Features
Run the screen without looking at the screen
Watch a cross-examination go sideways and it is often something small: counsel breaks eye contact to find a scroll bar, the witness fills the silence, and the answer everyone needed is now three sentences further away. The mouse is a surprisingly expensive instrument in a courtroom.
Exhibit Room is built so that the screen can be driven by touch, by feel, with your eyes up. Pages, zoom, page jumps and even switching to a different exhibit all have a key, and the keys are short enough to learn in one practice run.
The shortcuts
| Key | Action |
|---|---|
| Left arrow / Right arrow | Previous page, next page |
| PageUp / PageDown | Previous page, next page |
| Home / End | First page, last page |
| + / - | Zoom in, zoom out |
| F | Fit the whole page |
| W | Fit the page width |
| E | Open the exhibit switcher |
| Digits then Enter | Jump to that page number |
| Esc | Leave presentation |
E is the one that changes how you examine
Press E and a switcher opens. Type an exhibit number, or type part of an exhibit's name, press Enter, and that exhibit is on screen. You never return to a file list, never expose the exhibit manager to the room, and never break the fullscreen view.
This is what lets you follow a witness instead of a script. When an answer opens a door three exhibits away, you go there in about two seconds, which is short enough that the room reads it as part of the question rather than as a pause. It works best if the names in your set are the names you think in, which is an argument for naming exhibits carefully while you prepare.
Page jumps and zoom in the moment
For a long document, type the page number and press Enter. On a 300-page deposition transcript exhibit, that is the difference between arriving at page 212 immediately and scrolling past it twice. Write the page numbers you expect to need into the exhibit's description while you prepare, and you will have them without a legal pad.
Zoom has two keys worth committing to memory. W fits the width, which is what you want for reading a paragraph of text out loud. F fits the whole page, which is what you want when the witness needs to see where on the page something sits. Plus and minus are there for the in-between cases, and your preferred starting point can be set as the default zoom mode in Settings.
Practice, and the limits
Six keys carry almost every examination: right arrow, left arrow, E, Enter, W and Esc. Run one witness end to end against the demo trial the night before and your hands will know them.
Two limits. Settings gives you a reference for the shortcuts rather than a way to reassign them, so the keys are the keys. And there is no remote-control feature in Exhibit Room, so the keyboard of the presenting machine is the interface; if someone else is driving, they need to be sitting at it. Presentation mode covers what that view shows, and how to present exhibits in court covers the choreography around it.
Shortcut questions
Where do I find the full list during a trial?
Settings includes a keyboard shortcuts reference. Check it the night before rather than in the courtroom.
Can I reassign the keys?
No. Settings documents the shortcuts; it does not remap them. The upside is that they are the same on every machine you sit at.
Do the keys work outside the fullscreen view?
The PDF viewer supports keyboard navigation too, so you can page through a document while preparing without reaching for the mouse.
How do I get out quickly if something goes wrong?
Esc. It leaves presentation immediately and returns you to the exhibit manager, where nothing you do is visible to the room.
Does the switcher search descriptions?
Type an exhibit number or part of a name. Descriptions are for the notes you read while preparing, not for finding an exhibit mid-question.
Learn six keys before your next hearing
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