Free Projection Software

4 Feb

I’ve written about projection software in the past, but I wanted to refresh your memory on a free software called OpenLP.  It is a fully functional projection software package that gets you up-and-running in minutes.  Certainly, you cannot compare apples-to-apples with Media Shout or other expensive software, but if you need base functionality without a lot of frills, save your money and install OpenLP. I have to admit, I was skeptical at first, but after using the program for only a few minutes, I was very impressed.  The interfaces is intuitive and easy to understand. I tried to break it with no luck.

Some of the features you’ll find in openlp.org 1.2 (from their website):

  • Add and edit songs.
  • Preview songs, Bible verses and images.
  • Comes with two translations of the Bible – KJV & ASV.
  • Import a Powerpoint presentation (PowerPoint XP/2002 and up required).
  • Present your presentation from within openlp.org.
  • Show videos.
  • Show images.
  • Slide themes, with gradient, image and colour backgrounds, fonts & font effects.
  • Import and export of themes.
  • Saving and opening of Orders of Service.
  • Announcement pop-ups.
  • Custom slides.
  • Multiple Bible verses per slide.
  • Themes set either globally, per Order of Service or per song.
  • Import Bibles from CSV files.
  • Search through all words in every song in database for a certain word or phrase.
  • Search through all words in a book of the Bible for a certain word or phrase.
  • CCLI/SongSelect integration.
  • Link audio tracks to songs, e.g. for use as backing tracks.
  • Translations for Afrikaans, Deutsch, English, Portugues-BR and Español.

Features planned for OpenLP 2.0 and later:

  • Cross-platform support for Mac OS X and Linux, in addition to Windows.
  • OpenOffice.org Impress and PowerPoint Viewer integration.
  • On demand Bible verse downloads from online Bible sites.
  • Song use auditing.
  • Remote operation.
  • Text over video.

If you don’t have a huge budget for your screen ministry, I would highly recommend OpenLP.org. What can you lose by downloading it and taking it for a spin?

Go to OpenLP.org

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