# Getting started

An ArcLight show is a deck. Each slide is a scene: your camera, a screen, a title, an image. You build it in the editor, press Play, and step through it live while ArcLight sends one clean picture to a call, a recording or a second display.

This page walks you through a first show in about ten minutes: a camera slide, a title, a transition, and Play.

## Install and allow access

1. **Put ArcLight in Applications.** Drag it into `/Applications` before you open it. macOS only installs the ArcLight virtual camera from apps in the Applications folder. ArcLight needs macOS 14 or later.

2. **Allow the camera.** The first time a slide shows a camera, macOS asks for camera access. Choose _Allow_.

3. **Allow screen recording, if you'll show your screen.** In the toolbar, open the menu and choose , then turn ArcLight on in . macOS may ask you to quit and reopen ArcLight.

4. **Allow the microphone when asked.** ArcLight asks only when you record your microphone or use the teleprompter's voice tracking.

## Install the virtual camera

To use your show as a camera in Zoom, Google Meet or Microsoft Teams, install **ArcLight Camera** once:

1. Choose ( `⌘` `,`). It opens on **General**.

2. Under **Video Calls**, click **Install** beside ArcLight Camera.

3. If it says _Needs your approval_, click **Approve…** and allow the ArcLight extension, then come back and click **Check Again**. It reads _Ready_ when it's done.

There's more about choosing the camera in your call app in [Running the show](/content/help/running-the-show/#virtual-camera/index.html).

## Start a show from a template

Choose . ArcLight shows **Choose a Template**:

- **Blank**: one empty slide.
- **Basic**: a title, a camera with a lower third, and picture-in-picture.
- **YouTube Creator**: starting soon, intro, talking head, screen and camera, interview, be right back, and an end screen.

Pick one and click **Create**. Everything in a template is editable. **Cancel** starts you with a blank slide.

The window works like Keynote and PowerPoint: slides in the navigator on the left, the canvas in the middle, and the inspector on the right. See [Slides and layers](/content/help/slides-and-layers/index.html) for the full tour.

## Add a camera slide

1. Click **Add Slide** in the toolbar and choose **Full-Screen Camera**. The new slide fills the frame with your default camera.

2. To use a different camera, or to add a camera to a slide you already have, open the **Camera** menu in the toolbar and choose **Default Camera** or a camera by name. Drag the layer to place it, and drag its handles to size it.

Masks, crop and background blur are in [Cameras and screens](/content/help/live-sources/index.html).

## Add a title

With the camera slide selected, open **Graphics** in the toolbar and choose a title under **Titles**: _Lower Third_, _Name Strap_, _Quote_, _Chapter Card_ or _Headline_. Titles arrive with their animations already set up.

Double-click any text on the canvas to edit it in place. For a plain text box, click **Text** in the toolbar. Style it in the Format inspector (click **Format** in the toolbar).

## Add a transition

1. Select a slide in the navigator and click an empty part of the canvas, so no layer is selected.

2. Click **Animate** in the toolbar. The inspector shows the transition _into_ this slide.

3. Click **Change** and pick an effect. **Magic Move** is a good start: layers that show the same camera, screen, image or video glide to their new position and size, and everything else crossfades.

4. Set the **Duration**, then click **Preview** to watch it. **Apply to All Slides** copies the transition to every slide.

More in [Transitions and builds](/content/help/transitions-and-builds/index.html).

## Press Play

1. Select the slide to start from and click **Play** in the toolbar, or press `⌥⌘P`.

2. The window switches to the Play screen: the program, as large as it fits, with your script in the prompter below it, timers in the status bar, and the next slide marked in the navigator.

3. Press `→`, `Space` or `Return` to go forward. If the slide has builds, each press runs the next one before the slide changes. Press `←` to go back, or a number key `1`– `9` to jump to that slide.

4. Press `Esc` to stop the show.

While the show plays, the virtual camera sends the program ( _Use ArcLight as a camera in video calls_ in is on by default), and Monitor Presentation () shows it in a window you can share in a call, or full screen on a display you choose. See [Running the show](/content/help/running-the-show/index.html).

## Keyboard shortcuts

### Editing

| Keys | Command | Menu |
| --- | --- | --- |
| `⇧⌘N` | New Slide (blank) |  |
| `⇧⌘I` | Import PDF or Keynote… |  |
| `⌥⌘E` | Edit Script… |  |
| `⌘D` | Duplicate |  |
| `⌘X`  `⌘C`  `⌘V` | Cut, Copy, Paste layers (also between slides and documents) |  |
| `⌥⇧⌘V` | Paste and Match Style |  |
| `⌘A` | Select All |  |
| `⌥⌘G` | Group |  |
| `⌥⇧⌘G` | Ungroup |  |
| `Delete` | Delete the selected layers |  |
| Arrow keys | Nudge the selected layers 1 point (10 points with `⇧`) |  |
| `⌃⌘T` | Show or Hide Prompter |  |

### Running the show

| Keys | Command |
| --- | --- |
| `⌥⌘P` | Play Show / Stop Show ( menu) |
| `⇧⌘R` | Record Program / Stop Recording |
| `⇧⌘E` | Edit While Playing / Done Editing |
| `⌘]`  `⌘[` | Next Slide, Previous Slide |
| `→`  `↓`  `Space`  `Return`  `Page Down` | Next step, build or slide, while playing |
| `←`  `↑`  `Page Up` | Previous slide, while playing |
| `1`– `9` | Jump to slide 1 to 9, while playing |
| `Esc` | Stop the show (while editing live, go back to the Play screen) |