What Ilumax Deck is for
Ilumax Deck makes slide presentations. You build slides from a theme and its layouts, add text, shapes, pictures, tables, charts, video and sound, give them transitions and animations, and present them full screen while a presenter view shows your notes and what comes next.
It opens and saves PowerPoint presentations (.pptx), so you can work with people who use PowerPoint, and exports PDF handouts and pictures of your slides.
Install and first launch
Install Deck with the Ilumax Launcher or from My downloads. The first time you open it, your Mac or PC asks you to confirm; the one-time steps are in Installing Ilumax apps.
Deck opens on its start screen, Home. Pick Blank Presentation or one of the themes, or open a file from Recent. If Deck closed last time with unsaved work, it opens that work again and says so.
Make your first presentation
- On the start screen, click a theme, for example Harbor. A new presentation opens with one Title Slide.
- Click Click to add title and type your title. Click Click to add subtitle and type a line under it. Press Esc when you have finished typing.
- On the Home tab, click the arrow beside New Slide and choose a layout, such as Title and Content.
- Click Insert ▸ Pictures and choose a picture. If an empty content placeholder is selected, the picture fills it.
- On the Transitions tab, click a transition in the gallery. Apply To All gives every slide the same one.
- Click Slide Show ▸ Play from Start, or press F5. Click or press Space for the next slide, Left arrow to go back and Esc to stop.
- Press CommandS (Mac) or ControlS (Windows), choose a folder and a name, and click Save. Deck saves in its own format,
.ilxdeck. - To share it as a PDF, click File ▸ Export ▸ Create PDF Document ▸ Create PDF.
Find your way around
- Title row: Home (the start screen), Save, Undo, Redo and Play from Start on the left; the presentation’s name, with — Edited while there are unsaved changes; Search commands, Present, Comments and light or dark appearance on the right.
- Ribbon: the tabs File, Home, Insert, Draw, Design, Transitions, Animations, Slide Show, Record, Review and View. More tabs appear when you select something: Shape Format, Picture Format, Table Design, Layout, Chart Design or Playback. Click the tab you are on to fold the ribbon away.
- Slide thumbnails, on the left: click one to go to it, drag to reorder, right-click for slide commands. A ★ marks slides with animations or a transition.
- The slide in the middle, and the notes pane under it (Click to add notes).
- Task pane, on the right when you need it: Format Shape, Format Background, Animation Pane, Selection, Comments and Design Ideas.
- Status bar: Slide 1 of 5 and so on, the Notes and Comments switches, the view buttons (Normal, Slide Sorter, Reading View, Slide Show), the zoom slider and Fit slide to current window.
Everyday tasks
Add, reorder and hide slides
- New Slide on the Home tab adds a slide after the current one; its arrow lets you choose the layout.
- To copy a slide, right-click its thumbnail and choose Duplicate Slide.
- To reorder, drag thumbnails, or switch to View ▸ Slide Sorter for a grid of every slide.
- To skip a slide in the show without deleting it, choose Slide Show ▸ Hide Slide. Hidden slides look dimmed.
- To work on several slides at once, hold Shift and click, or hold Command (Mac) or Control (Windows) and click each one, then right-click for the same commands. Delete Slide is in that menu too.
- To group slides, choose Home ▸ Section ▸ Add Section, then right-click the section’s header to rename or move it.
Change the look
On the Design tab, pick a theme: Ilumax, Harbor, Ember, Meadow, Nocturne, Paper, Coral Reef or Slate. Colors and Fonts change its colours and type, and Background Styles or Format Background its background.
Slide Size switches between Widescreen (16:9) and Standard (4:3); Page Setup… has more sizes.
To change one slide’s layout, choose Home ▸ Layout. Reset puts its placeholders back where the layout wants them.
Format text
Select text, or the box it is in, and use the font and paragraph controls on the Home tab: font and size, Bold, Italic, Underline, colour, highlight, Bullets, Numbering, alignment and Line Spacing. Line Spacing ▸ Line Spacing Options… opens the Paragraph dialog.
To copy formatting from one thing to another, select the first, click Format on the Home tab, then click the second. Double-click Format to keep it on for several.
Add shapes, text boxes and pictures
- Insert ▸ Shapes: pick a shape, then drag on the slide. Hold Shift to keep its proportions, or Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) to draw it from the centre.
- Insert ▸ Text Box puts a box in the middle of the slide, ready to type in.
- Insert ▸ Pictures takes PNG, JPEG, GIF, WebP, BMP and TIFF files. With a picture selected, Picture Format has Corrections, Color, Transparency and Crop.
- With a shape selected, Shape Format has Shape Fill, Shape Outline, Shape Effects, Align, Group and Rotate.
- Use the arrow keys to nudge a selected object; hold Option (Mac) or Alt (Windows) for smaller steps.
Add a table or a chart
Insert ▸ Table: choose the size on the grid, or click Insert Table… and type the number of columns and rows. Tab moves to the next cell; in the last cell it adds a row. Table Design and Layout appear while you are in the table.
Insert ▸ Chart: choose a type, such as Clustered Column, Line or Pie. The chart starts with sample figures; click Chart Design ▸ Edit Data to type your own.
Animate an object
- Select the object on the slide.
- On the Animations tab, click an effect in the gallery, such as Fade or Fly In. For text, Effect Options chooses As One Object or By Paragraph.
- Set Start:, Duration: and Delay: beside the gallery.
- Click Animation Pane to see every animation on the slide in order. Right-click one to choose Start On Click, Start With Previous or Start After Previous, or to move it up or down the list.
- Click Preview to watch the slide’s animations.
Add video and sound
Insert ▸ Video takes MP4, M4V, MOV, WebM and MKV files; Insert ▸ Audio takes WAV, MP3, M4A, AAC, FLAC, OGG, Opus and AIFF. With the clip selected, the Playback tab sets how it plays.
Present with your notes
Type what you want to say about each slide in the notes pane under it. View ▸ Notes shows or hides the pane.
Presenter View on the Slide Show tab is on to begin with. When you start the show, a second window opens with a timer, Slide 3 of 12, the next slide, your notes, and ◀ Previous, Next ▶ and End Show. Deck doesn’t move it to another screen for you: drag it onto the screen you will look at.
Play from Start (F5) begins at the first slide; Play from Current Slide (ShiftF5) begins where you are. Double-clicking a thumbnail starts the show from that slide.
While the show runs: click, Space or Right arrow goes forward and Left arrow goes back. Type a slide’s number and press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to jump to it. B turns the screen black and W white; press the same key again to come back. Esc ends the show.
Rehearse your timing
Slide Show ▸ Rehearse Timings runs the show with a clock for each slide and the total. When you finish, each slide’s time is saved as its After: timing, and the status bar says Slide timings recorded. With Use Timings ticked, the slides then move on by themselves; untick it to move on by clicking.
Set Up Slide Show has Loop continuously until 'Esc', for a show that runs by itself.
Print slides, notes or handouts
Press CommandP (Mac) or ControlP (Windows). Choose which slides, and Full Page Slides, Notes Pages or Handouts (1 to 9 slides a page), then click Print. Deck makes a PDF of them and opens it in your PDF viewer, where you choose the printer.
Find any command
Press CommandShiftP (Mac) or ControlShiftP (Windows), or click Search commands in the title row, and type what you want to do. CommandF (Mac) or ControlF (Windows) opens the same search; it finds commands, not words on your slides.
Files
- Deck’s own format,
.ilxdeck, keeps everything about a presentation. Presentations saved in the format of earlier Ilumax Deck versions still open. - Opens: PowerPoint presentations, templates and shows (
.pptx,.potx,.ppsx), and plain-text or Markdown outlines (.txt,.md), which become slides. - Saves as: PowerPoint (
.pptx) or.ilxdeck, with File ▸ Save As. - Exports: PDF (slides, notes pages or handouts, with text you can select), an outline (
.txt), and pictures of slides (PNG or JPEG).
When you save as .pptx, the presentation’s file becomes that .pptx. To write a copy in another format and keep working in the original, use File ▸ Export ▸ Change File Type.
A few things stay only in .ilxdeck: comment threads, and some playback and animation settings. Keep an .ilxdeck copy of a presentation you go on editing.
Older PowerPoint files (.ppt) and OpenDocument presentations (.odp) don’t open: save them as .pptx in another app first.
If Deck closes unexpectedly
Every minute, Deck keeps a copy of each presentation with unsaved changes. If it closes unexpectedly, it opens them again the next time it starts. You can also find them under File ▸ Open ▸ Recover Unsaved Presentations. Deck doesn’t save your file for you, so save as you go.
Keyboard shortcuts
On a Mac, ⌘ is Command, ⇧ Shift, ⌥ Option and ⌃ Control.
| To | Mac | Windows |
|---|---|---|
| New presentation | CommandN | ControlN |
| Open | CommandO | ControlO |
| Save | CommandS | ControlS |
| Save As | CommandShiftS | ControlShiftS |
| CommandP | ControlP | |
| Close the presentation | CommandW | ControlW |
| Undo | CommandZ | ControlZ |
| Redo | CommandY | ControlY |
| New slide | CommandShiftN | ControlShiftN |
| Duplicate the selected object | CommandD | ControlD |
| Bold | CommandB | ControlB |
| Italic | CommandI | ControlI |
| Underline | CommandU | ControlU |
| Centre text | CommandE | ControlE |
| Group objects | CommandOptionG | ControlAltG |
| Ungroup | CommandOptionShiftG | ControlAltShiftG |
| Insert a link | CommandK | ControlK |
| Edit the text in a selected shape | Return or F2 | Enter or F2 |
| Stop editing text | Esc | Esc |
| Zoom in | CommandEquals | ControlEquals |
| Zoom out | CommandMinus | ControlMinus |
| Fit the slide to the window | Command0 | Control0 |
| Search commands | CommandShiftP | ControlShiftP |
| Preferences | CommandComma | ControlComma |
| Present from the start | F5 or CommandShiftReturn | F5 or ControlShiftEnter |
| Present from this slide | ShiftF5 or CommandReturn | ShiftF5 or ControlEnter |
| Next slide, in the show | Space or Right arrow | Space or Right arrow |
| Previous slide, in the show | Left arrow or Backspace | Left arrow or Backspace |
| First or last slide, in the show | Home or End | Home or End |
| Black or white screen, in the show | B or W | B or W |
| End the show | Esc | Esc |
On a Mac keyboard, hold fn with the F-keys if they change the brightness or the volume instead.
Tips
- Double-click a slide’s thumbnail to start the show from that slide.
- Preferences (CommandComma on a Mac, ControlComma on Windows) has smart guides, snapping to the grid, smart quotes, AutoCorrect, the name on your comments and the size of the interface.
- On Windows, the shortcuts in Deck’s tooltips are written with Mac symbols: read ⌘ as Ctrl, ⇧ as Shift and ⌥ as Alt.
- Review ▸ Spelling lists common misspellings on your slides; it isn’t a full dictionary check, so read your slides through too.
- Fonts that a
.pptxuses but your computer doesn’t have are replaced, and Deck tells you which. Install the font to see the slide as it was designed.
Get help
Email [email protected]. Say which app and version you use, whether you are on a Mac or Windows, and what you did just before the problem.
Or go to Support: what to put in your email, and quick answers on installing, licence keys, renewals and refunds.
Lost your licence key? Email from the address you paid with, and it will be sent back to you. To download an app again, paste your key on My downloads.
Other companies’ product names mentioned in this guide are trademarks of their owners. Ilumax is not affiliated with them.
Comment on slides
Review ▸ New Comment adds a comment to the slide. The Comments pane lists them, with Reply… and Resolve. The name on your comments is set in Preferences under Your name (comments):.