Overview

Getting your output/outputs to show up on your screens is a fairly simple task, but there are a few steps to it, and skipping any of the steps may result in the output not working. Let's take a look at the steps needed to get your output up and running.

Step 1: Setting up your system preferences.

First, let's make sure that our system preferences are correct.

On a Mac, click on the Apple on the top left of the screen, then come down to System Preferences, and click on the Display option. We want to make sure that the computer sees your external screen(s), so look for a tab near the top of the window that is called "Arrangements". If you only see two tabs (Display and Color) then your computer cannot see another screen; make sure that the screen/projector is turned on and is plugged in, and that any drivers are installed. If you do see the Arrangements tab, great! Click on it, then look in the lower left of the window for the option to "Mirror Displays". We want to turn this OFF! So make sure it is unchecked.

On a PC, right click on the desktop and choose Desktop Properties or Screen Resolution. Depending on your version of Windows this might look different, but we want to see two monitors at the top of the screen, and make sure that the screens are set to "Extend", not "Mirror".

Step 2: Setting up your ProPresenter preferences.

Now that our screens are correct, let's get the preferences right in ProPresenter. Open ProPresenter, then go into the Preferences and click on the Display tab.

You should see several boxes in the middle of the screen. The box with the white bar across the top represents your main monitor. We want to make sure that your ProPresenter output is NOT set to your monitor, so if the box with the white bar across the top is filled with black and it says Output in it, simply drag the Output to the other box. (Note: If your Output is stuck and won't drag over, restart ProPresenter and try again.) Here is an example:

If you will not be using the Stage Display, then you can ignore the purple "SD" box. If, however, you will be using the Stage Display, then you will need to set that up on another external screen, like this:

Take a look at the rest of this window, there are some important preferences in here that you may want to explore. After that, we move on to...

Step 3: Restart ProPresenter

At this point, we want to restart ProPresenter. This will make sure that the screens are aligned correctly.

Step 4: Turn on the output

The last step is to turn on your output (if it isn't set to do that automatically). Usually, you can look in the top right of the main ProPresenter window for a blue circle that is labeled as Output. Just click on this button to turn on or off your output. You can also use the shortcut keys:

Command-1 (Control-1 on Windows): Toggle the ProPresenter output

Command-2 (Control-2 on Windows): Toggle the Stage Display

That's it! You are set and ready to go!

Step 5: One Last Thing to Check

If you are still having some issues with this on a Mac, you will most likely need to change something on your OS. Specifically, after you go through these steps, you still see the output on the main screen (usually covering only one corner of the screen). Almost always this is due to a setting operating system which you should be able to fix.  Click on the Apple in the top left and come down to System Preferences. (If your Display tab is still open from earlier, click on the "Show All" button on the top; it looks like a bunch of small dots.)

Now click on Mission Control on the top row and look for the check box next to "Displays have Separate Spaces". We want this check box to be OFF! Just uncheck it, then restart the computer (this is needed for it to actually apply the change). In the vast majority of cases this will fix your issue. If not, please contact our Support team for further investigation.