Churches have different ways of worshiping. The system we suggest for entering your songs will work for different worship styles. You may find you don't require something for your way of worshiping. Feel free to adapt the system to meet your own needs. An example of this would be a church that moves from one song to the next without a pause. In a case like this you would want to remove the song titles from each song.



Above is a sample of the song template. The template is more of a reference on how the song should look when you are finished entering your song. To download the song template for entering new songs click here. Below is a suggestion on how to enter the songs quickly.

● Del all slides from the template but slide 1 and 2
● Del all notes on slide 2. 
● Save the file as a new template.
● Open the new template and save it as your new song title.
● On slide 2 type in the footer text in the slide pane.
● Fill in the title of slide 2 in the outline pane.
● Copy slide 2 to create additional slides (e.g. 3 & 4).
● Change the numbers on slides 3 & 4 in the outline pane.
● Enter the words for slide 2 in the slide pane.
● Enter the words for slide 3 in the slide pane. 
● Enter the words for slide 4 in the slide pane.
● Copy and past the words from the slide pane of slides 2,3 & 4 to the notes pane of slide 2
● Format the notes pane of slide 2 similar to the template.
● Copy the notes from slide 2 to slides 3 and 4.
● Add the *** ON SCREEN *** note to slides 2, 3 & 4.

    
When entering the words in the slide area make sure you use the correct return. In computers there are two types of returns. A hard return and a soft return. A hard return is created by hitting the enter key. A soft return is created by holding the shift key while hitting enter. The template we supply uses soft returns between lines in a verse and hard returns between verses. By using the correct return the line spacing will be automatic done for you.

If you find some lines of the verses too long to fit on the screen you can change the font size. If you change the font size, change all the lines and slides for that song to the same size. Don't go below 28 pts. If the line is still too long let it wrap to the next line and change the line spacing so the two lines are closer together.

Save all your songs as separate files. This will allow you to make up your song list for a service by inserting the individual songs. Treat each song as a master piece. You only have to create it once so create it properly as you will be using it for years. I helped a church setup their system a while back, they felt they didn't need to fill in the notes area as they are always given the exact order songs will be song in. It was working fine for them for awhile without using the notes area until Easter Sunday. The choir was up front and the congregation was singing along. The song went in a different order than was expected, the person running PowerPoint had no reference to let them know what was on the slides, and paged up, paged down, couldn't find where they were so they blanked the screen. If you learn a system and stick with it situations like this can be avoided.  

Make sure you do not change the background or the font colors when setting up your songs. They need to be set up properly so that they will adapt to the song list when inserted. If you change a background or a font color it will retain the properties you assign to it. Use the song template we provide to ensure your songs adapt to the backgrounds templates properly.