text tool
Presentation timer
Set the length of your talk and when you want warnings, press Start, and the countdown fills the screen in green, turns amber at each warning and red at the last one, then counts up in dark red once time runs out. Space starts and pauses, R resets and F goes full screen, so it can sit on a laptop beside you or on a second screen facing the stage.
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- Runs on your device, nothing is uploaded
- Free, no sign in
- No watermark, no file limit
How it works
- 1
Set the length
Type minutes and seconds, or tap 5, 10, 15 or 20 minutes.
- 2
Set the warnings
Type the minutes left at which you want a warning, separated by commas. The default is 5, 2 and 1.
- 3
Start and go full screen
Press Start, then Full screen. Click the timer box first if you want to use the keys: Space, R and F.
- 4
Watch the colour
Green means on time, amber means a warning has passed, red means the last warning. Past zero the clock counts up.
Colour you can read from across the room
A speaker glances at a timer for a fraction of a second, and in that glance a colour is easier to take in than digits. So the whole box changes, not only the number: green while there is plenty of time, amber once the first warning passes, red at the final warning, and a darker red with a plus sign once you are over. Chairs and timekeepers at conferences have used the same green, amber and red cards for years, which means the colours carry meaning without any explanation, even to a session chair sitting in the front row.
Choosing warning points
Two or three warnings are enough. For a 10 minute slot, 5, 2 and 1 minutes left tells you when to move from the middle to the conclusion and when to start wrapping up. For a 20 minute talk with questions, warn at 10 for the start of questions, then 5 and 1. For a lightning talk of five minutes, one warning at 1 minute is plenty, because more would only distract. Warnings can be any number of minutes, including fractions such as 0.5 for thirty seconds, and the next one is shown under the clock.
Why the clock stays right
Browsers slow down timers in tabs you are not looking at, to save battery; MDN's documentation of the Page Visibility API describes the throttling. A countdown that subtracted one second per tick would drift, sometimes badly. This timer records the moment it should end and recalculates the time left from the system clock on every refresh, so switching to your slides and back shows the correct figure immediately. On phones and laptops that support the Screen Wake Lock API, the page also asks the screen not to dim while the timer is running.
Using it beside a slide deck
The usual set up is the slides on the projector and this timer full screen on a second display, a tablet or a phone propped on the lectern. Present mode in the presentation builder goes full screen with F and opens speaker notes with N, and can pop the notes out into their own window for the second screen, but it shows no countdown for the talk itself; elapsed time appears only while a recording is running. Keep this page open in a separate window next to the notes and you have both in view.
Limits worth knowing
A phone that locks stops showing the timer, and some browsers refuse full screen on a phone; the timer keeps counting either way. The tone is prepared when you press Start, so tick it before starting. Settings are not kept between visits: nothing is uploaded and nothing is stored, ever.
Limits
- It runs in the tab. If the tab sleeps on a phone the display may pause, but the time is worked out from the clock, so it is right again the moment the tab wakes.
- A locked phone shows nothing and plays no tone, so keep the screen on. Where the browser allows it, the page asks the screen to stay awake while the timer runs.
- The longest timer is 24 hours. A warning at or beyond the talk length is ignored and named in a note.
What it does not do
- It does not advance your slides or connect to presentation software.
- It does not keep a log of past talks or remember your settings.
- It does not vibrate a phone or send a notification.
Questions people ask
Can a session chair hold up the timer for the speaker?
Yes. Run it full screen on a tablet or a phone with the brightness up, and the colour is visible from the stage several metres away even when the digits are not. Set the warnings to match the cards the event uses, often 5 minutes and 1 minute, and the speaker will recognise the amber and red at a glance.
Does the timer keep going if I switch to my slides?
Yes. Switching tabs or windows does not stop it. The time left is calculated from the system clock rather than counted tick by tick, so when you come back the figure is correct even if the browser slowed the page down while it was hidden. Warnings that passed while you were away show as soon as the page is visible again.
Can I pause the timer for questions?
Yes. Press Space, click Pause, or tap the box while it is full screen, and the countdown stops exactly where it is. Resume carries on from the same figure. To time questions separately, press R to reset, change the length to the question slot, and start again; the warnings can stay the same.
How long should a conference talk be?
As long as the slot, minus questions. Many conferences give 15 or 20 minutes including discussion, which leaves 12 to 15 minutes of speaking, and lightning talks are commonly five. Rehearse with this timer at the speaking length, not the slot length, and note where you are at each warning so you know which slide should be on screen when amber appears.
Why is there no sound by default?
A tone that the audience can hear is more distracting than a colour change that only the speaker sees. Tick Play a short tone at each warning if you are rehearsing alone or the screen will be out of sight. Browsers only play sound that a click, tap or key press unlocked, so tick the box before pressing Start.
Build the deck you will be timing
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Background reading: the question page on this.
Written and checked by the OneCraft team. Last checked .