Live vs. self-paced: choosing a format
Before you add a single slide, Slidea asks one question that shapes everything else: will you be there when people respond, or not?
That question is really about pacing, not features — both formats use the exact same slide library, the same scoring, and the same results report at the end. What changes is who decides when the group moves from one slide to the next. Get this choice right early and the rest of building your deck barely needs to change if you ever switch; get it wrong and you may find yourself rebuilding a presenter-paced icebreaker as an async form the night before it's due out.
A good rule of thumb: if you can picture yourself standing in front of the room (or on a call) advancing slides while people react in real time, you want a Presentation. If you're picturing a link landing in someone's inbox that they'll get to whenever suits them, you want a Survey.
| Presentation | Survey | |
|---|---|---|
| Who controls the pace | You — one slide advances for everyone at once | Each person, on their own |
| Good fit for | Meetings, classes, talks, workshops | Feedback forms, take-home quizzes, async check-ins |
| How people get in | A join code or QR code, shown the moment you present | A link you send whenever you like |
| Live-only features | Remote, live Annotations, Reactions, response locking | Not applicable — there's no live room to control |
| Start it from | New Presentation | New Survey |
The live-only row is worth calling out: things like Remote (turning a phone into a clicker), live Annotations, and locking responses mid-session only make sense when someone is actively driving the room, so they simply don't apply to a Survey. Reactions, on the other hand, work the same in both — people can react to a slide whether it was presented live or opened on their own.
You're not locked in — switch a deck between the two from the format selector at the top of the editor at any point before you run it. This is useful when plans change: a session you built as a live team workshop can become a take-home survey with no rebuilding if the meeting gets cancelled, and vice versa.
Screenshot: the format selector dropdown showing Presentation and Survey with their short descriptions.
Switch formats any time from the dropdown at the top of the editor.
Switch before you run the session whenever possible. If you switch a deck that already has collected responses, treat the results report for that deck as covering whichever format was active when each response came in.
Frequently asked questions
Can the same deck be run once as a Presentation and once as a Survey?
Yes — the format selector just changes how the deck is delivered. You can run it live with your team, then reuse the same deck as a Survey link for anyone who missed the session.
Do participants need different instructions for each format?
Not really — either way they go to the join URL and enter a code or scan a QR code. The only difference is timing: a Presentation code only works while you're actively running the session, while a Survey link stays open until you close it.
Which format should I pick for a take-home quiz?
Use New Survey. Quiz Slides like Select Answer and Lineup still score responses the same way — you just won't be there advancing slides in real time.
Are results combined if I run the same deck multiple times?
Each run is tracked separately in Reports & Results, so you can compare sessions rather than have them blend into one dataset.