RoomSum for developers

You build what facilitators run: classes, their questions, the action plans, and the PowerPoint decks that drive the room. This guide covers authoring in RoomSum and in PowerPoint, in the order you will meet it, and what happens to your work over time. If you are coming from Mentimeter, read what is different first. Everything not covered here is on the full documentation page, and the Ask button answers from all of it.

Getting started

Run the demo before you build anything. Every new organization comes with a Demo class, code DEMO, holding four questions: one multiple choice, one poll, one Q&A, and a Snapshot that re-asks the multiple choice question at the end, with live answers and the course evaluation already turned on. The starter kit deck at roomsum.com/downloads is built around it. Install the add-ins, open the kit, and follow its slides with your phone in hand: it takes about five minutes and shows the whole loop, from inserting an add-in to watching a phone follow the deck, before you have authored a single question.

What you need installed. The PowerPoint add-ins, from roomsum.com/downloads, once per machine. The installer takes under a minute (on a Mac it opens PowerPoint's add-in folder and you drag one tile into it); quit PowerPoint completely and reopen it afterwards. The download buttons ask you to sign in first, with any RoomSum account (the free plan counts): signed out, each one reads Sign up free to download, with Log in under it. Everything else is a browser: sign in at roomsum.com. Every facilitator who presents from PowerPoint installs the same add-ins on their own machine. One thing to know before you build: PowerPoint's Add-ins list is sometimes slow to open, ten seconds or more, and once it is slow it tends to stay slow for the rest of that session. When that happens, save the deck and restart PowerPoint, and it opens quickly again. If a restart does not fix it, PowerPoint's connection to Microsoft's store may have stalled: turn Wi-Fi off, open Add-ins once, and turn Wi-Fi back on. Either way, insert each add-in once and duplicate the slide after that.

Do the RoomSum add-ins run in PowerPoint for the web? Yes, the RS add-ins (RS Start, RS Question and RS Extra) run in PowerPoint for the web. DS Check and DS Room do not yet: on the web they show a notice that says so. The web adds one step before presenting: after your last edit, start the slideshow from the last slide and press Esc, then present. The facilitator guide has it, with what to do if the show still moves ahead on its own. An add-in is installed in the browser there, not by the installer; the IT guide says how.

Building your first real class, start to finish.

1. Sign in at roomsum.com, which takes you straight to Classes & Questions in your organization (or asks you to pick one first), and create the class: a name and a short code. The code appears in PowerPoint setup and on printed material. The name can be changed later with Rename beside it; the code cannot, because decks carry it.
2. Add the questions. Each gets a permanent number, and the deck will refer to questions by that number.
3. If the course has product names, acronyms, or unusual spellings, put them in the class's Domain terms so the AI never "corrects" them.
4. Build the deck from your course template. Give it a RoomSum master slide first (next section), then place RS Start on the first slide, an RS Question slide for each multiple choice, poll and Snapshot question, an RS Question slide with Show results only ticked where you want a question's results on screen without moving the phones (for the Q&A question, that is usually the only slide it needs: see "Should the Q&A question get an RS Question slide?"), an RS Extra slide set to the action plan at the end if the class has one, and an RS Extra slide set to the course evaluation near the end if the class has it on. On each RoomSum slide, leave a strip along the bottom clear so the presenter can always reach PowerPoint's Next button (see "Should the add-in cover the whole slide?").
5. Rehearse alone: start a session from the RS Start slide, join it on your phone, walk the slides, end the session. Starting a session needs the facilitator role. If you created the organization you have every role; otherwise ask your admin to add facilitator to your account.
6. Lock the deck and send it to the facilitators.

Answering the room is the moderator's job, on the Moderation page, and the developer role does not open that page. Stock answers are written there too, so they are a moderator's job as well; a class you duplicate or share can still carry the stock answers it already has. If you also moderate, your admin gives you that role too.

The deck's foundation: a RoomSum master slide

The add-in fills its area with your RoomSum look. Anywhere the add-in does not cover, the slide's own background shows: along any edge that does not line up exactly, and for the moment before the live view appears on each slide. Setting the slide background to the same image hides all of that, and it is the single change that makes a deck look built rather than assembled.

Do it once, in the template, rather than slide by slide:

1. Download your RoomSum background. It lives under Organization, then Branding.
2. In PowerPoint, open View, then Slide Master, and add a blank layout named RoomSum. Set its background to that image with Format Background.
3. Use the RoomSum layout for every slide that carries a RoomSum add-in.

A deck built this way keeps the look when a facilitator presents it, and new RoomSum slides need no background work of their own.

Classes and questions

How do I create a class? Classes & Questions, then + New beside Classes. Give it a name and a short code. The code appears on printed material and in PowerPoint setup. Admins and developers can create classes. A class's page has tabs: Questions (with its action plans and Checkpoint rounds) and Setup (owner, sharing, archive, Domain terms, Session defaults and Report emails); admins also see Branding.

What question types are there? Three. Q&A: participants type their own questions and moderators answer them (one active Q&A question per class, because it feeds the answers page). Poll: participants type short open answers, and the AI groups similar ones live. Multiple choice: participants pick from options you write, and results appear as vote bars. When you write the options, Enter moves to the next one, or adds a new one from the last. A Snapshot is a multiple choice question that asks an earlier one again, so the screen can show how the room moved: it reads like any multiple choice question until you click Show previous on the results wall.

How do I add a multiple-choice question? Click Add question, choose Multiple choice, then write at least two options. Turn on Allow multiple selections under Advanced if participants may pick more than one.

How do I add a Snapshot? Click Add question, choose Snapshot, and pick the multiple choice question it asks again under Re-asks. The question text starts as a copy of that question's, so you can add a lead-in such as "Now that you've been through the deck, ...". The options come from the question it re-asks and are edited there, so the two always match. In the question list its chip says SNAP.

Does a multiple-choice question need a correct answer? No. Many multiple-choice questions are opinion polls with no right answer, and those need nothing more. When there is a right answer, mark it on the option: the question then shows "answer key set". Correct answers are never sent to participants' phones; the facilitator reveals them during the session.

What is the secondary prompt for? A supporting line shown under the question everywhere the question appears. Useful when the headline is short and the instruction is long ("Myth or Truth?" as the question, the scenario as the secondary prompt). It also affects the slide: a question with no secondary prompt grows to fill the header, up to two lines, while a question with one shares that space.

What is the results heading for? An optional heading that replaces the question text on the results view, the slide print image, and the published answers page. Q&A prompts like "What questions do you have about X?" read badly as a title over a list of answers, so "Your questions about X" goes here. Submission screens always show the real question. Leave it empty on polls and choice questions, because the result bars usually need their question above them.

What are Domain terms (the class glossary)? A comma-separated list of words spelled exactly as they must appear, so the AI preserves them instead of "correcting" them. Examples: DiSC, kWh, i4, and single letters like i, S, C. Set it per class on the class screen. If the AI keeps mangling a product name, this is the fix.

How do I limit how much someone can submit? Each question has a length cap and a maximum number of submissions per participant.

How do I duplicate a question? Clone on any question copies its content and settings, gives it the next free number, lists it directly after the original, and opens it for editing. It is the fast path for a set of similar questions.

Can participants write in Spanish? Yes, per class: turn on Spanish submissions in the class's Session defaults on Classes & Questions. Phones offer English or Spanish, and what is written in Spanish is rendered into English for grouping, moderation and the wall; answers go back in English. Off by default; other languages on request.

The deck: slides and add-ins

How do I set up a deck? On the first slide, insert RS Start (Insert, My Add-ins, RS Start) and enter your organization slug, the class code, and the class key, copied from the class under Classes & Questions. The other RoomSum add-ins on the deck pick those up on their own. On each question slide, insert RS Question and choose the question from the list, which fills in once the class key matches. Wherever you want a question's results on screen without moving the phones, insert RS Question, choose the question and tick Show results only. If RoomSum cannot be reached or the class has no questions yet, you type the question number instead. You only need the dialog once per add-in: for the next question, duplicate the RS Question slide, click the copy once so it is the only slide selected, choose its question and press Save, which gives the copy an identity of its own. The number is required: Save says what it is waiting for and stays off until the number is in, a slide without one opens straight into its settings in the editor, and in a show it shows a notice instead of results. A results-only slide (Show results only ticked) never shows the join code or QR, and the phones stay in the lobby while it is on screen. The slide reads the question list when its settings open and when the organization, class code or class key changes, not while the form stays open, so a question you added a moment ago appears after Cancel and Edit settings, or after you retype the last character of the key.

My deck has RS Results, RS Action or RS Eval slides. Rebuild those slides. The three add-ins were retired from the installer on October 8, 2026: re-running the installer removes them on Windows, and on a Mac they stay in PowerPoint's wef folder until their roomsum-manifest files are deleted, so a computer set up after that date does not have them; their manifests are no longer offered either. Replace an RS Results slide with an RS Question slide with Show results only ticked, an RS Action slide with an RS Extra slide set to the action plan, and an RS Eval slide with an RS Extra slide set to the course evaluation. On a computer where the old add-in is gone, such a slide shows that its add-in is not available.

Should the Q&A question get an RS Question slide? Usually not. Every phone has an Ask a question button for the whole session, whatever is on screen, so the Q&A question needs no slide to open it, and an RS Question slide for it only moves every phone onto the question. To go through what people asked, use an RS Question slide set to the Q&A question with Show results only ticked: it shows the questions live, grouped as they arrive, with their counts and the answers as moderators approve them, and the phones stay where they are. Put one after each part of the course where you take questions. Keep an RS Question slide for the Q&A question only where you want to invite questions out loud, such as an opening "What do you want answered today?": it puts the question in front of every phone at once. The starter kit is built this way.

The add-in does not fill the slide. What do I do? Drag it. An inserted add-in often lands smaller than the slide, and on Windows it usually does. Selecting it works differently on the two platforms. On Windows, click anywhere on the add-in to select it. On a Mac, a click inside goes to the add-in rather than to PowerPoint, so click its very edge instead; that edge is also where you grab it to move it. On a Mac the first click inside an add-in can also just activate it, so click a field a second time to type in it. The resize handles appear once it is selected: grab a corner handle and stretch it to the slide edges, but stop short of the bottom edge (see the next question). Do this before you set the print image, since the picture is taken at the size the add-in occupies. The exception is RS Extra, for the action plan or the course evaluation, which is meant to stay small so your own words sit beside it.

Should the add-in cover the whole slide? Cover everything except a strip along the bottom. PowerPoint's own Previous and Next controls sit along the bottom edge of the show, and an add-in stretched over that edge hides them. A clear strip about half an inch (1 cm) tall is enough. The RoomSum background on your master slide shows through the strip, so it looks like part of the design. Leave it clear on every slide that carries a RoomSum add-in, in decks shown from PowerPoint for the web too.

The strip had a second job in October 2026. A PowerPoint for Mac bug left the keyboard with any add-in a presenter clicked, so the remote and arrow keys skipped builds until the presenter clicked once on the slide outside the add-in, and the strip was where they clicked. Microsoft fixed that on October 15, and the fix reaches a copy of PowerPoint when it is fully quit and opened again, so the strip no longer has to be a click target and a Next button in it is no longer needed. A deck that already has one can keep it: pressing it is a click on the slide, which moves the show on, and it works only on the show itself, not in Presenter View.

How do I get a picture of the slide for printing or PDF? Each configured slide stores a print image, refreshed whenever you save that slide's settings or click Set print image. Then use Review mode, which brings every print image in the deck to the front so the whole deck prints or exports with its content visible.

What is the difference between Review mode and Live view? Review mode puts the pictures in front, for printing, PDF export, and reading a deck offline. Live view puts them behind the add-ins, which is the normal state and the one to present in. In Live view the picture paints during slide transitions and the live view lands on the same pixels, so the show stays smooth.

My printed deck came out with blank slides. PowerPoint only starts an add-in on a slide you actually visit, so slides you never opened have nothing to show. Click Review mode first, which brings every stored print image forward, then print or export.

A slide printed with old vote bars. Print images are snapshots. Re-save that slide's settings (or click Set print image) to refresh it after content changes.

Do I have to rebuild the deck for each session? No. Decks bind to the class, not the session, so the same deck attaches to whatever session is live, run after run.

The Start slide is also the join screen

In the editor, RS Start is where you sign in and open the session. In the slideshow, the same slide shows the room how to join: a full-size QR code and the session code. Facilitators leave it on screen while people arrive; phones sit in the lobby until the first question slide. There is no separate QR add-in to insert.

A hidden setup slide and a separate QR slide

Some facilitators prefer to keep the sign-in slide out of the show entirely: a hidden RS Start at the front of the deck for setup, and a second RS Start placed wherever the room should see the join screen. That works, with one extra step, because a hidden slide never runs in the slideshow and each add-in remembers its own class separately.

1. Put RS Start on slide one, sign in there, and start the session as usual. Hide the slide (right-click it, Hide Slide).
2. Insert a second RS Start where the join screen belongs and stretch it to fill the slide.
3. In the editor, that slide offers "Use this deck's class for this slide" with the class named. Press it. No sign-in is needed on this slide.
4. Lock the deck from either Start slide.

In the show, the second slide is the join screen, QR code and all. If it says the slide is not bound to a class yet, step 3 was skipped.

Shipping a course deck

A configured deck travels. Build it with the add-in slides pointed at a course, save the file, and send it. A facilitator installs the RoomSum add-ins on their machine, opens the deck, signs in on the RS Start slide once, and presents. Nothing on their machine needs configuring: the deck carries its own setup, and this works across platforms, so a deck built on Windows presents from a Mac and the other way around. A facilitator can keep decks for several classes, even saved under the same file name one after another: each deck answers to its own class, never to whatever was opened from that place before.

To make a shipped deck foolproof, lock it. On the RS Start slide, after choosing the class, admins and developers see "Lock this deck" at the bottom, beside Sign out. A locked deck shows facilitators exactly one course and one Start button, so a session can never be started for the wrong class from the deck. A facilitator without access to that course is told exactly what to ask their organization admin for. Admins and developers can unlock from the same slide when a deck needs repointing. Any admin or developer can unlock it, including someone who received the deck from another organization along with a copy of the class; the lock keeps a facilitator from starting the wrong class, it does not protect the deck.

Testing your deck

How do I test my own deck without a facilitator seat? Start a test on the web: Test beside the class on Classes & Questions. Then open your deck and run the show: every RoomSum slide drives the test exactly as it would a live session, and RS Start, signed in as you, shows the test's join code. A test behaves exactly like a real session for you and for the phones, and it is thrown away: hidden from the Sessions and Moderation lists, its reports sent only to you, and gone six hours after it ends. RS Start itself starts only real sessions, which need the facilitator role. The deck drives your test only while no real session is live for the class; a facilitator's real session always takes over.

Does a test leave anything behind? No records: its answers, action plans and evaluations are deleted six hours after the test ends. Its reports go only to the person who ran it, marked TEST: when a test ends, the session summary, the action plans email and the evaluation report come to you and to nobody else, whoever is subscribed on the class. Plan reminders are never sent for a test. A plan written in a test says TEST on its page and on the copy emailed to the address typed, because it is deleted with the test and its link stops working then; the evaluation on the phone says so too.

Can I try a class without PowerPoint? Yes, if you are an admin, a facilitator or a developer. Test, beside a class on Classes & Questions, or Test this class first on Sessions once you pick a class, opens a test session on one screen: the real results wall and a simulated phone side by side, both live. That phone is counted like any other, so one phone you join with as well shows as 2 in the phone count. Put each question on the wall and answer on the phone. When the class has them turned on and your organization's plan includes them, the last steps offer the action plan and the evaluation. End test closes the test so its reports come to you; Delete now deletes everything at once and sends nothing. Admins also find Test beside each class in Moderation. Moderators do not have it: a test cannot be moderated. While a test is running, the class's deck drives it exactly as it drives a live session: open the deck, run the show, and every RoomSum slide moves the test's phones. Signed in on RS Start as the person who started the test, the slide shows the test's join code, and if you can start sessions it also offers Start a session for the real one, which ends the test (its reports come to you, as with End test) and moves the deck to the real session. A real session of the class, when one is running, always comes first.

Action plans

What is an action plan? A form participants fill in, usually at the end of a session: up to five action items, each with a checklist of steps and a target date. They get a copy by email, then a reminder before each deadline. Included with Business, a $9/mo (or $90/yr) add-on on Starter, not available on Free. Your 30-day trial (Business) includes it.

Where do I create one? Action Plans in the top menu. Admin or developer role. Pick the course, give it a title, and save. From a class on Classes & Questions, Add one opens the editor with that class already chosen and the title set to "Your action plan", ready to change. The list groups plans by class: the class you last worked on is open when you arrive, the others stay folded until you click them.

Do I need a new plan every time I teach the class? No. One plan per class is reused for every run, which is why its link and any QR you print stay good. Each response records which session it came from, so the emails still say the right date. Make a second plan only if the class genuinely needs two different ones.

Why can't I see the Action Plans screen? It's there for admins and developers, but the screen asks you to upgrade unless your plan includes it. On Starter, add it under Organization, then Add-ons; on Free, move to Starter or Business first.

How do I put it on a slide? Insert the RS Extra add-in: Insert, My Add-ins, RS Extra. Its setup screen first asks What should this slide show?; choose The action plan. It picks up your org, class code, and class key from the deck, and shows the QR, the short link, and a live count of plans submitted in the current session. Leave it small and put your own instructions beside it. It does not move phones, and the QR carries the live session so each plan is tied to that delivery. While the slide is on screen, phones already in the session also show a "Go to the Action Planner" button, so nobody in the room has to scan; the facilitator guide covers that. Each RS Extra slide carries its own choice; Show the course evaluation instead, on its setup screen, switches it. The starter kit has a ready-made slide for it.

What is the link code? The last part of the plan's address: roomsum.com/plan/your-code. Leave it blank and one is generated. Set your own to get something printable, and use the short form roomsum.com/p/your-code on a QR code or handout.

Can I change the link code later? Yes, from the same screen. Anything already printed with the old code stops working, so change it before you distribute, not after.

What does the session date do? It is only a fallback. Normally the date comes from the session someone attended, and that is what the emails say. Set this if you hand the plan out away from a live session and still want a date on it. Either way it does not drive reminders: those come from each item's target date.

How does RoomSum know which session a plan belongs to? If the link carried a session, from the RS Extra slide or a session-scoped link, that one is used, and it must belong to the same class. Otherwise RoomSum uses the class's one open session, or one closed in the last twelve hours. If two could apply it records none rather than guess, and falls back to the plan's own date.

Can I move a plan to a different class? No. A plan stays with the class it was created under. Create a new one on the right class instead.

Only some of my classes are in the dropdown. Archived and deleted classes are excluded. Restore the class, or pick another.

How do I stop taking responses? Open the plan and click Deactivate at the top right of the editor. The link then tells visitors the plan is not available, and Reactivate brings it back at the same link. Plans already submitted stay editable by the people who submitted them. You cannot deactivate a plan while a session is live on the class: end the session first.

Can I delete an action plan? Only while nobody has submitted a plan under it. Delete sits beside Deactivate at the top right of the editor; when it is greyed out, the line under the buttons says why. Once plans exist, deactivate instead, and the plans stay with the people who wrote them. Neither works while a session is live on the class, because an RS Extra slide may be showing the plan: end the session first. A plan under a class in the trash can be deleted along with its plans, which would go with the class anyway. Deleting the class removes the definition and its plans together once the 30-day trash period ends.

How do participants get back into their plan? The private link in their confirmation email and in every reminder. If they have lost it, roomsum.com/plan/mine signs them in with the address they used and lists every plan they have submitted.

How do reminders work? One email is sent a week before each target date, listing everything due that day. Three items due the same day is one email, not three. Finished items are skipped, and moving a date moves the reminder. Participants can switch reminders off from their own plan.

Can I see who has responded? The plan list shows the submission count. Per-person completion tracking and reporting are not built yet.

Course evaluations

How do I turn on the course evaluation for a class? On Classes & Questions, open the class and tick Course evaluation under Session defaults (Business and Enterprise), and set how long it stays open after a session closes: 20 hours by default, 0 for a demonstration, 72 for three days. Four questions, anonymous, one per participant, opened by a facilitator from the control room or an RS Extra slide set to the course evaluation. Results, the NPS and a CSV sit on the session's report under Reports; the class report there carries the cumulative NPS across sessions.

How do I put it on a slide? Insert the RS Extra add-in: Insert › My Add-ins › RS Extra. Its setup screen first asks What should this slide show?; choose The course evaluation, then set your org, class code and class key once. While it is on screen in a show it opens the evaluation on every phone in the session and shows a live count of responses, with a small join QR for anyone not on their phone yet. Keep it small beside your own closing words. Show the action plan instead, on its setup screen, switches the slide to the action plan.

Checkpoint Live

For organizations that have connected DriveState, a course can run a Checkpoint: a baseline round before the teaching, a practice round after it, and a measure round at the end, each a short live role-play on every phone. Rounds are authored in DriveState. In RoomSum you add them to a class under Classes & Questions, at Checkpoint rounds beside the action plans, and put them in the deck with the two green add-ins:

• DS Check runs one round from a slide. It stays small, like RS Extra, so your instructions for the round sit beside it. Each slide carries one round, chosen when you build the deck, so the deck is the running order: the baseline slide before the teaching, practice after it, the measure round at the end.
• DS Room shows DriveState's Room View for a round, full slide, for the debrief.

Nothing about participants needs preparing: no roster, no email addresses and no invitations. Every phone in the session gets each round, and DriveState matches the same person across rounds without asking for a name.

Working for another organization

Two ways, and the right one depends on where the course should live.

Join their organization as a developer. Their admin adds your address to their team with the developer role. You build the class and its deck inside their account, they own the result, and you see nothing of their billing or team. This is the simplest path when the course is theirs from the start.

Build in your own organization and share the class. Create the class in your own account, then, from the class screen, share it to the address of an admin or developer at the other organization. They accept it and it becomes their own copy: same name, same class code where that code is free there (otherwise a suffix is added), the same question numbers, and the domain terms and stock answers if you chose to include them. It gets a class key of its own. Nothing links the two copies afterwards, so later changes on either side stay where they were made; share again to hand over a new copy. Session history and participant data never travel, and questions beyond their plan's limit arrive deactivated.

The deck needs one change after a share. A deck you built against your own class drives your class, not their copy, because their copy carries its own class key. Open the deck, go to the RS Start slide, and save its settings with their organization, class code, and class key, which they read from the class under Classes & Questions. Every other RoomSum slide follows that change on its own, and the question numbers still match, since the copy keeps them. Lock the deck and send it.

Housekeeping

How do I reorder questions? Use the up and down buttons in the question list. Reordering is a convenience for you: it changes the display order in the editor only. The question numbers (Q1, Q2, and so on) never change, because PowerPoint slides bind to the number, so a deck keeps working after you reorder.

How do I stop using a question without deleting it? Deactivate it. Inactive questions keep their content and their number.

Can I delete a question? Only one that has never collected anything: no submissions, votes, answers, or stock answers. Those questions show Delete in the class editor and read "nothing collected yet". A question that has collected anything can only be deactivated, which keeps its content and its number. To remove everything a class gathered, move the class to the trash instead.

Class ownership and the editing lock

Every class records who created it, and carries a current owner (the creator, until an admin reassigns it). The owner, or any admin, can lock editing from the class's settings panel. On a locked class, other developers can view everything and run sessions as usual, but changing settings or questions is refused for everyone except the owner and admins, and the page says so plainly. Locking protects finished course work from accidental edits when several developers share a tenant; new classes are born unlocked, so collaboration stays the default. Admins can reassign ownership from the same panel when a course changes hands.

The class key

What is the class key? It is what a PowerPoint deck presents to drive this class. Every RS slide saved for the class carries it, which is how a deck starts and runs sessions, shows results, and reveals answer keys without the presenter signing in. The key authorizes the deck, not a person. It is shown on the class's settings panel with Copy for deck setup.

Why would I regenerate the class key? Because a deck has gone where it should not have: a facilitator who has left still has the file, a deck was emailed outside the organization, or a copy sat on a shared machine. Anyone holding a deck with the old key could run your sessions. Regenerate issues a new key and the old one stops working at once. Decks already in the field stop driving until each slide is re-saved with the new key, or until a facilitator signs in on RS Start and starts or locks from it, which rebinds the deck automatically. Nothing else changes: the class code, the join flow, past sessions, and answers stay as they were. Treat it like changing a lock, not routine maintenance.

Archiving, deleting, and the trash

What is the difference between archiving and deleting? Archiving only hides a class from the lists and keeps everything working; archived classes still count toward your plan's class limit. Deleting puts it in the trash on its way to being erased, and trashed classes do not count toward the limit.

What happens when I delete a class? It goes to the trash. It stops running immediately and leaves every list, and you can restore it for 30 days. After that it is deleted permanently along with all of its session history.

How do I get a deleted class back? Classes & Questions, then the Trash section, then Restore.

Can I reuse the code of a class I deleted? Yes, immediately. A trashed class releases its code. If you later restore it and the code is taken, RoomSum asks you to free the code first.

How do I delete something permanently right now? In the Trash section, admins get Delete now…, which asks you to type the class code. This erases every session, submission, and answer that class ever had. It cannot be undone.

Sharing and reusing classes

How do I copy a class to another organization of mine? If you hold the admin or developer role in more than one organization, the class header shows Copy to… beside Share and Duplicate. Pick the organization and a class code for the copy, and it is there at once: no email, no inbox, nothing to accept. It is a copy, owned by you in that organization, with no link back and no editing lock. Its active action plans come along too, each with a new link code, when that organization has action planning; the note after the copy says if any stayed behind. Plan content never travels. Share stays the way to give a class to someone else. Session defaults travel too, with Copy to…, Duplicate and Share alike: multi-day, session length, answers during the session, Spanish submissions, course evaluation and its window are part of the course design. Branding stays with the organization.

How do I copy a class inside my own organization? Duplicate it. The copy gets its own code and its own class key.

How do I give a class to another organization? Share it from the class screen. RoomSum sends a copy to the address you name, and they accept it into their own organization. Nothing links the two afterward: it is a copy, not a subscription. As they accept, they can give the copy its own class code (the sender's code is only the default). To start sessions on the copy they need the facilitator role in their own organization; the developer role lets them accept and edit it, not start it. On the machine where the deck is opened next, picking the copy on RS Start and starting (a test session will do) moves every RS Question slide in the deck to the copy within a few seconds and saves that binding into the slides; save the deck afterwards so it travels.

Does sharing include the answers? It includes the class structure, questions, domain terms, and optionally stock answers. Session history and participant data never travel.

Troubleshooting

Classes and questions

"This class already has an active Q&A question." Only one Q&A question can be active per class, because it feeds a single answers page. Deactivate the existing one first.

"The plan allows a limited number of active questions per class." Deactivate a question or upgrade. Inactive questions do not count.

"The plan allows a limited number of classes." Archive or delete one, or upgrade. Archived classes still count; trashed ones do not.

"This class is archived. Unarchive it to add questions." Unarchive from the class screen.

"This class has session history and can't be deleted." Use Delete, which trashes it, or rename it. Permanent erasure with history intact is the admin-only "Delete now…" in the Trash section.

"You don't have permission for that change." Your role does not cover it. Branding, team, billing, and permanent deletion are admin-only; developers can author classes and questions.

PowerPoint

I duplicated a question slide and now it will not drive the room. A copied slide carries its original's identity, and two slides claiming one identity means RoomSum trusts neither. Click the duplicated slide once in the thumbnail pane, so it is the only slide selected, open its setup screen, choose its question and press Save. The slide learns who it is and both copies behave. If the setup screen says the identity is not confirmed, click the slide once more, wait a moment, and Save again.

A slide I just added opened with another class filled in. A slide you add to a deck takes the deck's class from the deck itself: RS Start keeps it inside the file, so this works on any computer. The setup screen opens with a class filled in from your computer, and an amber note saying so, only when the deck cannot tell it: the deck was bound before September 24, 2026 and its RS Start slide has not been shown since, or PowerPoint is older than Microsoft 365 and Office 2024 (a volume-licensed Office 2021, for example), which cannot read what RS Start keeps in the file. Check the organization and class code, correct them if they are not this deck's, and press Save to this deck. Until you do, the slide shows the room nothing. For an older deck, show its RS Start slide once in the editor and save the deck, and every slide added after that takes its class.

"No question #N in this class yet." The slide points at a question number that does not exist. Add it under Classes & Questions, or change the number on the slide. Remember that reordering questions does not change their numbers.

The add-in area is blank in the deck. PowerPoint starts an add-in only on a slide you visit, and only when the machine is online. For a deck someone will page through offline or print, use Review mode so the stored pictures show instead.

A slide shows its question but no join code or results, and only on Windows. The deck is in Review mode: the print images are in front of the add-ins. Windows shows the picture; a Mac draws add-ins on top of every shape, which is why the same deck looks right there. Open any RoomSum slide's settings and click Live view, which sends every print image behind its add-in. On Windows, where it matters, the RS Start slide carries the warning and the same button on its setup screen, in both its signed-out and signed-in views, because a covered question slide cannot show anything itself. A review left on for more than twelve hours is undone by itself the next time a RoomSum slide opens in the editor. A Mac stays quiet about it, because a Mac is not affected.

After a show on a Mac, a RoomSum slide shows nothing in the editor, or keeps spinning. Two different things look alike here. Controls on a configured slide appear only when the mouse is over it, so hover first. If hovering shows nothing and the slide stays frozen, PowerPoint for Mac has suspended that slide's add-in when the show ended and not woken it; the slide is fine. Close the deck and reopen it. This does not affect a running show, only editing afterwards.

"This needs the PowerPoint add-in host." The page is open in a normal browser tab instead of inside PowerPoint. Use it from the slide.

"Needs a newer PowerPoint (Microsoft 365)." Print images and deck modes need a current Microsoft 365 build on Mac or Windows. The live view still works.

"Select just this slide, then add the print image." More than one slide is selected. Click the single slide first.

Every RoomSum slide says ADD-IN ERROR. The add-ins are not installed on this computer. To check, open Insert › My Add-ins: if RS Start and the other RoomSum add-ins are not listed, run the installer from roomsum.com/downloads, then quit PowerPoint completely and reopen it. Do not delete or re-insert the slides: nothing is wrong with them, and they work again as soon as the add-ins are installed. In PowerPoint for the web there is no installer: add each add-in with Upload My Add-in (see "Does RoomSum work in PowerPoint on the web?" in the how-to). A slide built with RS Results, RS Action or RS Eval is the exception: those add-ins are retired, so rebuild it (see "My deck has RS Results, RS Action or RS Eval slides").

A RoomSum slide says ADD-IN ERROR after I re-ran the installer. First check that the add-ins are listed under Insert › My Add-ins. If they are not, they are not installed (see the entry above): install them and leave the slides alone. If they are listed and a slide still shows ADD-IN ERROR, read on. PowerPoint ties each add-in on a slide to the version of the add-in it was inserted with, and when that version changes, a slide made before the change can show ADD-IN ERROR. The RoomSum and DriveState add-ins all changed version on 6 October 2026, when they got new icons, so a slide made before then can show it. Earlier changes were DS Check on 21 and 23 September, and DS Room on 21 September. Delete the add-in from the slide and insert it again from Insert › My Add-ins. The deck's class fills itself in; set whatever else that slide carries again, such as DS Check's round. A slide built with RS Results, RS Action or RS Eval cannot be fixed this way, because the installer now removes those add-ins: rebuild it instead (see "My deck has RS Results, RS Action or RS Eval slides").

The RS Extra slide is an empty white box on Windows. RS Extra is its own add-in with its own manifest. Confirm it is installed on that machine, not only the RS Question and RS Start add-ins.

My deck stopped connecting after a change to the class. A class's code never changes, so look at its key: if an admin or the class's owner regenerated the class key, every slide still carries the old one. Re-save each RS slide with the new key, or sign in on RS Start and start or lock from there, which rebinds the deck. A copy of a class (a duplicate, or one shared with you) has its own code and key, so a deck built for the original does not drive the copy until its slides are set up for it.

When to contact support

The quickest way is inside RoomSum: open the Account menu on any staff page and choose Send feedback. Pick General feedback or Something went wrong and write what happened. Your name, email address, organization and the page you were on travel with the message, so we can follow up without a round of questions, and the same dialog shows the status of everything you sent before, from received to fixed.

Writing by email instead? Have this ready: your organization slug, the class code, the session join code, roughly when it happened, and the exact message you saw. The address is info@roomsum.com.