Present HTML slides with a real presenter view.
Lectern puts your HTML slide deck fullscreen on the projector. On your Mac you see the current slide, the next one, your speaker notes and a clock, as in PowerPoint or Keynote.
Next
Start with the survey.
- 412 replies in two weeks
- Pause after the second point
- Ask for questions here
Sample deck
Everything you need at the front of the room.
The audience sees the slides. You see what's coming, what to say and how long you've been talking.
Presenter view
The current slide, the next slide, your speaker notes, a clock and an optional timer, with a ribbon of thumbnails to jump anywhere. Drag the dividers to give the notes more room.
Clickers and keys
Your clicker works. So do the keys you know from PowerPoint and Keynote: arrows, Page Up and Down, B or W for a black or white screen, a number and Return to jump.
Rehearse on one screen
No projector? The audience view opens as a small window over the presenter view, so you can practise anywhere. Swap Displays and Hide Audience Window are a shortcut away.
Edit notes as you go
In Presenter Deck decks, click into the notes and type, even during the show. Bold, italic, underline and bullets. Lectern saves them into the deck's HTML file and changes only that slide's notes.
Fix a typo on the slide
Double-click a heading or a line of text on the current slide, fix it, press Return. The change is saved into the deck and shows on the projector straight away. Hold ⌥ to see what's editable.
Ask Claude
For bigger changes, ask Claude to rework the current slide or add slides after it. It runs Claude Code on your Mac, with your own Claude subscription. Then choose Keep or Undo. In the direct download.
How it works
Lectern presents decks that are a single HTML file. It works best with decks that follow the Presenter Deck spec, which comes with the app as a Claude skill.
Give Claude the skill
Lectern › Claude Skill installs the Presenter Deck skill in Claude Code, saves it for Claude.ai, or copies it as a prompt for any other assistant.
Ask for a deck
Claude writes the slides and your speaker notes into one HTML file that Lectern presents exactly. reveal.js and other HTML decks play too, without the editing.
Open it and present
Connect the projector, TV or AirPlay display and open the deck. The slides go fullscreen on the external display; the presenter view stays on your Mac.
When Claude changes a slide
Ask Claude works on one slide at a time, on a copy. Lectern checks the result before it touches your deck. Ask Claude is in the direct download.
- Claude works on a copy of one slide, without your notes
- Your notes come back word for word
- Lectern checks that every other slide is unchanged
- A backup of the deck before every change
- Keep the change, or Undo it
- Your Claude subscription, never an API key
Private by design
There is no Lectern account and no Lectern server. Your decks and notes stay on your Mac.
- No accounts, no sign-in
- No analytics, tracking or ads
- Decks and notes stay on your Mac
- Backups are kept on your Mac, too
- Ask Claude sends nothing until you use it
- Lectern itself only checks for updates
Requirements
- macOS 14 Sonoma or later, on a Mac with Apple silicon
- A second display for the show: a projector, a TV or an AirPlay display. One screen is enough to rehearse.
- A deck in one HTML file: Presenter Deck decks, reveal.js decks or other HTML slide decks
- For Ask Claude: the direct download, and Claude Code installed on your Mac and signed in with your Claude subscription
Questions? See Support & FAQ.
Direct download, with Ask Claude
Apps from the Mac App Store run in Apple's sandbox, which doesn't let them start Claude Code. So Ask Claude is only in the version you download here. It is signed and notarized by Apple, checks for updates once a day and asks before installing one.
