How to Present Live Poll Results One Question at a Time

A wall of small cards doesn't read from the back of the room

The default results view on rifts.to is Grid: every question gets its own card, laid out side by side so you can scan the whole survey at once. That's the right view while you're checking in on a session from your laptop. It's the wrong view the moment you put it on a screen and step back. Ten small charts on one slide means small type, small numbers, and an audience squinting to find the one result you're actually talking about.

Present is the other view. It shows one question at a time, full screen, with the numbers big enough to read from the back row.

Starting Present mode

On your admin dashboard, press Present. The stage opens full screen on the first question you haven't hidden, in your survey's own theme. The join QR code and short link sit in a corner so anyone who walks in late can scan and catch up without you leaving the question you're on. The question count ("3 / 12") and the live response count stay in the top bar, and results keep updating as answers land, no refresh needed. The controls fade after a few seconds and come back when you move the mouse.

You can also open your admin link with ?view=present on the end, and add &q=3 to start on the third question. That opens Present in the browser window. Browsers only allow full screen after a click, so press the Full screen button in the top bar when you're ready. The full walkthrough, including what each control does, is in Presenting results live.

Moving through questions without touching a laptop

Present is built to run from a clicker as much as a keyboard. The right arrow, down arrow, space bar, Page Down, or Enter all move to the next question; the left arrow, up arrow, Page Up, or Backspace go back a question; Home and End jump to the first and last. Most presentation clickers send Page Up and Page Down, so the one you already own should work with no setup. Press J to hide or show the join QR code, and Escape to go back to Grid.

Trimming what actually goes on stage

Not every question you wrote belongs in front of this particular room. On Grid, press the eye-slash button on a question's card to hide it: it disappears from Grid, and Present skips straight past it. The Hidden (n) button in the toolbar brings hidden questions back whenever you want them. The Sort options and Show menus above the grid list choices in survey order or by most votes, as counts or percentages, and Present uses the same settings. Your browser remembers these choices for this survey, and they never leave your device. Another browser starts fresh. Nothing about the survey changes for anyone answering it.

Free text is where this matters most. Someone can type anything into an open question, and you're often reading their answer for the first time in the same second your audience is. Answers show newest first: a Grid card lists five with Show all N answers underneath, and the stage shows up to nine with a "+N more" count. To pull an off-topic or unusable answer, hide it with the eye icon on its Grid card, or on the stage itself (the icon appears with the controls when you move the mouse). It drops out of view in both places without you stopping to explain why, and Show hidden answers on that card brings it back. New answers still appear as they arrive.

Reveal, so early answers don't decide the rest of the room (Pro)

Left running live, a results screen shows whatever's arrived so far, and the first answers on screen can shift what everyone still deciding goes on to pick. Reveal lets you take results off the screen while the room answers. Results show as normal until you press H (or the Reveal button). That hides the current question's results and starts a hold: every question you haven't revealed yet opens with its results hidden, and pressing H reveals them. A question you've already revealed stays revealed when you go back to it, and leaving Present clears the hold. To keep the whole session blind, press H on the first question before anyone answers. It's the difference between an opinion poll and a poll that follows its own early votes.

Reveal is part of rifts.to Pro, $11.99 a month with a 14-day free trial for first-time subscribers. On the free plan, pressing H opens a short explanation of Pro instead, and results stay on screen.

An unbranded stage for your own event (Pro)

On the free plan, the stage shows a small "Made with rifts.to" mark in the corner. Pro removes it, so the screen your audience is looking at carries your event's branding and nobody else's. Sharing, the join QR and closing the survey work the same on both plans.

Try it on your next session

Create your survey on rifts.to, add your questions, and press Present the moment you're ready to show results. Present is free, works with most presentation clickers, and is built to be read from the back of any room.