Getting started
From invite to your first live session, in a few minutes.
1. Add the extension
The Present Tense Capture extension lets you present any tab in your browser. Install it once, then presenting is a click.
Get the extension — the download and the one-minute install are there.
2. Sign in
Access is by invitation. Your invite email has a link to console.present-tense.io; sign in with the address it was sent to. After that, you can sign in any time with a password or an emailed link.
3. Create a session
In the console, create a session. Each one gets its own join code, so every talk starts clean. You can name it and schedule it, or just start now.
4. Present a tab
Open the tab you want to show, click the Present Tense icon in your toolbar, pick the session, and start. The toolbar badge reads REC while capture is live. Only that tab is captured, and only while you present.
Or present a deck
You don't need a tab. Import a deck — reveal.js markdown or an HTML export — and present it from the console. Present Tense renders it on every screen as real text, the room follows you slide by slide, and your speaker notes stay private to you. Point, draw and highlight work here too, and the room can point back.
6. See the difference yourself
Try it on your own phone first. Open the join link on your phone and set it next to your laptop. Pinch into a chart label or a line of code. Then share the same tab over the call app you usually use and do the same on your phone. That's the difference your audience gets.
7. Point at something
On the tab you are presenting, open the capture pill's Controls palette and turn on Highlight element. Hover the page and a dotted box previews the element under your pointer. Click to mark it for everyone; click it again to remove it. The Up and Down arrows widen or narrow the selection to the element around it — a table cell, then the table. Highlights stay on your audience's screen as you scroll, and clear when the page changes. Anyone who joins late lands on them. Clear them with Clear annotations, or press Escape while Highlight element is on.
Pages that work best
Works well: slides and docs in the browser, GitHub and code, dashboards like Grafana, whiteboards.
Not yet: content inside embedded frames from other sites doesn't come through. Present that content in its own tab where you can.
Test your tab on your own phone before a talk (see “See the difference yourself”).
What your audience sees
A crisp, read-only copy of your page that reflows to their screen, so text stays sharp at any zoom. They can scroll and zoom their own copy; nothing they do reaches your browser beyond a reaction count.
Their browser can translate the page into their own language.
If something goes wrong
Use “Report a bug” from any console page — it grabs the context we need — or write to feedback@present-tense.io. During the beta a person reads every report.
Try it in a real room.
We're letting people in by email while we test in real venues.