Getting started
Requirements. An Apple Silicon Mac running macOS 14 (Sonoma) or later, and a microphone for voice following (the built-in mic works fine; any USB mic or audio interface works better). On first Follow, macOS asks for microphone and speech recognition permission; both are used only to track your place in the script, on-device.
The idea. PowerCue is a teleprompter with the operator built in. You write or import a script, style the prompter, and then either speak (Follow mode listens and scrolls with you) or let it roll on a timer (Play mode). The spoken words light up karaoke-style, an on-screen timer keeps you honest, and the whole prompter can flip for beam-splitter glass.
Take the tour. On first launch PowerCue offers a one-minute guided tour: coach marks that point at the real controls, from the script editor to voice following to mirror output. Skip it any time, and replay it whenever you like from Help → Take the Tour. The rest of this manual is the long version.
The layout. The main window has two modes, switched at the top: Edit shows the script editor on the left and a live prompter preview on the right (the divider between them drags). Prompter fills the window with the prompter itself. The Open Prompter Window button in the toolbar detaches a separate prompter window you can move to any display; it opens automatically on first launch so you can see both sides at once.
Everything stays in sync. The editor preview, the main window's prompter mode and the detached window are the same prompter: scroll any of them and the others follow, start following or playing anywhere and every surface moves in lock-step.
Settings (⌘,) holds the app-level choices: the microphone voice following listens to, automatic update checks, and your license. Everything about how the prompter looks lives inline under the preview, where you can watch it change.
Projects & autosave
PowerCue autosaves your script from the first word, even before you save a project file. To keep scripts organized:
- File → New Project (⌘N) starts a fresh script.
- File → Save (⌘S) and Save As… (⇧⌘S) write a project file wherever you choose. Once saved, the project autosaves to that file from then on.
- File → Open Project… (⌘O) and Open Recent bring scripts back; the recents list keeps your latest projects one click away.
- File → Revert to Version… lists automatic snapshots of the current project, taken as you work. Restoring one is itself preceded by a snapshot, so you can always come back.
Two copies of the same script. If another app or another Mac (a shared or synced folder) changes a script while PowerCue has it open, PowerCue never writes over those changes. Your version goes into a copy beside it, named like "Show (PowerCue copy 2026-09-26 11.04)", PowerCue carries on in the copy, and a note says so. If a save fails (the folder went offline, the disk is full), PowerCue keeps your changes in Revert to Version, tries again every few seconds, and asks before you quit or open another project while the file is still behind.
Writing & formatting
The editor is a real dark-mode word processor built for scripts:
- Styling: bold ⌘B, italic ⌘I, underline ⌘U, strikethrough, and the full macOS font panel via the Aa button (⌘T).
- Color: the color well in the formatting bar colors the selected words; the eraser next to it returns them to the default. Word colors show on the prompter too.
- Highlighter: the highlighter button next to the eraser puts a color block behind the selected words (yellow, green, cyan, pink, orange, purple or red) with dark text on it; Remove Highlight takes it off. Blocks hug their words, show on the prompter and the companion, and stay readable after you have read past them (the block dims, the text stays dark).
- Alignment: left, center, right and justified, per paragraph.
- Zoom: ⌘− and ⌘= scale the page like a photo, without reflowing a single line, so the prompter and your sense of the script never change. The 100% button resets.
- Find: ⌘F searches the view you are in; the editor and the prompter each have their own search field.
- Paste: pasted text takes the styling of the text around the cursor, never the fonts and colors of wherever it came from, so a paragraph from a web page or a document lands in the look of your script. It never picks up a screen direction or a highlight from the words beside it: only its own [square brackets] become directions. Replacing everything (⌘A, then ⌘V) starts from the plain look of a new script.
- Edit while prompting: the script stays editable while the prompter runs. Corrections re-sync the voice tracking automatically.
Screen directions
Camera notes, b-roll cues, wardrobe reminders: anything the reader should not read out loud. Select the text and press ⌘D (or the eye button in the formatting bar). The text turns teal in the editor and is treated specially everywhere else:
- Hidden from the prompter by default, so the read stays clean. The flag and eye buttons under the prompter can show directions and markers on the prompter when you want them.
- Ignored by voice following, so a direction never confuses your place in the script.
- Exported to Word with the script, so the production copy keeps its notes.
Press ⌘D on a direction again to turn it back into spoken script.
Jump markers
Markers are numbered flags you drop through the script to move around it fast, mid-take.
- Insert one at the cursor with the flag button or ⌘M. Markers number themselves 1, 2, 3… and renumber automatically as you add or remove them.
- The margin badges show each marker's number beside its paragraph in the editor. Click a badge to jump the prompter straight there. Drag a badge, in the margin or in the text, to move the marker: the caret shows where it will land, Escape cancels.
- Name a marker by double-clicking its badge (or a row in the markers panel, or right-click the row). The name shows in the panel and when you hover the badge; the badge in the text keeps just the number so the words around it stay put. Names are saved with the script.
- The markers panel (sidebar button at the left of the top bar) lists every marker with its name and a snippet of the text that follows it; click an entry to jump both the editor and the prompter. The row whose section the prompter is showing is highlighted, so you always know where the reader is. Drag the panel's right edge to make it wider or narrower.
- Rearrange the script from the panel: drag a row up or down and its whole section moves with it, the marker and everything up to the next marker (right-click, Move Up or Move Down does the same one step at a time). One undo step puts it back.
- Under the prompter, previous and next buttons step through markers, and the number box jumps to any marker by typing its number.
- Markers are hidden on the prompter by default (toggle with the flag button in the prompter bar) and are never exported to Word: they are navigation, not script.
The prompter
Three surfaces, one prompter:
- The preview in Edit mode, beside the editor; show or hide it with the panel button at the right of the top bar. Drag the divider to give it more or less room. It carries a full set of prompter controls underneath.
- Prompter mode fills the main window, for a single-screen setup.
- The detached prompter window (toolbar button) goes on any display. While it is open, the preview and Prompter mode become live mirrors of it, controls and all.
Scrolling is always manual too. Scroll, drag or swipe any surface at any time, even mid-follow: every other surface moves with it, and Play pauses while you drag. The Back to Top button returns the script to the beginning.
Text settings (under the prompter) set the font, the size, the column width or a target of words per line, brightness and color. Paragraph gap has a switch: off, the prompter keeps the script's own spacing and blank lines; on, the slider alone decides the space between paragraphs, from none at all (blank lines and the lines screen directions sit on collapse) to two lines' worth. The companion matches it.
The settings under the prompter are grouped in cards: Text, Marker, Karaoke, Follow, Timer, Video Feed and Framing Guides. Click a card's title to open or fold it. They all start folded, so the one you want is easy to find; Option-click any title to open or fold them all at once.
Put the cards in your order. Drag a card by the grip at the left of its title to move it, for example Video Feed to the top, or right-click the title for Move to Top, Move Up, Move Down and Move to Bottom. Reset Card Order, at the bottom of the panel or in the same menu, brings back the original order.
Voice following
Press Follow (the mic button under any prompter surface) and start reading. PowerCue listens through the selected microphone, matches your words against the script, and scrolls so the line you are speaking sits at the position marker.
- Choose the mic from the menu beside the Follow button: built-in, USB, or any input macOS sees. The choice is remembered. On an audio interface, also pick the input the microphone is plugged into, under Input Channel in the same menu.
- See that it hears you. While following through a Mac microphone, a band sweeps across the Follow button with your voice's level. If it stays still while you speak, the mic menu points at the wrong microphone, or at the wrong Input Channel on an audio interface. With the iPhone or iPad as the microphone, the band does not show.
- Pause and it waits. The script holds still through thinking pauses, sips of coffee, and retakes of the same line.
- Ad-lib freely. Off-script words do not drag the scroll. When you return to the script, PowerCue re-anchors to the text at the marker and follows again.
- Skip around. Jump to a marker or scroll anywhere mid-session; following re-anchors to the words at the marker and picks you up from there.
- Stumble and start again. Re-read a line or paragraph you already read and the prompter jumps back to it, once you are a few words in. Prompter settings, Follow, "Jump back when I re-read a line" turns this off if you would rather it only ever moved forward.
- Language of the script: the globe menu next to Find, under the prompter
(also Settings, ⌘,, Follow tab). Pick the language you read in; changing it while following
switches the microphone over at once. When the script is written in a different language
than the one PowerCue listens for, a note on the globe menu offers to switch (Keep leaves it
and does not ask again for that script). Only languages this Mac can recognize on-device are
offered, and the iPhone
microphone listens in the same one. On macOS 26 and later the list has 54 languages and
regions. About thirty (English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese,
Korean, Chinese) run on Apple's live-speech engine; the rest (Dutch, Danish, Swedish,
Norwegian, Finnish, Polish, Russian, Turkish, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi and more) are marked
beta: they use Apple's on-device dictation engine, which is just as private
but was not built for long live reading, so following may be less precise. The first use of a
language downloads its model from Apple once. On macOS 14 and 15 a language appears only
after you turn on Dictation for it in System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation, which installs
Apple's on-device model.
Main engine Regions English United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Singapore, South Africa German Germany, Austria, Switzerland French France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland Spanish Spain, Mexico, United States, Chile Italian Italy, Switzerland Portuguese Brazil, Portugal Chinese China mainland, Hong Kong, Taiwan Cantonese China mainland Japanese Japan Korean South Korea Beta, one region each unless noted: Arabic, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch (Netherlands and Belgium), Finnish, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Malay, Norwegian Bokmål, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.
- Which microphone is listening shows in the status line under the prompter preview while following, so a wrong pick (the phone instead of the desk mic) is obvious.
- Karaoke follows your voice: spoken words light up as you say them, on the prompter and in the editor both, so anyone watching the edit window sees exactly where you are.
Play mode
Prefer a classic scroll, or recording without speaking? Press Play (or the Space bar) and the script rolls on its own:
- Speed is set in seconds per line, from a leisurely 5 down to 0.1. The slider lives with the play controls under every prompter surface.
- Or give it a run time (see Run time & estimates) and Play paces the whole script to finish exactly on time, ignoring the speed slider.
- The karaoke highlight tracks the marker during Play, lighting the word at the indicator so your eye always has an anchor.
- Space starts and stops from anywhere; grabbing and scrolling any surface pauses the roll while you reposition.
Karaoke highlight
The karaoke settings (highlight button under the prompter) control how spoken text lights up. The highlight and the fade are independent: use either, both, or neither.
- Highlight as I speak marks the word you are on, as colored text or as a pill around the word, each with its own colors. It starts off: switch it on in the karaoke settings.
- Timing sets where the highlight sits relative to your voice while following: Behind marks the last word the recognizer heard, In line (the default) and Ahead lead it so the highlight sits on the word you are saying, and glide between results at your reading pace. When you pause, the highlight settles on the last word you said, so you never lose your place.
- Fade the text I have read dims words after you have said them, as much as the slider says; full-line fading dims whole lines once they pass the marker, for readers who prefer a calmer prompter.
The position marker
The marker shows where your current line sits. In the marker settings (under the prompter):
- Style: a horizontal line across the prompter, an arrow at the edge, or both. The arrow sits flush against the left or the right edge, your choice, and goes from tiny to very large for a screen read from across the room.
- Color and size to taste, bright enough to find without stealing focus.
- Position: place it high, centered, or low, with the slider or by dragging the arrow itself up and down on any surface. Voice following and Play keep the current line exactly there.
Display, mirror & rigs
Text settings (Aa under the prompter) control the reading experience: font family (curated list or the full font panel), size, text and background brightness, column width, and a words per line setting that caps how many words each line carries, the way broadcast prompters do.
Beam-splitter rigs. The flip buttons under the preview flip the detached prompter window horizontally, vertically, or both. The entire window flips, controls included, so it reads correctly through mirror glass, while the editor preview stays unflipped for the operator. Drag the window to the display feeding your rig and take it fullscreen.
Second displays. The prompter window is a normal Mac window: a second monitor, a projector, or an iPad via Sidecar all work. Scrolling stays lock-step everywhere. The display menu under the preview (the screens icon) moves the window onto any display in one click.
Small prompter monitors. The prompter window goes down to 360 by 240 points, so it fits a dedicated prompter screen such as Elgato's 1024 by 600 display, and its controls wrap onto more rows as the window narrows. The chevron in the window's bottom right corner hides the controls altogether, so the whole screen is text; the main window keeps a full set. Both are remembered.
Video feed (beta)
Show a live camera behind the prompter text, so you can see your framing, a guest, or a program feed while you read. It is off until you turn it on, nothing is recorded, and nothing leaves your Mac.
- Turn it on with the two camera buttons under any prompter: the solid camera shows the feed in the prompter preview, the outlined camera shows it in the prompter window. The link button next to them makes one click switch both. The same switches are in the prompter settings, Video Feed.
- Any camera macOS sees works: the built-in camera, USB webcams, capture cards, Continuity Camera, and virtual cameras such as Ecamm Live or OBS (start the virtual camera first). Pick it under Camera in the Video Feed card, or from the small arrow beside the camera buttons, which lists every camera for a quick switch.
- Permission: macOS asks for camera access the first time you turn the feed on. If a camera cannot be started (another app holds it and does not share it, or it is unplugged), the Video Feed card says so and offers Try Again; an unplugged camera comes back on its own when you reconnect it.
- It reconnects by itself. If the picture stops, for example because you switched the camera to a new resolution or frame rate, PowerCue keeps checking and brings the feed back with the new settings. No restart needed.
- Video brightness dims the picture toward black so the text stays the brightest thing on screen. Mirror flips the picture; Fill crops it to the prompter's shape, or turn it off to see the whole frame.
- Text drop shadow keeps words readable over a moving picture, with sliders for its size and strength.
- Color LUT: Import a .cube file (the format cameras and grading apps export) to see log footage such as S-Log3, C-Log or V-Log in normal color behind the prompter. Imported LUTs stay in the list; the trash button removes one from PowerCue and leaves your file alone. LUT strength blends between the camera's own picture and the full look. Only PowerCue's view changes, never what the camera records.
- Framing guides (their own card) draw over the camera picture: rule of thirds, golden ratio, a center mark and the safe area (the inner 90% of the frame). Crop frame shades what a 9:16 vertical, 4:5 portrait or 1:1 square cut of the shot keeps, so you can frame for social at the same time. Guide opacity and color set how strongly they show.
- The camera runs only while a prompter that shows the feed is on screen, and it switches off while PowerCue is hidden. The companion app does not show the feed.
iPhone & iPad companion
PowerCue Companion is a free app that turns an iPhone or iPad on the same Wi-Fi network into a wireless prompter screen, in lock-step with the Mac: the same line breaks, styling, karaoke highlight, and on-screen timer, word for word. Mount the device at the lens, in a beam-splitter rig, or prop it next to the camera.
Free · iPhone and iPad · iOS 16 or later
Setting up.
- On the Mac, open PowerCue's Settings (⌘,), Companion tab, and turn on Serve the prompter to companion devices. The panel says "Waiting for devices" until one connects.
- Install PowerCue Companion from the App Store and open it on a device on the same Wi-Fi network as the Mac. It looks for Macs running PowerCue and connects automatically when it finds one; with several Macs, tap the one you want.
- Your script appears on the device, with the marker and timer. Every scroll, style change, jump, and karaoke highlight on the Mac shows up on the device the moment it happens.
On the device. Tap the screen to show the controls. The top row runs the prompter: Follow on and off, Play and pause, Back to Top, and previous and next marker; the bottom row shows the name of the connected Mac, horizontal and vertical flip toggles for mirror glass, and an X to leave the session. Scroll the script with a finger and the Mac follows: the position moves on every surface, and voice following picks up again from where you stopped. Pinch to resize the text; the line breaks never change, so you and the Mac always read the same lines. Rotate freely: portrait and landscape both keep the exact wrap. The screen stays awake for as long as it is the prompter.
The phone as your microphone. In the microphone menu under the prompter, pick iPhone/iPad Microphone. Press Follow and the device in front of you does the listening, with speech recognized on the device itself, in the language set on the Mac; only the recognized words travel to the Mac. On iOS 26 the device uses Apple's newer on-device engine and needs only the microphone permission, with no Speech Recognition dialog. The device shows a badge while it drives the prompter, and explains itself when it cannot listen. If a call or Siri takes the microphone, the Mac is told and listening resumes on its own when the microphone is free. If no device is connected when you press Follow, PowerCue falls back to the Mac's own microphone and says so in the status bar.
Finding the right device. With several devices connected, the display menu under the prompter lists them and offers Ping iPhone & iPad: the screens flash a teal border and buzz, so you know which one you are looking at.
Reconnecting. Closing the app on the device or letting the Mac sleep drops the connection; open the app again and it reconnects on its own. Leaving with the X keeps it disconnected until you pick the Mac from the list again.
Privacy. Everything travels over your local network only: the companion never contacts a server, and nothing is uploaded. Turn the setting off on the Mac when you are done and no device can view the script.
If the device cannot find the Mac: confirm both are on the same Wi-Fi network (guest networks and some office networks block device discovery), that the setting is on in PowerCue, and that macOS allowed PowerCue to use the local network (System Settings, Privacy & Security, Local Network).
The on-screen timer
The timer card floats over the prompter (and, if you like, the editor). In the timer settings:
- Three readouts, each with its own toggle: ELAPSED (a stopwatch that runs while the prompter follows or plays), REMAINING (counts down the run time), and CLOCK (time of day, 12 or 24 hour).
- Drag it anywhere on the prompter; its position syncs across surfaces. The editor's mirror has its own position and its own on/off toggle.
- Resize from the corner: drag the grip at the card's bottom-right. The editor and prompter cards size independently.
- Style it with border and background colors and transparency, so it sits quietly over any prompter look.
- Edit the run time in place: in the editor's timer card, hover REMAINING and click to type a new run time right there.
Run time & estimates
Give the script a target length in the timer settings. Typing digits is enough: 11625 becomes 1:16:25, 500 becomes 5:00.
- Play paces to it: the whole script scrolls to finish exactly on the run time.
- The timer counts it down in the REMAINING row.
- The editor margin shows time estimates at each paragraph: where in the video that paragraph should land, based on its share of the script's words.
- Estimates export: Word exports include the per-paragraph time labels, so a producer can see the timing on paper.
Word import & export
Write the script in Word if that is where you write, mark it up with the conventions below, and it arrives in PowerCue ready to prompt. Export writes the same conventions back, so a script can go to Word for a client's edits and come home with everything in place.
Import (File → Import Script…, the import button in the formatting bar, or simply drag the file onto the editor) reads .docx, RTF and plain text. A sheet shows what was found in the document, with a checkbox for each conversion. The imported script replaces the current one; a version snapshot is taken first.
- Formatting carries: bold, italic and underline always; strikethrough, word colors, Word's highlighter (mapped to the nearest PowerCue highlight color) and paragraph alignment when "Keep Word formatting" is on. Black and white text become PowerCue's default text color. The document's fonts are dropped unless you ask to keep them.
- [Square brackets] become screen directions: write camera notes and cues as
[Camera on you]or[Cut to B-roll]and they import as directions: visible while you write, never on the prompter, never heard by voice following. (Parentheses) can be converted too, off by default because normal prose uses them. - Headings become named jump markers: a Word heading (Heading 1, 2, 3…, or
Title, in any language) becomes a marker named after the heading. So do lines starting with
###or#3:### The turning pointbecomes marker "The turning point". The name shows as the section's title above its paragraph, in the editor, on the prompter and on the iPhone, next to the marker number, and a blank line under the heading stays under the title.
Paste works the same way. Paste text into the editor (⌘V) and its
[square brackets] become screen directions and its lines starting with ### or
#3 become named markers, in the style at the cursor. ⌘Z takes the whole
paste back, and ⌘D on a selected direction turns it back into script text. To paste without converting (citations like [1], or a line such as "#1 rule"), use
Edit → Paste and Match Style.
Export (File → Export to Word…, ⌘E) writes a real .docx:
- Default-colored text becomes standard black on white, the way a script should print; your custom colors, styles and highlight blocks are kept.
- Screen directions gain [square brackets] (unless they already have them) and keep their teal shading, so anyone reading the file sees what is not to be read aloud.
- Jump markers leave as Word headings in front of their paragraphs, named like the marker
(
###when unnamed). They show in Word's navigation pane, and Import turns them back into markers. - With a run time set, gray time labels open each paragraph; Import strips them again.
Keyboard shortcuts
The same list is in the app, offline: Help, Keyboard Shortcuts (also a button on the Help tab of Settings). Settings has four tabs, Follow, Companion, Updates & License and Help; the gear at the bottom right of the edit window opens and closes it. Space, the numbers and the arrows stay out of the way while you are typing in the script or a text field.
| Key | Does |
|---|---|
| Space | Start / stop the prompter (Play), from anywhere but a text field |
| 1 to 9 | Jump to that marker; the editor shows the spot too |
| ↑ / ↓ | Scroll the prompter: a tap glides a little, hold to scroll steadily |
| ← / → | Step the prompter back / forward one line |
| ⌘F | Find in the current view (editor and prompter search separately) |
| ⌘B / ⌘I / ⌘U | Bold / italic / underline |
| ⌘T | Fonts panel for the selection |
| ⇧⌘F | Follow / stop following (Prompter menu) |
| ⇧⌘P | Play / pause |
| ⇧⌘↑ | Back to Top |
| ⌘] / ⌘[ | Next / previous marker |
| ⇧⌘T / ⇧⌘R | Show or hide the timer / reset it |
| ⇧⌘V | Show or hide the video feed |
| ⌘M | Insert a numbered jump marker at the cursor |
| ⌘D | Mark / unmark the selection as a screen direction |
| ⌘− / ⌘= | Zoom the editor page out / in (no reflow) |
| ⌘N / ⌘O | New project / open project |
| ⌘S / ⇧⌘S | Save / save as |
| ⌘E | Export to Word |
| ⇧⌘L | Enter / manage license |
| ⌘? | Open this user guide |
Stream Deck & automation
Every prompter command can be driven from outside PowerCue: an Elgato Stream Deck, Apple's Shortcuts, Keyboard Maestro, Raycast, or a script from a control room. Two ways, and they can be mixed on one deck.
- Keyboard shortcuts. The Prompter menu gives every command a Command-modified key (see the table above), so a Stream Deck Hotkey action can press it. These work anywhere in PowerCue, even while you type, but PowerCue must be the front app.
- powercue:// links. PowerCue answers links, so a Stream Deck Website
action (System, Website; put the link in its URL field, keep "Access in background" on) or
open powercue://followin a script works even when another app is in front. Do not use the Stream Deck Open action for these: it expects a file and shows a warning. Every link is listed in the table below.
Copy and paste links
Select a link, copy it, and paste it into the URL field of a Website action. Each row shows every form the command takes.
| Command | Links |
|---|---|
| Follow on / off / toggle | powercue://follow/on powercue://follow/off powercue://follow/toggle |
| Play on / off / toggle | powercue://play/on powercue://play/off powercue://play/toggle |
| Pause | powercue://pause |
| Back to top | powercue://top |
| Previous / next marker | powercue://marker/prev powercue://marker/next |
| Jump to marker 1, 2, 3 ... | powercue://marker/1 powercue://marker/2 powercue://marker/3 |
| Scroll one line up / down | powercue://scroll/up powercue://scroll/down |
| Timer on / off / reset | powercue://timer/on powercue://timer/off powercue://timer/reset |
| Video feed on / off / toggle | powercue://video/on powercue://video/off powercue://video/toggle |
| Prompter window open / close | powercue://window/open powercue://window/close |
| Size the prompter window (width x height) | powercue://window/1024x600 |
| On-screen controls hide / show | powercue://controls/hide powercue://controls/show |
powercue://follow/toggle), Play/Pause (powercue://play/toggle), Back to Top
(powercue://top), Previous and Next marker (powercue://marker/prev,
powercue://marker/next), and Reset Timer (powercue://timer/reset). Use the
Website action for each, so the deck keeps working while you are in your camera or streaming
software.License & trial
Updates & ownership. Your license is permanent. Every update through version 1.x is free, including macOS compatibility fixes. A future major version will be a paid upgrade, always discounted for existing owners. If this product is ever retired I will say so rather than go quiet: the final version stays downloadable and your license keeps working.
PowerCue is a one-time purchase, no subscription. New installs get 7 days fully functional, every feature included. When the trial ends the app locks until a license key is entered; your scripts and projects are kept safe and are all there the moment you unlock. The key arrives by email from Payhip after purchase: enter it under the app menu → Enter License Key (⇧⌘L).
Updates arrive through the built-in updater (app menu → Check for Updates), signed and verified.
Uninstalling
PowerCue is a single, self-contained app. To uninstall, quit PowerCue and drag PowerCue.app from your Applications folder to the Trash.
Optional: remove support files
For a completely clean sweep, in Finder choose Go → Go to Folder and remove:
- ~/Library/Preferences/com.rafaelludwig.PowerCue.plist (settings)
- ~/Library/Application Support/PowerCue (the working script, autosaves and versions)
- ~/Library/Saved Application State/com.rafaelludwig.PowerCue.savedState (window state)
Your license is not lost by uninstalling: the key from your Payhip receipt activates any future install. If you are leaving because something did not work, one email might fix it: apps@rafaelludwig.com.
Troubleshooting
- "On-device speech recognition is not available for this language." PowerCue only ever recognizes speech on your Mac, so it needs Apple's on-device model for the language you read in. On macOS 26 and later, update PowerCue and pick the language in Settings, Follow; the model downloads once. On macOS 14 and 15, turn on Dictation for that language in System Settings, Keyboard, Dictation (that installs the model), then press Follow again.
- "Could not start audio input." Update PowerCue: from 1.0.10 it retries and then captures the microphone the way FaceTime does when macOS refuses the normal route (seen on macOS 27).
- Follow does nothing. Check System Settings → Privacy & Security → Microphone (and, on macOS 14 or 15, Speech Recognition as well). Then check the mic menu next to the Follow button is pointing at the microphone you are actually speaking into; the status line under the preview names the one that is listening. On an audio interface, check that Input Channel in the same menu names the input the microphone is plugged into.
- The karaoke highlight runs ahead of me or behind me. Karaoke settings, Timing: Behind, In line or Ahead. In line suits most readers; Ahead if you read fast.
- It jumped back when I did not want it to. Re-read detection moves the prompter back when several words in a row match a line you already read. Turn it off under Follow in the prompter settings if your script repeats phrases and you prefer forward only.
- Following feels lost after a big ad-lib. Scroll or jump so your next scripted line sits at the marker; following re-anchors to the text at the marker and picks you up on the next words you read.
- The prompter window shows backwards text. That is the mirror flip for beam-splitter rigs; press the flip buttons under the editor preview to set it back.
- No karaoke highlight. Check it is enabled in the karaoke settings under the prompter, and in Play mode remember it tracks the marker, not your voice.
- The app crashed. PowerCue offers to send the crash report on next launch (you review the email before anything is sent), or Help → Send Crash Reports.
- Something else. Help → Report a Problem pre-fills an email with your version details. Suggestions are just as welcome: Help → Leave a Suggestion.