How to Stop Embarrassing Moments During Mac Presentations

You've been there. You're presenting to a client, a class, or your entire company. The screen goes up. And then:

• A Slack notification slides in from the top right.
• Your desktop — littered with screenshots and random downloads — is now visible to everyone.
• Your Mac chimes because a download just finished.

It's preventable. Every single time. Here's how.

The Manual Approach (and Why It Fails)

macOS gives you the tools to prevent all of this. The problem is they're scattered across six different places:

1. Focus modes — System Settings → Focus → Do Not Disturb 2. Desktop icons — Right-click → Show View Options → uncheck Show Items 3. Volume — Click menu bar icon or use keyboard 4. Open windows — Cmd+Option+H to hide others, then minimize the rest 5. Wallpaper — System Settings → Wallpaper

Doing this before every presentation takes 2–3 minutes, breaks your flow, and you always forget at least one step. Undoing it all afterward takes just as long.

The Right Solution: TogglePresent

TogglePresent is a macOS menu bar app that runs this entire checklist in one click.

Click the icon → Presentation Mode activates:

• Desktop icons disappear
• Notifications are silenced
• Speaker is muted
• Active app windows are minimized
• Wallpaper swaps to something clean (optional)

Click again → everything restores exactly as it was.

It takes roughly 0.5 seconds. You can do it while you're plugging in the HDMI cable.

Setting It Up

1. Download TogglePresent from togglepresent.app 2. Open it — it lives entirely in your menu bar, no Dock icon 3. Grant the permissions it requests (notifications and desktop access) 4. That's it

The first time you use it, you'll realize how much mental overhead the old way was costing you.

What About Focus Modes?

macOS Focus modes are good for ongoing distraction management — they filter notifications by source and can be scheduled. But they don't touch your desktop, your volume, or your open windows. And they're slower to activate.

TogglePresent isn't a replacement for Focus modes. It's a complementary tool specifically designed for the 30 seconds before a presentation starts.

The $4.99 Case

TogglePresent costs $4.99 — a one-time payment with all future updates included.

If you present even once a month, this pays for itself the first time it saves you from an embarrassing notification. If you present weekly, it's one of the best investments you'll make for your professional image this year.

Get it at togglepresent.app.