Stage: slides and presentations

Create or open a presentation

Choose File → New, or use File → Open → Browse this computer… for PPTX and native Stage files. Review imported slides: complex PowerPoint features, animations and exact layout fidelity may differ or be unsupported.

Add and navigate slides

Choose Home → New slide and pick a layout. To change the current slide’s layout, choose Design → Slide layout; applying a layout replaces its existing objects, and Undo can restore them.

Use View → Slide thumbnails to show or hide the slide strip. Use the slide controls or outline to move between slides. Press Ctrl+M to add a slide, and Ctrl+Shift+D to duplicate a slide when you are not typing in a text field.

Edit text and arrange objects

1. Choose a text box, image, shape, table or chart from Insert.
2. Double-click a text box to edit its text. Click outside it to finish editing.
3. Select an object and use its properties for size, position, colors and other available settings.
4. Use Arrange to align, distribute, match sizes, center objects, change stacking order or inspect layers.

Locked decorative objects stay behind your editable content. App themes and presentation themes are separate settings.

Choose presentation and app themes

Design → Themes changes coordinated slide colors, title fonts and optional decorative frames. Read the dialog’s scope before applying it across the presentation. Plain themes remove decorative frames.

Theme beside Ribbon, or Design → App appearance, changes only the surrounding app. Choose Dark → Black & Gray for neutral black and gray controls.

Use notes and presentation mode

Add speaker notes in the notes area. Press F5 to present from the beginning, or Shift+F5 to start from the current slide. These shortcuts apply when you are not typing in a field.

Use the presentation controls to move between slides. Press Escape to end the show. In presentation mode, B or W can blank the screen in black or white; use a navigation key to resume.

Save and share

Press Ctrl+S to save to Stage’s local library. Use Export to keep a native .stage backup and create a .pptx or image copy. Use the PDF option when you need a fixed reading version.

Open an exported PPTX in the destination app and review text wrapping, font availability, images and object positions before presenting.