Settings iPad

Use iA Presenter’s Settings menu to customize how you create and present slides.

With a presentation open on your iPad, tap the folder icon at the top-left of the toolbar, then choose Settings at the bottom of the menu.

With a hardware keyboard, you can also press ⌘,.

Settings are divided into the following categories:

Appearance

Appearance

Choose Light, Dark, or System for Presenter’s interface.

App Icon

On iPadOS 18, choose System or Dark for the app icon. Earlier versions offer Light or Dark. This option is not shown on iPadOS 26 or later.

General

Toolbars

Choose Show/Hide to let Presenter hide the toolbars as you scroll, or Always Show to keep them visible. Show/Hide is the default.

New Presentation Text

Choose the text used for new presentations. The default is the “Fast and Focused” tutorial. Edit or remove it, then tap Save. Use Restore Default to bring the tutorial back.

Locations

Choose folders for quickly creating new presentations from the folder menu. Presenter uses iCloud when available, or storage on your iPad otherwise.

Tap Add Location to select another folder. Added locations can be reordered and given custom display names. Swipe left to remove a location from the list.

Editor

Focus Mode

Slide Focus Mode

Dims all text except the slide you’re editing.

Speaking Time

Show Speaking Time

Shows or hides the estimated speaking time in the Editor.

Speaking Rate

Choose a rate from 100 to 190 words per minute to match your natural pace. The default is 110 words per minute.

Text

Typeface

Changes the Editor’s font. Choose from iA’s Mono, Duo or Quattro fonts.

Line Length Limit

Choose the maximum line length: 64, 72, or 80 characters. Lines may wrap sooner in a narrow window.

To change the Editor’s text size, use the toolbar’s Appearance menu.

Text Input

Three Returns to Start a New Slide

Toggles whether pressing Return ↵ three times creates a new slide. You can still insert a slide break manually with three dashes ---.

AutoFormat Tables

Keeps Markdown table columns aligned while editing. On iPad, formatting currently remains automatic even when this switch is turned off.

Auto-Correction

When enabled, uses iPadOS’ auto-correct while you write.

Check Spelling

Underlines typos in red in the Editor. Learn more in our Languages article.

Predictive

Enables iPadOS’ inline text predictions while you type. Available on iPadOS 17 or later.

Smart Copy/Paste

Automatically adjusts spaces when inserting or deleting text.

Smart Quotes

Replaces straight quotes "" with curly quotes “” as you type.

Smart Dashes

Replaces plain dashes with typographic dashes as you type.

If Auto-Correction, Check Spelling, Predictive, Smart Quotes, or Smart Dashes is unavailable, enable the corresponding option in the system’s Settings → General → Keyboard.

Presentation

Layout

Responsive

Automatically adjusts the slide layout and thumbnails to the presentation area’s aspect ratio.

Fixed Aspect Ratio

Turn off Responsive to choose Regular 4:3, Wide 16:9, Mobile 9:16, Portrait 4:5, or Square 1:1. The default is Wide 16:9 with Responsive turned off. A presentation’s own layout setting can override this default.

Image exports use the presentation’s aspect ratio unless another ratio is chosen in the export settings.

💡 Fixed aspect ratios are particularly useful if you’re sharing your slides to Social Media, which often have specific aspect ratio requirements.

Content

Reduce Text Size to Fit in Slide

When enabled, Presenter will automatically scale down your text to fit the slide. A small AA icon beneath a slide’s number in The Thumbnails denotes that its text has been scaled down.

Show Controls on Videos

Choose whether to display the built-in video controls.

Warnings

Warn on Empty Slides with Notes

Shows a warning when a slide contains speaker notes but no visible elements for the audience.

Presentation Mode

Show Timer

Shows or hides the timer in Presentation Mode. It starts when the presentation begins and is hidden by default. Tap the timer, then Reset to restart it.

Notes Text Size

Choose S, M, or L for speaker notes in Presentation Mode. The default is M.

Themes

Tap the plus button to install Custom Themes. To remove a theme, swipe left on it.

Added themes appear at the bottom of the Theme menu in the Design sheet.

Markdown

Single Return Starts a New Paragraph

With traditional Markdown, you need to press Return ↵ twice to complete a paragraph and start a new one. This setting is on by default and lets a single Return start a new paragraph. An empty line creates a separate visual block on the slide.

Apply Smart Punctuation

Converts straight quotes and plain dashes to their typographic counterparts in formatted slide output. This option is off by default.

💡 This setting only applies to rendered and exported slides. The Editor’s Smart Quotes and Smart Dashes settings change the text you type instead.

Commands

Command Palette

Choose the actions and submenus shown in the Command Palette. Add, remove, or reorder items, or reset the palette to its defaults.

Edit Menu

Customize the actions shown when you select text in the Editor. Actions that do not apply to the selection are hidden automatically.

More System Settings

Opens Presenter’s page in iPadOS Settings for permissions and other system options.

Settings