FrameDecks: user guide (v6.8)

FrameDecks runs your online Bible study, prayer meeting, small group or training on Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet. It is meeting-first:

1. Meeting: one meeting, for example Romans · Week 5.
2. + Frame: one screen or one step of the meeting (Welcome, Worship, Scripture Reading, Questions, Closing).
3. + Content: what is shown inside a Frame (a question, a scripture, text, a picture, a video, a timer, PowerPoint).
4. Present: Go Live, then step through the Frames.
5. Annotate: draw on the picture.
6. Phone: run all of it from a phone if you like.

Everything runs on your PC.

• Installing: docs/development/building-the-installer.md (Installation Guide)
• Setting up the camera and the phone remote: docs/reference/configuration-guide.md
• How each feature works: docs/reference/features.md
• PowerPoint (what works, and why): docs/reference/powerpoint.md
• The Excel Meeting Workbook: docs/reference/meeting-workbook-and-branding.md

1. The window

The command bar across the top holds everything you need live:

Search and commands. The command bar has no search box (6.9). Press Ctrl+K or Ctrl+Space for the command palette (from anywhere in Windows: Spotlight, Alt+Space). It finds Frames, Content, questions, scriptures, text, templates, the Library, branding, settings, members, Bible references and recent items, and runs commands such as Go Live, New Frame, Duplicate, Teleprompter, Export meeting, switch theme and Add Content. ↑ / ↓ and Enter choose; Esc closes. Change the keys in Settings → Keyboard shortcuts → Command palette.

The command bar fits any window: narrow, maximized, ultra-wide or on a high-resolution screen. Under 1140 px wide it wraps onto two rows, so nothing is cut off (6.9).

The window (6.8). There is no Windows title bar: the command bar is the window's ribbon. Drag its empty space to move the window, and double-click it to maximize. Snap and resizing from the edges work as usual. Every FrameDecks window has the same three buttons at the top right.

• Minimize asks Hide application to system tray?: Hide To Tray or Stay In Taskbar, with Remember my choice. In the tray, the camera, overlays, phone remote and shortcuts keep working.
• The tray icon near the clock: click it to open the app. Its menu has Open App, Teleprompter (the overlay), Search (Spotlight), Settings, More (Look, Frame, Stop screen share, Hide all overlays, Presentation window, Phone remote) and Exit.
• Spotlight (Alt+Space, or Ctrl+Alt+Space if another program has Alt+Space) opens the command palette's search in the middle of the screen, from anywhere, even with the app in the tray. Go Live, Next / Previous Frame, Hide all, Blackout, Freeze and the Teleprompter run without bringing the main window back. An empty search shows Recent, Frequently used and Suggested.
• Settings → General → Window and tray: Modern window (off brings the Windows title bar back, after a restart), Minimize button (Ask each time / Hide to tray / Stay in taskbar), the Spotlight shortcut (Alt+Space, Ctrl+Space, Ctrl+Alt+Space, Ctrl+Shift+Space, Win+Shift+K or Off, with a line saying whether it works), and the overlay's starting Transparency, Frosted glass, Stay on top and Compatibility transparency.

2. Frames and Content

• Meeting (the ✨ button next to + Frame) has:
  • Import / Export / Download the Excel Meeting Workbook;
  • Quick Start;
  • the Content Library;
  • your Frame templates.
• + Frame adds one blank Frame after the selected one. Name it by double-clicking its name (or F2), or under Content Settings → Frame. The name is edited right in the list: Enter saves, Esc cancels.
• Select the Frame, then + Content:
  • Question, Scripture, Text, Discussion topic, Icebreaker, Poll (show of hands), Image, Video, Timer, PowerPoint. The Poll only shows the choices; people answer by a show of hands or in the chat, and nothing is counted;
  • Free Content: announcement, prayer point, lower third, birthday, branding, camera, screen share, a live window, logo, watermark, free text, shape, background.
• Content belongs to its Frame. Changing it never changes another Frame.
• Duplicate (⋯ on a Frame) makes a completely separate copy. Every question, scripture, label and setting is copied, not shared.
• Select a Frame and press Go Live. Double-click the Frame's row (not its name), or press T, to do the same.
• Select several Frames or Contents with Ctrl+Click, Shift+Click or by dragging a box in empty list space (Ctrl+A selects all). Then:
  • Delete / Backspace deletes them; the message offers Undo, and you are asked first only for 5 or more;
  • Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V copy, cut and paste; Ctrl+D duplicates;
  • drag them to move them, or right-click for a menu.

3. Content Settings

Select any Content and every setting is in one panel, most used first:

• Label
• Content
• Display Settings (with Animation and Show on inside it)
• Visual Settings

Pictures, video and PowerPoint have a Media group. A Frame on its own has Frame, Timing and History.

The group names along the top jump to their group. There is no Basic / Advanced switch: everything is visible. Where each piece of Content appears (FrameDecks, OBS pages) is set once, in that Content's Show on group.

Branding Content has: Display (Logo only, Name only, Logo + Name, and optionally the Organization Name); Position (a corner, or centred at the top, centre or bottom) and Safe margin; Size (Small, Medium, Large, plus a fine size), Opacity, Padding and Background plate (off = a soft shadow). It looks the same on the camera and the OBS pages, at any resolution.

Questions and Scriptures

A Question (or Scripture) Content holds its own list, shown full height in Content Settings:

• Click an item to make it the Frame's current one.
• Show puts it on screen.
• Double-click its label or its text to edit it right there in the list. Enter saves, Shift+Enter starts a new line, Esc cancels, and a click outside saves.
• Enter on a selected item opens all its settings in the same panel: its own Label (for example Question 1 or John 15:5), the text and its own transition. Press Done (or Esc) to go back to the list.
• Or edit it on the canvas: double-click any card on the Studio Canvas (question, scripture, announcement, prayer, discussion topic, icebreaker, poll, lower third, timer) to edit its text; double-click the card's label (its top line) to edit the label. The same keys apply. If the card is on screen, the screen changes too.
• Questions have no Answer or Notes fields any more (6.7). Old ones are kept in your data but not shown; put reminders in the Frame's Teleprompter script.
• + Question / + Scripture adds one; Add several pastes many at once.
• Drag an item by its handle (⋮⋮) to move it, or use the ↑ / ↓ buttons. A line shows where it will land.
• For scripture, type a reference above the list and press Fetch scripture (ESV, with a key in Settings → Scripture). Choose Fetch from → Type it myself for other translations.
• Questions and scriptures come from Excel only through the Meeting Workbook (section 7), which builds whole Frames. There is no Excel import inside a Question or Scripture Content.
• When the Frame is on screen:
  • → / ← step through its questions;
  • Shift + → / ← step through its scriptures.

4. Present, Annotate, Freeze, Black screen

• Go Live puts the selected Frame on screen; ◀ Frame / Frame ▶ step through the meeting.
• Annotate (D) turns the canvas into a drawing surface:
  • Tools: Pen (P), Highlighter (H), Arrow (A), Line (L), Rectangle (R), Ellipse (E), Text (T).
  • Six colours and three thicknesses.
  • Eraser or Undo (Ctrl+Z), Redo (Ctrl+Y), Clear.
  • The drawings appear above everything: slides, PowerPoint, cards. Everyone sees them in Zoom or Teams. Esc hides them.
• Freeze (F) holds the picture while you get the next thing ready. You can still draw on it.
• Blackout (K) makes the picture black.
• Teleprompter (Program → Teleprompter, or R) shows the Frame's Teleprompter script. Only you see it; it is never on any output.
  • Write the script in Frame settings → Teleprompter script (up to 20,000 characters), or double-click the teleprompter text (or ✎). Markup: # Heading, - bullet, **bold**, *italic*, [PAUSE] cue chips, --- divider.
  • Dock it Left, Right or Bottom of the Studio, or Float it; drag to resize. Follows: Live / Selected chooses which Frame's script it shows.
  • Scroll play / pause (Space), speeds from Very slow to Very fast, A− / A+ (− / + keys), line spacing, high contrast, Focus mode (F), back to top (Home), arrow and Page keys, the mouse wheel and touch.
  • The cue line shows Frame 3 of 9, LIVE, the next Frame and the next question or scripture.
• Teleprompter window (Program → Teleprompter window; it was Speaker View) opens the Teleprompter in its own window for a second screen. The script takes the whole width; On screen & next slides in the clocks, a timer, what is on screen and what comes next (hidden at first, remembered). The controls float and fade. M mirrors the text.
• Teleprompter overlay (Program → Teleprompter overlay, Shift+R, the tray, Spotlight, the palette, or Overlay in the docked Teleprompter) shows the script in a see-through window over Zoom, Teams or Meet.
  • Five modes, keys 1–5: Solid (0 %), Presenter (20 %), Meeting (40 %, the default), Conference (65 %), Ghost (85 %). The outline around the letters gets stronger as it gets more see-through.
  • Frosted glass (Acrylic on Windows 11 22H2+, blur on Windows 10); Stay on top (📌, P), remembered.
  • Never in screen sharing or recordings (Windows 10 2004+). The Teleprompter window and Spotlight are left out too.
  • The script takes about 95 % of the width. A glass toolbar floats at the bottom and fades after about 3 seconds: Play / Pause (Space), speed, A− / A+, line spacing, contrast, Mirror (M), top, edit ✎, transparency, frost, pin and Exit (Esc). A thin ribbon appears with it at the top: drag it to move the overlay; resize from the edges.
  • It follows the Frame on screen (the first Frame before you go live).
  • With Light on graphics card on (the default) the overlay fades as a whole, text included. For solid text, turn that setting off and restart. Compatibility transparency forces the whole-window fade if the meeting does not show through.

5. The FrameRelay camera

Choose FrameDecks as the camera in Zoom, Teams, Google Meet or OBS. Participants see your webcam with the live Frame on top. Background blur and Camera Looks are in Settings → FrameRelay Camera. If an app doesn't list FrameDecks, restart that app.

6. Phone and tablet remote

Settings → Phone & iPad Remote → turn it on, scan the QR code, enter the PIN.

• Simple remote (the default): one screen, very large buttons, nothing to set up.
  • Current Frame (Frame 4 of 18) with PREVIOUS FRAME / NEXT FRAME.
  • Current Content (Question 2 of 5, Scripture, or PowerPoint · Slide 3 of 12) with PREVIOUS CONTENT / NEXT CONTENT. Change appears when a Frame has more than one.
  • ANNOTATE: draw with your finger on the live picture (exactly what Zoom / Teams see). Turn the phone sideways and the picture fills the screen, with the tools in a narrow column at the side.
  • FREEZE and BLACK SCREEN.
  • TELEPROMPTER opens the Frame's script full screen on the phone.
  • The connection status is spelled out at the top, next to HIDE ALL.
• Advanced remote (⋯ → Advanced remote):
  • every Frame, with search across Frames and Content;
  • the Frame's Content (tap to show or hide);
  • a Teleprompter panel on the Live tab;
  • PowerPoint slides;
  • Run-through: step through Frames on your phone without changing the screen;
  • Annotate, Freeze, Blackout and Emergency.

7. Excel (optional)

FrameDecks works fully without Excel. The Meeting Workbook is for planning, review, handover and bulk editing.

It has two tabs (6.9):

• Meeting Form: one guided page, top to bottom, in numbered sections: 1 · Meeting details, 2 · Speaker, 3 · Attendees, 4 · Presentation, 5 · Frames, 6 · Content, 7 · Discussion questions, 8 · Scripture readings, 9 · Additional notes. Type in the cream boxes; Tab moves on. Each table shows a few empty rows; the + button on the left opens more.
• Dashboard: fills itself in from the form (days to go, counts, a Readiness checklist, Quick actions, a Content mix chart and a Recent meetings log). It is never imported.

Use it through Settings → Data / Backup → Meeting from Excel (6.11; the website's Meeting Form does the same online):

• Download the Excel template (drop-down lists, an example meeting);
• Import a meeting from Excel… (preview with every problem and where it is, such as Meeting Form · Content · row 26; Append or Replace; Undo);
• Export this meeting (Excel) (the same Dashboard and Meeting Form, filled in).

After an import the app is the source of truth. Workbooks from 6.5 to 6.8 (one sheet per list) and the 6.2 one-sheet template still import; their answers and notes go into the Frame's Teleprompter script. The Excel library loads only when you first need it, so the app starts faster.

8. Your branding

Settings → Meeting & Branding: your Meeting Name, organisation, logo and accent colour. They appear only where you put them: Branding Content, text that uses {meeting} / {org}, and Show my logo on this card. Remove background makes a plain logo background transparent, on this PC, with Undo.

9. Saving and backups

Everything saves automatically on this PC. Settings → Data / Backup keeps daily backups and lets you make one now or restore one. Each Frame keeps its version and history (Content Settings → History). FrameDecks has no accounts, shared workspaces or cloud: your meeting stays on your PC unless you export it.

10. Help

• Settings → Diagnostics → Copy diagnostics collects the information needed for support. It contains no PIN or member details.
• Settings → About has the story, contact and version.