prism docs · Music, control and shows · Edit cues

Edit cues

Edit cues is a recording mode. While it is on, every change you make is also written into the scenes and cues you selected, and a small marker beside each setting shows whether it is in them. It is how you build cues that change only a few settings, and how you fix several scenes at once. If you know MadMapper, it is its Edit Cue Mode.

WhereThe red Edit cues button in the strip
KeyCtrl + Shift + C (⌘ ⇧ C)
Live onlyHold Shift while you change a setting
ModeAdvanced (the key also works in Simple)
1 · Make a cue 2 · Turn Edit cues on and off 3 · Choose what you edit 4 · The markers 5 · Record changes 6 · Shapes 7 · Cue a whole surface 8 · A cue's settings 9 · Scenes in Edit cues 10 · Where the markers are 11 · Hints and tips 12 · When something looks wrong 13 · Mouse and keyboard

1Make a cue

  1. Click + Cue in the strip. An empty cue appears in the Cues row (“Cue 1”), selected, and Edit cues turns on.
  2. A message tells you what to do next.
  3. Change what the cue should set: a colour, a brightness, a look. Or click the hollow markers beside settings to put them in as they are.
  4. Leave Edit cues. Fire the cue from the strip's Cues button: only its settings change.
“Cue 1” is empty: change what it should set (or click the red markers), then leave Edit cues.
After + Cue.

2Turn Edit cues on and off

Design with Edit cues on: red strip, markers in the look panel and inspector, ALL buttons in the surfaces list
Edit cues on, editing Cue 1: the red strip, markers beside the Wall's settings in the look panel and the inspector, and ALL buttons in the Surfaces list.
The strip with a red outline and Editing “Cue 1”
The strip while editing: Editing “Cue 1”, and the red Edit cues button pressed.
Why Ctrl + Shift + C? It is MadMapper's key. In Chrome and Edge it normally opens the developer tools; prism takes it while the page has the focus. Click in the page first if the browser grabs it.

3Choose what you edit

Edit cues writes into the selected tiles:

4The markers

A small round marker sits on the left of each setting. It tells you whether the selected cues hold it:

MarkerMeansA click
○ hollowNot in the selected cue.Puts it in, with its value now.
● redIn the cue, as it shows now.Takes it out.
● orangeIn the cue, with another value than what shows.Updates the cue to what shows (right-click to revert instead).
stripedThe selected cues disagree: some lack it, or hold other values.Puts this value into all of them.
Colour with a red marker, Brightness orange, Playback speed hollow
Colour: red (in the cue, as it shows). Brightness: orange (in, but changed since). Playback speed: hollow (not in).
Colour and Brightness with striped markers
Two cues selected that disagree: the markers are striped.

The setting's area is tinted faintly red while Edit cues is on, outlined red when it is in the cue and orange when it differs. Right-click a marker (or Shift + F10 on it) for its menu:

The marker menu: Update in Cue 1, Revert to the cue's value, Remove from Cue 1 Backspace
An orange marker's menu: Update in “Cue 1”, Revert to the cue’s value (puts the look back to what the cue holds), Remove from “Cue 1”.

A setting's own right-click menu has the same three items under an Edit cues heading. Every marker action is one undo step (“Add Wall · Colour to “Cue 1””).

5Record changes

Try before you record. Hold Shift while you experiment; when you like it, click the orange marker to update the cue.
With the timeline's Rec on too, a change to a setting the timeline plays becomes a key on the timeline instead, and doesn't go into the cue. See Rec.

6Shapes

A surface's shape (its corners and curves) can be part of a cue too, so a cue can move a surface. With Edit cues on, click the surface that is already selected on the canvas (without dragging): its shape goes into the cue (“Wall · Shape: in the cue (click the surface again to take it out)”). Click again to take it out. The shape's marker in the shape inspector does the same.

7Cue a whole surface

While Edit cues is on, the Surfaces list gets an Edit cues bar with Cue all surfaces, and each row gets an ALL button.

The Surfaces list with the Edit cues bar, Cue all surfaces, and ALL buttons; the Wall's ALL shows 2
ALL on each row; the Wall's shows 2: the cue holds two of its settings. The markers on the eyes put a surface's visibility in.

8A cue's settings

A cue's options panel (✎ on its tile) lists what it sets: Sets 3 settings, one row each, with × to take one out.

Sets 3 settings: Wall · Colour, Wall · Brightness, Door · Colour, each with ×
Cue 1 sets the Wall's colour and brightness and the Door's colour, and nothing else.

Update on a cue gives its settings the values they show now; it never adds or removes settings. To add one, use Edit cues.

9Scenes in Edit cues

10Where the markers are

Every look setting (pictures, videos and text too) and Playback speed; a layer's opacity, mix, visibility, fit and position; a surface's blend, opacity (one surface selected), visibility (the eye in the list), shape and input mapping; a group's visibility, opacity and blend; the master brightness; a projector's soft edge and trim.

11Hints and tips

12When something looks wrong

You seeWhyFix
Changes went into a cue by accidentEdit cues was still on.Ctrl + Z undoes the change and its recording together; leave Edit cues.
Ctrl + Shift + C opens the developer toolsThe focus was outside the page (the address bar).Click in the page, then press it again.
Esc doesn't leave Edit cuesEsc first cancels a drawing, closes a panel, or deselects.Press it again, or click the red button.
Grey markers: “Select a cue in the strip first”No tile is selected.Click (or Ctrl-click) a tile.
“A scene keeps every setting”You tried to take a setting out of a scene.Use a cue for partial changes; Update saves a scene's whole look.
Backspace: “The cue holds this surface's whole layer stack”The cue holds the surface with ALL.Take out “Wall · Layers” (its marker or the options list) instead.
A cue does nothing when firedIt is empty, or its settings already show.Check Sets N settings in its options.
Firing a cue moved a surfaceIts shape is in the cue.Take “Shape” out (click the selected surface in Edit cues, or × in its options).

13Mouse and keyboard

ActionHow
Edit cues on / offCtrl + Shift + C (⌘ ⇧ C) · the red button · Esc leaves
Change without recordingHold Shift: drag, click or arrow keys
Take a setting outFocus it and press Backspace (or Delete) · click its red marker
A marker's menuRight-click it · Shift + F10
Select tiles without firingCtrl/⌘-click · Shift-click
Put a shape inClick the selected surface on the canvas (no drag)
UndoCtrl + Z: the change and its recording are one step
prism documentation · Music, control and shows · screenshots taken in prism's simulator · 28 Sept 2026