file.

⏚ī¸ Stop

Stops playback and resets the position to the beginning of the current item.

⏎ī¸ Previous / Next ⏭ī¸

Navigate to the previous or next item in the playlist.

🔊 Volume & Mute

Drag the volume slider to adjust audio level. Click the speaker icon to toggle mute on or off.

📍 Video Position Slider

Scrub to any position within the current video or audio file. Elapsed and remaining time are displayed above the slider.

Playback Modes

🔁 Loop

When the playlist reaches the last item, playback restarts from the beginning.

🔀 Shuffle

Plays items in a randomized order instead of the playlist sequence.

â–ļī¸ AutoPlay

Automatically advances to the next item when the current one finishes. Works for both video/audio and images.

Image Duration

When the currently selected item is an image, a PDF page, or a PowerPoint slide, an Image Duration (sec) spinner appears in the Presentation Control bar. This controls how long each image is displayed before AutoPlay advances to the next one. The default is 5 seconds.

💡 Running an Image Slideshow

Add your images, enable AutoPlay, set your desired Image Duration, select the first image, then press Play or the Space key.

Slide Preview Strip

The horizontal Slide Preview strip at the bottom shows thumbnails of all slides belonging to the currently selected playlist item. This is especially useful for PowerPoint and PDF files with many pages.

  • Click a thumbnail to select that slide without sending it live
  • Double-click a thumbnail to send that slide live immediately
  • A green border indicates the queued (next) slide
  • A red border indicates the currently playing slide

Program View

The Program panel mirrors exactly what the audience sees. For video content it shows a live video preview. For images and slides it shows the current still. A countdown timer appears above the panel for video and audio.

💡 Performance Tip

On slower machines the live video mirror in the Program View can cause stuttering. Go to Settings → Configure AlltraShow → Program View and disable video playback there. This reduces CPU usage without affecting the audience display.

⚙ī¸ Settings

Configure AlltraShow to match your hardware and preferences

Open the settings window via Settings → Configure AlltraShow in the menu bar.

Display Configuration

  • Identify Screens — displays a numbered overlay on each connected monitor so you can tell which is which
  • Use for Presentation — select the monitor your audience sees
  • Use for Media Control — select the monitor where the AlltraShow control window lives

AlltraShow enforces that the two selections are different. If only one monitor is connected, Single Display mode is activated automatically.

Audio Device

Select which audio output device is used for media playback. If the saved device is unavailable when AlltraShow starts (for example, a USB headset is unplugged), the system default audio device is used automatically.

Presentation Image Resolution

Choose the resolution at which images and slides are decoded for the presentation screen:

  • Match Display (default) — automatically uses the native resolution of the presentation monitor
  • Fixed resolutions — choose from 1280×720, 1920×1080, 2560×1440, 3840×2160, or 7680×4320

Window Theme

Choose between Light and Dark visual themes. The selected theme is applied the next time AlltraShow is launched.

Presentation Background

Set what is visible on the presentation window when no media is playing:

  • Solid Color — use the colour picker to choose any background colour (default is black)
  • Image File — browse for a JPG, PNG, BMP, or GIF file to use as the background

Program View Video Playback

Enable or disable the live video mirror in the Program View pane. Disabling it reduces CPU load on slower machines without affecting the audience display.

⌨ī¸ Keyboard Shortcuts

Control everything from your keyboard

Key(s)Action
Space  /  P  /  EnterPlay / Pause
SStop
MToggle Mute
→  /  ↓  /  Page DownNext item
←  /  ↑  /  Page UpPrevious item
EscToggle presentation OFF (hide the Presentation Window)
DeleteDelete selected playlist item(s) — when the playlist has keyboard focus
💡 In-App Reference

The keyboard shortcut list is also available inside the app. Click the ? button in the toolbar to open the Help panel, then select Presentation Control from the topic drop-down.

💡 Tips & Tricks

Best practices for professional presentations

Before You Present

  • ✓ Run through your complete playlist from start to finish beforehand
  • ✓ Check audio levels on all video and audio files
  • ✓ Verify all media files are accessible at their saved paths
  • ✓ Confirm display assignments in Settings and click Identify Screens
  • ✓ Set your preferred Image Duration if you are running an image slideshow
  • ✓ Save your playlist to a backup location

During Presentation

  • Use arrow keys or Page Up / Page Down to navigate without touching the mouse
  • Double-click any playlist item or slide thumbnail to jump to it immediately
  • Press M to quickly mute if an unexpected audio issue arises
  • Press Esc to instantly hide the presentation window
  • Keep the Program panel visible to confirm exactly what the audience is seeing
đŸŽ¯ Pro Workflow

Build once, present many times: Save your playlist and reopen it for future events. AlltraShow remembers the item order, image duration, loop/shuffle/autoplay settings, audio device, and your display configuration.

🔧 Troubleshooting

Solutions to common issues

Presentation Window Won't Open

  • Ensure at least one item is in the playlist
  • Try clicking the Presentation Toggle button again
  • Check that your display configuration in Settings is valid
  • Restart AlltraShow

Audio or Video Not Playing

  • Verify the file format is in the supported list above
  • Check that the correct audio output device is selected in Settings
  • Confirm the volume slider is not at zero and the mute button is not active
  • Try a different media file to isolate the issue
  • Restart AlltraShow

Video Playback is Stuttering

  • Go to Settings → Configure AlltraShow → Program View
  • Select Turn off Video Playback in Program View Pane
  • This reduces CPU load without affecting the audience display

Playlist Items Are Missing After Reopening

  • Playlist files store file paths, not copies of your media
  • If media files were moved, renamed, or deleted, AlltraShow cannot find them
  • Keep all media files in a stable folder and avoid renaming them after saving a playlist

Playlist Won't Save

  • Verify you have write permissions to the destination folder
  • Try saving to a different location such as Documents or Desktop
  • Check that sufficient disk space is available

Theme Change Has No Effect

  • Theme changes take effect the next time AlltraShow is launched
  • Close and reopen AlltraShow after changing the theme in Settings

Need More Help?

  • Open the built-in Help panel by clicking the ? button in the toolbar
  • Visit Help → Online Help in the application menu to open this guide
  • Send feedback via Help → Send Feedback
  • Contact support via our Contact page

Ready to Master Your Presentations?

You now have everything you need to run professional presentations with confidence.

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