Controls

These are the keys and mouse actions you can use to navigate through your talk and control the program whilst Multitalk is running.

Mouse controls

Drag the mouse with the left mouse button to scroll the window. The window moves in the direction you move the mouse. (If you prefer to "pull" the canvas instead, start Multitalk with the "-reverse" command line option to invert the mouse drag directions).

Drag the mouse with the right mouse button to zoom out and scroll (when you release the right mouse button the window zooms back in, centred on the centre of the screen). The zoom is by a factor of 3 on both X and Y axes.

Click with the left mouse button on a line with a fold icon to unfold/fold.

Click with the left mouse button on a hyperlink to follow it.

To return from a hyperlink using the mouse you can hold down the left mouse button, and then press the right one. This is useful if you are controlling the entire presentation by wireless mouse and can't reach the keyboard in order to press the Return key (see below).

Hold down the Shift key and drag with the left mouse button over any slide or image to move it. The coordinates of moved slides are automatically saved for you when you quit the program.

In zoomed out mode, you can also drag slide titlebars with the left mouse button without requiring the shift key (a bit like rearranging windows with their titlebar on your desktop).

At zoom level 2, you can drag anywhere on a slide to move it.

Hold down the Ctrl key and move the mouse pointer to select multiple slides. Selected slides can be dragged as a group. Press and release Ctrl to clear a selection.

Slide gravity

When you release the mouse button after dragging, if there is a slide somewhere in approximately the middle of the screen, the display will automatically scroll in order to centre it (on the assumption that this is the slide you want to talk about). This means that you just have to push the mouse to roughly the right position and don't waste time positioning exactly when you should be looking at the audience.

Occasionally you don't want slide gravity, for example when you are trying to view multiple smaller slides at once. If the Alt key is held down when the mouse button is released then the slide gravity effect will not take place for that action. You can also toggle slide gravity permanently off or on by pressing the 'G' key.

Keyboard controls

The four cursor keys can be used to move between slides, as an alternative to dragging with the mouse. When you press one of these keys, Multitalk looks in that general direction from the current centre of the screen and decides which slide is closest. It then scrolls across so that this slide is centred on the screen.

Press the Space bar to switch to constant zoom mode (press space again to switch zoom off). This is mainly useful for rearranging your slides when editing a talk.

Hold down Shift and press Space to switch to zoom level 2.

Press the TAB key to toggle fullscreen mode.

Press Return to go back to the launch point from the last hyperlink.

Press the '.' (period) key whilst the mouse is over a slide stack to advance to the next card in the stack.

Press the ',' (comma) key whilst the mouse is over a slide stack to return to the previous card in the stack.

Press the 'A' key to toggle align-to-grid mode for slides and images.

Press the 'E' key to switch examine modes in zoom level 2.

Press the 'G' key to toggle slide gravity.

Press the 'M' key to switch on an on-screen display of Multitalk's current memory usage.

Press the 'N' key to switch on a translucent navigation "radar" window, which appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

Press the 'P' key to toggle the highly visible mouse pointer (a giant arrow which can be used instead of a laser pointer).

Press the 'R' key to ask Multitalk to re-read the current '.talk' file. This is useful when you are simultaneously editing the file and viewing the results in window mode on a large display. Note: it is only necessary to do this manually if you have started Multitalk with the "-nowatch" command line argument.

Press Backspace to pin a slide.

Press the '/' key to switch to single slide view mode, or dual view if a slide has been pinned first.

Press Escape to quit.