The Main Window

The main window is where you run a room: the room link, the timer, the people who joined, and the Next and Previous buttons that move your slides. Everything else (Studio, Settings, Chat, the Share window) opens from it.

Two layouts

Choose a layout on the first-run window (Choose Your Layout on macOS, Choose your layout on Windows) and change it any time in Settings under General. Both layouts run the same room.

By default the main window stays above other windows (Always on top), stays over full-screen slideshows, and is hidden from screen sharing, NDI and recordings. Those switches are in Settings, General:

The Window menu has the same two stay-on-top switches: Always on Top and Keep Above Slideshows (greyed out while Always on Top is off).

The Classic panel, top to bottom

The Classic panel is a narrow strip you keep next to your slides. Signed out, it shows the sign-in form. Signed in, it shows the following, from top to bottom.

Title bar and banner

Closing the main window leaves Studio and the timer window open on both platforms. On Windows, Cliqer ends when its last window closes. Quitting on either platform (Command-Q on macOS, closing the last window on Windows) while you are sharing or have people on a video call asks first: Quit While Live?, "Quitting ends your share and disconnects every caller.", with Quit and Cancel. If a show has unsaved changes, Cliqer asks to save before it quits.

Icon row

Status line

The line under the banner says what your Next and Previous buttons drive.

• Controlling Focused window, Controlling PowerPoint, Controlling Keynote (macOS), Controlling Google Slides or Controlling vMix (Windows). The words are a pop-up: click them to choose another mode without opening Settings. See Switch the mode quickly.
• When the app reports a slide position, the line adds it, for example "Controlling PowerPoint 3/12".
• With Google Slides, a small LED shows whether the browser extension is connected: Google Slides extension connected or Google Slides extension not connected.
• When more than one computer hosts the same room it reads N hosts connected with (Primary) or (Secondary).
• When the orchestrator tells this host it is linked to another host, one line per link reads Linked to : online or Linked to : offline, with a green dot or an amber one. The same line sits in the Room section of the sidebar layouts, beside the room code. If a linked host drops, a Linked Host Offline notice says " went offline. Clicks stay on this host until it is back."; when it returns, Linked Host Back says " is back online. Clicks mirror again."
• Offline, reconnecting… with an amber dot replaces the line while the room cannot reach the Cliqer server. When the connection returns the line reads Online with a green dot for about two seconds, then the normal line comes back. Hover the dot while you are signed in offline on a plan Cliqer has kept: the tooltip reads "Plan kept offline until 13 Nov 2026" (your own date). Cliqer keeps a signed-in plan working offline until that date. See Troubleshooting.
• A short problem notice shows here in amber, for example No Connection ("Cliqer could not reach the server. Check the connection and try again.") when a key you typed or a sign-in got no answer. It goes after a few seconds, or click it to dismiss it.
• ID must be 6 characters long shows while you type an invalid room code (macOS).
• When the line changes, the old text rolls away and the new one rolls in from below in about a third of a second. With Reduce motion (macOS) or animation effects off in Windows, it is a plain fade instead.

Room link bar

The link shows on one line, without its port: for example https://cliqer.io/ followed by the code. When the window is too narrow the start of the address is cut (with an ellipsis) and the code always stays whole. Hover the link to see the full address.

Copy link and Open URL work as soon as Cliqer has a room link, also while the room is Connecting or Offline. New room code waits until the room is Online. If your plan has a custom domain with room links switched on, the link, the QR code and the invite use that domain instead of the usual one. If the code you choose is held by another account, Cliqer shows Room Unavailable, "This room code is reserved", with no Upgrade button, forgets that code and opens a new room with a new code instead. On a free account the server gives you a new code each time; on a paid plan your code stays yours across sign-out.

Timer card

The timer card holds the clock with its steppers, four presets, and the output buttons. It is covered in full on Timer.

• Steppers -5, -2, -1, +1, +2, +5 change the time by that many minutes.
• Presets 5m, 10m, 15m, 20m set the time and wait for you to start.
• Fullscreen Timer opens the timer window. NDI sends the timer over the network.
• Start and pause button (tooltips Start, Pause), then Reset.
• With a Limitimer connected, two more icons appear: Blink signal lights for this program and Beep for this program. They work on both platforms. The clock icon becomes Set Sum-Up mode, where the steppers change the Sum-Up minutes and clicking the time opens minutes and seconds.

Presenters

The PRESENTERS header carries a count. Until someone joins it reads No Presenters currently connected. Each row has permission icons, a connection dot, the name, Chat and Remove buttons. A Blocked list under the rows shows names you blocked, each with Allow. All of it is explained on Presenters and chat.

Next and Previous

The footer is two big halves. The left half with the left chevron is Previous slide, the right half with the right chevron is Next slide. Pressing one sends that click to your presentation app, using the mode in the status line, and the half flashes red. A presenter's click flashes the same half.

The macOS Split View and the Windows layout

Both sidebar layouts show the same four sections: Room, Studio, Timer and Devices. Settings sits at the foot of the sidebar on Windows and opens with Command-comma on macOS.

Command bar (Windows layout)

Each page of the Windows layout has a command bar above it, with one main button and an overflow menu. The title-bar menu bar is described below.

The Windows menu bar

The Windows layout and the Studio window have a menu bar in the title bar. The Classic panel has one Menu button that holds the same menus. Studio and Layer appear only while you are signed in. Each item shows its key at the right edge; the full list is in Keyboard shortcuts. In the main window Ctrl+Enter is Take (Quick Play in Studio).

The Studio window has its own keys, listed in Studio.

The Windows menus use the same words as the Mac. Room has Show QR Code (needs the room link). Window has Always on Top and Keep Above Slideshows, ticked when on (the second is greyed out while the first is off). Studio has Layouts: your saved layouts with the active one ticked, then Save Layout, Save Layout As..., Rename Layout..., Delete Layout... and Reset to Classic (or Revert Layout on a saved layout). Those that do not apply to the built-in Classic layout, or to a layout you have not changed, are greyed out. When the title bar is too narrow for every menu, they fold into one Menu item that holds them all.

The macOS menu bar

Cliqer has a full menu bar on macOS. Every toolbar command is in a menu. New Room Code, Start Sharing… and Share Display are greyed out until the room is Online; Copy Room Link and Show QR Code only need a room link. The standard macOS items (File > Close, Edit > Copy, View > Enter Full Screen, Services, Hide, Quit) work as usual and are not repeated here. Windows has its own menu bar, described below.

The Dock menu

Right-click the Cliqer icon in the Dock.

Windows has no Dock menu, jump list or tray icon.

What happens when someone clicks Next

A click can come from the Next half of the footer, from a presenter's phone or browser, or from a clicker, Stream Deck or DSAN device. Presenters need the Clicks permission switched on for their clicks to count. Your own buttons and your hardware do not.

The Click delay (0 to 999 milliseconds, Settings, Control) waits before each click is sent.

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