A button in Buttons does two things at once: it sends an action when pressed, and it shows you what's actually happening through feedback, so you always know the real state, not just what you last clicked. This page walks through creating a button, giving it an action, and adding feedback so it reflects real device state.
Open the position and select an empty cell on the canvas.
Right-click the selection, then choose Create... → Button.
Under Button Content, set Text to something recognizable, such as Camera 1. Label is a separate field: it's the name shown in the tree view for finding this button while editing, and doesn't need to match what's on the button itself.
Choose a Layout for how the icon and text lines are arranged, and optionally set an Icon.
Press is only one of several action handlers. Each handler runs its own actions at a different moment, and one button can use several of them. Add a handler from the Add Action Handler row at the bottom of the Actions tab, which lists every handler: Press, Release, Single, Double, Left, Right, Encoder, and Hold.
Handler
Runs its actions
Use it for
Press
The instant the button goes down.
Anything that should happen immediately, such as a cut.
Release
When the button comes back up. Once the button has a Hold group, it becomes Short release and only covers presses shorter than every hold.
The second half of a press-and-release pair, or the tap in a tap-or-hold button.
Hold
When the button has been held for a set time, in milliseconds. By default it runs on release; turn on Run while held to run it as soon as the time is reached.
A different action on a long press, or one that a brush of the button mustn't fire.
Single click
When a press ends, as long as it lasted less than 5 seconds. If the button also has Double click, a quick tap first waits up to 0.4 s for a second tap.
A tap action on a button that also has a double-tap action.
Double click
When you tap the button twice quickly: each tap shorter than 0.4 s, and the second within 0.4 s of the first.
A second action on the same button, or one that a single stray tap mustn't fire.
Left, Right
When an encoder on the surface is turned left or right.
Stepping a value up or down.
Encoder
When an encoder is turned, passing its current value to the actions within a range you set.
A level or other value set directly from an encoder.
Press and Single click differ in timing: Press fires on the way down, before you know whether the operator is tapping or holding, while Single click fires once the press is over. Single click and Double click can be combined with Press, Release and Hold on the same button.
Hold Shift and click the button on the canvas to fire it: this presses it on mouse-down and releases it on mouse-up, the same as a real surface would, without needing one assigned. Use this to confirm an action works before adding feedback or wiring up hardware.
To test a single action in isolation instead of the whole button, use the small lightning-bolt icon on that action's own row in the Actions list. This runs just that one action immediately, using its current settings (a real execution against the connection, workflow, or internal action, not a preview), and works on unsaved changes too. There's no confirmation step, so use it deliberately.
An action tells the button what to do. Feedback tells it what's actually true.
Select the tab with the sliding-switch icon in the inspector to open Feedbacks.
Select Add Feedback... and search for a feedback that matches what you want to reflect: for example, an ATEM's ME: One ME program source, which is active when a specific input is live on the program bus.
Set the feedback's own options, such as which input it's watching for.
Use the Preview panel to see what the button looks like when the feedback is active. A lit bulb next to Preview means the feedback is active right now. To see the active look when it isn't, hold Test.
Many connection presets already style their feedback with a sensible default color: check Button Styling under the feedback before assuming you need to set one yourself.
Confirm you added the action under Press, not a different handler like Release.
The feedback never turns on.
Check that the feedback's own options (such as which input it watches) actually match what the action does. The bulb next to Preview lights up when the feedback is active.
You can't find the action or feedback you're looking for.
Search using the connection's own terminology: action and feedback names come directly from the connection module.
