The desktop app opens files on your computer, too.

The first time you open the app, the start screen says ‘Welcome to SSHOW Studio’. Click Sign in with browser, and the same sign-in screen as on the web opens, in a window over the app on a Mac and in your default browser on Windows. After you sign in, click Allow sign-in on ‘Sign in to the app with this account?’, and the app takes over and opens Studio. From then on, the app opens straight to Studio. Under On this device, you can make or open local files without signing in.

• Copy sign-in addressShows on Windows while the app waits for you to sign in. Paste the address into another browser to sign in there.
• Drop a .sshow file on the windowIt opens as a local file and isn’t uploaded to your account.
• Open StudioOpens Studio when you reach the start screen while signed in.

The Studio window stays put, and each project or play view opens in a window of its own. Click a project that’s already open, and its window comes to the front instead. The Studio button at the top left of the editor brings the Studio window forward without closing the editor.

• ⌘⇧NOpens another Studio window.
• Middle-click a project cardOpens that project in a new window.

If your sign-in expires, or you sign this app out under Where you’re signed in in Settings › Devices & apps, the ‘Sign in again’ window appears. Click Sign in again to go to the start screen and sign in. If you have unsaved changes, click Cancel first and keep a .sshow file with Save a Copy in the editor’s Menu (Save and undo). If you cancel, the app asks again 2 minutes later.

Only one copy of the app runs at a time. Open the app again, and the window of the running app comes forward. Double-click a .sshow file while the app is running, and the running app opens it.

A document you open with New local project or Open .sshow file is saved to a file on this computer, not to your account. The top bar shows a Home button and a ‘Local’ badge at the left, and there’s no Share, Remote, or account menu. It doesn’t save on its own, so click the disk-shaped Save to file button. Save and undo has the details, and Work with projects shows how to put the file in your account.

• ⌘SSaves to the file. The first time, you choose a name and a place.
• ⌘⇧SSaves under another name.

If you use local files without signing in, a watermark appears on screen and in the images and videos you export. Click Remove watermark in the top bar and sign in, and it goes away at once. The watermark is never saved into the .sshow file.

Once you’re signed in, the laptop-shaped Local file button in Studio’s top bar offers New local project, Open .sshow file, and your recent files. Choosing one there opens it in a new window, and the Studio window stays.

Double-click a .sshow file in Finder or File Explorer, and SSHOW opens it. If the file is already open, its window comes forward. The app remembers your last 10 files and lists them on the start screen and in the Local file menu. They also show in the recent documents in the Dock or on the taskbar.

Finder and Quick Look show the cover picture of a .sshow file. Select the file in Finder and press Space to see it large.

The app has File, Edit, View, and Window menus. Use View for full screen and for zooming the window in and out. Theme, language, and the Settings window are under Settings, which is in the SSHOW app menu on a Mac and inside the File menu on Windows. Guide in the Help menu opens this guide: as a page in Studio, and beside the canvas in the editor. Tutorial Videos and Contact Us open on the web.

• ⌘⇧NNew window
• ⌘NNew local project
• ⌘OOpen a .sshow file
• ⌘,Open the Settings window

Change the theme, language, and density on the General tab of the Settings window (Language, theme, and density). Edit settings.json opens the settings file in your computer’s default editor. The MCP server’s port and the plugin development folder (Windows), which the Settings window doesn’t have, are set in this file (Connect an AI app · Plugin API).

The app carries the editor engine, the built-in plugins, and the free fonts, so you can open and edit local files with no internet. Plugins you installed open as last downloaded. Projects in Studio need a connection, so without one the start screen shows ‘Not connected to the internet’ and Try again.

The app downloads fixes and improvements to the editor engine in the background. They’re used from the next editor window you open, and editors already open keep theirs. If the editor doesn’t match this guide, close the editor window and open it again. If it still doesn’t, update the app: only the editor engine updates in the background, and Studio and the app’s own features change with app updates. The current engine version is at the bottom of the General tab in the Settings window.

While you export a video or GIF, the export keeps going even if you minimize the window or cover it with another, and the screen doesn’t go to sleep. In a web browser, the export stops when its tab is hidden (Export).