Getting Started
Open a PDF
Click Open PDF… on the welcome screen, or press ⌘O. You can also pass a file path as a command-line argument:
SideBeam presentation.pdf
Recent files appear on the welcome screen — press 1–9 or 0 to open them quickly.
Presenter & Projector
The presenter window shows:
- Current slide (large, left)
- Next slide preview (top right)
- Notes (bottom right, if using Beamer split)
- Timer and progress bar (bottom)
The projector window opens automatically and shows just the current slide. Connect an external display and press f to go fullscreen.
Navigate Slides
| Action | Keys |
|---|---|
| Next slide | → ↓ Space l PgDn |
| Previous slide | ← ↑ k PgUp |
| First slide | Home |
| Last slide | End |
| Go to slide | g + number + Enter |
You can also use the ◀ ▶ buttons in the bottom bar, or swipe left/right on iPad.
Timer
The timer starts automatically when you begin presenting.
- Press p to pause/resume
- Press r to reset
The timer pill turns yellow when paused.
Split Mode
SideBeam auto-detects wide PDF pages with embedded notes (from LaTeX Beamer’s show notes on second screen option).
Press s to cycle split modes:
- none — show full page (for regular PDFs)
- right — notes on right half (default Beamer layout)
- left — notes on left half
Fullscreen
- Press f or click the fullscreen button to toggle
- With two screens: projector goes fullscreen on the secondary display
- With one screen: uses native macOS fullscreen
- Press Esc to exit fullscreen
- Press b to blank/unblank the projector
Close Presentation
- Press ⌘W to close and return to the welcome screen
- Press q to quit the app