March 12, 2021
First of all, I want to say that I really appreciate WE being a free program (at least for smaller applications).
Maybe I'm doing something wrong, or just looking at things from the wrong vantage-point, but I'm just not wrapping my head around WE's templating system.
I've been playing around with various church presentation programs (most notably WE and OpenLP,) and they way WE works just doesn't make sense to me.
I really like WE and I think it would be my choice, if I can get it to do what I want.
Why can I only make templates and see templates that I make via Songs - Templates?
If I do Slides - Templates, it only shows Pro Plus templates (what I make isn't even shown, neither is there an option to make a new one).
I can understand showing the Pro Plus templates first, as they are trying to make money, but to hide them completely seems odd.
And why doesn't Scriptures have a Templates option (I'm referring to the top bar options for each of these)?
Theoretically, each item should have a Templates link and that link should always go to the same place (not different for different items).
Self-made templates should have a tab in the Media section (right along-side Pro Plus Templates)
If I create a Slide and Save As Template, why is that template not available except when I create a new Slide?
I can't even choose that template as the template for an existing slide.
I can't even choose a template that made for Songs and Bibles for Slides.
It just all seems very segmented and it shouldn't.
Even though each of those cue types has different content, they are all just text boxes of different sizes.
There's no real difference.
Why can I not define a default background for a template?
If I'm going to use a template, that kind of assumes that I want each slide to match everything, not just the font and margin information.
Why have to specify a background per-slide?
I should be able to override the template background, but that should be a rare occasion.
I do see that I can set a default Song template and a default Scripture template and that's good.
I do see that I can Bulk Edit cue backgrounds and that's good.
Bulk Edit just seems like a step that would become unnecessary if the template contained the background already.
As an aside, why can't I Bulk Edit the template for multiple cues?
Why can I not decide what in included in footers and when to show them?
The footer really should be part of the template.
The way Songs footers works makes perfect sense, but Scriptures footers don't.
There isn't a reason to show the reference at the bottom of the screen and the bottom of the text.
You might say, "Why not just Hide the reference from the text?"
The problem with that is that it shows the translation, which I do want to see.
Also, the footer text is way too small for people in the crowd to use for taking notes.
What I would like is for the text reference to simply be in the footer.
With that being said, the footer really should contain copyright information for Bibles, as well as songs.
I see that I can change the footer font size, but then that would make the Songs footer way too big (and still not show the translation).
I see that I can hide the footer, but then it would hide it for Songs (which would be outside of CCLI's terms of service).
This may not be something that a template could do, but it would be cool to have an option for Auto on font size.
That way, a longer scripture or song verse could just scale down to fit the screen.
CCLI song importing does have a max lines option, but that would change as the template's font size changes.
I applied a template with 96 point font and it simply pushed the rest of the lines off-screen.
With that being said, OpenLP has an Optional Break function for song lyrics.
You can define where you want it to break, if a break is required.
A smaller font size will allow all lines to display.
If the font size gets too big, it will split where you tell it to.
If the font size gets way too big, it will just do what it needs to.
I'm sure this sounds like complaining and thinking WE is terrible, but that's far from the case.
I think this is a great program, especially at a free price-tag.
Moving from PowerPoint to something with built-in Bibles and CCLI integration was a no-brainer.
My first couple tries were with VideoPsalm and Song Of Songs and they were pretty bad.
The interfaces were clunky and YouTube/CCLI was broken.
WE looked nice, CCLI worked (YouTube integration would rock), I could import Bibles - it was great.
The template system just kicked my butt, though, and made me not want to use it.
Then I tried a bunch of other free programs and OpenLP was working pretty well.
It's laggy, though, and building templates is kind of janky (you have to keep going back-and-forth between margins, font, preview, etc...).
Honestly, though, it's not any worse then WE in that you still don't know how it interacts with the background and footer, because they aren't in the template.
It looks more modern, though, and that has a certain amount of merit.
I really like that WE has cloud integration.
OpenLP really has a problem with moving data from one computer to another (I work on services during the week and transfer them to the church for the weekend).
It's biggest issue is with Bibles.
You have to manually import each Bible on each computer (you can't import the database from another and you can't just copy/paste the database).
It will import verses that are included in the service, but it won't let you to real-time verses or add new ones.
Having them stored on the cloud and just clicking Download And Install is great (it would be nice to have a space for full name and abbreviation, though).
Thanks for any direction given...
JJ