Works with
Last updated 24 September 2026
TellyPrompter runs in your browser, and on the stage it listens for a small set of keys. Anything that types those keys drives it: a keyboard, a Bluetooth foot pedal, a page-turner, a shutter remote. There is no pairing with the app and nothing to install — the device pairs with your phone, tablet or computer as a keyboard, and the stage does the rest. This page lists the keys, then what each device family sends, then how to put the stage on an Elgato Prompter.
On the stage
These work whenever the stage is up and you are not typing in a text box. Escape closes whatever is open, as it does everywhere else. The stage has two key layouts, chosen under Settings → Remote layout on the stage. This first table is the pedal or shutter remote layout, the default: it is what a foot pedal, a page-turner or a shutter remote sends. The presentation remote layout, further down, re-reads the same five keys a slide clicker has.
| Action | Keys | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Start or stop the take | Space Enter | The same press as the Start take control. If the camera is on, it starts recording with the read and stops with it. |
| Back a paragraph | Up arrow Left arrow Page Up | Moves the reading line to the start of the previous paragraph — or one line or one section back, if you change the Remote step setting. Works between takes, to set where you will start, and during one. At the top of the script the stage says so. |
| Forward a paragraph | Down arrow Right arrow Page Down | Moves the reading line to the start of the next paragraph, or by the Remote step you chose. |
| Hold, then continue | H | Freezes prompting while the camera keeps recording. Press again to continue. Works in every scrolling mode while a read is running; in the steady-pace and sound modes the script stops where it is and continues from there. |
| Marker | M | Saves a review point at this moment in the take without interrupting it. The stage confirms which marker it was and at what time. |
| Top of the script | Home | Puts the reading line on the first word, the same as the Restart control on the stage. During a take it is recorded as a rewind, so the take report knows you went again. |
| Repeat sentence | R | While prompting with Voice following and the camera off, goes back to the start of the sentence you were reading, counts you in and follows you again. If the stage is not sure which sentence you are in, it says so rather than guessing: tap the word you are on, or resume the section. |
| Resume section | P | While prompting with Voice following and the camera off, goes back to the start of the paragraph you are in, counts you in and carries on from there. |
Keys pressed with Ctrl, Alt or Cmd held are left to the browser. Holding an arrow key repeats it, so a held pedal pages through the script. Holding Enter, Space or H does not repeat: one press is one start, stop or hold, however long the key is down.
Two settings for remotes
Remote layout (Settings → Remote layout) picks which of the two tables the stage reads keys by: Pedal or shutter remote, the default, or Presentation remote. Remote step (Settings → Remote step) sets how far Back and Forward move in either layout: a line as it is laid out on your screen, a paragraph, or an authored section. A script with no sections moves by paragraph. Both are remembered with your other settings.
Presentation remote
A presentation clicker — the kind sold for slides — in its keyboard mode typically sends the four arrows and Enter and nothing more. It has no letter keys, so Hold by H, Marker and the two prompt keys are out of its reach, and its Home button is the device's own Home button, which leaves the app rather than sending the Home key — so Top is keyboard-only too. Five keys have to cover starting and pausing, moving and pace, which is what this layout does with them. It is a layout, not a list of supported models: any clicker that types those five keys reads this way. Pair it with the device you prompt from as a keyboard, then choose Presentation remote under Settings → Remote layout.
| Action | Keys | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Start, then hold and continue | Space Enter | The centre button. With nothing running it starts the read, the same press as the Start take control. While the read is running it holds it, with the camera still recording; while held it continues. It never stops a camera take: Stop stays on the screen and on “Telly, stop”, so a press by feel mid-read can never end the take and write a file. During a count-in it waits, and says so. |
| Back | Up arrow Page Up | Moves the reading line back by the Remote step setting — a line, a paragraph or a section. Works between takes and during one, and while held. At the top of the script the stage says so. |
| Forward | Down arrow Page Down | Moves the reading line forward by the Remote step setting. At the end of the script the stage says so. |
| Slower | Left arrow | Slows the steady pace by 0.5 words a second, a tenth of the Pace slider's range, and the stage confirms the new pace. Does nothing in Follows your voice mode, where the pace is yours; the stage says so. |
| Faster | Right arrow | Speeds the steady pace up by 0.5 words a second, to the slider's limit. Does nothing in Follows your voice mode. |
| Hold, then continue | H | As in the pedal layout: freezes prompting while the camera keeps recording, and continues on the next press. A keyboard key; the centre button reaches the same hold. |
| Marker | M | Saves a review point at this moment in the take. Keyboard only. |
| Top of the script | Home | Puts the reading line on the first word. Keyboard only: a clicker's Home button is the device's, not this key. |
| Repeat sentence | R | As in the pedal layout. Keyboard only. |
| Resume section | P | As in the pedal layout. Keyboard only. |
Satechi R2
Satechi's R2 (ST-BTMR2M) pairs as a Bluetooth keyboard and has two modes, chosen on a switch on the remote. In the mode marked P it sends the keys in the table below, so under the presentation layout it reaches start, hold and continue, a step back or forward and the pace.
| R2 button | Sends | On the stage |
|---|---|---|
| Centre | Enter | Start the take; hold, then continue |
| Up, Down | Up arrow, Down arrow | Back a step, forward a step |
| Left, Right | Left arrow, Right arrow | Pace down, pace up |
| Home | The iPad's Home action, not a key | Puts Safari in the background |
| Mute | A mouse click | Presses whatever is under the pointer |
| Keyboard | A right-click | Presses nothing, but brings faded controls back over the script |
| Mic | Pointer on or off | Nothing |
AirTurn pedals
AirTurn's PED, PEDpro, DUO 500 and BT500-series pedals pair as a Bluetooth keyboard and have six modes, chosen on the pedal itself. Three of them send keys the stage listens for. AirTurn's own guidance is Mode 2 for iPhone, iPad and Android and Mode 3 for Mac and PC, and its FAQ says any app that responds to computer keyboard keys will work — which is what this page is here to confirm.
| AirTurn mode | Left pedal | Right pedal | On the stage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mode 2, the default for iPhone, iPad and Android | Up arrow | Down arrow | Back a paragraph, forward a paragraph |
| Mode 3, for Mac and PC | Page Up | Page Down | Back a paragraph, forward a paragraph |
| Mode 5 | Space | Enter | Start or stop the take, either pedal |
Mode 1 (AirDirect), Mode 4 (media keys) and Mode 6 (mouse clicks) do not send keys the stage listens for. A four-pedal model in Mode 2 or 3 sends both pairs, so it reaches back and forward on one pair and can be set up for start and stop on the other. Mode selection and the per-mode key list are in AirTurn's user manual for your model, linked from AirTurn's support pages; the platform guidance is in its FAQ.
Ikan Elite Remote
Ikan's Elite Remote is a nine-button Bluetooth remote — four speed buttons, two cue buttons, pause/play, a keyboard show/hide button and a mirror-flip button — and it presents as a keyboard: Ikan's documentation says it types characters into whatever is in front of it. Which character each button types is not in Ikan's public documentation, so this page does not claim a mapping for it yet; we have asked Ikan, and this section will carry the answer when it arrives.
To check your own remote, pair it with the device you prompt from, put the cursor in the script box on Compose, and press each button once. A button that types nothing visible is likely sending an arrow or a Page key; press it on the stage and watch whether the reading line moves. A button that types the letter H or M reaches hold or marker.
Bluetooth page-turners and shutter remotes
Page-turners sold for sheet music and reading send one of two pairs — Up arrow and Down arrow, or Page Up and Page Down — and both pairs move the script a paragraph at a time, so it does not matter which one yours sends. A shutter remote that sends Enter or Space starts and stops the take. One that works by pressing the phone's volume button does not send a key the page can see, and will not.
Elgato Prompter in Display Mode
Elgato Prompter has a screen under its glass, and in Display Mode that screen is a second monitor for your computer — over DisplayLink rather than HDMI, so it does not count against a laptop's external display limit. Switch Prompter to Display mode in Elgato's Camera Hub (Elgato Studio on newer versions), install the DisplayLink driver it asks for, and set the display to extend your desktop rather than duplicate it. Then open TellyPrompter in a browser window, drag the window onto Prompter's display, and start the take: the stage runs on the glass with no plug-in and nothing to enable on our side. If the words read upside down through the glass, flip them once — Camera Hub has an orientation setting for Prompter's display, and TellyPrompter has Mirror mode under Settings → The basics on the stage, which flips the screen top to bottom for teleprompter glass. Use one or the other, not both. Keys from any keyboard or pedal paired to the computer reach the stage as usual, wherever the window is. On a Mac, turning on “Displays have separate spaces” in Mission Control lets the browser go full screen on Prompter without blanking the other display. Elgato's own steps are in Elgato Prompter — Display Mode and its FAQ.
Something else?
If a pedal or remote you own sends a key that is not in the table, or a device you expected to work does not, tell us which one. The key map is small on purpose, and it grows from real rigs.