User guide

Short sentences, one instruction per sentence.

1. About LivePointer

LivePointer is a pointer and a slide remote for presentations. It has two parts:

LivePointer for Mac. A free menu-bar app. It draws the pointer on the Mac’s display and sends the slide keys to PowerPoint or Keynote.
LivePointer for iPhone. The controller. It shows a live preview of the Mac’s display. You touch the preview to point.

The two parts talk to each other over your local network. They do not use a server. They do not collect data.

2. Requirements

A Mac with macOS 15 or later.
An iPhone with iOS 17 or later.
The Mac and the iPhone on the same Wi-Fi network, or the Mac on the iPhone’s Personal Hotspot.
PowerPoint or Keynote on the Mac, for the slide controls.

3. Install the Mac app

Download the installer from this site.
Open the file. Click Install.
LivePointer starts in the menu bar. It has no Dock icon.
When macOS asks for Local Network access, click Allow.

The app and the installer are notarized by Apple. macOS opens them without a warning. Prefer to drag the app yourself? Download the .zip instead.

4. Give the Mac app its permissions

Each permission enables one function. Give only the ones you need.

Permission	Function	How to enable
Screen Recording	The live preview on the iPhone	Menu bar icon › Enable Screen Preview (Screen Recording)…
Accessibility	The slide keys (Back, Next, Start show)	Menu bar icon › Enable Slide Keys (Accessibility)…
Full Disk Access	The slide thumbnails on the iPhone	Menu bar icon › Enable Slide Thumbnails (Full Disk Access)…

Each menu item opens System Settings at the correct page. Turn on LivePointer in that page.

5. Pair the iPhone with the Mac

Pair once. The iPhone remembers the Mac.

Open LivePointer on the iPhone. The Nearby Macs screen shows the Macs on the network.
Tap your Mac.
The iPhone shows a safety code. The Mac shows the same code in its pairing window. Make sure that the two codes are the same.
Tap Pair.

Alternative: scan the code

On the Mac, click the menu bar icon. Click Show Pairing Code…
On the iPhone, tap Scan code. Point the camera at the Mac’s screen.

Alternative: type the name

On the iPhone, tap Enter name.
Type the Mac’s network name, for example macbook.local.

When the iPhone does not find the Mac, tap Allow Local Network access, then Open Settings. Turn on Local Network for LivePointer.

6. Point

Hold the iPhone sideways. The preview of the Mac’s display fills the screen.
Touch the preview at the spot that you want to show. The pointer appears at the same spot on the Mac’s display.
Move your finger. The pointer follows.
Lift your finger. The pointer disappears.

The pointer has three styles:

Dot. A dot in the colour that you choose.
Spotlight. The display becomes dark, except for a circle around your finger.
Ink. A line that follows your finger. When you draw a rough circle, oval or straight line, it becomes neat when you lift your finger. The ink disappears after the time that you set in Settings (Ink stays, 1 to 10 seconds).

To change the style:

Tap the ⋯ button at the top left. The style bar opens.
Tap Dot, Spotlight or Ink.
Tap the ⋯ button again. The style bar closes.

To change the size while you point, put two fingers on the preview. Move the fingers apart to make the pointer larger. Move the fingers together to make it smaller.

7. Change slides

Start the show in PowerPoint or Keynote on the Mac, as usual. Then use one of these controls.

Control	Next slide	Previous slide
On the screen	Tap Next on the right	Tap Back on the left
Volume buttons, while the app is open	Volume down	Volume up
Action Button	Press it	—
Back Tap	Tap the back of the iPhone two times	Tap it three times
Shortcuts	The Next Slide action	The Previous Slide action

The Action Button and Back Tap also work when the iPhone is locked. Set them up one time in the iPhone’s Settings app: Settings › Action Button, or Settings › Accessibility › Touch › Back Tap. Choose the LivePointer shortcut.

To start or stop the show from the iPhone, tap Start show or End show in the style bar. End show asks for a second tap.

On a Mac with two displays, Start show from the iPhone works when PowerPoint is the front app on the Mac. When it is not, the iPhone shows a message. Click PowerPoint on the Mac, then tap Start show again.

8. Jump to a slide

Move three fingers up on the preview. The slide strip opens at the bottom. The strip shows a thumbnail of each slide.
Tap a thumbnail. The iPhone shows it large, with a Show button.
Tap Show, or tap the thumbnail a second time. The Mac shows that slide.

You can also tap the Slides tab at the bottom of the screen to open the strip. To close the strip, touch the slide.

When the thumbnails are off, type a slide number in the Slide # field and tap Go.

9. Gestures

Gesture	Result
One finger	Point
Two fingers, apart or together	Change the pointer size
Three fingers, up	Open the slide strip
Three fingers, down	Open the style bar
Tap ⋯	Open or close the style bar and the strip

10. Settings

Tap ⋯, then Settings.

Appearance. Dark, Light, or Auto to follow the iPhone.
Show the pointer on. The display that shows the pointer, when the Mac has more than one.
Slide thumbnails. Off (the Mac does not read the deck), Tap to show, or Always on.
Size. The size of the dot, the spotlight and the ink line, and how long the ink stays.
Colour. The colour of the dot and the ink.
Neat shapes. On: rough circles, ovals and lines become neat. Off: the ink stays as you draw it.

11. Demo mode

You can try the controller without a Mac. On the Nearby Macs screen, tap Try a demo. The demo shows a sample slide. All the controls work. Nothing is sent over the network.

12. Problems

Problem	Cause	Action
No Mac in the list	Local Network access is off, or the devices are on different networks	Turn on Local Network for LivePointer. Put both devices on the same Wi-Fi, or use the iPhone’s hotspot.
“Can’t reach” with Choose another Mac	The Mac was renamed, or it is off	Tap Choose another Mac. Pair again.
Certificate changed	LivePointer on the Mac was reset or reinstalled	Make sure that the safety codes are the same. Then pair again.
Preview is off on the Mac	Screen Recording is off, or the preview is not sent	Enable Screen Preview on the Mac. Make sure that Send Screen Preview to iPhone has a tick.
Slide keys not enabled on the Mac	Accessibility is off	Enable Slide Keys on the Mac.
Slide thumbnails need Full Disk Access	Full Disk Access is off	Enable Slide Thumbnails on the Mac. Open the deck again.
The pointer is in the wrong place	The pointer is on a different display	In Settings, choose the display under Show the pointer on.

To start again from zero, click the menu bar icon on the Mac and click Reset Pairing…. Then pair the iPhone again.

13. Privacy

LivePointer has no account, no analytics and no tracking. The iPhone and the Mac talk directly, with encryption. The camera is used only to scan the pairing code. Read the privacy policy.

Need help? Write to jiahao.eric.yang@gmail.com.