Keyboard Shortcuts & the Trigger Key

Sidekick Pro is built to run hands-on-keyboard, so you can keep your eyes on the room instead of the mouse.

Trigger Key

The Spacebar is your default trigger key — it fires the main action of whatever feature is playing:

• Boxes, Pick Me, Photo Fury — Spin, then Stop, then Clear
• Wheel of Destiny — Spin, then Clear
• Trivia — Reveal the answer
• Survey Says — Reveal all answers
• Pixelate — Full reveal (“Show it!”)
• Slides and Songs — Advance to the next slide

Adding a Buzzer Key

Using physical buzzer hardware? Many buzzers (like Affordable Buzzers) send a letter key such as “X” instead of Spacebar. Go to Preferences → Controls and set an Additional Trigger Key — any letter, digit, or F1–F12. It fires the same action as Spacebar. If you pick a key a game already uses (like digits 1–8 in Survey Says or letters A–E in Trivia), you’ll see a warning — the trigger takes priority, so choose a different key for those games.

Trigger presses are smoothed out so a rapid-fire buzzer registers as one clean action instead of several.

Play-mode Shortcuts

These work while a feature is playing:

• Left / Right arrows — Previous / next question, slide, or timer. Presentation clickers (Page Up/Page Down) work, too.
• Cmd + Left / Right — Previous / next item in a running presentation.
• Up / Down arrows — In Pixelate, reveal more / re-obscure the image.
• 1–8 — Reveal individual Survey Says answers.
• A–E — Select Trivia answers (correct reveals, wrong eliminates).
• F5 — Show or hide the title graphic on the display.
• Esc — Exit play mode or dismiss a dialog.

Editing Shortcuts

• Cmd+Z / Cmd+Shift+Z — Undo / redo.
• Cmd+Plus / Cmd+Minus / Cmd+0 — Zoom thumbnails in and out, and reset.
• Cmd+Shift+I — Import a .sidekick file.
• Cmd+Shift+D — Open a new presentation display window.
• Cmd+Shift+S — Cycle the sidebar preview between Audience, Stage, and Both (when Stage Display is on).

Keep in Mind:

If typing ever stops working in a text field mid-show, press Cmd+Shift+Option+T. It resets the keyboard shortcut system instantly — no restart needed.