Schedule Timer: free presentation and conference timer

A countdown timer for talks, panels and conferences that runs in the browser. Set up the segments of your programme, put the timer on the stage screen, and control it from any phone or a second computer. Speakers see colour warnings before their time runs out; panels and debates get a clock per speaker; a hard stop shows whether the programme will finish on time. It keeps running without internet once loaded, and picks up where it was after a reload. Free, with no account.

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Timer Setup

New here?

Five short screens that build the whole schedule. Every setting stays available in this panel and shows the same values.

Presets

Export / Import Configuration

Startup Behavior

Start Delay

Import a schedule from CSV

One segment per row: title, minutes, seconds, note. A header row is skipped if present. Replaces the current schedule.

Schedule / Segments

Warning Steps

Display & Pro Options

Branding

Shown in the corner of this display. Kept on this machine. PNG or SVG works best.

Privacy

No account, no cookies, no analytics. Your schedule stays on this machine unless you pair a phone.

Run log

What each segment actually took against what was planned. Kept on this machine across reloads until you clear it.

📖 How to Use

Basic Controls:

  • Start / Pause: Click anywhere on the main timer screen or press Space.
  • Next Segment: Click ⏭︎, press ArrowRight, ArrowDown, or PageDown. This also starts the timer if idle or paused!
  • Previous Segment: Click ⏮, press ArrowLeft, ArrowUp, or PageUp.
  • Restart Segment: Click ↺ or press R twice within 2.5 seconds.
  • Blank screen: B or . (Period). Esc brings it back.
  • Add or remove a minute: + and -. Undo: U.

Using a Presentation Remote (Clicker):

  • Most clickers send PageDown/PageUp or Arrow keys. This means the Next/Forward button on your remote will Start, Resume, or advance to the Next Segment!
  • The Black Screen button on many remotes (which sends B or .) blanks the display without touching the clock.
  • Reset to the start: press Back twice on the first segment, or the Start Presentation button (F5) twice. Either can be undone for 30 seconds. With nothing running, F5 simply reloads the page.

Configuration & Agenda:

  • Segment types: Duration counts down. End time counts down to a clock time. Count up runs open ended. Clock shows the time of day. Panel gives several speakers their own clocks, one running at a time.
  • Start Condition: The schedule can wait for a fixed time, or count down to a clock time, before the first segment starts.
  • Segments: Build your schedule in Schedule / Segments. Drag the handle or use the arrows to reorder.
  • Warnings: Alerts that fire when a segment has a given time left. Each one can change the colour of the screen and show a message.
  • Options: Background colour, the wall clock, the progress bar, the segment title, text size and auto-advance.
  • Presets: Presets save a whole schedule under a name. Export and Import move one between machines as a JSON file.
Coded with love by Jonathan Hadji-Minaglou - 2026 - v 3.59 · Privacy

Remote control

Not paired

Switch this on to let another device watch the schedule: a phone, a tablet, or another computer. It starts in view only mode. You grant control separately, and this display always keeps the clock.

On this computer

Opens the controls in a second window of this browser, for a laptop that drives a projector: the timer on the big screen, the controls on yours. It needs no internet and has control from the start.

Devices

Every device joins as a viewer. Give Control to the one that should drive the timer, and the others keep watching without being able to change anything. Click a device's name to rename it: that name is what the big screen shows when a speaker signals, and what the run log records.

Speaker turns a device into the speaker's own: it sees their clock and three buttons, and can ask for more time, say it is nearly done, or report a technical problem. It cannot change anything. Play chimes here moves the warning sounds to that device, and this machine then stays quiet.

Block is how you throw a device out. It is refused immediately and keeps checking back, so Unblock lets it straight back in.

Rows disappear on their own once a device has been gone for ten minutes, so there is nothing to tidy up. Blocked rows stay until you unblock them. Note that in an open room any device with the code and PIN can join at any time: to keep one out, Block it, and to keep everyone else out, lock the room or draw a new code.

Master switch

What a remote can never do

  • It cannot run the clock. This display computes every countdown from its own deadline, so lag or a dropped connection never changes the time shown to the room.
  • It sends absolute instructions, for example "pause" or "go to segment 4", never "toggle" or "next". A command that arrives twice or arrives late has no extra effect.
  • Anything that throws away elapsed time can be undone for 30 seconds, from a remote or with U here.
  • Jumping more than one segment, or restarting, needs a one second press and hold on the remote.

How to run this timer

Keyboard

  • Space start, pause, resume
  • → ↓ PageDown start if idle, resume if paused, otherwise next segment
  • ← ↑ PageUp previous segment; twice on the first segment resets to the start
  • F5 twice resets to the start while a schedule runs, instead of reloading
  • + and - add or remove one minute from the running segment
  • R restart the segment. Press it twice within 2.5 seconds, so a stray press does nothing
  • U undo the last segment change or restart, up to 30 seconds after
  • If this page is reloaded or the browser crashes mid-talk, open it again: the timer resumes on the same deadline, and remotes rejoin by themselves.
  • Driving a projector from a laptop? The ⋯ menu has Controls in a second window, which needs no internet, and a Pre-show check to run before the room fills.
  • B or . blank the screen to black. Esc or press again to bring it back
  • F fullscreen, H this page, G guided setup
  • Rehearse at speed in the menu runs the whole schedule at up to 60 times real time, so you can watch every warning land before the room fills.
  • In a panel segment: 1 to 9 put that speaker on the clock, 0 stops it, N moves to the next

Presenter remotes (clickers)

A clicker is a keyboard as far as the browser is concerned. Nothing needs pairing with this page. Plug the USB receiver into the display machine, click on the timer once so the page has focus, and the buttons work.

  • Forward sends PageDown or →. It starts the schedule, resumes after a pause, then advances segment by segment.
  • Back sends PageUp or ← and goes to the previous segment.
  • Blank screen sends B or . and blanks the timer without touching the clock. Earlier versions restarted the segment here, which was a real risk mid talk.
  • Reset to the start: Back twice on the first segment, or Start presentation (F5) twice. Each asks once, then resets; U or the Undo button brings the clock back within 30 seconds. If a browser reloads on F5 anyway, it asks first and the timer resumes where it was.

Known models that follow this mapping: Logitech R400 and R500, Kensington Presenter Expert, most cheap generic clickers. If yours differs, open this page, press the button and watch which shortcut fires.

Remote control

  • A device set to Speaker is for the person on stage: their clock, and buttons to ask for two more minutes, say they are nearly done, or report a problem. It appears on the big screen and on every remote.
  • Play chimes here nominates a device to make the warning sounds, so the cue comes from a speaker near the room instead of the laptop.
  • Open ⋯ → Remote control, switch the link on, and scan the code with the other device.
  • A remote shows the countdown, the agenda, what is next, your speaker notes, and when the segment and the whole schedule are due to end. Any number of them, on phones, tablets or other computers.
  • With control granted it can pause, step segments, add or remove a minute, blank the screen, undo, and push a short message onto the big screen for thirty seconds.
  • Every device stays view only until you grant it control in that panel.
  • Lock the room under Devices once your own devices are connected, so no other one can join.
  • It tries a direct connection first and falls back to the relay automatically, so a network that blocks direct connections only costs you about a second of lag.

Panels and debates

Add a segment and set its type to Panel (speaker clock), or pick "A panel or debate" in guided setup. List the speakers with their minutes. Each has their own clock, and exactly one runs at a time.

  • 1 to 9 put that speaker on the clock. The previous one is frozen the instant you press.
  • 0 hands it to the moderator. Nobody is charged. Same as tapping the Moderator chip.
  • N moves to the next speaker in order. Space pauses whoever is on the clock without changing who it is.
  • The chips under the clock are tappable, and a remote gets one button per speaker.
  • Warnings apply to whoever is speaking. A speaker who runs out goes into overtime on their own; the others keep their balance.
  • The segment never ends by itself. Advance it with → when the panel is over. The run log records how the time was split.

Before the session

  • New to it? Open ⋯ and choose Guided setup. Five screens, and it writes the same settings this panel shows.
  • Build the agenda in ⋯ → Settings, then export the JSON so you can restore it on any machine.
  • Segments set to End time follow this machine's clock. Check it matches the room clock.
  • Set a Hard stop in Settings, the time the room has to be empty. Whoever runs the session then sees, on their remote, whether the schedule still fits: minutes over or spare, the time it will really end, and which segment is worth trimming. It is off on this display by default, because this screen is usually the projector.
  • Go fullscreen and leave the page focused, otherwise keyboard and clicker presses go elsewhere.
  • The display keeps the screen awake by itself for the whole session, including while paused, using the browser's Screen Wake Lock. Supported in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari 16.4 or later. The browser drops the lock if you switch tabs or minimise, and takes it back when you return.
  • On an older tablet, or if the battery is low, the browser may refuse the lock. Set the device's own screen timeout to never as a backstop, and keep it on mains power.