Presentation Assistant - User Guide

Presentation Assistant is a handy app that lets you easily highlight your mouse pointer and clicks to your audience. It is particularly useful for live demonstrations, presentations and screencasts.

First Launch and Using the App:

The app functions as a menubar app upon first launch. This means that as soon as you download the app and launch it, it’ll appear in the top menubar on your Mac’s screen as a small mouse pointer icon.

When the app launches for the first time, by default, you will be presented with a welcome screen as seen below.

On launch, also by default, Presentation Assistant is enabled and you will notice that the majority of your desktop has a darkened hue, with a spotlight shining around your mouse pointer.

Preferences:

In this menu, you can set some of the basic preferences of the app. This mode lets you control how and when the app launches and where it runs.

The Hide desktop icons toggle hides all icons on your desktop when your app is running. This creates a clean backdrop whilst presenting.

When the toggle buttons are green, that mean that that preference option is active.

Mouse Pointer:

This menu lets you control the mouse pointer when Presentation Assistant is running and enabled.

- Toggle with shortcut: You can click this option to set a hotkey combination using your keyboard to enable/disable the mouse pointer when the app itself is enabled. When the mouse pointer is enabled, the desktop background is darkened and the mouse pointer is in focus, even in motion. When the mouse pointer is disabled, the desktop background is returned to normal.

You can even slide the toggle to its on/off position to enable/disable the mouse pointer effect.

Furthermore, you can edit various features of the mouse pointer, from its overall shape type (ring, spotlight or disk) to its overall size, transparency, blur or lack thereof, as well as its colour. Drag the sliders according to your personal preference.

Mouse Click:

Like the mouse pointer, you can also control the mouse click functionality when the app is running and enabled.

- Toggle with shortcut: You can click this option to set a hotkey combination using your keyboard to enable/disable the mouse click when the app itself is enabled. When the mouse click is enabled, each mouse click creates an animated effect around the associated position of the click on the screen. When the mouse pointer is disabled, no such action takes place.

You can even slide the toggle to its on/off position to enable/disable the mouse click effect.

Furthermore, you can edit various features of the mouse click effect, from its size to its opacity. The magnification option creates an animated expanding effect upon clicking the mouse, the expanding size of which you can also control. Lastly, you can choose to edit both the left and right click colours individually.