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When you’re ready to go live, AhaSlides gives you several ways to share your presentation with an audience and a set of presenter controls to manage the session. This page covers everything from sharing options to audio, display language, and managing slides during a live session.

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Sharing Your Presentation

Participants join your session at audience.ahaslides.com using an access code or a direct URL. No app download is required — the audience experience runs entirely in a mobile browser.

URL

A direct link your audience can click to join instantly — useful for virtual events, emails, and chat messages.

QR Code

Display the QR code on your presentation screen for in-person events. Participants scan it with their phone camera to join immediately.

Access Code

A short alphanumeric code participants type at audience.ahaslides.com. Easy to read aloud to a room.

Custom Code

Pro plan. Replace the auto-generated access code with your own branded shortcode — for example, your company name or event hashtag.
Permanent link — Pro plan. Pro plan users can enable a permanent link so the same URL and access code persist across multiple sessions of the same presentation. Participants can bookmark it once and use it every time.

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Self-Paced Mode

Normally, you control slide progression for everyone in the room — when you advance, everyone’s screen advances. In Self-Paced Mode, each participant moves through the slides at their own speed. This is ideal for:
  • Asynchronous surveys shared via link
  • Training modules participants complete on their own schedule
  • Situations where you’re not controlling a shared screen
Enable Self-Paced Mode in Presentation Settings before starting your session. Once enabled, participants see navigation arrows on their device to move forward and back through slides independently.

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Preview / Test Mode

Before going live, use Preview Mode to experience your presentation exactly as a participant would — without recording any real response data. Click the Preview button (eye icon 👁) next to the Present button in the editor. Your browser opens a presenter view while a second tab simulates the participant view. Close the preview tab when you’re done; no data is saved.

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Profanity Filter

AhaSlides includes a built-in profanity filter for text input from your audience. It applies to:
  • Word Cloud slides
  • Open Ended slides
  • Q&A slides
  • Type Answer slides
  • Participant name fields
Enable the profanity filter per-slide in the slide settings panel, or switch it on globally for all applicable slides in Presentation Settings.

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Emoji Reactions

During a live session, participants can send emoji reactions — 👍 ❤️ 😂 😮 😠 — that float across the presenter screen and participant screens in real time. Enable or disable emoji reactions in Presentation Settings before or during your session. Turning them off removes the reaction toolbar from participants’ devices.

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Audience Controls

Get Slides button: Optionally allow participants to download a static copy of your presentation after the session ends. Toggle this on in Presentation Settings → Audience Controls. When enabled, a Get Slides button appears on participants’ screens at the end of the session.

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Slide Audio

Audio features require a paid plan (Essential, Pro, or Enterprise).
AhaSlides supports three types of audio in a presentation:
  • Slide Audio: Attach an audio clip to an individual slide. It plays automatically when that slide is shown during the session. Configure it per-slide in the slide settings panel.
  • Presentation Audio: Set background music that plays throughout the entire session. Upload a track in Presentation Settings → Audio.
  • Sound Effects: Enable quiz sound effects — countdown ticking, correct answer chime, incorrect answer buzz — on Quiz slides. Toggle these on in the Quiz slide settings.

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Presenter Notes

Write notes for each slide in the Notes panel at the bottom of the editor. Your notes are not visible to participants at any point during the session. During presenting, access your notes by opening the Remote Control view on a separate device (phone or tablet). Navigate to your presentation’s remote control URL, log in, and you’ll see your current slide, your notes, and navigation controls — all from your second screen.

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Managing Slides During Presenting

Navigating: Click the Next and Previous buttons on the presenter toolbar, or use the ← → keyboard arrow keys to advance or go back between slides. Grid View: Press G on your keyboard to open a grid overview of all slides. Click any slide thumbnail to jump directly to it — useful for skipping ahead or returning to an earlier slide mid-session. Multi-selecting slides in the editor: In the slide panel, hold Ctrl (Windows) or Cmd (Mac) and click to select individual slides, or hold Shift and click to select a range. Move or delete multiple slides at once to reorganise your deck quickly.

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Display Language

AhaSlides supports 27 presenter languages and 32 audience languages, so you can run sessions in your local language regardless of where your team or audience is based.
  • Presenter language: Set in your Account Settings. Controls the language of the AhaSlides editor and presenter toolbar.
  • Audience language: Set per-presentation in Presentation Settings. Controls the language of the AhaSlides UI shown on participants’ phones and browsers.
The audience language setting controls the language of AhaSlides interface text — buttons, labels, and prompts — shown to participants. It does not translate the content of your slides (your questions, answer options, or images).