Build your first deck

You set up every deck and button in the Treadle app on the Mac. The iPad is only the remote. If a word here is unfamiliar, see the concepts page.

Open the editor

1. On the Mac, click the Treadle icon in the menu bar.
2. In the popover, choose Edit decks….

The editor opens on the Mac. Your edits are held until you press Save — only then do they apply to paired iPads, so you can rearrange a deck without disturbing what you are using. The editor shows exactly what you are about to change before it saves.

Add a button

1. Pick a deck, or create a new one.
2. Add a button to the deck.
3. Choose the button's action from the picker. Built-in actions are grouped by category. You can also choose one of these sources:
   • Shortcut — run one of your macOS Shortcuts. See Use a Shortcut as an action.
   • Open App — bring an app to the front.
   • Keystroke — send a key combination.
   • URL — open a link.
   • Custom — run a command you write. See Write your own command.
4. Set a Label so you know what the button does.
5. Set an Icon.

Choose a button's size

A button can be one of four sizes — 1×1, 2×1, 1×2 or 2×2. Draw the size on the little grid in the button's inspector. A bigger tile is not a stretched small one: it has room for a name beside the icon, a live value, or a now-playing block. The editor's preview shows the button at its real size, packed exactly as the iPad will lay it out.

Lay out each device separately

Across the top of the editor is a row of devices — iPad Pro, iPad Air, iPad mini. Pick one and the canvas previews the deck exactly as that device shows it.

Each device keeps its own layout — its own buttons, sizes and order. This matters because a tile that looks right on a 13-inch iPad Pro takes a much bigger share of an iPad mini screen. So:

• A device you have never edited mirrors the iPad Pro layout.
• The moment you change anything on that device, it becomes independent — a one-time copy of the iPad Pro layout that you then tailor. Editing one device never changes another.
• To go back, use Reset to iPad Pro on that device.

So you might keep every button on the iPad Pro, but trim the iPad mini to just the ones you reach for most — without touching the Pro.

Try it

Press the button on a paired iPad. It should run on the Mac right away. If nothing happens, see A button does nothing when I press it.

Where to go next

• Give a control a value with toggles, levels and prompts.
• Add a ready-made set of controls with an action pack.
• Tie a deck to an app with app bindings.

On the free plan you get one deck. More than one deck is a paid feature. See What's free, what's paid.