What Are Timelines?

Timelines in ProPresenter allow you to synchronize your slides, media, and actions to a soundtrack for fully automated playback. This means your presentation can run in perfect sync without needing to manually advance slides during a service or event.

Timelines are especially useful when working with backing tracks, pre-produced content, or any situation where consistency is important. Once everything is set up, you can start the entire presentation with a single click and let ProPresenter handle the rest.

Accessing the Timeline

1. Open any presentation.
2. Click the Timeline button in the upper right corner of the presentation header.
3. This opens the timeline editor, showing multiple tracks representing different elements of your presentation.

Each track controls a different type of content—like slides, media, audio, or actions—and all of these can be synchronized together.

How the Timeline Is Organized

• Slide track (top): Shows when each slide is triggered.
• Media track: Background media can switch independently.
• Audio track: Audio can play continuously.
• Actions track: Actions, like macros, can trigger automatically.

Each track operates independently, but they all follow the same timeline, allowing everything to stay perfectly in sync.

Building a Timeline from Scratch

1. Add an audio track by dragging an audio file directly into the timeline, or by right-clicking in the audio track and adding it there.
2. Make sure your timeline is long enough to match the length of the audio track. Adjust this by dragging the end of the timeline or entering a duration manually.

Recording a Timeline

1. Click the Record button to enable recording.
2. When recording is enabled, any slides, media, or actions you trigger will be placed on the timeline at the current position of the playhead.
3. Press Play and begin clicking through your slides as the audio plays.
4. ProPresenter records each action in real time, capturing exactly when each slide should appear.
5. Click Stop to end the recording.

Now when you rewind and press play, your timeline will automatically trigger everything in sequence—slides, media, and actions—exactly as you recorded them.

Important: When recording is enabled, everything you trigger gets added to the timeline. Be sure to turn Record off once you're done, otherwise you may accidentally add extra cues while navigating your presentation.

Editing a Timeline

• Drag items to adjust their timing.
• Delete individual cues.
• Re-record sections as needed.
• Add elements manually by dragging media or actions directly into the timeline, or by right-clicking to insert them.

Playing Back a Timeline

1. Move the playhead to the beginning and press Play.
2. Slides will advance, media will change, and actions will trigger at the exact times you defined.

This makes timelines especially helpful for volunteers or operators, since they only need to start playback—no manual timing required.

You can also jump to any point in the timeline by moving the playhead and pressing Play, which is useful during rehearsals when you need to start from a specific section.

Remote Control of Timelines

Timelines can be controlled remotely using the ProPresenter Remote app, Stream Deck, or third-party integrations. This lets you start, stop, and control your timeline without being at the computer—especially useful for musicians or production teams who need control from the stage or another location.

Timelines can also be triggered via timecode (covered in a separate, dedicated tutorial).

Summary

Timelines give you a powerful way to automate your presentations by syncing slides, media, audio, and actions together. This allows you to create consistent, repeatable presentations that run exactly the same way every time.

Once everything is configured, your operator can simply press Play, and ProPresenter takes care of the rest.