PresentationTools

PresentationTools APS

Controls APS by PresentationTools.

Requirements

• Companion 4.2 or later.
• APS 4.0 or later on macOS or Windows. Some features, such as settings and PowerPoint sections, require APS 4.3 or later.
• Download latest version of APS from this website: www.presentationtools.com/aps

Configuration

• APS machine: Choose an APS machine discovered on the local network, or choose Manual. Discovered machines are listed by PC tag (or hostname) and IP address; older APS versions are listed as APS followed by an ID. Discovery requires APS with network discovery enabled on the same subnet; it does not work across subnets/VLANs or where multicast DNS is blocked.
• Target IP and Port (Manual only): IP address of the computer running APS (for local use 127.0.0.1). The default port is 31600.
• The selected machine's IP address is saved when you choose it. If that machine later gets a different IP address, choose it again from the list.

After connecting, the connection status and the Connected machine section of the connection settings show the connected machine's PC tag (or hostname), platform, APS version and licence (Trial is added to the status while APS runs in trial mode), and these variables are available:

• Connected machine: Name (PC tag, or hostname when no PC tag is set)
• Connected machine: PC tag
• Connected machine: Hostname
• Connected machine: Instance ID
• Connected machine: Platform (Mac or PC; - for APS versions before 4.3)
• Connected machine: APS version
• Connected machine: Licence (Licensed, Trial or Unknown; - when not connected or not reported by older APS versions)
• Connected machine: Trial time left (for example 3d 4h, 2h 5m or expired; - when not in trial mode)

Available actions:

Navigation & tabs:

• Open next presentation with fullscreen and slide number.
• Open the previous presentation with fullscreen and slide number.
• Open the next presentation without putting it in fullscreen. (deprecated)
• Put current presentation in fullscreen
• Close all except current.

Capture Image:

• Take screenshot of the main presenter-screen and store this in the image-banks.
• Choose between 10 destinations.

Display Image:

• Display image on the main presenter screen. Choose between image-bank 1-10 or test-image, blackout or freeze screen. (Note: In APS preferences you can choose if this command is a toggle-button or not)

Exit Images:

• Exit APS-image from the main presenter screen

Open/Start Presentation:

• Open presentation specified in file name with full screen and slide number

Generic - Go to slide:

• Go to the slide specified in the command
• Go to the first slide of a selected, previous, or next PowerPoint section.

Settings

APS 4.3 or later on macOS or Windows can change these settings over LAN:

• Settings: Main presenter screen
• Settings: Presentation file handling
• Settings: Seamless switching
• Settings: Toggle images on/off with one button
• Settings: PowerPoint hide presenter (mac)
• Settings: Google Slides use presenter view
• Settings: PDF controlled program
• Settings: Automatically check for updates

The PDF controlled program choices follow the platform APS reports: Skim or Adobe Acrobat on macOS; Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader, Okular, or Speedf on Windows. Before APS has identified its platform, all programs are listed with a platform label. Once APS reports which applications are installed, only the installed PDF programs are listed; if none is detected, all programs for the platform are listed.

Boolean settings can be enabled, disabled, or toggled. Presenter-screen choices are populated from the displays reported by APS. Network port, run at system startup, detected applications, and effective-display information remain read-only over LAN.

Commands to control specific presentation software:

• Powerpoint: Go to slide

• Powerpoint: Previous slide

• Powerpoint: Next slide

• Adobe Acrobat DC: Go to slide

• Adobe Acrobat DC: Previous slide

• Adobe Acrobat DC: Next slide

Mac only:

• Keynote: Go to slide
• Keynote: Previous slide
• Keynote: Next slide

The Keynote choices in the slide actions, the Keynote presets, and the Keynote choice in the active application feedback are labelled (Mac). They are hidden once APS reports that it runs on Windows, and reappear when APS on macOS connects. Existing buttons keep their Keynote settings while hidden.

Windows only:

• Presentation: PowerPoint Media Control
• Presentation: PowerPoint Media Seek

These actions, the PowerPoint media state feedback, the PowerPoint media control presets, and the PowerPoint_media_* variables are hidden once APS reports that it runs on macOS. They stay hidden after a Mac disconnects, and reappear when APS on Windows connects. Before any APS has connected, and with APS versions older than 4.3, all options are shown. Existing buttons keep these actions while they are hidden.

Filenames on Companion buttons

• Display the filenames of the presentation file currently displayed, and the files that will be used with the previous and next commands.

Network Commands for 20 presentation from slot

• Open/Start presentation from slot

Variables

On confirmed APS-Mac connections, Slides_builds_count and Powerpoint_Slides_builds_count keep the previous numeric total for up to one second if a slide change temporarily reports an unavailable total. A new count, including zero, appears immediately. Current build position and slide number are never delayed. If the total remains unavailable, the hold expires; repeated messages do not extend it. Presentation changes and connection resets cancel pending holds.

This is display smoothing: during the hold, the total can belong to the preceding slide and must not be treated as a confirmed count for automation. It requires APS to identify its platform as macos in aps_info. Windows, unknown platforms, and older versions without platform identification retain immediate updates. The APS network API is unchanged.

When no media is playing or loaded, Media_playing, Media_loaded, Media_playing_filename, and Media_loaded_filename show - on both macOS and Windows.

Powerpoint_slide_number and Powerpoint_slides_count are hidden once APS reports that it runs on macOS, because APS-Mac does not report PowerPoint's own slide number and count; use slide_number and slides_count there. They reappear when APS on Windows connects. With APS versions that do not send these values, they show -.

• Presentation_current: Currently opened presentation

• Presentation_previous: Prevously opened presentation

• Presentation_next: Next presentation to be opened

• Presentation_notes: Presenter notes for the current slide

• slide_number: Slide Number

• slides_count: Slides Count

• Slides_builds_count: Builds Count

• Powerpoint_sections_available: Whether section information is available for the active PowerPoint slideshow

• Powerpoint_sections_current_index: Current section number

• Powerpoint_sections_current_id: Current section ID

• Powerpoint_sections_current_name: Current section name

• Powerpoint_sections_current_slide_in_section: Current slide number within the section

• Powerpoint_sections_count: Total number of sections

• Powerpoint_section<n>_id: Section ID for section <n>

• Powerpoint_section<n>_name: Section name for section <n>

• Powerpoint_section<n>_first_slide_index: First presentation slide number for section <n>

• Powerpoint_section<n>_slides_count: Number of slides in section <n>

• settings_main_presenter_screen_selection: Configured presenter-screen selection mode

• settings_main_presenter_screen_configured_display_id: Configured display ID, or Auto when automatic selection is active (APS may report null or 0)

• settings_main_presenter_screen_effective_display_id: Display ID currently resolved by APS

• settings_main_presenter_screen_effective_display_name: Display name currently resolved by APS

• settings_presentation_file_handling: Presentation file handling mode

• settings_seamless_switching: Whether Seamless Switching is enabled

• settings_run_at_system_startup_enabled: Whether APS starts automatically when the user logs in

• settings_toggle_images_on_off_with_one_button: Whether one still-image action toggles an image on and off

• settings_powerpoint_hide_presenter: Whether APS suppresses PowerPoint Presenter View (mac)

• settings_google_slides_use_presenter_view: Whether APS uses Google Slides Presenter View

• settings_pdf_controlled_program: PDF application controlled by APS

• settings_automatically_check_for_updates: Whether APS automatically checks for updates

• settings_installed_presentation_apps: Detected presentation applications, separated by commas

• presentation_preparing: true while APS is preparing a presentation or Google Slides that is not yet visible on the output

• presentation_preparing_name: Filename of the presentation being prepared, or the Google Slides address; - when idle or not yet known

• presentation_preparing_slot: Slot number being prepared when it was opened from a slot; otherwise -

• presentation_preparing_folder_file_number: Watched presentation folder file number being prepared; otherwise -

The settings_ variables require APS 4.3 or later on macOS or Windows. They remain blank when the connected APS version or platform does not provide settings feedback.

Feedbacks

• Settings: Seamless switching is on
• Settings: Run at system startup is on
• Settings: Toggle images on/off with one button is on
• Settings: PowerPoint hide presenter is on (mac)
• Settings: Google Slides use presenter view is on
• Settings: Automatically check for updates is on
• loaded: is enabled when a still image is loaded in the image-banks
• displayed: is enabled when a still image is displayed
• captured: is enabled when screen is captured for saving as a still image.
• slot_displayed: is enabled when the presentation in slot-bank is opened
• slot_exist: is enabled when a presentation exists for a slot.
• PowerPoint_section_exists: is enabled when the active PowerPoint presentation contains the selected section number.
• PowerPoint section is displayed: is enabled when the current slide is within the selected PowerPoint section.
• slot_preparing: is enabled while the presentation from the slot is being prepared.
• presentation_file_preparing: is enabled while the presentation from the watched presentation folder file is being prepared.
• presentation_preparing: is enabled while any presentation, including Google Slides, is being prepared.

Presentation preparing

From the moment APS accepts a command to open or switch to a presentation until it is visible on the output, APS reports that it is preparing it. With Seamless Switching, this lasts until the screenshot cover is removed. This works for Companion buttons, other network clients, and the APS window. It requires APS 4.3 or later on macOS or APS 4.4.0.1 or later on Windows; with older versions these feedbacks stay off.

The slot, watched-folder file, and next/previous presets show an orange background while preparing, before turning red when the presentation is displayed. For next/previous, the file number and name appear once APS has resolved the target. The end of preparation does not confirm that the presentation opened successfully.