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Free Worship Presentation Software
When I started in YWAM we used the old venerable OHP to present songs for worship. Obviously technology has changed, and so has how some centres present their songs for worship.
Most YWAM centres that I have been at use either Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote for their worship presentation. They work, but I reckon they are far from the ideal option. They are both commercial software and cost from $80 to $175 per computer running it and are not cross-platform. Neither one of the programs are actually designed for music presentation, but rather they are general presentation programs.
Three free cross platform options for church presentations are:
- openlp.org (Windows, Mac and Linux)
- OpenSong (Windows, Mac and Linux)
- OpenOffice.org Impress (Windows, Mac and Linux)
I’m a big fan of cross-platform software, especially in an environment like YWAM where there is diversity of people, and operating systems. This eliminate almost everything else out there that I could find.
One of the guys here in Calgary uses OpenSong for worship, which looks pretty good. It allows for presentation of they lyrics and lets you print out the song sheets as well. It’s pretty basic, but seems to work.
I have not had experience with the other programs, but what are the rest of you using for worship presentation software at your YWAM Centre? Do you have any experience with the three I have listed, or is there better stuff out there that I didn’t look at.
Let us know in the comments below …
We use OpenSong at The Rock
We use OpenSong at The Rock Church in Townsville and have found it good for the purpose. The latest version on Windows that we use is an improvement in features and stability. It's easy for people to use.
Graham
Re: Free Worship Presentation Software
I always wanted to try one of these apps to see what they do, how they work, if it's worth switching, if it's easy enough to use for those not so computer literate people who are used to MS PowerPoint. However, I never got around doing it. Now I'm motivated again to actually test those.
What I can talk about right now, though, is OOo (OpenOffice.org) Impress. If the reason for switching is that PowerPoint isn't ideal for the presentation, the OOo Impress wont be any better. I do use Impress myself for presentations for when I'm teaching and I'm very happy with it. It is a PowerPoint replacement, not a purpose build software for songs in the sense as the other 2 apps are.
If you are just looking for a cheaper/free solution for PowerPoint as a general pupose presentation software, then OOo Impress is the way to go. It'll handle the song presentation just as good as PowerPoint. But you wont find some of the features that might come handy for the specific purpose of displaying and keeping track of song sheets.
--~~~~~
Cheers,
Steve
Somebody's terminal is dropping bits. I found a pile of them over in the corner.
OpenLP Interview
I was listening to the latest Geeks and God Podcast, and they have an interview with one of the developers of OpenLP. They discuss where the project is going and what to expect from version 2 when it comes out of Beta testing.
You can hear the interview at http://geeksandgod.com/episode135
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