Simple Worship
Freeware for personal or church use. For other purposes please use the Contact form or email "SimpleWorship at SlashbackAssociates.com" for more information.
Simple Worship is intended for displaying lyrics on a screen through a computer-driven projector, but could be used for other types of presentations. Simple text files are displayed, one "verse" at a time. Verses are lines of text separated by blank lines.
Use "Open Song Folder..." on the File menu to select a folder with song files. (It will remember the folder next time you start.) If you're just starting, create a new folder and select it; as you type in new songs they will be saved in this folder.
When Simple Worship starts (or you use "Open Song Folder...") the Song List on the lower left will fill up with the songs (text files) found. Select a song and its lyrics will display in the right portion of the window. Double-click a song or select "Display Song" from the View menu and a full-screen window will appear with the first verse displayed. Press 2 to show the second verse, 3 for the third, then 1 to go back to the first verse... You get the idea. Press Escape to close the display window.
By default, you cannot edit the songs. It would be unpleasant to accidentally change the lyrics during worship... Select "Edit Mode" on the Edit menu and then you can edit. (It'll have a check mark.) When you choose "New Song" on the File menu it will also go into Edit Mode.
Blank lines above a verse will move the verse farther down on the display screen. Each line is centered, and the words will wrap to more lines if the line is too long.
If you need to rename a song, you'll have to "Save As..." with the new name and then delete the old one.
Programs
A Program List is a set of songs to be used "right now," i.e., the songs for today's worship. It appears in the upper left of the window. To set up a program, drag songs from the Song List, then drag them into the order you want. When you double-click a song in the program or select "Display Program" from the View menu, the highlighted song (or the first one if none are highlighted) will appear in the full-screen window. Press number keys to change verses in that song, then, when it's time to go to the next song, press Page Down and the next song in the list will be displayed. You can press Page Up to go to the previous song.
On the Program menu you can make a new program, save, open or delete programs. Note that Simple Worship does NOT prompt you to save programs that have changed! (How often do you use the same set of songs?) However, when Simple Worship is closed, the current program is automatically saved (as "CurrentProgram.sw" in the song folder), and then reopened the next time it starts up. This way, the next service can be planned in advance without the bother of saving, naming, opening (What did I name it!?)... Just start Simple Worship and it's ready to go.
If you need to remove a song from the program, highlight it and select "Remove Song" on the Program menu.
Any time a program is opened (including the automatic one at startup), Simple Worship checks to make sure all of the songs in the program are available. If one is missing, it will warn you and offer to remove it from the program. If you don't remove it then you will get a blank screen when it comes time to display the missing song.
Display Settings
Font, font color, and background color can be set with the appropriate menu items on the Settings menu. Presets can be saved and restored using the Presets menu. Select any combination to suit you, then select "Save Current..." on the Presets menu. Give it a name and it will appear on the Presets menu. Give it a good name, like "Monotype Corsiva Aqua on Maroon" (my favorite). To delete a preset, select it from the Delete menu.
Two default presets are always available. They both use the Verdana font, with white letters on a black background. The 800x600 set uses 36-point type, which gives you ten lines on the screen. The 1024x768 set uses 48-point type for nine lines per screen.
Display resolution and length of verses determine what font size will work well. You'll have to experiment. As you experiment, please be tasteful in selecting colors...
Settings for Individual Songs
Songs can have a line specifying the preset to use. Just add a line like this:
preset=Monotype Corsiva Aqua on Maroon
Make sure there aren't ANY spaces before the beginning of the preset name. Of course, this line won't appear on the display screen. If the preset indicated isn't available, it will use the current set.
Rather than using presets, the current settings can be stored in the song itself. Get the song looking just the way you want, then select "Save in Song" on the Settings menu. This will add a line at the top of the song similar to this:
settings=Monotype Corsiva,Bold,Italic,36,16776960,4194432
If a song has both a preset line and a settings line, the settings line will be used.
If you want all songs to have a few consistent looks, use presets. If you want each song to have its own character, use in-song settings.
Screen Adjustment
By default, the entire screen is used for displaying lyrics. If you want a margin around the lyrics, or if your hardware doesn't center the display correctly, use "Screen Adjust" on the View menu. Select "Set Adjustment..." and the screen will appear with a frame around the lyrics area. Use the arrow keys to position it, or hold Control with the arrow keys to shrink or expand it. Make sure "Use Adjustment" is checked and it will always use the adjustment.
Finally...
If you can afford a multiple-monitor capable system, you should probably buy Easy Worship.
Suggestions are always welcome for any of my software, but this one is dear to
my heart. I would hate to think I disrupted someone's worship experience.
Please let me know of any problems or ideas to make Simple Worship easier to
use. Please include the product name in the subject line of any email.
Use the Contact form or
email "SimpleWorship at SlashbackAssociates.com".
Credits
Simple Worship was created with Borland Delphi.
Distribution package created with Inno Setup.
History
v1.2
Added Program List feature.
Added settings in song.
v1.0
Our sister church has a really old laptop...
