Settings - Presentation
The Presentation tab has one job: decide which ports Dashboardx Designer is allowed to use when you click Present.
Open this dialog
Open Settings from the app menu — Dashboardx Designer → Settings on macOS, Settings on Windows, or press ⌘, (Ctrl+, on Windows) — and select Presentation under Advanced.
Port range
When you start a presentation, the app starts a small local web server and opens your dashboard in a browser. It needs a free port to listen on, and it looks for one inside this range:
| Field | Default | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Port range start | 4000 | Allowed: 1024–65535 |
| Port range end | 4009 | Must be greater than or equal to the start |
The app walks the range from the start and binds the first free port. If every port in the range is occupied, it reports that no port was available and asks you to adjust the range — it does not silently pick something else.
Widening the range
Ten ports is enough for most machines. Widen it if:
- You run other services on the default ports (local development servers frequently sit on 3000/5000/8080, and 4000 is a common alternative).
- You present from a machine already carrying other web work.
- Several people on your team present from the same shared machine.
Keep the range narrow enough that it does not collide with software you actually rely on. A range that swallows a port another app needs shows up later as that app failing to start, which is a confusing way to spend an afternoon.
What is not here
Presentation has no separate configuration surface for access control, styling, or slide timing — there are no slides, and no passphrase is set in the app. Anyone on the same network who knows the address can open the dashboard while you are presenting; stop presenting when you are finished.
Sharing beyond the local network is your own infrastructure decision — see Presentation.
Where to go next
- Presentation — how presenting works, and what viewers can do
- Settings → Permissions — what agents may do on your behalf