Node Editor Window

Last updated 7 August 2026

The Node editor is the home of all remote control and show logic in Backstage.

That ranges from a single Stepper playing sequences in a loop to full automation — opening cinema doors when a film ends, returning feedback to a central control system, rendering dynamic text onto outputs, playing audio streams on user interaction, or acting on UDP and TCP commands.

Elements

You add Node Reference to a graph and connect them with links, which carry information of various datatypes from one node to the next.

Right-click the graph to create a node: choose a category, then a node from it. Each node does one thing — Math:+ adds numeric datatypes and emits the result, while a Sequence:Stepper builds a playlist from sequences with transitions and automatic playback.

Hover an input or output pin to see which datatypes it accepts and what it is for.

Navigating

The same gestures work here as in every other pannable view in Backstage.

Action	Gesture
Zoom	`Ctrl` + wheel, or pinch
Pan	Middle-drag, or a two-finger drag
Pan vertically	Wheel
Pan horizontally	`Shift` + wheel

The wheel pans; zoom is Ctrl + wheel.

Hotkeys

Action	Key
Add a node	Right-click the graph
Zoom out to the whole graph, or centre the selection	`Space`
Zoom the selection to maximum	`Shift`+`Space`
Centre and preview the Presenter	`Ctrl`+`Shift`+`Space`
Expand the selected nodes	`Page Down`
Collapse the selected nodes	`Page Up`
Add a clicked node to the selection	Hold `Ctrl`
Undo / redo	`Ctrl`+`Z` / `Ctrl`+`Y`
Copy, cut, paste selected nodes — including the links between them	`Ctrl`+`C` / `Ctrl`+`X` / `Ctrl`+`V`

What Alt and Shift add

Held while…	Alt	Shift
moving nodes	Snaps them to the grid	—
creating a link	Creates it for every selected node	Connects as many consecutive links as possible, top to bottom
dragging on the graph	Selects links instead of nodes	—
clicking a link	Deletes it	—
drag-changing a value	Finer steps	Coarser steps

Holding Alt+Shift together while creating a link connects as many consecutive links as possible to or from all selected nodes.

The Basics → Hotkeys help graph demonstrates these on a live graph — press F1 to open the help graphs, and Esc to leave one.

Common Mistakes

Dragging on the graph selects nodes when you wanted links — hold Alt while dragging.
A value jumps too far when dragged — Alt makes the step finer, Shift coarser.
Copying nodes loses their connections — only links between selected nodes are copied. Select both ends.
Clicking a link deletes it unexpectedly — that is Alt+click. Release Alt before clicking links you want to keep.

Node Reference — the full node reference, one page per node, grouped by category

Orchestrate Multiple Sequences with Stepper — the Stepper in use