Setting up your song list in a clean and organized fashion makes it easy to move around without sending the wrong things to the screen. During the service there is not a lot of time to react if things do not go as you expected.

Below is a list of instructions on how to insert a song into your song list. The slides will be inserted under the slide you have highlighted. Highlight the top slide to have the song inserted just under the welcome screen. We do not use a blank slide after the title as this allows us to move right from the welcome screen into the worship. Blank slides are a series of dashes “——-” that we use to create spaces between the songs.

STEP 1. Under the drop down menus click on Insert, and then choose the “Slides from files….” option.

STEP 2. In the popup window choose the Browse button.

STEP 3. Under the look in drop down list locate the directory where your songs are located, then choose a song you wish to insert, and click open.

STEP 4. Click on the insert all button, and then click on the close window button.

Once the slides have been inserted they can easily be moved around in the slide layout view. To move a single slide drag it to a new location. To move a group of slides or an entire song click on the first slide then hold down the shift key and click on the bottom slide.

Always keep a blank slide at the bottom of the list. If you accidentally enter a number using the keyboard that is higher than the slide numbers in your presentation you will be moved to the last slide in the list. If this is blank slide, you wont be sending the wrong song to the screen. The blank slide at the end also allows you to arrow down when the last song is over.

You will need to copy the HalvettBlackCond font into your windows font directory. All the downloadable songs have been formatted using this font. The font is the same type as Arial only bolder and more condensed. It works excellent as a projected font as it is more readable. The file needs to be copied to your WINDOWS\FONTS directory.

VIEW OPTIONS

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1. Outline View. Clicking this tab displays the outline pane. This view shows an outline of the text on each page.

2. Slide View. Clicking this tab displays the slide view pane. This view shows a thumbnail of each slide in a presentation.

3. Normal View. Clicking this icon causes the window to be displayed in normal view. This is the best view when using an extended desktop.

4. Slide Sorter View. Clicking this icon causes the window to display thumbnails of each slide within a presentation. To change the order of a slide in slide sorter view, hold down the left mouse button on the slide to be moved and drag to the new location. We do not use this view while setting up songs but rather use it when sorting or rearranging announcements.

5. Slide Show. Clicking this icon begins playing the presentation. When on an extended desktop system, the presentation will be displayed on the second screen and the primary monitor will display the outline view. From this point on you must use your keyboard to move through the slides. Use the Up/Down arrows or type in a slide number and hit enter.

DRAWING TOOLBAR

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1. Draw Menu. Clicking Draw displays the draw menu. The draw menu provides options for creating, grouping, nudging, aligning, rotating and changing objects.

2. Select Object. The cursor allows you to select objects. Click this icon, then click an object using the left mouse button.

3. Text Box. To draw a text box, click this icon, hold down the left mouse button on the starting point and drag. Use this command to create text for your announcements or sermon notes.

4. Font Color. To apply color to text, select the text then click this icon. To change the color, click the arrow located beside the icon. Use this to change the color of the font for announcements or sermon notes. We suggest not using this command for our songs as it will override the color scheme settings.

5. Object Shadow. This places a shadow on a selected object or text. This is the shadow we suggest using with songs. It will adapt to the slide color scheme settings and provides greater control than the shadow text command.

FORMATTING TOOLBAR

1. Font . The font name is displayed here. To change the font, click the arrow located to the right of the field and make a selection from the options provided. The songs are all formatted using Halvett Black Condensed which we have found to be the most readable font for music. For a download link to the Halvett Black Condensed font please see the online tutorial.

2. Font Size. The font size is displayed here in points. To change the font size, click the arrow located to the right of the field and make a selection from the options provided. You can also type a number in the box. If the font at 36 points trails onto the next line, reduce the font size to 35 (or smaller if required).

3. Font Options. These buttons change the font to bold, italic and underline.

4. Shadow Text. We suggest not using this option as it has limited control and overrides the color scheme settings.

5. Aligning Text. Use these buttons to align your text.

PICTURE TOOLBAR

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1. Contrast. Increase/decrease contrast in selected photo.

2. Brightness. Increase/decrease brightness in selected photo

3. Crop. This allows you to change the size of an inserted photo.

4. Format Picture. Displays a window, providing options for cropping, image control, position sizing, and borders.

5. Set Transparent Color. Allows you to set a transparent color for the selected picture. This is a good tool for placing your church logo on announcements or welcome pages..

INSERT MENU

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Slides from Files. The insert Slides from Files command allows you to insert an individual song file or announcement. This is ideal for bringing PowerPoint slides in from another file.

SLIDE SHOW MENU

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1. Set Up Show. This option allows you to configure PowerPoint to show the slide show through the projector when in extended desktop mode. This process is described in detail under Display Slide Show On. Slide Shows can also be set to loop forever for announcements.

2. Slide Transitions. This command allows you to change the slide transitions between announcements or sermons. We suggest not using slide transitions in your song lists as it tends to distract from worship.

FORMAT MENU

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1. Slide Color Scheme. This option allows you to change the default color of the text and shadows for a song list. This process is described in detail in the Slide Color Scheme tutorial: Slide Color Scheme.

2. Background. This option allows you to change the default background for the music list. This process is described in the following tutorials: Using  ImageVine Worship Photo Templates & Custom Jpeg Backgrounds.

PowerPoint is capable of playing video files- that is clips- but not video overlay. Meaning all those beautiful moving backgrounds (we call them Motions) are useless to you if you operate in PowerPoint. You can insert the file, but then your lyrics will not display. The Motions are video files just like the clips and that is the only way PowerPoint can handle them- as a clip.

PowerPoint does not actually insert the video file into the presentation. It links to it. This is why on occasion the video won’t play properly- you’ll most likely get a black box and no video- (the link structure could be too deep- solution: move the video into the same folder as the PowerPoint file, ideally C:\folder). Also if you create your presentation on one computer then move it (via a flash drive for example) to another computer, you’ll need to transfer the video file to the other computer as well- even though you technically already inserted it into the presentation. Again, save it in the same folder. (Note: Videos won’t play properly across a network.)

There is an occasional problem with some versions of PowerPoint and the default player they use- it may not recognize the mpeg1 file. Don’t let this deter you- all you need to do is change the extension from .mpg to .asx which won’t be recognized, so PowerPoint will then switch to Windows Media Player, which will recognize this and play it fine. (If you get a white screen and nothing else when you attempt to play video that’s your clue to try this).

90% of the time, your video will insert into PowerPoint and play without a hitch; it’s an unfortunate few who experience any trouble with it. So go ahead, add video to your next presentation (sermon illustrations, lead-ins, pre-service countdowns, etc…There are lots of ways to incorporate video in PowerPoint).

Oh- click the link for step by step instructions on: How to Insert Video into PowerPoint.

Setting up PowerPoint for Worship in under 5 Minutes!

I know of churches spending 5 hours a week setting up their Sunday worship service, and have sat in the congregation and painfully watched as they page through slides looking for verses. It seems we’ve traded the distractions of overheads for a frantic hunt for the correct slide. It doesn’t need to be this way; I’ll show you how to spend less than five minutes a week using PowerPoint for Worship, distraction free.

PowerPoint is a linear application that was designed for business presentations where you step forward through your message, much like you would if you were presenting a sermon outline. Using PowerPoint for Worship is a little more challenging as you seldom go in order, are constantly moving or jumping from verse to chorus and back, and the presentation also changes every week.

How do you anticipate what’s coming next in PowerPoint?

For most churches, the projector is installed and the first Sunday comes: they load up PowerPoint and realize they have no idea how to setup a song or move from verse to chorus. The challenge comes when PowerPoint is changed to presentation mode- the congregation and computer operator see the same screen. So how do you anticipate what will appear on the screen next when you are no longer in PowerPoint’s outline view? Some ways that are being used in Christian churches are hyperlinks or hotkeys (hidden buttons on the screen), or creating a printout of the slides. This works as long as the worship leader follows the pattern you have in your presentation (verse, chorus, verse, verse, chorus, etc.), however when the worship leader strays from the pattern you are lost. Or worse yet, they add a song not in the current schedule.

In order to use PowerPoint distraction free you need to configure the computer properly and come up with a method for using PowerPoint, a way to format, find and display songs for worship. Follow the steps below and you’ll be on your way to setting up PowerPoint for a Sunday morning worship service in less than 5 minutes, distraction free.

4 Steps to Using PowerPoint in Church

        1. Dual Screen Setup for PowerPoint
        2. Entering Song Files in PowerPoint
        3. Creating a PowerPoint Worship Schedule
        4. How to use a PowerPoint Worship Schedule

Congregation shouldn’t see the Windows Desktop

A dual screen setup is a way of having two monitors connected to one computer with each screen showing a different layout or desktop, in windows this is known as an ‘extended desktop’. You can have one screen for the computer operator which shows all the icons and menus (the standard desktop) and a second screen for the congregation (extended desktop) with no icons or menus, this way the congregation never sees what you are doing on the standard desktop.

You may already have the hardware!

I went into the media booth at another large church that had been using PowerPoint for over two years. I was shocked to see all this video and computer equipment, it seemed like they knew what they were doing; however their dual video card was incorrectly configured. I asked if I could show them something, in a few minutes they were sitting there amazed, using the dual screen setup for PowerPoint. Most churches already have a dual video card; it’s just not configured properly. The dual video card has two outputs- one is used for the computer monitor and the second is connected to the projector.

Already have a dual video card

If you have a video card that has two outputs and the computer monitor and projector screen show the same information, follow the tutorial Extend Desktop Mode to set it up correctly.

Purchasing a dual video card

If you have a video card with a single output then we suggest purchasing a new video card with two outputs. After installing the new video card follow the tutorials Extend Desktop Mode to set it up correctly. (You can also install a second video card in your computer, however there can be compatibility issues when having two video cards installed in one computer, so we don’t recommend this unless you are experienced with computer hardware.)

4 Steps to Using PowerPoint in Church

       1. Dual Screen Setup for PowerPoint
       2. Entering Song Files in PowerPoint
       3. Creating a PowerPoint Worship Schedule
       4. How to use a PowerPoint Worship Schedule