Lesson Flow is the running order for the hour: a list of named steps, each with a number of minutes and, if you want, a slide to jump to. It shows as a strip of pills along the bottom of the board with one clock on it. It is a small feature and this article is honest about its size — it is a checklist with a stopwatch, and knowing exactly what it does not do is most of the value.
Writing the plan
- Build your slides first — Not required, but easier: a step can then be pointed at a real slide from a menu instead of being linked up afterwards.
- Press Flow — In the header, between the printer and *Present to*. A panel opens headed Lesson flow. It is not a modal — the board stays usable behind it.
- Press “Add a step” — Each press appends a step at the end, pre-filled with 5 minutes and already pointed at whichever slide you are on.
- Name it and time it — Type the name in the first box, the minutes in the second. A step with 0 minutes shows no number and can never count as overrunning — the right setting for “whatever is left”.
- Point it at a slide — The menu lists your slides by number and name, with *No slide* at the top. A step with no slide is perfectly normal — it just will not move the board when you click it.
- Order it with the chevrons — Up and down move a step one place. There is no dragging, and new steps always land at the end, so a step for the middle has to be walked up.
- Close the panel — Escape, or press Flow again. Nothing is submitted — the rail was live as you typed, and the chip in the header says *Saved* a second later.
Teaching from it
Before you start, the rail shows the total — *“50 min planned”* — which is the quickest sanity check there is on a lesson plan against a 50-minute slot.
Press play to begin on step one, or click any pill to jump straight to it. Clicking a pill does three things at once: it moves the board to that step’s slide, marks the earlier steps done, and restarts the clock at 0:00.
- The clock counts up — It shows how long you have been on this step, from zero. It is not a countdown and it is not a total for the lesson.
- Over time turns amber — Past a step’s planned minutes the clock goes amber and keeps counting. Never red — running over is normal teaching, not an error.
- Nothing interrupts you — No chime, no flash, no toast, and no automatic advance. You move on when you move on.
- Pause and restart — The play button becomes pause and resumes where it stopped. The circular arrow zeroes the current step without leaving it.
What it does not do
Worth reading before you rely on it for anything.
- It does not count down — The clock runs up from zero on the current step. There is no remaining-time figure, for the step or for the lesson.
- It does not alarm or advance — Nothing sounds, flashes or moves on by itself. Overrunning is shown in amber and otherwise ignored.
- Learners never see it — The plan is not sent to the follow view or to an unlisted share link — not hidden from them, simply not sent. It is your instrument.
- It keeps no record — Nothing about a lesson you ran is written down — not how long a step actually took, not which steps you skipped. Close the tab and only the plan remains.
- It does not print — A printed deck is slides only. If you need the plan on paper, it belongs on a slide.
- No shortcut, and no drag — There is no keyboard shortcut for opening it or starting the clock, and steps are ordered with the chevrons rather than by dragging.
Common questions
No. It counts up from zero on whichever step you are on, and turns amber once that step is past its planned minutes. There is no countdown and no total-lesson timer. If you need a real countdown in front of the class, put a Timer widget on the slide — that one does count down and keeps working while you present.